28

Annja’s head felt a lot better when she woke up the next morning. Concussions, she’d found, were never the same twice. And after more than her share of them, she was of the opinion that enduring them was probably the least favorite aspect of her life. Sitting up, Annja was prepared for the head rush, but had none. She smiled. Maybe her head was getting harder after all the knocks it had taken.

She glanced around the shelter, but Dave and Zach were still snoozing away in the dawn darkness.

Annja rolled out of bed and checked herself over. She felt a little weak, but chalked that up to the fact that she hadn’t had much to eat in the past twenty-four hours. Plus, she suspected she was a little dehydrated from the low humidity in the region. She needed to get herself topped off with food and drink and then she’d be able to face the day.

She dressed quickly and wandered over to the mess hall. The cook was alone behind the counter and smiled as she came in. “What can I get you?”

Annja looked around. No one else was up yet apparently. “Am I the first one here?”

“Early bird catches the worm.” He grinned. “I hear there were some serious talks going on last night into the wee hours. Probably folks are sleeping in a few extra minutes.”

Annja nodded. “Can I get a ham-and-cheese omelet?”

“Sure thing. It’s powdered eggs, though. We’re out of fresh until we get a resupply.”

“That’s fine.” Annja leaned against the makeshift counter. “How often do you get resupplied?”

“Well, up until the winter started, I would have said every week. But seeing how we only just arrived a few short days ago and the weather’s already making it tough on us, I’d say we have about two more days on what we’ve got before we have to pack up and move on back to McMurdo.”

“Two days?” Annja couldn’t believe it.

“Uh-huh.” He stirred the powdered eggs with water and then whisked the mix in a bowl before pouring it into a hot griddle. “You said ham and cheese, right?”

“Yes.” Annja frowned. Two days wasn’t a lot of time. “Will you all be bunking back in McMurdo until the weather clears, then?”

The cook shrugged. “Don’t know. I’d imagine so, but you never can tell with the colonel. He’s got this way of planning things out so no one else knows what the deal is but him.”

“Has he always been like that?”

“Again, I don’t know. I’ve only been in this unit for a month or so, ever since the last guy put in to get his separation papers. He wanted to start his own restaurant, I think the colonel said. Anyway, he tapped me and said to come on over. He’s a real food lover, the colonel is. It always makes it nicer to be cooking for someone who loves to eat.”

“I’m sure it does,” Annja said.

The cook slid a spatula under the cooking mix and then flipped it over before adding the chopped bit of ham and the strands of grated cheese to the egg. Then he carefully folded it in two, and let it cook a few minutes more.

“You don’t have any orange juice, do you?” Annja asked.

“Only from concentrate. But it’s the good stuff. Doesn’t taste like freezer burn. It’s over there. I just made a fresh batch a few minutes before you arrived.”

Annja helped herself to a tall glass and poured the orange juice into it. The cook slid her omelet onto a plate and handed it over. “There you go. Enjoy it.”

Annja smiled. “Thanks. I will.”

He pointed. “Got some pastries over there on the table. Not bad for doing it myself, but they could use more work.” He shrugged. “I have to make do with what I’ve got.”

“I’ll give them a try,” Annja said. She headed over to the long table and sat down. When she bit into the omelet, it tasted exactly as if it had been made with fresh eggs. The cheese melted slowly in her mouth and with the ham produced a great swirl of flavors. Annja’s mouth watered and she suddenly realized how hungry she was.

At least until Garin showed up.

Rather than walk over to the cook, he headed right for Annja’s table. He sat down across from her and grinned. “Early breakfast for you today, huh?”

“In case you didn’t hear, I had a rough day yesterday.”

Garin nodded. “I did hear that, yeah. How’s your head feeling today?”

Annja chewed another forkful of the omelet. “Pretty good, actually. Not a hundred percent, but then again you never should expect that the day after. Feels sort of like a mild hangover,” she said.

Garin nodded. “Good.”

Annja frowned. “You’re up early.”

“I don’t sleep all that much unless I’ve had one of my flesh benders and the exertion lulls me into a dreamy world of post-lust headiness.”

“Sometimes you’re almost poetic with that stuff, you know that?” Annja said.

Garin leaned closer to Annja. “You’re in trouble, sweetheart.”

Annja leaned back. “First of all, don’t call me sweetheart. I hate that. Secondly, why am I in trouble?”

Garin sighed. “It’s not really the wisest thing you’ve ever done. I mean, did you honestly think they wouldn’t find out?”

She knew he had to be talking about the hacker work Knightmare had done. Somehow they knew. Somehow they had traced it back to Annja. But how? Her mind raced at how they could know it was her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Garin. And you’re interrupting a perfectly good breakfast, I might add.”

He laughed. “Thomson wants you hauled in for questioning. He seems mighty upset that someone actually hacked his computer, of all the ones here, and managed to get access to a specific file.”

Annja looked him right in the eyes. “How in the world could I possibly manage to pull off something like that? I’m sitting here just like you. I don’t have access to the Internet. I don’t have e-mail. So how could I manage to do that?”

Garin shook his head. “I don’t know. But you did. And it doesn’t help your case that you were poking around in the admin shelter yesterday. That kid reported you to the colonel.”

“It was an innocent occurrence. I went looking to use one of the terminals. Besides, he wasn’t supposed to say anything.”

Garin laughed louder. “Who do you think that kid’s more scared of, you or the colonel? Of course he sold you out. God, Annja, don’t be so naive.”

Annja frowned. Her omelet was getting cold, so she plucked another forkful into her mouth. If the day was going to be as challenging as Garin seemed to be implying, she would at least need a solid meal in her stomach if she hoped to weather all the questions Thomson would lob at her.

“So why are you telling me all of this?” Annja smirked. “I would have thought you’d be enjoying seeing me possibly get myself into hot water.”

Garin shook his head. “Contrary to what you might believe about me, Annja, I’m not the enemy here. I’m simply trying to understand what’s going on down here, just like you are.”

“And what have you found out?”

“Nothing.”

Annja sneered. “Come on. With all your high and mighty power you can’t determine what’s up? I find that a little hard to believe.”

“Maybe I just don’t trust you,” Garin said.

Annja nodded. “Fair enough. I don’t trust you much, either.”

Garin leaned closer to her again. “So, then, why don’t you come clean? Tell me about the hacker you hired to do your dirty work. Maybe we can use him again to crack the system. I’ve got a few questions I’d like answered myself.”

Annja drank some of the orange juice. Was Garin really suggesting they team up and work together? She tried to remember the last time she’d done that and not ended up screwed in the process.

She couldn’t remember any.

“There’s nothing to tell, Garin. It wasn’t me that hacked that computer. Maybe some lonely fourteen-year-old in Des Moines got lucky and tripped his way onto the network. You know there are kids out there that groove on that stuff.”

“Adults, too.”

“Yeah, but not this one,” Annja said.

Garin smiled. “I’ve never known you to turn down an opportunity to learn something new even if means using a questionable method.”

“I have standards. There are some things I won’t do. Like torture people. I find that distasteful.”

“No doubt,” Garin said. “You’ve always had far more faith in humanity than I have.”

“True,” Annja said.

Annja finished her omelet and slid the plate away. “Are you going to get any of the food?”

“Was your omelet good?”

“Delicious, even with present company included.”

Garin smirked. “Fair enough. I’ll try it.” He got up and wandered over to the cook. Annja watched him go and shook her head. Sure, she could always team up with him, but how smart was that? For all she knew, Garin had a wire on transmitting everything they spoke about. Hell, he’d sell her out faster than the kid in the admin shelter.

Annja got up and got herself a pastry. The icing was still warm and the sweetness of it made her mouth water even more. She was feeling, on the whole, pretty good physically.

Except for the ever-present ache in her gut.

Something bad was going to happen today. She knew this. Expected it. And it was all she could do to simply down a decent breakfast and get on with it.

Garin returned with his omelet and sat down. After two forkfuls, he nodded. “For the limits of this place, the cook does a very respectable job.”

Annja smiled. “A compliment from you? I’m amazed.”

“Well, it’s not Maison Robert, certainly, but one must adapt one’s standards given one’s environment.”

“Indeed.”

Annja ate the pastry in silence, occasionally sipping her juice. Garin seemed preoccupied with his breakfast.

Annja felt very unsettled.

Garin glanced at her. “You feeling all right?”

Annja frowned. “My stomach hurts.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Garin continued eating. Annja glanced around the mess hall. Everything seemed still. Quiet.

Too quiet.

Annja stopped eating her roll and put it down on her plate. Then she wiped her hands calmly on her napkin.

Garin watched her. “You’re all finished?”

“I think so, yeah.”

Annja leaned back in her seat and got her feet under her. She looked over at Garin, who had slowed down on his chewing. He was watching her closely.

Slowly, a smile spread across his face. “Your instincts really have become much more intense since you found the sword,” he said quietly.

“The sword found me,” Annja said. “And what are you playing at right now?”

“Me?”

Annja looked at the door. “Yeah, you.”

Garin shook his head. “Can’t be helped, Annja. It’s too late to get out of this. Best to just go along with what happens and see where it takes you.”

Annja glared at him. “You bastard. You sold me out.”

“I did no such thing.”

“You kept me here. You kept me from leaving—”

The door flew open and five armed men rushed in with their weapons drawn. Annja faced them. The automatic rifles would tear her apart if she tried to do anything at all.

Garin rose and wiped his mouth on a napkin while Annja stood still. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, “I had to do it.”

Then he turned and addressed the men. “Take Miss Creed into custody. She’s under military arrest for espionage.”