Chapter W

“Comment Vous Pourrait?” Commander D´Morte seethed through clenched teeth as Pilot Bellini stormed through the auto-lock doors. He had been expecting her to march in sooner, but supposed that she had replaced her things first.

“How could I? How could you?!” Kali roared as the doors whizzed close. “I told you I wanted him alive!” She slammed her fists down into the dark hardwood table where D´Morte was finishing his evening’s bourbon. The glass tipped as the amber liquid was disturbed. Before the crystal chalice could spill, Rue lifted the glass and emptied it into his mouth. His tongue slipped out lazily and gathered a stray droplet off his firm lips.

“He IS alive, is he not?” D´Morte asked calmly in his eloquent French, as he rose to his feet and stepped over to the window. The curtains were fastened back in a subtle green, like the walls of the room. Rue stared into a wasteland of a once beautiful and prosperous city, now barren and desolate as his dark heart. There would be no rebuilding this time. Everything had fallen past usefulness a long time ago.

“Barely! You could have killed him!” Kali cried out, anger and pain echoing throughout the ugly little room.

“Un Détail Technique Mineur.” Commander D´Morte started, turning back to face the pilot. All of his personal guards were trained to know enough conversation French to take commands should he decide to grace them with his native tongue.

“In English, if you please. I want your ‘sweet Cherie’ to understand every word.” Pilot Bellini smirked as Lieutenant Kou was pushed into the room, bound tightly at the wrists. Fire rose in the Commander’s eyes, but he quickly extinguished it. D’Morte knew that Heather could understand the French even better than Kali could. It did not matter: words meant the same in any language. Kali checked her reaction to the treatment of the idiot guard she had pulled from his regular duty. She had wanted to tie the bonds herself, but couldn’t yet trust Heather not to react to any form of leniency on her part. If they weren’t tied tightly, she might try to escape and blow Kali’s plan to kill Rue and end the war once and for all.

“Fine.” Rue smiled slowly as he led the captured pilot to a seat and untied her hands. She rubbed her wrists as her eyes darted quickly around the room for an escape. Spying none, she sighed and leaned back haughtily, she would have time soon enough to destroy the place she had nicknamed the Black Hole, nothing escaped it's emptiness. Satisfied, Rue lifted himself out of the seat and strode back to table. Heather began to follow, intent on strangling him or at least getting a few hits in before she was dragged off, but one glance seated her back on the sofa. “As I was saying, it’s a minor technicality. You must get rid of the leader to dismantle the flock. These are the tactics of war, in which you were fully trained, before you left. Perhaps your trip has destroyed your head and we will have to send you through training all over again.” He waved an impatient hand, gesturing lightly in the air. “Besides, you didn’t uphold your end of the bargain.”

Kali pursed her lips, capping the raging volcano inside her. “Bargain? I think that this goes far beyond some kind of stupid bargain. The girl IS here. I delivered them to the meeting point, and your damn soldiers couldn’t handle their power. That is NOT my fault. You had your chance and your prized ISUMs couldn’t handle the pressure. I’m almost surprised that they lasted as long as they did. I told you that hand to hand combat wasn’t worth fighting if it’s not blood to blood. Blood to machine doesn’t work. They can’t predict movement; they only calculate odds and move in set formations.” Kali seated herself across from him without an invitation, and let out a disgusted snort.

“The girl IS here, but I had to get her myself, and as for the loss in battle, you did not inform me that they were that well trained. If I wanted to test their training without knowledge, I would have attacked sooner. You lied about how advanced the machines were.” D´Morte gripped the end of the table and stared down Kali, barely keeping his temper reigned. She smiled back at him over the tips of her shiny black boots, now propped on the mahogany table.

‘Lied?’ Heather thought. ‘Why would she do that, unless she was trying to hide something, or protect someone?’

“Hmpf. You can try to keep her here, but you won’t make her love you. She is already in love with someone.” Kali gave him a disdainful smirk. Rue grunted, disbelieving. Kali sat back in the chair, the smirk still plastered on her painted lips. Kali knew that apart from everything that happened in public, Heather had come to love Josh, even though her cold training had attempted to keep emotions from ever being a part of her personality. A part of Rue’s reigns frayed. “You can’t cage wild things without them breaking lose or becoming useless.”

“She will forget him in time. You will see.” Rue was seemingly unfazed by this new development, his face remained in the same passive state, but his eyes were forced into an icy uncaring cage.

“And just how do you plan to do that? If she’s going to forget anything, it will probably be her brain. You never could abide mental deficiency.” Kali asked, still quite satisfied with herself. She continued to speak as if Heather wasn’t in the room. She hoped the Lieutenant understood what she was trying to tell her. Rue calmly stood and glided to the end of the table where he knocked Kali’s boots back to the tile floor.

“It’s not a matter of ‘how,’ but as you say in America, ‘when.’ She will, and just leave it at that.” Rue was quite pleased with himself for the control he wielded over his temper. Even if he didn’t love the girl, she would love him.

“I won’t, you bastard!” Heather yelled, unable to keep quiet any longer. “She’s right, asshole! I will never love you! And as for you, you benedict bitch, Josh should have gotten rid of you at Bratumil when he had the chance! All you wanted Drake for was a good ride before you tried to have him killed, whore! I may have been born in the FECA, but the Colonies need me, and I will destroy anyone who stands in their way. People deserve to be free!”

Kali winced at the harsh words. She really didn’t care what the others thought, Drake was all that mattered. Too bad the stupid twit didn’t realize she was trying to help her. Right now, she couldn’t disobey direct orders if she was going tot get out to the FECA again, so she couldn’t say anything that could give her away. She would have to behave herself. Rue pounded a large blue button.

“Please come remove Lieutenant Kou.” Rue spoke coldly into an intercom telephone on the table. Before Heather could cross the room to get near Commander D´Morte, two guards caught her arms and dragged her to the door. She recognized them as the same guards that stood outside her cell, and one of them had drug her in. There was something extremely familiar about one of them, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. He seemed much gentler than the other, without really showing it. Heather looked down at his hand around her bicep. It looked like it should be tight and hurt, but his fingers were spread in such a way that she didn’t feel any pain at all. His dark face was only made darker by a uniform cap, but she thought she felt him slid his thumb up the inside of her arm ever so slightly. Maybe if she got in good with this guard, it wouldn’t be so hard to break out. When she felt him do it again, stroking her, and sending her nerves skidding, she didn’t protest, but pretended it didn’t happen.

“Put her back in her cell on A level.” He said indifferently. “Oh, and if I find the slightest mark on her, you will pay dearly. I will have your head, if you disobey me, understand?” The guards replied tersely, and with a bow, slithered out the room. As the doors shut in place, Commander D´Morte took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He leisurely returned to his seat, refusing to show annoyance. Kali still had a self-satisfied smirk tautly pulled across her thin lips.

“You think you’ll be able to keep her, don’t you? Come on, Rue. You know she’ll always be a rebel. She’ll just escape again.” She uncorked his bourbon bottle, and tipped the bottle back, toasting her success at placing her own guards around Heather. Rue strode over and knocked the bottle to the floor. The gold liquid surged onto the immaculate tile in spurts. Kali glared at him before rising to her feet.

“I have someone you should meet. She’s a computer expert, and I think she’d do well on our team.” Kali said calmly, picturing Cordelia’s blonde hair, and sliding her ice mask in place. Cordelia would be able to sabotage the production of the machines from the inside without being able to trace it back to the computer terminal. For all of the air in that girl’s head, she was a master at destroying things. “She will arrive here in two days. It would do you well to prepare accordingly.” Pilot Bellini saluted quickly, and without waiting for a dismissal, she turned and marched out of the room.

“I will keep her, and she will love me. That, you can be certain of, Pilot Bellini.” Rue smiled into the emptiness, watching the bourbon gush onto the floor like his confidence in his plan.

Word Count this Chapter: 1,679 words
Total Word Count: 21,697 words

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