Robert Crane - Soulless

I opened the door wide enough to show her that I was in my bra with my pants unzipped, then shut it back to only a crack. “Yes,” I said with some urgency.

Her eyes widened in alarm. “Won’t that…you know,” she lowered her voice to a bare whisper, “kill…whoever you’re with?”

“Apparently not,” I said. “But the mood? The mood is officially dead, thanks to you.”

“I’m sorry, but Ariadne wants us on the phone right now.” She stared at me, and I knew the firmness in her voice didn’t come from her.

“Just give me half an hour,” I said, pleading. I started to shut the door.

“Now.” She reached out and grasped my wrist, giving it a squeeze, then letting go immediately. “She’s in Kansas, and things have gone very, very wrong. She only has a short window to talk to us. She’s waiting for you.”

I buried my face in my hands and took a deep breath. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

I closed the door and felt James’s hands slide across my hips, teasing and promising more touches, more caresses. He kissed the side of my neck and I squirmed; it hit the right spot. “I have to go,” I said, my eyes closed, my words heavy with the regret I felt over every inch of my body – some inches more than others. I slid free of his grasp and turned to kiss him again on the mouth. I broke away after a moment. “I promise I will be right back after this call is over.”

I saw his eyes go cool in the half-light. “All right. I can wait.” He cracked a smile as his fingers stroked my bare arms and grasped my hands in his. “I think you’re probably worth it.”

I pulled away, giving him a coy smile before I stooped to pick my blouse off the floor. “Probably?”

He gave me a noncommittal shrug and went back to the bed as I threw my arms through the sleeves of my blouse. “I guess we’ll see.”

I sat on the edge of the bed and he leaned over my shoulder, kissing the back of my neck as I buttoned my shirt. “You never did tell me who you work for.”

“I doubt you’d have heard of us,” he said, nuzzling, his tongue on the side of my neck. “But if you’re interested, I can give you the whole pitch of why you should join us…after.”

I felt a little amusement as I slipped on my shoes. “So recruiting me isn’t your first priority anymore?”

“Nuh-uh,” he grunted. I gasped as his fingers tweaked me.

I stood and brushed his hands off. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I picked my holster up off my suitcase and put it on, followed by my jacket. I took a last look at him once I was at the door, gave him a weak smile, and closed it behind me.

I leaned against the wall in the hallway, trying to catch my breath. After taking time to compose myself, I walked two doors down and knocked. The door cracked open to admit me and Reed stood there, looking much less beaten up than he had a few hours ago.

“Is that Sienna?” I heard Ariadne’s voice crackle from the speaker of the phone sitting on the bed.

“It is,” I said. “Sorry for the delay; I was just—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ariadne cut me off. “I only have a few minutes. Our operation in western Kansas has gotten complicated; M-Squad has been ambushed by some heavy-hitting metas, and we’ve lost half the team from our Texas facility. The Director and I need to manage the fallout from this, but I wanted to get back to all of you first.”

“Things have gotten a bit complicated here as well,” I said, feeling a little catch in my voice.

“Yes,” Ariadne said, “Kat and Scott have explained. We’ll have a conversation later about how you’ve been keeping quiet about your aunt, but for now let’s talk about your friend Reed.”

I locked eyes with Reed, who looked unconcerned. “You know he’s standing right here, don’t you?”

“He’s offered to help us,” she said, “with some additional resources from his organization. He’s also shed a little light on what we’re dealing with down here in Kansas.” I heard the tension in Ariadne’s voice. “Omega seems to have chosen this moment to launch a surprise attack against the Directorate. We think they drew M-Squad down here for the express purpose of putting them out of commission.” Ariadne’s tone was flat. “I’m afraid this little chase we have you on, trying to track down this meta that’s robbing convenience stores, is going to have to wait. Reed told me you’ve captured a laptop from Omega?”

“Yes, I have it right here.” I pointed to Kat’s overnight bag, prompting a quizzical look from her. I pointed again, and she went over to it, opening it and digging around until she came out with the laptop. “It’s password protected, though, and I didn’t want to chance digging around in it because…well, because I’m terrible with computers. Figured I’d leave it to the pros.”

“I want that computer in the hands of our techies right now,” Ariadne said. “How fast can you get it back to the campus?”

I looked to Scott, who cleared his throat. “If we drive fast, with the sirens on, we’re a little less than two hours away.”

“If there’s any hint of what Omega is up to or what their next move might be, we need to know now,” Ariadne said. “Get that computer in the hands of our tech support immediately. Do whatever you have to do.” She paused. “Reed, is there anything else you can tell us?”

Reed looked like he’d been disturbed from slumber, moving after being still for several minutes. “I can’t tell you much about what Omega’s up to down there because it’s out of my territory, but I can tell you that there’s at least one more facility they have here in Wisconsin, something that’s a lot more secret than the Eau Claire safehouse. One of our sources called it Site Epsilon, and it was where they were working on something called ‘Project Andromeda’. Our agent was tasked to find it and get inside, but they, uh…” He shrugged. “…disappeared.”

“Where is this?” Scott asked, his arms folded in front of him.

“Eastern Wisconsin, not far from Eagle River.” He shrugged. “I took a preliminary look around after our agent didn’t report in, but there was no sign – no trace of his cell phone, nothing. Of course, I’m the only meta my organization has in the upper midwest, and I’ve got about a million things to do, so it hasn’t been something I’ve been able to get to; Wisconsin’s just been too quiet in terms of Omega activity to make it a priority.”

“If Omega has a secret facility here in the state that far off the beaten path,” Kat was thinking out loud, “that means it’s probably something important, right? Something secret?”

“How sure are you about the location, Reed?” Ariadne’s voice came off a little tinny, and I heard something in the background over the speaker, some kind of commotion.

“The search radius is about 100 miles,” Reed said. “But I have to be honest, we don’t know what’s waiting, which is another reason I haven’t checked it out. I mean, it could just have an Omega sweep team or two, or it could have one of the guys that used to be called a god hanging around, working security.”

I heard silence from Ariadne, as though she were pondering her response. “Omega’s made a very bold move in their attack on us in Kansas. It’s already bad enough that we’re not going to be able to keep it quiet from anyone – not the government, not the press and not the public. I doubt they would have made this move if they weren’t prepared to follow up with additional attacks, and frankly, we still don’t know a damned thing about them.

“We need something, anything. I want one of you three, Kat, Scott or Sienna, to rent a car and get the computer back to Headquarters for analysis. The other two, go with Reed and Sienna’s aunt, if she’s willing to help, and find that Omega facility, infiltrate it if it looks lightly guarded. If not, put it under surveillance and we’ll hit it as soon as we get M-Squad out of this fight in Kansas. We’re completely blind here, fighting an enemy we know nothing about.”