damn
stubborn to discuss this. Genta , full- genta or the half-breeds
that wandered in and out of Corps space, were pretty damn hard to kill; they
tended to engineer their bodies to take all sorts of damage without breaking
down, but if Da’shay was going to take up with explosives, he would put a
bullet in her brain stem. “I know that look.” Ramsay sounded unforgiving.
“I ain’t saying anything.”
“You’re thinking it loud enough. Tom Frieden, you couldn’t
lie if you tried, and I’m telling you right now. Let this go.”
“But Cap…”
“You’ve known me six years, Tom. Six years we’ve had each
other’s backs, right?”
Tom didn’t answer, but that was true enough.
“I’m telling you—drop this. Da’shay didn’t set that bomb,
and if you go after her, you’re going to go stirring a whole hornet’s nest of
trouble. Drop it. I’m more interested in whoever set that bomb.”
“Oh I’m interested in returning that favor too,” Tom
complained before turning his attention back to the hands picking at him. “Stop
fussing over me.” He shoved at the white-coated man before he settled back into
bed. When the machine beeped and released painkiller into his system, Tom
sighed happily and let himself sag. It felt good to not hurt for a while.
“Captain?” A new voice asked. “I heard you were awake, sir.”
Tom cracked his eyes open and watched as Eli walked in. He smiled at the nurse
and she smiled back, blinded by that charming grin of his. Tom could
practically smell her disappointment as Eli focused on the captain. That one
was wet in the pants.
“They woke both of us this morning.” Ramsay gestured over
toward Tom, but the painkillers made Tom too tired to do much other than blink
his already half-closed eyes.
“Sir, he doesn’t look all that awake.”
“Not one minute ago, he was ranting about Da’shay. I think
he pissed off the doc.” Ramsay looked almost amused.
A white coat walked past Tom’s bed. “I think it’s best to
avoid letting him upset himself. The sedatives will wear off in a few hours,”
the doctor told Ramsay.
“Why do I think you’re off duty in a couple of hours?”
Ramsay grinned.
“I very well may be,” the doctor agreed. “If he’s going to
rip out all that work on his hip, I don’t want to be here to listen to the
surgeon ranting about our post-surgical care. Now how is your shoulder?”
“Hurts like hell, doc. I’ve had bullet wounds that didn’t
sting this much and I really am getting too old to bounce back from this kind
of damage.” Tom would have commented, but his tongue was too big for his mouth.
Ramsay was older than most active officers and he showed every year with his
white hair and leathery skin. However, he wasn’t too old. The man could still
shoot and fight with any twenty-year-old and he often had to in order to get
his arrest.
The doctor nodded. “Joint pain always hurts worse than
muscle damage. I’ll leave instructions that you can have painkillers as needed.
Now unless there’s anything else…?”
“Nope,” Ramsay said. The doctor left, and Tom was surprised
that the nurse left with him. He figured she’d hang around and try to corral
Eli into dinner. The man certainly didn’t look as if he’d been blown up with
the rest of them. Damn sergeant looked as though he was ready for a magazine cover.
Tom’s eyes drifted shut since there wasn’t anything interesting going on.
“Do you think Da’shay knew, sir?” Eli asked.
“No way of telling with that genta . I will say this,
if that crate had gone up when it was inside the Kratos , we all would
have been floating in space without suits.”
“It does look like a trap.”
Tom had almost drifted to sleep, but Ramsay’s tense tone as
he replied made Tom not only wake up, but reach for a gun he didn’t have.
“Something’s not right, Eli. If this was a trap, why was Smyth was refusing to
sell? Seems like if he was trying to get a bomb on the Kratos ,