Finding Jess (First Wave) Read Free Page B

Niklosi squeezed his shoulder in
a silent warning not to do anything to give away their position.
    Niklosi saw the other two Relians
take up defensive positions, their weapons drawn and knew something was about
to happen. He slowly drew Amun down to the ground to lie on their bellies in
the underbrush, and leaned part of his body on Amun’s. He was relieved when he
saw that Gibly had not only lain down with them, he laid on the other side of
Amun; on his shoulder.
    He and Gibly ignored Amun’s glares
and turned their attention back to the camp and watched the Relian untie Jess
and stand her in front of him. Grabbing her roughly by the hair, he pulled her
head back and placed a long, sharp blade at her neck.
    Niklosi held tightly to Amun,
throwing a leg over him as well in order to keep him from running out there to
Jess. After a few minutes when nothing happened, and he made no move to harm
her, Amun relaxed a little. He looked up at Niklosi with a confused look on his
face, not sure why he was standing there with her like that. He wasn’t calling
out to them or harming her with the blade; he was just standing there.
    Niklosi lightly shrugged his
shoulders letting Amun know that he didn’t know what was going on either, but
was just as curious. He knew this was a setup, which had been very clear with
where they had originally put Jess. Jess herself had confirmed that it was a
trap. However, he couldn’t figure out what exactly they were doing. It was
almost like they were acting out a play; none of it was adding up or making any
sense.
    Amun tensed slightly when the
Relian bent down and kissed her temple gently and whispered something in her
ear. He straightened back up, and faster than they could comprehend, he cut her
throat and dropped her to the ground. Walking slowly back towards his other
companions they ported out one by one.
    Niklosi jumped up and without
thought to where the other three Relians might be, ran to where Jess lay
crumpled on the ground. Gibly beat him and Amun to her side by seconds.
    “Where’s your personal med kit?”
Amun asked Niklosi as his knees hit the ground by Jess’s head. He already had
his kit open and was grabbing a mediband before Niklosi reached his side.
    Niklosi reached into one of his
uniform pants pockets and pulled out the kit as he looked down and saw the
blood pouring from the wound in her neck. Gibly lay next to her hand on the
other side of her, her hand reaching to pet his head a little.
    Niklosi could see her face become
paler, her dry lips cracking and bleeding as she tried to smile at Amun, who
was desperately holding a mediband to her throat in vain. The wound was
obviously too great for the Nano technology to repair before she bled to death.
With the full med kit with the rest of the team, the bands were all they had,
and it wasn’t going to be enough.
    Neither man noticed the small spark
of light from her hand.

 
    Chapter Two
    Everyone in the conference room had
followed Ivint onto the bridge and waited while Ivint and Reven had a private
conversation. Nodding their heads, they separated and Ivint straightened his
shoulders and stood to his full six feet, eleven-inch height, his blue eyes
flashing in anger.
    “Open the comm.” He ordered
gruffly.
    They watched the image appear on the
video screen. Although unable to determine the creature’s height, it was
obvious that it was large. It almost looked like one of them with its shoulder
length black hair, dark-brown eyes and chiseled features. However, no one was
fooled by the normal look of the creature.
    “Ah, High Councilor Torenson I was
so hoping that I would be able to speak with you. It makes it much easier to
get things done when you can cut out all of the underlings in the middle isn’t
it?” The smirk curving his wide mouth made Ivint want to hit him.
    “I don’t have time for your games
Kalai T’Alq, what do you want?” Ivint responded, ensuring that his irritation
was reflected in the tone of