Wiped Read Free

surveillance pictures taken. Scouting by Irdina and her merry bunch of fucked-in-the-head men. Ex-Wánměi Citizens who resented being Wiped but thought of themselves as superior, because they had been Wiped to Merrika, of all places.
    Lena was right. Cal would have stalled the attack. Possibly ruined the element of surprise. But that still didn’t explain why she’d not involved me in her plan.
    I noticed as I skidded to a bruised and battered halt beside a stationary Lena that not ten feet away hid Cardinal Fucking Beck. Positioned in such a fashion as to back up Lena’s trap scenario. As though the fucker had known about it from the outset.
    Well, didn’t that just put the fucking icing on the cake? Anger like I’d never felt before consumed me. Blinding, frustrated, self-righteous fury coursed through my veins.
    Lena trusted Beck enough to involve him… but not me.
    “Lena Carr,” I growled in her ear. “You tell me right now what the fuck is going on!”
    She stared at me as if I’d grown two heads, then calmly advised, “It’s a trap. I thought we’d established that already.”
    “A trap you told him about,” I said, with a purposeful nod of my head towards Beck.
    Lena glanced over at where the Cardinal was waiting for her signal and paused. Then she shook her head and offered an Elite-like sigh.
    “No, Trent,” she said with meaning. “He just doesn’t fight a good plan when he sees it.”
    Meaning I did. Well, hell. Fuck that.
    “It’s a good plan, baby,” I crooned. One that was going to get her very fine arse spanked when I got her alone after this.
    She snorted. This Elite that meant everything. I loved it when she snorted; it was always so unexpected and yet so very welcome.
    And she thought I’d prevent her from doing what she does best?
    The woman didn’t know me at all.
    And OK, I had been a bit overprotective lately. But her father had been a jerk. Rushing her when she wasn’t ready to be rushed. Insisting on making up for ten lost years. Someone had to protect her. And that someone would be me.
    I took in a deep breath, let the smells of burning chemicals and electrical fire from the laser guns settle me. Then surveyed the ruined piece of paradise that we’d stumbled into. We still couldn’t see the u-Pol officers, only the red flash of their laser guns. But the fact that they were here at all meant something.
    Why Lena had insisted on leaving me out of her plans wasn’t really important. Not in the scheme of things. And I always tried to look at things with the greater good in mind. It’s how I’d been raised. Even if this Elite had come along and destroyed that foundation completely, I pulled on those rebel leader skills now.
    Urip knew we were coming. This vanguard had been waiting for us to arrive.
    Delaying the inevitable was fruitless, and like Lena had suspected, could have ruined the rescue mission of the Wiped.
    No, Lena’s reasons weren’t important. Not to the war. Not to the promise of peace.
    I flicked a glance towards her, noted her singular focus on what she had to do next, and cursed myself for not believing a word of what I’d just reasoned.
    With one look toward Cardinal Beck - and not me - they were up and over their makeshift hides, guns firing, laser lights flashing, the noose tightening.
    It took seconds which seemed like hours, but eventually the u-Pol attack had been quashed under the Zebra’s hoof.
    I stood back and let her take all the glory. I stood back and watched as Cardinal Beck offered a nod of his head in congratulations and then rounded up his men to check the perimeter for any we might have missed.
    I stood back as her father approached, the wheels of his chair rolling through mud, muck and blood.
    “Well done, baby girl,” he announced. “How did you know they were there?”
    Lena’s shoulders stiffened, but I didn’t go to her. Her back ramrod straight, she faced the man who she’d thought had been dead. Instinct had me clenching my