Page 13

Nadia

Dad glances at me, a rare smirk on his lips, before turning his attention more completely to Cole. “Kincaid,” he says – his formality making me smile in turn. I mean, dad has been part of our nation’s military for a long time and has known Cole since he was a little kid.

But, I guess we’re in a military operation now.

“Some interesting information has come through.” Dad raises his left hand, indicating the slim laptop held there.

“Great,” Cole says, nodding. “Let’s have a look.”

The two start off together towards one of the therapists’ little fire circles. I hesitate for about a quarter of a second before I stride along with them, certainly not leaving until someone makes me.

“You don’t really need this information, Nurse,” dad says, glancing up at me as he takes a seat on one of the logs and opens the laptop. His voice is gentle though, soft. I know his subtle moods well enough to know that he’s entertained by my persistence, not bothered. Cole settles in on his left.

“Yes, I do,” I say, seating myself primly on dad’s right and leaning over to see the laptop. “The nurses have elected me their representative and leader and so I must be briefed so that I can decide what critical information to parcel out to them.”

Dad glances at Cole for a second, but when Cole makes no move to oppose my claims dad chuckles and opens a file.

“The military minds at the center of all of this have processed some of the information gathered by military drones,” dad says, keeping his voice low even though nobody is around.

“Our cartographers were able to use the data regarding the terrain to narrow down possible locations of the cult and…we hit a bit of luck there. There are only so many sources of water in this big ole desert.”

I watch closely as the computer program zooms in on a map, producing a shockingly detailed drone image of a surprisingly large number of squat houses and buildings nestled away in the shadow of some cliffs, a sad little stream running through them. Surprise rings through me as I study them because…

Well, damn. This place looks…tiny, ill-kept and fairly shabby. This, really, is where this cult mastermind lives?

“Why is this lucky?” Cole murmurs, studying the screen.

“Because this desert is vast and full of little nooks and crannies. Someone noted this place by chance – and we originally thought it was abandoned,” dad says, zooming in further on one house at the center – larger and with a tin roof, not chalky clay like the others.

“But it’s not. And we believe that we’ve found… him.”

Cole looks up in surprise as dread coils in my stomach. The way my dad said that…

“You’re kidding,” Cole whispers.

“Dad doesn’t kid,” I say, dry.

Dad smirks and glances at me before turning back to Cole. “Allan Slaken. The…god damn bastard who’s masterminded this whole thing.”

My eyebrows grow up. I know that the Children of Solace is a cult – and I knew it had some kind of insane leader pulling all the strings – but I had no idea we were close enough to have a name and location.

Cole nods, still staring at the map, his eyes darting all over it, taking in a great deal of detail and information that I don’t think I understand. Inwardly, I scowl, jealous of his military education that lets him read things like this as easily as a book.

“So, what’s dad’s plan?” Cole asks. “Making a move or biding time, trying to get more information?”

“That’s why we were sent this,” dad says, tilting the laptop towards Cole and zooming out on the map.

I snap out my hand, pulling the laptop back so I can see it too.

Cole glances up at me and smiles. Dad smacks my hand lightly but smirks and angles the computer so I can look too.

“As you can see, we are close enough to this location to be the first point of care.”

Cole hums consideringly, his face very serious as he presses some buttons on the keyboard, shifting the map so that he can study the terrain.

My frustration gets the better of me. “Okay, what does that mean for us, though?”

Dad looks over at me, quite serious.

“It means, Nadia,” he says. “That we’re going to be seeing results of this very soon.

Military command has decided to strike now and hit hard while they’ve got a factor of surprise.

We can expect the Children of Solace to panic.

Their response will be unpredictable. All of which means casualties, which means we’ll be seeing our first patients very soon. The strike starts tonight.”

My eyes go wide and my heart starts to pump faster. “But…why would they do that, knowing that civilians will be hurt?”

“Because more will be hurt,” Cole murmurs, “if they pussyfoot around the situation and don’t strike decisively.

” He shifts his eyes to me, the gravity of his gaze making me sit up straight.

“The Commanders aren’t being casual with civilian lives, Nadia.

This isn’t some kind of cold arithmetic where they’re just taking the easy route to victory.

Our entire goal here is to protect as many of our citizens as we can. ”

“But…” I say, my brows knitting together, still not understanding.

Cole waits, more patient with me than he’s been before. But I just sigh, unable to cogently form my question with my mind racing through a thousand thoughts like this. God, sometimes the way my mind works gets on my nerves.

Cole nods, understanding, still keeping his eyes on me.

“I understand your hesitations, Nadia. But you may not have all the information. It’s important to know that the Children of Solace is an institution that is not beyond threatening its own citizens to keep us out.

And they’ll follow through on their threats.

Taking them out fast saves lives, if we can manage it. I promise.”

My dad nods, agreeing. “I understand the logic. We have to take the shot.”

I exhale slowly, realizing that – as Cole says – I’m out of my depths here. My hand clenches on my knee, frustrated at that. I…I want to know everything – as much as they do.

But, as my dad says, I don’t have clearance for that.

Or at least I haven’t had that kind of clearance. Until now.

“Okay,” I say, nodding, understanding but wanting to give it more thought before I voice my opinion any more. That always seems to get me in a great deal of trouble with these wolves.

“Well, Head Nurse?” Dad asks, passing the laptop to Cole so that he can explore the map a bit further while dad takes a moment to talk to me. “Shall you return to your nursing minions and make your report?”

I smile at him, shaking my hair back over my shoulders, pretending a loftiness that I know he thinks is funny.

Dad smiles softly, which is usually all we get.

But it’s a rare enough gesture from my serious father that I take it for the compliment it is.

“Yes. Thank you for including me. I think it’s worth warning the nurses that we could be seeing patients sooner than we anticipated. ”

Dad shifts his eyes to the nursing tent. “Yes, true. At least this way Shayne will know to have just slightly less tequila tonight.”

I laugh, shaking my head at him. “You knew about that?”

He moves his eyes back to me. “I know about everything.” He pats my shoulder and leans forward to press a kiss to my cheek. “I’m glad to see you take a leadership position, Nadia,” he murmurs, “even if there was no democratic process involved. I hope you wear the responsibility well.”

“I will,” I say, nodding to my dad, my eyes shining a bit as he stands up and gives me a nod, reaching for the laptop.

“Thank you, sir,” Cole says, handing the laptop back and keeping his seat. “I’m glad to know this. I’ll marshal the guards and contact the closest military units in the rare case that we have to evacuate the volunteers.”

My brows raise. Could it seriously come to that?

But dad and Cole just nod to each other before dad strides away.

“This is getting…real,” I whisper, twisting my hands in my lap as I watch dad go.

“It’s been real,” Cole says, sighing. “For those in the Children of Solace, at least, it’s their everyday lives. We have been…remiss in letting it go this long without attention.”

“Yes,” I say, turning back to him. “You have.”

He holds my gaze seriously. “You realize that our nation has many crises to deal with every day, yes? And that we needed information – good solid information on this cult before we could move on it? We can’t just go running after every rumored threat to our people.”

I shake my head at him, not letting him get away with that flimsy excuse.

“Your family has all the money in the world, Kincaid. It’s not enough to point to the bigger bear as the true threat and ignore the little cub massacring your people.

You have the capacity to deal with many problems at once.

If you have all of the privileges, you have to do better. ”

Cole holds my gaze steadily and nods to me, just a tiny dip of his chin. My lips turn up a little despite my generally worried mood because I can tell that he doesn’t agree with me. But…I mean, he’s listening, isn’t he?

A real smile takes my lips and Cole grins too.

“I can’t believe I actually got a smile out of you,” he murmurs, his eyes shifting to my mouth.

“Yeah, well,” I say, laughing softly. “That’s what happens when you –“

“Hey!” a cheerful voice calls.

We both turn towards the blonde vision that strides towards us, a dark-haired therapy student by her side. My smile wipes instantly away.

“So, what was that about?” Rose asks, looking after my dad. “That was the General in command, right? Did he give you some news?”

“Hello, Rose,” Cole says, sounding glum.

Rose just turns her head back to him and beams, clearly picking up on his tone and ready to cheer him up. I narrow my eyes at her, thinking that she’s probably got some salacious ideas in mind for precisely how she’s going to do that.

The therapy student looks awkwardly between the three of us, not understanding the source of the very clear tension in our group.