Page 15 of Double Take (Cosmic Mates #5)

“What are you doing here?” Bragg demanded.

“I came to save your ass. You don’t make it easy.” Marshall stood up and holstered the weapon under his jacket.

“Save me from what?”

“Mainly yourself, but also from Dark Ops throwing you and your girlfriend into the brig. I didn’t come alone.”

Fear for Faith knifed into his gut, but he forced himself to play it cool. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“You came to Terra Nova for the hell of it?”

“I’m entitled to a vacation.”

“You deviated from your approved itinerary.”

Bragg shrugged. “Patagonia wasn’t what I thought it would be.”

“Faith Hammond is in custody.”

If Faith got hurt, nothing would matter. Not his freedom, not his life. “Where is she?” He charged at Marshall. He’d beat the truth out of him.

His CO dropped him with a punch. Pain splinted through his face, but he rolled to his feet, clenching his fists, readying for another go.

Marshall flexed his fingers and shook his hand. “You dipshit! Why did you make me do that? I’m on your side, you fucking moron. We don’t have a lot of time. If you want to see her again, you need to come with me.”

“To do what?” If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.

“Rescue her.”

“You’re going to help me? Why should I believe you?”

“For one, because you don’t have a choice. Unless you can figure out where she is, you need me. Believe it or not, I have empathy for you.”

“The fuck you do.”

“I’ve been where you are.”

“What does that mean?”

Marshall sighed. “I’m a clone, too.”

“What!”

“I’m a clone.”

“Prove it.”

“You know I can’t. You’ll have to accept my word that I’m the third iteration of Marshall Clark. You’re the third Mark Hammond.”

“Third—Hammond isn’t an original?”

“No. Look, I can waste time explaining—or we can get Faith. Which would you prefer?”

Trust didn’t come easy—even when he had all the information, and he had none in this case. This could be a trap. They could be using Faith as bait. Dark Ops might not even have her. But, if he didn’t cooperate, and Marshall was telling the truth, Faith would suffer the consequences. Marshall’s dubious assistance presented the only possible chance for rescue. He hated that he needed him to find Faith, but he had no idea where to begin to look for her.

“All right. Let’s go.”

Marshall pulled a finger-sized cylinder from a pocket. “First, we need to remove our chips.”

“Chips?”

“Everyone in the organization is embedded with a tracking device. That’s how they followed you to this sector from Patagonia. You’re lucky the atmosphere on this planet interferes with electronic signals, or they would have picked you up already.” He patted the chair. “Sit. The device is embedded at the base of your skull along your hairline.”

Bragg fingered the bump on his nape. It had been there for as long as he could remember. He’d assumed it was a mole or a wart. It would be just like Dark Ops to chip him.

“Sit down. Let me get it.” Marshall motioned impatiently.

Reluctantly, he took the chair. That Marshall would reveal and remove the tracking device added weight to his assertion he’d come to help. But that was if there was a tracking device, and if he intended to remove it. He could be intending to inject him with a knock-out drug or a truth serum.

Nerve endings went on high alert as Marshall stepped behind him. He didn’t like this one bit. Marshall pressed the device to Bragg’s neck. A second later, he felt a sharp sting and then a burning sensation.

“Done.” Marshall showed him a blood-smeared silver disk three to four millimeters in diameter. He deposited the disk into a tiny black-capped vial.

Why was he saving it? “Shouldn’t we destroy it?” he asked.

“We’re going to plant it,” he replied. “Now me.” He handed Bragg the extractor and took his seat. “Press it against the nodule for three seconds. It will extract the chip and then seal the exit wound.”

Bragg pressed the cylinder to the bump on Marshall’s neck as instructed. That his CO had been tagged provided some reassurance he wasn’t being lied to—unless this was all part of the plot to gain his compliance. Dark Ops had conducted some pretty elaborate ruses. He should know—he’d orchestrated some of them.

His CO slipped his tracker into a red-capped vial and pocketed both tiny bottles. “Let’s go.”

Bragg grabbed a duffel and shoved his bowl into it.

“What are you taking that for? Leave it!”

“No.” He slung the bag over his shoulder.

In the lobby, the clerk slept in the same position, head thrown back, mouth open, dead to the world. The half cup of coffee untouched. The pieces clicked into place. “You drugged him.”

“He’ll be fine.”

But would he and Faith be fine?

* * * *

Marshall led him to a hovercar parked inconspicuously on the edge of the village.

“Where did you get this?” Bragg asked. Vehicles were few and far between on Terra Nova, and the ones that existed were relics like Faith’s. He hadn’t seen any hovercars. Terra Nova was Earth’s poor relation—receiving its hand-me-down tech-tabs, vehicles, and ancient farm equipment.

“Brought them with us. Transportation here sucks.”

The hovercar whisked them to the spaceport, landing in an area reserved for private craft. A large, nondescript ship crouched on the tarmac. Dark Ops.

“She’s on that ship?”

“Yes.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

“Grab and go.”

“That’s the plan? That’s not a plan—unless the plan is to surrender! It will never work.”

“It might if you do what I tell you to. Act like my prisoner,” Marshall said. “Follow my lead. Keep your mouth shut.”

“ Am I a prisoner?” Distrust reared up again.

“Only if this fails. If that happens, we’ll both be prisoners. I have as much at stake as you do.”

Says him. “Not quite. I’m responsible for Faith.”

“That’s why we’re here. We’re going to walk her off the vessel. But for that to work, they must think I’m bringing you in. They trust me, but we won’t have more than a couple of minutes. And the longer we spend chitchatting, the less time we have.”

“Once she’s off the ship, then what happens?”

“Then we haul ass to the commercial charter. Put these on.” Marshall tossed electronic cuffs into Bragg’s lap.

“Fuck you!” He threw the cuffs at Marshall and shoved the door open.

“They’ve been deactivated. Look!” Marshall snapped them around his own wrists and then removed them. He dangled them out. “You have to trust me.”

He didn’t trust him. But he couldn’t rescue Faith without help.

Reluctantly, he cuffed himself.

“Leave your pottery here. Hopefully, we’ll be coming back,” Marshall said.

They exited the hovercar and proceeded to the ship. Upon boarding, they were met by an agent he recognized by sight but had never worked with. “Looks like he gave you a bit of trouble.” His gaze shifted from Bragg’s face to Marshall’s bruised knuckles.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle. Rogers and Glenn with Mrs. Hammond?”

“She’s in the interrogation room. They went back to town for cleanup.”

“What kind of cleanup?” Marshall asked.

“Nothing they didn’t anticipate. In trying to locate the Hammond woman, they interviewed the business partner. Now they have to prevent her from yapping.”

Fuck. Faith’s best friend would be killed because of him. His presence on Terra Nova had set this in motion. “You’re all fucking assholes.”

“I’d better secure the prisoner. He’s getting mouthy.” Marshall grabbed Bragg’s arm and dragged him down the corridor. Out of earshot of the agent, Marshall said in a low voice, “We caught a break.”

“How? By having an innocent woman die? Faith will be devastated.”

“With Rogers and Glenn gone, we have a better chance of getting off this ship. We can’t help Amity now anyway.”

“You know her name?”

An expression almost like pain flashed across Marshall’s face but then vanished. “It’s my job to know.” He stopped beside a steel door. He palmed the entry pad, and it slid open.