inching it aside. When he’d cleared enough of the roadway for them to ease the trucks around the tree, he dropped it with a loud noise and a shower of pine needles.
With the adrenaline of the fight and Conall’s subsequent medical emergency pounding through her veins, Nina’s headache was a full-blown throb now. She pushed it aside as she faced Knox again. “Later, you and I are going to have a talk.”
He held her gaze for only a heartbeat before turning back to Conall. “As soon as he’s settled, I’m all yours.”
Somehow, she doubted it. If the day had proven anything, it was that Captain Knox and his people had secrets, secrets that ran just as deep as hers.
Deeper.
Maya was tossing the last of the equipment she’d stripped from their attackers into the truck. “Hey,” she called to Dani. “A little help here?”
Dani had wandered closer, but her attention was still on Rafe. “Can you believe that? It goes beyond macho pride. It’s idiocy.”
“It’s useful,” Maya retorted. “He could have tossed the last three trees out of the way, too.”
“Or not.” Dani’s voice was dark as she closed up the back of the truck. “What happens to you when you have too much noise coming at you? Overload, right?” She shook her head. “If Rafe keeps carrying on like that, he’ll wind up like Conall.”
She would know. The TechCorps experiment she’d been a part of was meant to be the next stage in the evolution of their supersoldier program—by physically altering the nervous system, their scientists hoped to attain all the speed and strength with none of the drawbacks of the implants. They’d discovered too late that the rewiring procedure came with its own set of complications.
Dani was more like the Devils than Knox and his crew realized, and if she was worried about them, they really were in deep shit.
And it was Nina’s job to make sure they didn’t drag her team down with them.
* * *
TECHCORPS PROPRIETARY DATA, L2 SECURITY CLEARANCE
This is the fourth evaluation wherein Recruit 66–793 has failed to exhibit any emotional or psychological vulnerabilities. However, he shows no evidence of psychopathology, is obedient to the chain of command, and has set marksmanship records. Further observation is warranted, with particular attention to be paid to warning signs of aberrant behavior.
Recruit Analysis, October 2068
* * *
SEVEN
Shelter turned out to be an abandoned warehouse with four solid walls, a roof, and not much else to recommend it.
It was enough. Knox sat with Conall, who seemed to have recovered from his seizure, as Rafe and Gray cleared enough space for their bedrolls. By the time Conall agreed to eat and take another sedative, Rafe had also helped the women set up their own area.
And Nina had vanished.
Logic said she was walking the perimeter. It was the first thing Knox usually did when they set up someplace new, even if someone else had already done the necessary recon. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his men to recognize danger or perform the task—each one of them knew the price of inattention. But Knox needed to walk the terrain himself, to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their defenses, to fix a mental map in place so he could plan for a range of scenarios. He couldn’t rest until he’d set his contingencies in place.
Though his relentless attention to detail wasn’t new, the desperation with which he clung to it was. Every day, his thoughts felt a little slower, a little more … muddled. He should have known the fallen tree was a trap, and a clumsy one, at that. The shredded roots on that damn tree had been about as subtle as fireworks.
Instinctively, he’d known something wasn’t right. But his brain had failed to make the proper connections in time, and Conall had suffered for it. Knox’s cognitive enhancements were degrading, and the worst part was knowing that next time, the consequences could be even worse.
The second-worst part was knowing he didn’t have much edge left to lose. Nina was smart, not to mention devastatingly capable. So far, Knox’s only real advantage over her was a deeper understanding of the terrible ways people could betray one another.
It wasn’t enough.
He couldn’t relax with Nina out of sight. After catching Gray’s eye and receiving a silent nod in response, Knox set out down an aisle of towering metal shelves.
The warehouse had obviously been looted, probably dozens of times over the decades, with people carrying away anything they could use or sell. Half