Don't Look Back (Warders of Earth) (7 page)

Biting down hard on my lower lip, I shoved my glass across the table before I did something really nasty.

“Since he’s a scientist I’m certain he’d know a lot more than you give him credit for, Crystal.” Marnie turned to me and added, “There’s a bad smell in this place. Let’s go and grab a coffee at your house, Tara.”

“Good idea.” Relief made my voice overloud. I fished the car keys from my pocket and made a beeline toward the door.

An easy smile stretching his lips, Alex stepped into my personal space, blocking my path. “I could do with a coffee.”

I shook my head and met his steady gaze. “Girls night out.”

The smile faded from his face leaving a sharp-eyed stare that sent a shiver creeping like a thief along my skin. He turned back to Crystal and, for a few seconds until my friends joined me, I stood alone.

***

Alex

“Not a bad command post.” Shay stood in the doorway of the small bedroom we’d commandeered as a study and surveyed our equipment.

“You boys have to share a bedroom,” announced my father without turning his head from where he wrote busily on a smart-board with a black marker.

Shay and I exchanged a mildly horrified look as the other two rooms only held double-beds.

“I’ll take the pull-out sofa in the living room.” I leaned back in the computer chair and grinned. “He’s a spooner.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing.” Shay chuckled.

Dad turned around and pointed the pen at him. “What happened in Sydney?”

“I didn’t find anything of interest.”

At the barely disguised frustration in my mate’s voice, I blocked my father and flashed Shay a message,
What gives?

Nothing I could put my finger on, but I’m positive someone very clever erased the data before I could access the hard-drive.

I gave a soundless whistle and looked over to find my father staring at me with narrowed eyes. He knew we’d been
‘flashing’
. Did he have to know every little thing about me? I shrugged off my momentary irritation and waved Shay to a chair. The job had priorities over my yearning for a little independence.

“Your full report please, Shay.”

Shay crossed the room and sat, keeping his back stiff. “Sorry, Sir. I don’t have any proof, however I suspect the data had been wiped clean.”

“That could work two ways. Either you’re correct in your suspicions or your mark is a lot cleverer than you’ve given her credit for,” my father said drily.

I frowned, thinking back to my recent encounter. “I met Marnie Tolini in the pub. It could be the simple fact that she has nothing to hide.”

“Everyone has something to hide.” My father turned back to his board and wrote
‘Marnie T’
.

“There could be another reason, Sir.”

“You’re talking about someone else gaining access either before you broke into her apartment.
Or
you were spotted and they uploaded a virus which activated the moment you began your search.”

My father could always arrow onto the source of any problem, he was that good. But Shay was like a stealth machine. I couldn’t see how he’d been made. I pondered over the implications while my father quickly jotted down the three possible conclusions we’d arrived at then stood back a pace to scan the board.

“This Ferguson family interests me,” he finally said.

Yeah, he wasn’t the only one.
I ignored the questioning look Shay shot at me as he picked up on my confusion.

“The dynamics are correct for the marks we’re searching for.” Dad tapped the pen against his teeth. “Any indications of a connection yet, Alex?”

“None.” But I lied. I’d already sensed the pull toward Tara and I still couldn’t work out why I was so reluctant to admit she could be my mark. Sure I was attracted to her, but this felt different from the other girls I’d had in my life. It felt deeper, stronger. I wasn’t certain whether the connection was lust or she really was the one I had to protect and keep alive at all cost.

“Have the other Warders checked in, Sir?” asked Shay, while he logged on onto the secure computer and brought up a map of Earth.

“Not yet. Eleven have not uploaded their reports.”

I frowned and leaned over to scan Shay’s screen where several red blinking lights had appeared all over the globe. “That’s an unusually high number. Can we send out recon teams to check the missing guys’ status?”

“That’s a negative. We need everyone to maintain their current roles. Any deviation from our plans could be fatal.”

“Do you think this is going to work?” I had to ask. I’d give anything to discover my father’s real opinion on the subject.

“Considering the alternative, Alex, we don’t have any choice.”

As usual, my father failed to give me any inkling of what lay hidden beneath the soldier. As a commander, he had no equal. He’d led our small, secret band of soldiers for as long as I could remember. And kept us alive.

But our time was limited.

Our army scattered.

The fate of this planet was now in the hands of our marks. Our job, as well as protecting them, was to make them believe and assist them connect with our
‘friends’
. Whether that would be sufficient to stop Earth from being destroyed, I had no idea. There was so much about this entire operation I didn’t understand. But a good soldier never questions his orders.

“Alex.”

I stirred and looked up to see my father glaring at me.

“Sorry, Sir. I was thinking about what’s coming.”

“That’s a pointless exercise. We have to proceed with our mission. That’s all there is to it.”

“Don’t you ever wish our lives were different?” I held my breath, half expecting my father to shoot me down in flames with one of his legendary brush-offs.

He crossed the room to stand near the window, hands clasped behind his back. Not that he could see anything because we’d boarded it up the moment we’d moved into the house. “Yes.”

One word uttered in such a low tone, the hairs on my arms bristled as coldness swept through my veins.

When my father turned around, there was no trace of any softening to his hard expression. “I don’t dwell on it. Sentimentality will get you killed. And your death will mean you fail your mission.” He pointed to the fine gold chain around Shay’s neck, just visible above his tee-shirt.

My mate’s hand closed over the tiny locket that, although hidden under his shirt, I knew hung from the chain, as if protecting the memento from my father’s razor sharp gaze. “Because of my lack of diligence, my mark died.”

“Brooding over it, won’t change the facts,” my father snapped. “Man up, Shay. Focus on the facts. Your mark failed to trust and as a direct consequence, a Mundos Novus operative was able to get close enough to take her out.”

Anxious to deflect my father’s attention from Shay, I said, “That’s the problem, isn’t it, Sir? Developing the trust factor with our marks.”

“Exactly. Considering time is not our side, every Warder must do whatever it takes to achieve the desired outcome.”

I snapped straight in the chair. “Yes, Sir.”

Shay squared his shoulder and echoed me, although he hadn’t as yet, been assigned a new mark.

Apparently satisfied, my father crossed to the board again. “Let’s go over everything we know about the people we’ve singled out. With luck, something will pop. Every little detail, no matter how small, must be examined. Somewhere in these reports, is the information we must find.”

He had no need to state the obvious. Because if we didn’t find it, we’d fail.

And failure would mean death; for all of us.

***

Tara

I switched off the car engine and headlights then opened the door. After my friends had scrambled from the car, I locked it and led the way back down the drive to the front of the house. Em and Marnie spoke in low tones, their high heels crunching on the rough gravel as they followed me.

A feeble light from the lone streetlight trickled down the road while overhead the pale light from the crescent moon made it hard to see my footing. I stepped on a rock. My awesome boots failed me. My ankle turned and pain streaked up my leg. I swore, regained my balance and limped up the three steps to the front door.

About to insert my key in the lock, a huge roar caused me to spin around to search the shadowed road. My friends squealed and covered their ears in such a girly-girl fashion, I laughed. I glanced over to see them looking up at the night sky checking for a low flying F1-11 from the air-force base located twenty kilometres east of the town.

“Don’t panic,” I said drily and pointed. “We’re not about to be bombed. It’s my father.”

Amid a cloud of dust, an immense black Harley Davidson rumbled into view and rolled to a stop near the gate. The engine gunned twice before ceasing. There were two black clad figures riding pillion on the bike.

I waved a casual hand and stayed where I was, resisting the urge to dash down the path and into my father’s arms. The couple dismounted and pulled off their helmets. Turning back to the door I unlocked it and pushed it wide.

Light from inside the house spilled down the steps, across the thin stretch of straggling grass and over the gate to reveal my father’s slightly worn face and that of an unknown girl. Just as I suspected. A girl who surely wasn’t that much older than me.

My mouth compressed as I took in the tattoo on her cheek and the possessive hand she placed on my father’s arm for a moment before leaning back against the bike, her boobs poking up at the sky.

Dad had his shoulder-length, faded-red hair tied back in a pony tail at the base of his neck. As he strode toward me and my friends, his tall body cast a long shadow over the garden. Looking up and with a broad grin on his close shaven face, he mounted the steps.

“Hi, kiddo.” He reached out to pull me into his arms but I shoved him aside, ignoring the way his mouth drooped downwards.

Standing back and holding the door open I peered around him at my friends. “Are you two coming in for a drink?”

“Yes, please.” Em hastened forward, her bright eyes fixed on my father standing like a great shambling bear on the threshold.

“Are you sure it’s okay, Tara?” Tilting her head on the side, Marnie added, “You might prefer to be alone.”

I grimaced. “No, its fine. It’ll be good to kick back over a hot cuppa and catch up. I guess you should come inside, Dad, since you’re here. Your friend too.”

Head high, I stalked down the hallway and into the kitchen. I didn’t want to admit it, but damn if the sight of him hugging that chickie-babe was like a kick in the gut for me.

Once upon a time, the only girl he’d hugged like that had been me. Then, there was Mum. I hated the thought she’d have to confront my father’s girlfriend.

“Don’t mind if I do,” boomed Dad. “Hey, Cissy, wait here. I won’t be long. Cooee, Marion? Mind if I come in?” His voice seemed to bounce around the confines of the narrow hall.

My shoulders sagged with relief as I sidled past where Mum and Dan were seated at the table with what looked like house plans laid out in front of them. Snatching up the kettle, I filled it with water from the protesting taps, muttering over my shoulder, “Hi Mum. Dan.”

“Hello, dear. Come into the kitchen, Gary,” Mum said. Paper rustled as she folded the large sheet into a smaller neat square.

“How ya going, Dan? Wooah, look at the size of him. You’re almost as tall as me.” Dad punched Dan on the shoulder.

“He’s fun,” whispered Marnie walking up to stand beside me as I turned the kettle on and placed mugs on the kitchen bench.

“Yeah, he’s a real barrel of laughs.”

Marnie frowned and stared hard at me, obviously wanting me to explain but I opened the cupboard door and pretended to scan the contents. I really didn’t want to go there, and certainly not in front of Dad. Still, I did manage an apology. “Sorry, I’m a bit on edge lately.”