Knadyn: A Terraneu Novel (Book Six) (2 page)

Ava never got a chance to request to work with the man her father thought
was an alien. Just after her conversation with her father, Jeromy had found her
and requested she “examine” a special prisoner. He told her the captive was a
rebel soldier.

“We have tried for a few days to get him to talk.” Jeromy bristled with
anger. That was one thing that he couldn’t stand…failure. He didn’t think that he
could do any wrong. Maybe it was that his whole life he was the “golden boy”.
He was the best in school, his father made sure of that. He was good at his
military training, his father saw to that. He was tall and lean with golden
hair, blue eyes and a scruffy beard covering his weak chin. Genetics and lack
of razor hid that. All of the females of the base thought he walked on water.
It had rubbed off on him and turned him from a good childhood friend, into a
bad ex-fiancé. “Just be careful in there. Don’t try to give him anything to
eat. He just gets sick and it’s a waste. See what you can do.”

Startled Ava realized Jeromy had opened the door to one of their
makeshift medical rooms. In another time, this may have been a school or small office
building. Since only about twenty buildings were still habitable, this was now
a hospital or if the occasion called for it…a jail cell. She smiled when she
saw another friend guarding the door. Dillon had been in school with both her
and Jeromy. Dillon hadn’t taken the road into “asshole” like Jeromy had. He was
still a really nice guy. Ava said a quick hello to Dillon before Jeromy had
pushed her into the room and closed the door behind her.

The male lying on the bed was so pale it made her look tan. The window in
the room was covered, as part of a cruel torture Jeromy had devised or because
it had bothered the prisoner, she didn’t know which. When she reached the side
of the bed, she noticed that he had the I.V. in his wrist with a saline drip
going. She wasn’t sure how safe those old saline bags were or if they were
doing him any good.

She looked him over starting at the top of his head. His hair was in the
fashion of most males around here, Jeromy included…the military buzz cut. The
spiky growth on top of his head was pitch black and she noticed that he didn’t
have any scars, scabs, sores or rashes on his scalp. That was unusual since
most of them had at least two of those things going at any given time.

His eyes were closed and long black eyelashes were fanned across his
lower lid. He had two black eyebrows in an arch over each eye and that came
across as odd to her. Not very many men in this community worried about
trimming their eyebrows. His cheekbones were sharp in his face, but she took
that to be due to the fact that he might not be eating. Was her father had been
right about that? If so, it made her pause to wonder what else he might be
right about.

The prisoner’s nose was nicely proportioned to his face and wasn’t pointy
or hooked. His lips…her eyes stuck on his lips for a second longer than
necessary. They were full and what her friends would laughingly call
“kissable”. His jaw was angular and his chin was square. Surprisingly there
wasn’t a hint of a beard or growth of hair on his face. That was another odd
thing since she knew the guards wouldn’t bother to shave him.

Looking further since the blanket covering him had slipped down, she
noted his bare chest and shoulder muscles were somewhat defined, but not overly
bulky. There were males in this community at this level of fitness. Some were
even more muscular but they only got that fit with advance training and extra
rations. Jeromy had tried, but the exercise regime was too strenuous and he had
quit, saying that he didn’t want to waste the extra rations when his skills
were better served elsewhere. From what she could see, this male had been well
fed and pampered, at least at some point. His chest, shoulders, biceps,
forearms and stomach…all of which she could see, were leanly muscled. Her gaze
fell on his hands lying palm up on the bed. His wrists were fastened to the
railing. His hand was much larger than hers and she finally saw a few scars but
no sores or callouses on his hands. When she lightly touched her fingers to his
she was taken by how soft his skin felt.

Taking a chair, she sat down and waited to see if he would wake up. Her
fingers drummed idly as she thought about what she had seen so far. Nothing she
saw of him shouted that he was an alien. He was taller than average at about
six foot two, faintly muscled, without sores or rashes but he seemed to be
human. She was just getting ready to leave when she felt a sudden awareness
that she was being watched. Her whole body stiffened and the hairs on her arms
and neck were energized. Lifting her eyes, she looked to the prisoner’s
handsome face. He wasn’t sleeping anymore and his bright eyes were fixed on
her. She couldn’t get over the intense look in his eyes. Then it hit her…not
one person she had ever met had purple eye color.

“Hello.” His voice was deep and dry. She wondered how long it had been
since he had gotten a drink of water, instead of the I.V. drip.

“Hello. I am Ava Jean Howard. Please call me Ava.” She moved around to
stand on the other side of his bed. Despite what Jeromy had said, his parched voice
screamed for water to her. “Would you like a drink of water?’ she asked very
quietly.

“They stopped giving me any.” He whispered back, his gaze going around
the room.

She looked around also and noted that there weren’t any glasses or
canisters to hold the liquid. “Hold on a second.” Hurrying to the door, she
opened it and asked Dillon if he could bring her some water. Before he could
answer, she tucked back into the room.

“You will get into trouble if you give me something to drink.” His voice
was so weak and raspy the sound hurt her ears.

“Let me worry about that.” She insisted. When she heard the door open,
she moved to block him from view of the guard. “Thanks Dillon.” She took the
glass from her friend and saw that the prisoner had closed his eyes. She waited
until she heard the door close again then moved the chair around to the other
side of the bed. Not caring if she got in trouble, she released one wrist. He
could snap her neck if he was strong enough and so inclined. For some reason
she didn’t think he would hurt her. It was the look in those smoldering purple
eyes of his.

“Here sip this. I know it’s a bit gritty but the water system still isn’t
working like we’d hoped.” She handed him the glass and watched as he took baby
sips of the water.

“Thank you…”

“You are welcome.” She paused and then asked, “What is your name?”

He looked at her intently for a second then answered, “Knadyn.” His voice
was so soft she didn’t think she heard correctly.

“Aiden?”

Smiling he shook his head, “No. Knadyn. It is pronounced…Nay-din. The
emphasis is on the ‘nnnn’ sound.” He rolled his tongue on the N and Ava smiled
back.

“Okay. Knadyn.” She took his hand and shook it. She was right that his
hand was much larger, and with a start, she jerked her hand back…much warmer
than hers. When she had held his hand, a heat had gone from her palm straight
up her arm. How had he remained so unblemished? Small scars on his hand but no
sores or rashes or callouses from hard work.

He had finished sipping the water and she noticed that he seemed to have
a bit more color. “Can you open the window? I do not want to get you into
trouble, but it has been a few days since I’ve gotten fresh air and sunshine.”
He seemed afraid to ask and she hurried to the window.

“Sure. I will open it a small ways for you while I’m here. When I leave,
I’ll have to close it again, just in case.” She hurried to move the curtains
open a small bit and sunshine flooded the room. He sighed and closed his eyes
when the ray of light went across his face.

“I cannot thank you enough Ava.” He opened his eyes and they were an even
deeper purple. “I will find a way to repay your kindness, I swear it.”

Ava didn’t think opening the window was such a huge deal. “It is a small
thing I can do to make you comfortable.” She went to stand by his bed. “Would
you prefer that I let you rest for now? I can just watch over you as you
sleep.” As soon as she said it, she realized how it sounded. “Not that I would
be
watching
you sleep.” She could
feel the heat rising in her face, “I would just be in the room in case someone
came in while you were sleeping.” She ended rather lamely. Was it possible to
die of embarrassment? She might find out.

“I know what you meant.” He smiled again and her insides did a nervous
flutter in response. What was the matter with her anyway? “I am very tired and
could use some sleep.”

“Okay then, you rest and I’ll get some more water for when you wake up.
I’m sorry but I have to secure your wrist again.” She grabbed his wrist and
attached the fastening. When she looked at Knadyn, he had his eyes closed, so
she went to the door and opened it. When Dillon saw the empty glass, he smiled
and she waved it at him silently asking for more.

“Thanks Dillon.” With a full glass of water, she went to sit in the chair
to wait for Knadyn to wake up.

“Jeromy you idiot!” Ava couldn’t stop the anger from seething out in her
voice.
 
“I should have known you sending
me to negotiate with the rebels was a wild goose chase. Do you have any idea the
damage you could have done here!? What could have happened in the last three
days?”

“Ava calm down.” Jeromy tried to sooth her. “We sent you to negotiate
because you are the only one with both the experience and temperament for the
job.”

“That is bull shit!” Ava was seeing red at what had happened while she
was gone. “There are plenty of others that were qualified to go. Dillon is just
as experienced as I am and Jenna has the same temperament. You wanted me out of
the way, just admit it.”

“That’s just not true.” Jeromy looked at her, his eyes hooded. “At any
rate, if you felt that way about the mission why did you take it? All you had
to do was say no.” Ava hated it when he tried to make her defensive.

“You strong armed me into going saying I would make a difference. I
didn’t know that while I was gone you were going to play mind games with the
prisoner. Did your father know what you were doing? Did mine? They would never
have agreed to letting you do this.”

Jeromy was getting angry now, “Letting me?!” His booted feet thumped
across the floor to bring him face to face. Grabbing her arm he snarled, “Don’t
get ahead of yourself Ava. You and your father don’t ‘let me’ do anything. My
father agreed in the end, so don’t forget who is in charge here.”

“Take your hand off me Jeromy.” Ava knew that he was a bully, it was one
of the many reasons she had broken their engagement. Tearing her arm out of his
hold, she snapped. “Don’t you forget how you stay in charge! Without my father
or my help you would still be living in the bunker and don’t
you
forget that!”

Trying to sooth her, Jeromy held his hands up placatingly. “Okay, let’s
both be reasonable. Starting over…I didn’t have enough time to do anything
lasting
to the prisoner, just a few
hijacked memories. He won’t know what is real or what is a fantasy.” He laughed
at his own superiority over a fellow man, another mark against him. His
tendency toward the cruel.

“That’s the problem Jeromy.” Ava was back to seething. “You don’t know
what you’ve done. I specifically said no torture, no mind games, no anything
until we know what we are dealing with. Why did you ask me to work with the
prisoner if you were going to ignore my recommendations?”

“Come on Ava. You have been babysitting that worthless rebel for weeks.”
Jeromy defended himself. “We need to get him to talk. Breaking into his mind
was better than what I wanted to do. Torture is next on the list unless you can
get some results from your
boyfriend
in there.”

Ava froze at the thought of them torturing Knadyn. His jibe about him
being her boyfriend she ignored. The more she protested or defended Knadyn the
more suspicious Jeromy would get. Instead of taking the bait, she sighed. “Okay
Jeromy.” She moved to go into the room. “I will work harder at getting
something solid from him.” She closed the door behind her and leaned back
against it. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to stall for much longer. The
good thing was she had less than a week to go.

Knadyn was watching her. “I heard you fighting with Jeromy. Is everything
okay?”

Ava just snorted in frustration, “I just got back from the ‘negotiations’
and wanted to check on you first.” Realizing how that must sound she felt a
blush rise in her cheeks. She had hurried here before looking in on her father,
which was out of character for her.

Thankfully, Knadyn didn’t pick up on that part of her statement. He
looked at her then shook his head, “You say negotiations like it is a bad
thing. Were you not successful?”

“It was just to get me out of the way so they could…” Ava stopped,
wondering how much of the mind games he would remember. “It went as well as
could be expected. The rebels want their independence and to be allowed to
follow their leaders. Joining us would mean putting their trust in Renee and
the leadership of this community, not to mention that I don’t think everyone is
going to be welcome with open arms.”

“What do you mean?” he seemed genuinely perplexed.

Ava put her hand over his, “Not everyone has value in this new world.
Surely, you have the same problem where you are from. The young are a drain on
resources, but we need them for the future. The elderly are a drain, but some
of them have value for their knowledge or expertise in certain fields. It is
hard to achieve the right balance of population and still feed, clothe and
shelter everyone. I think that the leadership of this community will be choosy
in who they welcome, even if we could get the rebels to agree to join us.”

“That is a terrible burden.” She saw that his eyes were turbulent, “We do
not have that problem where I am from.”

Ava froze, her hand gripping his tight. He had never spoken of himself in
the entire time she had been sitting with him and she had never encouraged him
to do so. It was a silent agreement they had that he would remain tight-lipped.
The less he told her the less she could reveal to Jeromy if things got nasty.