Fate of Devotion (Finding Paradise Book 2) Read online

  She looked at her screen. A horde of red dots gathered around her position. The blue dots were racing around their floor, but still contained. They were probably preparing to leave.

  “What about Roe?” she asked again, kicking a spider out of her way. It felt better than moving around it.

  Ryker looked up with a stern face and tight eyes. His lips made a thin line. He shook his head.

  “What . . .” A weight pressed hard against Millicent’s chest. “What do you mean?”

  Ryker moved away from his location, his feet out of Millicent’s sight. “They were in the act of harvesting,” he said in a rough voice. “Part of him was still alive, but . . . it wasn’t attached.” Ryker shook his head. “He didn’t make it.”

  Millicent’s eyes prickled with heat. Her vision blurred, the loss crashing down on her. She leaned heavily against the desk. A moment later, she felt Danissa’s hand on her shoulder.

  “The fallen have saved the world,” an angelic voice said. A singer’s voice. It took Millicent a moment to realize the speaker was a clone. “They will live on in our history records.”

  “It’s times like this that I wish I believed in one of the gods,” Trent said, bowing his head even as Dagger worked on his neck. “I’m going to miss him.”

  “We have to keep going.” Danissa’s voice was loud, clear, and hard. “We cannot stop now. We aren’t done yet.”

  Blinking away tears, Millicent checked her wrist again. Danissa was right. And it was something Roe himself would’ve said. “We’ll see that Roe’s dream becomes a reality. We’ll dismember the conglomerate.”

  “It’s already dismembered,” Danissa said, taking Millicent’s explosive and attaching it to her utility belt. “Toton was effective. We just need to bury it now.”

  “Looks like you found the hardness in your blood,” Trent said as Dagger helped him stand. “You two are very alike. More alike than any of Millicent’s children. Mother Nature is so interesting.”

  Confusion spread across Danissa’s face.

  “Even half-dead, he won’t stop babbling about genetics.” Ryker picked a gun up off the floor and jammed a fresh magazine into it. “What’s next?”

  “Those are big fuckers,” Dagger said as he looked down on the fallen robots.

  “They are probably scaled to life.” Millicent reloaded her own gun.

  “Do you think they’re all robots?” Ryker asked.

  She shook her head. “I have some blue dots that say otherwise. They’re moving around, which indicates they aren’t affected by the computer shutdown. Do they have computers integrated into their thinking, like we do?” She tapped her implant. “I wonder.”

  “We have to keep fighting?” Trent bowed in defeat.

  One of the children started crying. Trent staggered forward but was stopped by Dagger. “I’m not done doctoring you.”

  “Well, can someone help them?” Trent swung his arm toward the children.

  Millicent and Ryker started that way at the same time. Ryker probably missed their children as much as she did. It was Suzi who was shedding tears, her face a blotchy red and her fists pressed against her eyes.

  “She’s overwhelmed and tired,” Terik said by way of explanation. “We need to eat and rest before we can use our . . . powers again.”

  “I’m afraid we don’t have time to rest.” Ryker picked Suzi up.

  The sound of a foot hitting a spider preceded Billy yelling, “We need to catch them before they fly away!”

  “I should’ve stayed on Paradise,” Trent muttered.

  Millicent grabbed Mira and motioned for Danissa to get Billy.

  “Dagger, can you carry Zanda up a shitload of stairs?” Ryker asked.

  “We’ll see.”

  After checking weapons and choking down tears at the blood spreading from Roe’s lifeless body, Millicent followed Ryker out of the room and through the sea of strangely still robots. A red light was blinking on the face of every one of them, no matter the shape or size of its body.

  “Is there any way to use these to do the work for us?” Trent asked, lugging himself along behind Millicent. It wouldn’t be long before he was good to go.

  “In the time frame we have left? No.” Millicent shifted Mira to the other hip as she reached the stairwell and started climbing the steps. Her breath came in heavy pants with each step. “And that is excluding the morality issue.”

  “I want to go home. I don’t give a shit about morality issues right now. I’ll let guilt eat at me later.” Trent clutched the railing and pulled himself to the next step.

  “This route will take too long,” Ryker said as they passed the floor with the smart rooms. A few floors later he shook his head and stopped. “Are those fire throwers inactive?”

  Millicent grimaced. “Should be . . .”

  “Yes,” Danissa said with assurance.

  He pushed the door open and stepped into the charred room. “How about their crafts?” he asked, walking across the floor to the windows. At this level, all they saw was blackness.

  “I’m sure their crafts still run,” Danissa said. “At least on manual. The question is: Who is flying them? There would have to be someone to take over the manual setting.”

  “It looks like they have someone capable in this building,” Millicent said, checking the blue dots. “I’d imagine there are more of them around the city. But in what numbers? The ones here don’t seem inclined to move.”

  Ryker blew out a breath. “We’ll have to chance it. I’m calling in the rebels.” He kicked a sleek video unit out of the way, his mood bleeding through his actions. “We’re going to blow them to hell.”

  “Get the Moxidone rocket site active, sir,” Dagger said. “Let’s clear them out and take over their merchandise. I’d rather take that to Paradise than the old thing you’ve been using.”

  “There will still be work to do here.” Ryker operated his wrist screen. “You don’t have to retire just yet if you don’t want to.”

  “Don’t think I’ll stick with being a lifer.” Dagger hooked his thumbs on his utility belt, staring at the window. “It might be nice to adopt a kid or two, and have a family.”

  “Oh?” Trent sidled closer. “I wasn’t aware they were sterilizing men of your intelligence and breeding under the age of fifty . . .”

  Dagger’s brow furrowed, then his nose crinkled. “That’s kind of a strange thing to talk about . . .”

  “You get used to it,” Ryker said, looking up from his wrist screen. “I have a pickup on the way.”

  Dagger snorted. “I’m not shooting blanks, no. But that doesn’t really matter, because it’s been a long time since I’ve met a woman who could breed. Does Paradise have a breeding lab?”

  “No,” Millicent said in distaste. “No breeding labs.”

  “Well, then.” Dagger shrugged. “Looks like we have kids who need a home right here.” His gaze swept over the exhausted children. “And maybe a woman will take a liking to me. Eventually.”

  “Doubtful.” Ryker laughed. “We got fifteen minutes. Two crafts were docked relatively close. Either they were outside of Toton’s parameters, or they were well hidden.”

  “What did you mean about Millicent and me?” Danissa asked Trent, her voice uncomfortable. “You compared us to her children. And people keep throwing around the word aunt . . .”

  “And they said you were intelligent . . .” Ryker grinned as his eyes swept the sky.

  Before Trent could launch into one of his long-winded explanations, Millicent said simply, “We were bred from the same parents. We are biological sisters.”

  Danissa stared at Millicent as if she’d spoken a different language.

  “Now, tell me.” Trent shifted so he could see Danissa’s face. “Did they breed you at all?”

  “Another funny thing to say. He has an odd way of talking to a person.” Dagger moved away a little.

  “Again, you get used to it.” Ryker squinted out the window. “The craft should
be close, but I can’t see through this environment.”

  “I birthed one staffer. I mean, child,” Danissa said. “A boy.”

  “Just one, huh? Hmm.” Trent held his chin as he gazed at Danissa with a furrowed brow.

  “Do you know what happened to him?” Millicent asked.

  “The clones are organizing around the rocket,” Ryker said, back to looking at his wrist screen. “They don’t know how to fight, but their speed and stamina is apparently way above the Curve.”

  “Oh great.” Dagger pointed at two lights coming closer, hazy in the sky. “They can run around in circles and make our enemies dizzy.”

  “I don’t know,” Danissa answered Millicent evenly. If she had any emotion on the subject, she was not showing it. “I took their medications and walked away. I wasn’t like you. I didn’t fight back.”

  “Why didn’t they breed you again?” Trent asked.

  Dagger shifted as though uncomfortable. “He’s starting to get on my nerves, now . . .” Ryker huffed out a laugh.

  “They tried,” Danissa answered. “It didn’t take. I can’t have any more.”

  “Because they then sterilized you?”

  “Because I couldn’t get pregnant. My body won’t breed anymore. I thought you were supposed to be a lab rat or something?”

  “Yes, which is why I’m asking.” Trent shook his head. “You were not only misinformed, they possibly missed a huge opportunity with you. That is, if you are anything like Millicent. And it seems you are.”

  “Stand back, everyone.” Ryker yanked out his gun and shot a hole in the window. He kicked out the glass. A blast of putrid-smelling, frigid air assaulted them.

  “They’ve moved up a level,” Millicent said, watching those blue dots. “Slowly, though. They don’t seem to want to move far from their location.”

  “Good.” Ryker’s hair blew around his head. The craft drifted in close. “Hopefully they stay and fight. I’ve got more forces on the way.”

  “With some women,” Trent went on as if they weren’t about to board a craft and prepare for another battle, “they undergo a secondary infertility. This means that after they have the first child, they cannot conceive again. There are many reasons for this—”

  “Do we have to hear any of them?” Ryker asked dryly.

  “But the bottom line is, just because you were able to have one child, does not guarantee you can continue to conceive. Secondary infertility sounds like the diagnosis they gave you. Simpletons.”

  Millicent waited for the platform to extend from the craft. A trooper threw a line at her. She didn’t bother tying it around her waist. Instead, holding tight, she quickly boarded the craft and handed the line off. It was thrown back to Danissa, who tied it securely around her waist and walked across.

  “I didn’t realize he was quite so chatty,” Danissa murmured as she settled opposite Millicent in the craft. Her brow rumpled as she glanced up at Millicent’s face. She was probably trying to work out what it really meant to be of the same blood. It wasn’t a common idea on Earth.

  “He babbles, yes,” Millicent said as Trent came through, holding Mira. The other children were passed through and helped to settle.

  “But that might not be the case.” Trent sat right next to Danissa, easily picking up the hanging thread of his one-sided conversation. She shifted away. He followed. “Sometimes it just takes longer to conceive, but it is possible. They only gave you three rounds of attempted fertilization, right?”

  “Two,” Danissa murmured.

  Trent rolled his eyes and gave a derisive laugh. “Ridiculous for someone of your caliber. They should’ve kept you in the program. I read about a woman who took one full year, trying every month, to get pregnant. And she did, in the end. Without anything special, her body did finally accept the fertilization. She carried to term.”

  “He’s still talking about this?” Dagger asked incredulously, boarding the craft. Dried blood caked around his side where a large slash had opened his suit and coated his pronounced obliques. Stitchers and his quick healing ability had served him well, since his skin was already fusing together.

  “He won’t stop until someone shoots at him,” Millicent said. “Roe usually took on that role.” A surge of pain rose up. She clenched her teeth and looked away right before she felt Dagger’s hand on her knee.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said in a low voice. “Ryker called in a squad to retrieve all the bodies. We’ll give him a proper farewell.”

  Millicent nodded, not trusting her voice.

  “Get your gear ready,” Ryker said as he entered the craft and took a seat near the cockpit.

  “I was with a man for years after my attempted . . . fertilization,” Danissa muttered. “Still didn’t happen.”

  “Oh really? Huh.” Trent rested his chin on his fist. “Was he natural born, too?”

  “No. Lab born.”

  “Oh. Well, he was probably sterilized, then. That doesn’t count, obviously. No, I bet you could still procreate. I wouldn’t stake my life on it without running some tests, obviously, but if you found it difficult, I have three different concoctions I’ve created that would help your body naturally prepare for fertilization. They are enhancers, really. Only about one percent of women were still not be able to conceive. They aren’t miracle concoctions, after all.”

  “Fascinating,” Danissa said sarcastically. “But didn’t you leave behind your lab?”

  “I was able to make the concoctions there.” Trent patted her knee and smiled. “If you want, we can organize continuous samples from Mr. Dagger. Actually, he’d be the best fit, going by the Foster-Gunner model. You’d have to do your own stimulation, but as a woman who was sexually active, I’m sure you know all about how to manipulate—”

  “Trent,” Millicent said, shaking her head. “The children.”

  “I’m not a dispensary,” Dagger said aggressively, making Millicent’s small hairs rise.

  Trent’s mouth snapped shut and his eyes widened. He cleared his throat and winced when he crossed his ankle over his knee. “He’s usually so nice, I forgot the extreme violence his kind are capable of.” He looked out the window as Ryker huffed out a laugh.

  The craft drifted away from the building as it rose, giving them distance.

  “Okay,” Ryker said, standing. He went through his utility belt before heading to the back of the craft. “We’ll restock for an invasion. Anyone without an implant will be left behind. They probably have mental warfare geared up. Those without implant defenses won’t be helpful.”

  “Sure would be nice to take the kids,” Dagger muttered, scratching his chin.

  “Sure would be nice if they were grown, had implants, knew how to fight, and how to shoot,” Ryker said, changing places with Dagger and heading back to the front.

  “Yes. All of those things, yes.” Dagger checked his guns.

  “See? Fun and jovial most of the time. You forget what he’s capable of,” Trent muttered.

  “Do you forget with me?” Ryker asked Trent as he passed.

  “I just try to avoid you when you’re hurt, feeling protective of Millicent or your children, or in a bad mood.”

  “So that’s why I don’t see much of you.”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s worrying when they are in an upbeat mood right before a battle,” Millicent said to Danissa. “It means there is extreme danger ahead.”

  “It has been a long time since there was anything but extreme danger to look forward to.” Danissa studied her hands.

  “A little longer.” Ryker leaned into the cockpit before checking his wrist. “Just a little longer. We have to knock out these trespassers, and then we can wrap it up and go home.”

  “As easy as that, huh?” Danissa shook her head, glanced at her wrist screen, and then peered into her utility belt. She stood and headed to the weapons bays in the back. “Do you have a deflation valve on your ego? As is, it’s clouding your judgment.”

 
“Where’s the trust?” Ryker’s grin didn’t match his eyes as he looked out the window. In the upper levels, where the air was clearer, they could see the top of Toton’s building. Black dotted the sides, the spiders stuck to the outside like they were glued on.

  Dagger’s arm and back muscles flared as he leaned against the side of the craft. He peered out at the building. “It bears repeating—those fuckers are bound to be huge.”

  “Let’s hope they move as slow as those robots.” Ryker worked at his wrist screen.

  “And are half as strong.” Dagger shook his head. “I hope you got a lotta guns headed in with us.”

  “Millie, work with Marie to execute your prison program on the leaders of the other conglomerates,” Ryker said as more crafts joined them. “Right after we’re done here, we save the world.”

  Butterflies swarmed Millicent’s stomach.

  First, they needed to face the beings who’d put the world in danger. And somehow make it out alive.

  Chapter 23

  Millicent stood at the console in the craft, ready to execute her many programs. This particular vessel wasn’t equipped with all the weapons she’d designed, but it had a few, and those were high-powered. It would work.

  “Ready, cupcake?” Ryker asked as he stopped next to her.

  Trent, the children, and the remaining clones had been transferred to another craft. The clones had asked to join the fight for the rocket. The children had asked to stay in the craft with Millicent and company. The clones would get their wish, but the children were being whisked away to safety. They’d get to meet Marie, who had promised to be nice.

  As soon as Terik, who seemed strangely familiar, though Millicent couldn’t figure out why, tried to throw his weight around, Marie would dig in her heels and go back on her word. Hopefully that was the worst of their problems.

  A weak and pale Trent would be chaperoning. It would probably be harder than joining the battle.