Redemption

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

                Sleep hadn’t come easy for Niki after she returned to bed and spent half the night laying awake. Zach and Starkey returned about an hour after she did, but they both seemed to go to sleep. She was lightly sleeping when the others moving about pulled her out of her rest.

                “What’s going on?” she mumbled, sitting up and seeing what the others were doing.

                “Got a call,” Starkey said. “Commander Barton’s gonna talk to us in a couple of minutes.”

                No one else seemed to care about their appearance and Niki didn’t either. Barton had seen her plenty of times looking worse. She put her boots on and followed the others out and downstairs to the tiny room where they had the only phone with video capabilities. Their fylgja couldn’t fit inside – unless they could fit on shoulders or arms. Zach’s Horus and Morgan’s Ardi both stayed on their humans’ shoulders, and Shelby was able to hold Paradox in her arms.

                Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Barton to appear on the screen. Kimberella was behind him, although she didn’t appear to be paying attention. “The captains and I have decided to put Riley in charge of the mission,” Barton said, not wasting any time in getting down to business. “If you’re prepared, we want you to head out early tomorrow morning so that you can land before dawn.”

                “Got it,” Riley said. “We’ll be ready.”

                “How are the new suits?” Kimberella asked, scratching her left hip as she spoke. “Any issues?”

                “They’re great,” Riley said. “Should be helpful on our mission.”

                “You doing okay, Sokolof?” Kimberella asked, scratching her hip again.

                “Uh, yeah,” Niki said. Kimberella was obviously sending Niki a message, but she wasn’t quite sure what that was.

                “Good,” Kimberella said, still scratching. “Make sure you get enough sleep.”

                “We may not be able to contact you again,” Barton said. “If not, good luck.” With that, the screen shut off and Niki and the others made their way out of the room and into the lounge.

                “I think we’re all as prepared as we can get,” Riley said. “So let’s just take the day to relax, rest, do whatever. We’ll wake up by two tomorrow morning and be out of here before three.”

                Everyone else walked off to do their own thing, but Niki remained where she was, distracted by Kimberella’s hidden message. She scratched her own hip the way Kimberella did, wondering what it could mean. As she went through the motion, a thought struck her. They had stored their power suits in a closet, along with all their other supplies. Niki glanced around, making sure no one was watching before taking hers out and opening up the battery on the left hip. She removed it, but there was nothing strange about it. However, tucked inside the pouch that held the battery was a small device. A voice only communicator. Niki quickly pocketed it before replacing the battery of her suit.

                Knowing that’s what Kimberella wanted her to find, she started looking for a place where she could have complete privacy. Anywhere inside the building seemed too high risk as she couldn’t know if someone was listening on the other side of a wall or door. She headed outside and walked out into the field surrounding the building. She continued past the field and into some trees. While the field would have been better to keep anyone from sneaking up on her, she didn’t want anyone to see her standing there and ask what she was doing. And Garm could always alert her if someone was coming.