Enemy One (Epic Book 5) (80 page)

“I have a son.”

As soon as the Irishman said it, Scott blinked. Setting down his tablet, he looked at Becan. “What did you say?”

Becan was staring at the wall across from him, his expression numbed as he repeated the words. “I have a son.”

“Okay, hang on. What do you mean, you have a son?”

Looking at him flatly, the Irishman said, “It means wha’ it sounds like it means. I have a kid, Remmy. He just made four months.”

How was that even possible? “How do you—”

“Natasha,” Becan answered. “Natasha Valer. From Charlie.”

“Natasha
Valer
?” Of course, Scott remembered Natasha. But when in the world did Becan and Natasha have time to—

Right at that thought, Scott’s mind hit rewind, tracing back to the beginning of the previous year, before
Novosibirsk
was even a part of their lives.

“Anyway,” Henry said, “I think I can do good in
EDEN
. All I need is a chance to prove myself.”

He was cut off as Natasha pushed up from her chair.

“You’re leaving?” asked Scott.

“Yes…” she said as her gaze lingered on Becan. “I feel like going for a swim.”

“Yeh want some company?” Becan asked.

Natasha curved up the corners of her lips. “Sure.”

“Class.” Becan rose from his chair and glanced at the other three men. “I’ll talk to yis later.” Before anyone could respond, the couple slipped through the tables and out of the room.

Scott watched as they disappeared out of view. “Is what just happened what I think just happened?”

“Amazing.” David laughed.

“Just like that, huh?”

Just like that. “Huh,” said Scott as his eyes returned to the Irishman. He didn’t know what to say.

“I don’t know when it happened,” said Becan. “We, umm…yeah, a couple o’ times. Hell, I was almost late to the bleedin’ bug-hunt ’cos o’…yeh know.”

Scott shook his head.
“Becan.”

“I know, I know.”

“When did you find out?”

A flat laugh escaped Becan’s lips. “The day I found ou’ we were comin’ here. Righ’ after we talked to Tacker. Tha’s why she told me.”

“Well, holy hell, B. Umm, congrats?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

If his son was four months old, that meant Becan hadn’t even been there to see him born. Before Scott could ask the question, Becan addressed that very issue.

“’Tasha kept me up to date on everythin’, sendin’ me letters an’ photos o’ her tummy. I saw photos o’ when he was born.”

“Why the hell didn’t you go see her?”

The Irishman shook his head. “I tried, I was just…” His words trailed off.

“You were just what?”

Exasperated, Becan answered, “I was bloody terrified, all righ’? I wasn’t supposed to be a father, not yet.”

Eyeing him, Scott asked, “Wasn’t that the reason you and Natasha
had
those little encounters?”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t serious. We had protection, or, we
thought
we had protection. Trust me, no one was as surprised as the two o’ us.”

No one was
as
surprised? That meant someone else knew. That meant multiple people knew. “Who else knows about this?”

“Well,” he answered with a heavy sigh, “Molly-Polly knows, but only ’cos the little vixen opened my mail.”

“She opened your
mail
? Becan, that’s a felony.”

“Yeah, ’cos havin’ Esty arrested would’ve been great for morale.” He slumped back. “She doesn’t even know tha’ I know. She tried to be all stealthy abou’ it, steam openin’ the envelope an’ whatnot, but I could smell her perfume on it.”

That was surprising for an entirely different reason. “Esther wears perfume?”

“
Midnigh’ Lust
,” he answered. “She only wore it when she was tryin’ to lure you in.”

Wow. Midnight Lust.
Really, Ess?

“Yeh migh’ not want to mention the fact tha’ yeh never noticed.” For a moment, a quizzical expression came over him. “Not tha’ tha’ matters anymore, anyway. Good for her for findin’ Jay.” He smirked a bit. “Not goin’ to lie, Remmy. I thought you two migh’ have a chance. She’s kind o’ smokin’, yeh know. An’ she’s like, wearin’ a swimsuit abou’ sixty percent o’ the time.”

“Enough about Ess. Why in the world didn’t you tell me about
you
?”

Becan set his tablet down on the floor. “Yeh had your own life goin’ on. Wha’ was I supposed to say, ‘Sorry abou’ your fiancée, by the way, I’m havin’ a kid?’ I did tell Jay, though.”

This truly bothered him. “How is it that everyone knows all of my business, but I apparently don’t know the major events going on in peoples’ lives?”

Looking at him flatly, the Irishman answered, “I mean this in the best possible way, but yeh have pretty dramatic business. Like,
exceedingly
dramatic business.”

“Okay, point taken.”

“Livin’ with you is kind o’ like livin’ in a soap opera.”

Scott’s eyes narrowed. “I said point taken.”

Becan allowed himself a faint smile before he slumped back again. “Jus’ know you’re not the only one with things goin’ on.”

Never had that been more apparent than right then. “It just makes me wonder what
else
is going on that I don’t know about.”

“Dave got divorced.”

Scott slammed down his tablet. “Dave got divorced?” he asked matter-of-factly, glaring at his Irish companion. “Really, B?”

“Don’t say anythin’ to anyone. It’s a secret.”

His tone lowering, Scott asked, “Are you telling me the truth? Don’t mess with me about this.”

“I’m not messin’ with yeh,” answered Becan. “Sharon apparently filed for it after he got transferred here. Well, I don’t know if they’re divorced
yet
, but it’s in process, or somethin’.”

“And he just felt completely comfortable telling
you
, of all people?”

He half-smirked. “Actually, I found ou’ from Esty. She read his mail.”

Scott threw his hands up.

“Yeh got to admit, she’s pretty crafty.”

Crafty
wasn’t the word Scott would have used. “So you have a kid, and Dave’s getting divorced. What the hell else don’t I know?”

“Listen, no one’s tryin’ to keep secrets from yeh. Like I said, I don’t even know if Dave has told
anyone
.” He sighed. “An’ as for me, it’s just…it’s hard to talk abou’ this. I only talked to people when I needed to, when I couldn’t
not
talk abou’ it, yeh know? I don’t feel like I’m good enough to be a da.”

Shaking his head in frustration, Scott said, “Becan, you’re going to be an
incredible
dad. You
are
an incredible dad.”

“Yeah, ’cos incredible da’s miss their kids’ births.”

“Sometimes that happens. You’re not the only man in the military to miss a childbirth. It comes with the territory.” Looking ahead, Scott sighed and picked his tablet back up. “What’s your son’s name?”

At the question, Becan smiled. “Callum.”

“That,” Scott said, “is an awesome name.” He’d never heard it before. It
sounded
Irish.

“Callum was me grandda’. He raised me after me parents died.”

That made the name even better. Scott offered a hand to the Irishman. “Congratulations, McCrae.”

Becan shook it. “Thanks, Remmy.”

Scott was happy, genuinely, for Becan’s news. He remembered well the Irishman’s plight about having no one to pass on the McCrae name. That wouldn’t be an issue now. Had it happened in the best way? No. Was it a mistake? If judging by the means, yes. But the end result was Callum McCrae, a four-month-old somewhere in America who was passing on Becan’s lineage. It was hard not to be excited about that.

As for what David was dealing with—that wasn’t nearly as easy to process. Scott’s friend was hurting in a way that Scott had never realized. But what affected Scott more was that David had never told him. While it was true that David
technically
hadn’t told anybody, Scott would have still hoped that, of all people, David would have trusted Scott with the news of his impending divorce. It left Scott with a vexing dilemma. Now that he knew, should he mention it?

The emotion in him said
yes
. He needed to talk to David, to comfort him—to tell him his unit had his back, regardless of what happened and in spite of the global firestorm enveloping the outlaws and presumably their families. It was probably fortunate that the Fourteenth and Falcon Platoon had been relatively isolated from the media there in
Northern Forge
. They’d missed the interviews with their family members, the tears, the pleas for them to turn themselves in—all of which Scott knew had to be out there in bushels. David needed to know he had support.

But emotion wasn’t the end-all. David hadn’t told anyone about this. For all David knew, no one else even had an inkling that he and Sharon had been having problems. If Scott suddenly brought it up to David, it might embarrass him. Scott was sure that avoiding embarrassment was probably a motivation for David to have kept his mouth shut. He was the Fourteenth’s father figure. How would it reflect on him if the Fourteenth’s father figure was fighting a divorce? Though Scott didn’t believe the Fourteenth would be bothered aside from hurting for the man, it was still not Scott’s place to open that can of worms himself. This issue was David’s to mention or keep a lid on. And so despite the
yes
that his heart screamed, his mind kept his emotions in check.

Scott would say nothing.

As the evening grew later, and Scott and Becan’s scant preplanning came to a close, Scott simply bid his Irish friend farewell and prepared to go to sleep—this time, for real. Tomorrow was huge. Tomorrow, the core of operatives behind this operation would meet to discuss their plan of attack. Having gathered as much information as possible over the course of the past week—about the weather, about radar ranges, about bullet trains—it was time to put that newfound knowledge to good use. Falling quickly to sleep, Scott found momentary peace in the realm of dreams.

Location: Unknown

Time: Unknown

SVETLANA BOLTED upright from her slumber as the metal door to the pen whisked open. Gabralthaar and Ka`vesh stood in its archway. The titan marched toward the medic to yank her to her feet. “Come and behold, Earthae!” Grabbing her by her blond roots, Gabralthaar jerked her upright before she could stand fully on her own. Yelping in pain, Svetlana was forcefully shoved out of the room with Mishka. “Our time for tribute has come!”

While Gabralthaar addressed her, oblivious that she understood every word he was saying, Ka`vesh hurried to the back of the pen to cover the trough of slop. That meant the Bakma were going back into microgravity.
They must have found what they were looking for
, Svetlana thought. Ed had informed her that Nagogg’s intention was to locate a new species to bring back to Khuldaris as a boon for Uladek and the Khuladi. Based on the exuberance of the two Bakma henchmen, there was no doubt that that’s what they’d found. Svetlana stumbled awkwardly down the hall and into the bridge.

For the briefest of moments as she was being thrust toward Nagogg’s chair, Svetlana caught sight of the view screen. It was in a constant state of flashing and changing. Stars were appearing, then course information, then engine status reports. So many things were happening at once—it was impossible to fully absorb all of it.

Gabralthaar shoved Svetlana onto the floor next to Nagogg’s chair while Ka`vesh prepared to slap on the magnetic clamps. Before the deed could be done, Nagogg intervened. “Make her face the front!” Ka`vesh looked up at him. “I want her to witness this.” The warrior acknowledged, turned Svetlana around to face the front of the bridge, then activated the magnetic clamps. For the first time, Svetlana was able to lift her head and fully see what was going on.

“Connect us!” Nagogg rasped to Ed. Moments later, the
click
came to her mind.

For the faintest of moments, a panic struck her. What if Nagogg found out what she knew through the connection? Before the fear could fully consume her, an assurance came from the Ithini.
The depths of your mind are hidden from him. He is only using this to communicate.
Relieved and ready to play ignorant human, Svetlana listened as Nagogg spoke.

“Behold the gifts Uladek gives to those who seek him!”

Her eyes on the view screen, Svetlana watched as Bakmanese text appeared—and again, she was able to decipher all of it. Galactic coordinates were at the top corner of the screen, which was zoomed in on a star. Beneath the star were the words, “Communication signal detected.” As the Bakma crew worked furiously at their respective stations, jump coordinates appeared.

Behind Nagogg, Ka`vesh shouted, “We are ready, lord!”

Nagogg activated the ship’s comm to the engine room. “Prepare to shift us, Wuteel! It is time.”

Svetlana watched as the bridge crew slid harnesses across their bodies in their respective chairs. Moments later, the sensation of gravity—as natural as it had felt all this time—faded away. They were in microgravity again. Why now?

“Shift!” said Nagogg.

The Noboat’s lights shifted to dark blue as the air in the bridge crackled like lightning. The Noboat was going invisible. The static-sounding pops lasted for several seconds before they subsided. The shift—as much as Svetlana understood it—was done.

“Jump!”

The chieftain’s order was followed, as the view from the screen shifted to a true front view, as if they were looking out of a massive cockpit window. There was a shudder indicative of a jump, then the center of the screen was taken up by a spacecraft. The moment it appeared, Nagogg’s opaque eyes widened in awe.

It was exactly what Nagogg had been searching for—something none of them had ever seen before. Something from a species unknown. The spacecraft was shaped like an arrow and of considerably larger size than the Noboat, painted in vibrant colors that made it look more a piece of art than a spacefaring vessel. Its wings, indicative of an aerospace design, were fanned out like the wings of a bird. Surrounding the ship was a giant centrifugal ring that was clearly an attachment rather than a part of the vessel.