Wintersfall

CHAPTER THREE

The silence on the other end of the radio made Sean's heart thump too hard. He didn't waste another second. Jumping off the carriage, he bolted across the street. The side door into the building Kat occupied hung open, and he slipped in on a soundless stride. Adrenaline flowing through his veins, he took the stairs two at a time, sliding across the dusty landings. He wanted to call out. To hear her voice. To know she was okay. But if she wasn't, he didn't want to alert anyone waiting.

Just a coms failure he assured himself to keep calm.

When he reached the seventh floor, he unsheathed his knife and entered the quiet hall on light feet. He did a quick visual search and saw no one else on the floor, at least not in the hallway. A strained shout from a center room told him where to go, and that she wasn't alone. He pressed his back to the wall beside the door and glanced in. Cornered into the wall, Kat attempted to keep her assailant at bay. Sean let out a curse as he took in the man's thin frame, disheveled clothes and his sharp snapping of teeth.

He vaulted into the room. The second he reached the attacker, he grabbed a handful of greasy hair and yanked. "Move! Now!"

The infected man jolted back. Sean dropped the knife and broke the man's neck with a rapid twist. Kat landed on the floor with a heavy thump. She quickly scooted away, the body slumping near her legs in a loose pile of flesh and bone. Sean grabbed the lifeless zombie by the arm and dragged it to the center of the room.

"Are you okay?" He knelt beside Kat and looked her over, examining her arms, turning her wrists. He took her chin in his hand and lifted her jaw, checking her throat.

"I'm fine," she said, breathless. "He didn't get to me."

Before he could stop himself or even realize what he was doing, Sean gathered her into his arms and held her tight to his chest. Trembling, she wrapped her arms around him. His hand smoothed down the long length of her braided hair as relief flowed through him. Little chunks of grainy plaster fell through his fingers to the floor.

"You're okay," he assured himself more than her.

"I checked... I don't understand. I did a search, Sean. This floor was empty. And... the infected don't have the cognitive skills to climb stairs. H-how did he get in?"

Sean pulled back, his hand still resting in her hair. "I don't know. You didn't hear anything?"

"Just a board creak. I thought it was a rat, and then I heard another, and that's when he..." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "That's when he came in."

"Maybe he was in a closet. They can still open doors."

She shook her head. "No, I searched everywhere."

"Okay," he spoke in a calm tone to subdue her rising panic. He rested his chin on top of her head. "What does that leave?"

Her fingers tightened on his back. Every muscle in her frame went rigid. "That someone is as skilled in covert missions as we are, and dropped an infected man onto my floor to kill me?"

Sean sat back on his heels and took her face in his palms. "They didn't succeed. You are fine. And if they sent in a zombie for a man, it's because they knew they couldn't best you. They would fail."

She nodded, her lips parting, and Sean made the mistake of focusing on them. For three years he'd avoided becoming personal with her unless absolutely necessary, such as needing an accurate gauge of her mood, or treating her for an injury as the teams Medical Science Officer. Now he found himself inches from her mouth, his fingers smoothing across the soft angles of her jaw and neck. He moved closer, the slightest shift of his weight. She didn't pull away. In fact, her anticipation tingled through his fingertips, settling in his blood, urging him to act on the compelling need to kiss her.

"What's going on? Sean? Kat? I'm at the carriage, where are you two? Everything all right?"

Kevin's interruption pulled them both back to reality, and Kat's arms fell away as Sean stood. She cleared her throat and blinked, her hands rubbing down her face. Sean did the same as he turned his back to her. What had he been thinking? He hadn't been... a mistake he couldn't make again.

Katria avoided the corpse and the puddle of infectious saliva pooling from its gaping mouth. She gathered her case and rifle. Slinging the closed carrycase over her back, she kept the rifle free. Positioning it under her arm, she followed Sean out, not bothering a glance behind. She kept close, as per her training. Of course, if she were completely honest, she'd also admit she felt safer near him.

Rescues were part of their job description. Each of them had needed one at some point. This one had been different. After it was over, he'd held her. Actually held her close to his strong chest, near enough for the warm, smoky scent of him to envelop her and make her forget rational thought. For the first time in the three years since she left home, she'd felt safe, secure in a moment. She knew nothing would happen to her. Sean wouldn't allow it.

There was also the matter of the near kiss, but she quickly pushed that away. Under no circumstances could a repeat happen.

They arrived at the alley. Cool air brushed her face. She ignored tendrils of loose hair floating around her and kept her focus on getting to the safety of the carriage. Whoever had attempted to unleash a rabies-syndrome-infected man on her might decide to go double with the three of them, or worse.

Kevin held the carriage door open for Kat and she threw her case in before climbing inside.

"What happened?" he inquired, helping her since she refused to release her rifle.

Sean jumped into the driver's seat. "Someone managed to get an infected man onto the seventh floor after she'd cleared it."
"What?" Kevin asked, shocked.

Sean shrugged and shook his head. "I have nothing. Well, nothing I want to consider."

"I do... and I don't like it," Kevin stated as he closed the door.

The carriage jostled as he joined Sean, and Katria rested inside against the seat. She wanted to know their theory, but the adrenaline from the attack was wearing off and she suddenly found herself exhausted.

Slowly her fingers slid along the cool metal of the gun's barrel laying on her lap, to the slightly warmer wood, her mind lost in thought. The trusted weapon had been ineffective to her this time. Even her pistols had been of no use. She'd had no way to get to them. Before the next directive, she'd find a way to remedy that. There had to be another means to make her method of safety more accessible.

They came to a stop and Katria sat up, glancing out the window. The small cutter ship sat bobbing in a soft current, the rising full moon casting long silvery shadows along the single sail.

Sean opened the door and motioned for her to exit. They walked at a clipped pace to the boarding ramp. Mason was waiting on deck. The deep frown on his handsome face made Katria's stomach drop.

He held up a slip of paper. "Summons to return to Haven City."

Sean took the note from him and unfolded it. His scowl matched Mason's. "Well, it appears we were set up to fail. Someone knew before we did that the mission wouldn't be accomplished."

Kevin cursed. "Who?"
"Either we'll find that out in Haven City, or we're in some deep trouble because someone purposefully made sure this night was a fiasco."