The Survivor - Veil Walkers Book One

Chapter Thirteen

Home, Modern Era - Galen

GALEN expected a scene when he and Deza arrived in ops. They wore their exhaustion on their faces, their weakness in their very movements, and knew Ming Yue would have their hides. By now, she knew they had failed in their mission. She had to. Surely, they had been the worse screw-ups of the day.

As he turned to brace Deza during her dismount, the silence of the room surprised him.

He examined the too-quiet room and pursed his lips to find it empty. Maybe they hadn't been the worst of the situations.

They never left Ops unattended.

What disaster could have visited the group that no one stood guard over the solitary entrance? Had an attacker followed someone home?

The emptiness of the room unsettled Deza, even as she shied from the brightness. "Where is everyone?"

"I don't know," Galen whispered, helping her from the landing stone. "This makes no sense, unless the others had a worse go of it than we did. They might be too busy saving lives to worry about keeping watch."

Deza shook her head. "At the very least, they'd have Nanami here, if for no other reason than to run for help."

He stood silent for several moments, thinking through the facts that felt a little too heavy in his mind. "Stay here," he finally said. "I'm going to check the infirmary—"

When his legs gave out, he flailed, trying to catch himself, but was surprised to feel Deza support him like he so often did for her.

"I don't think we are in the condition to help anyone." Deza managed that smile, the one he knew to be a farce. "We need rest."

"We need to tag in first." Galen pulled away and took a step, testing his strength.

Deza had never 'tagged in' before, Galen knew. Although their arrival numbers were only twenty-one apart, three hundred years had passed between those dates. Galen knew the procedure, the fingerprint against the reader that would mark them as returned, so whomever came to the next shift would know they had arrived. She did not.

They had enacted the tradition of guarding ops after Dita had died of injuries, alone, at the foot of the unexpectedly timed portal that bore her home. They vowed to never again let anyone die like that.

He summoned more strength with every step and presented himself as almost normal by the time he reached the counter. He stepped around the shattered remains of one coffee mug and moved an unbroken one aside, wondering why it had been placed on the fingerprint reader as he dropped his index finger against the screen and waited until the acknowledging tone sounded.

Deza followed his example, frowning at the splashed liquid and sharp shards near their feet. "Isn't this Namid's favorite?"

"What's left of it," Galen confirmed, reaching for a nearby screen. "Something sinister must have happened." His touch brought a monitor to life, and he motioned through a series of menus. "Everyone else is accounted for and in logical locations, so the emergency must be over." He sighed down at the mess. "But if they left things like this, it must have been a hell of a situation. Come on."

Galen turned Deza toward the far door with a hand behind her waist, almost touching her. As they reached the door, she hesitated, looking back at him. "I heard you, you know."

He froze. A chill crossed his skin as he searched her jade eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I heard you, in the darkness, when I was gone. Just before you yanked me back into my body, I heard your words," her eyes searched back, expectant, daring him to repeat the phrase.