One Breath, One Bullet (The Borders War #1)

Chapter 3

January 2546

Merq Grayson's 22nd year

United Union—Belfast

Armise was right. The search for the infochip was a fool's journey and I was going to get killed for it.

Sonicbullets whizzed around me, cutting way too close, and I went from being frustrated to pissed to furious in one heartbeat. There was no way I was losing my life in a mission that didn't matter, let alone one I never should have been sent on.

I was being actively tracked by United Union troops through the streets of Belfast. They'd begun converging on the former archives building as soon as they had heard there were Nationalist operatives in town seeking the infochip.

I'd been sent here to use the appearance of Nationalist spies as cover for our own search for the infochip. Unfortunately, the UU guards didn't care what country or cause we were affiliated with—they were shooting anyone not wearing the royal purple and black of a UU uniform. I was intent on making it out of the skirmish alive and completing my surveillance of the archives when I popped an underground access grate on the road, dropped into the tunnel and came face to face with Armise.

I lunged and swiped him across the face with my knife before he had a chance to retreat. The wound opened, seeped red and Armise's body tensed, but he didn't advance on me.

I hadn't seen him since that first kiss, almost a year ago in Singapore. And as soon as I saw him I could think of nothing else. Outside of the battle tactics and training stuffed into my head on a daily basis, I'd thought of little else but that kiss in the ensuing time.

Judging by the way Armise openly surveyed my body, he was thinking the same thing.

"Follow me," he stated and swept past me without further preamble.

I looked above and down the tunnel then back to Armise's form disappearing into the darkness and turned to catch up.

We tracked through a series of stone arches, our boots slapping in the standing shallow water below ground. Armise whispered one-word answers into his comm, adjusting his trajectory based on whatever information was being fed to him.

My guard was up, my pistol gripped in tight fingers, trained at Armise's back. But of the two options—at the surface with more UU forces than I could take on myself, or underground with one man—this one gave me the highest chance of survival.

We came upon a metal door and Armise turned to me. "Fifty feet ahead there is an abandoned storefront. Door to your left. We are going to have to move quickly."

With that he pushed the heavy door open, the motion littering the ground with a swirl of red dust when the ocean air swept inside.

I took off through the door, keeping low, scanning the area and listening for any indication of movement besides Armise and me. I caught sight of the building, skidded around the corner of the crumbling stone structure and pushed at the broken door, sliding inside as quietly as possible. I didn't bother to look back to see if Armise had followed me. I hoped that maybe he hadn't.

No such fucking luck, of course.

Armise was only a step behind me. He tried to bolt the door shut but the lock wouldn't flip. The already distant sound of sonicpops receded farther. Likely moving in the opposite direction—toward the archives.

I had no other choice but to wait for the firefight to end before I could reassess my next move.

I holstered my pistol and slumped against the wall. Armise moved slowly, deliberately, his gaze never leaving mine as he took up a similar position on the floor across from me.