Untouchable (LGBT - SciFi - Romance)

Chapter 32

Robin Lang looked up as the door to his hotel room chimed softly. Captain Juan Martinez was outside. Had he come to arrest him? The visual unit showed he was the only person standing there so probably not. Just in case though, he bent and adjusted the settings on both stunners, then drew one out of its hiding place and put it in the top drawer of his desk, leaving the drawer open. Best to be prepared.

He let Martinez in and sat down again behind the desk. He summoned up a meaningless smile. "Please have a seat. How can I help you, Captain?"

Martinez sat in the chair opposite Lang, looking serious, and took a wristcom out of the small black satchel he was carrying. He put it on the desk between them, keeping his hand on it. "I found this in Mario Rossi's apartment."

Lang's eyes flew to his. Martinez met his gaze steadily. "It's a recording of you, with him."

Oh god, oh god. Lang stopped breathing. "Have you watched it?"

He could tell instantly from the way the other man looked sideways for a second that he had.

"I had to, I - er - skimmed a lot of it," Martinez found it difficult to keep meeting the other man's eyes, he knew how devastating this was for him. "I had to make sure there was nobody else on it."

Oh god, oh god. The blood drained out of his face, Lang thought he was going to pass out. He made himself breathe again. In. Out. He felt icy cold. As if from a great distance he heard himself asking calmly, "Has anyone else seen it?"

"No. I'll have to give it to Colonel Young of course, but I can't see the need for anyone else to know about it. I just thought I should warn you."

"Thanks. I don't suppose I could persuade you to let me see what's on it?"

"Sorry, I can't. This is the only copy." As soon as the words left his mouth Martinez realised what he had done. He'd walked right into that one. He'd just told Lang the sole evidence of his blackmail was lying there in front of him, and he was the only one who had seen it. What a total idiot.

The two men stared at each other.

The only sound Martinez could hear was the pounding of his heart.

He saw Lang's eyes flicker and reached for his weapon, but he was too slow. Lang pulled a stunner from the drawer next to him and had it pointed at him before he could pull his weapon out of his belt.

"Both hands on the desk, Captain," he ordered. "Now please push the wristcom towards me, slowly."

Martinez drew his right hand slowly away from his belt and put it back on top of the wristcom. "You know I can't do that."

His eyes dropped to the stunner, waiting for the shot to take him in the chest. Lang would simply take the wristcom from him and destroy it while he was unconscious. His eyes widened as he looked more closely at the stunner. It wasn't set on 'stun', it was set to 'kill'. He swallowed. Of course it was. Lang couldn't just take the evidence and let him walk out of here to tell everyone what had happened. He couldn't believe he had been so stupid! His mouth was so dry, he couldn't speak, couldn't even plead for his life.

He looked up from the stunner into Lang's eyes again. He could see the agony in them, knew that Lang was a good man pushed beyond his limits. He could see the moment when he made his decision to fire, and shut his eyes involuntarily. He heard the soft hiss as the stunner fired, waited for the searing pain and felt nothing. He opened his eyes. Lang had fired the stunner, but not at him.

He had chosen to take his own life instead.

Martinez jumped up immediatelybut there were no signs of life. Hecalled a medic anyway and also his own squad. While he was waiting, he tossed the wristcom into the disposal unit. He owed Lang that.