On Sno’s shoulder, Cassie jabbered quietly in his ear. When he turned his head her way, the bio-construct scampered to the floor and ran to Dek’s feet.
“What is it, girl?” she said, stooping to pet her soft head. CaSandra made a leap to land on her shoulder and as she straightened, the StarDog re-balanced and curled her warm, fluffy tail around her neck. Dek couldn’t help but smile. Who needed a jacket with Cassie as an accessory?
“Ready?” Sno asked, turning for the stairs without waiting for her reply.
When he descended to the main floor, she was right on his heels. He wouldn’t be slipping off into the night without her. But then, she doubted Sno would leave Cassie behind.
“We’ll head for the beach,” he said, making his way through her kitchen to the exit.
She didn’t waste words on questioning his plan. For now, she was willing to follow his lead. After quickly locking the door to her rented villa, she turned to jog after him.
The sun lit the sky in great bands of orange, red, and purple, and the air temperature was already plummeting with the approach of night. Both were pluses. They’d be no more than two dark silhouettes against the sunset, and no one was likely to pay any note to a couple in heavier clothes out taking a twilight stroll by the water.
When Sno took her hand, a flood of warmth filled her belly and spread out to her limbs. Yeah, definitely no jacket required. The next moment she chided herself for being so stupidly sentimental. Sno must have only made contact to further the illusion of a couple on a romantic stroll, and not because he felt genuine affection for her after what they’d shared. No matter how hot or torrid or tender their time in the sheets had been.
She wouldn’t delude herself. Their liaison had been nothing more than a physical release. As it should be. No complications. No confusion.
Then Sno released her hand—and left her momentarily lost—until he slid his arm around her back to draw her closer.
And every internal control and emotional governor in her head sparked white hot and melted its gears.
Sno couldn’t tell Dek how much things had changed for him since that morning. He could only show her by his actions, hoping she’d see through his terse words and crisp orders. Truth was, he had no clue how to handle the powerful rush of belonging he’d felt since they’d landed in a heap in her rumpled bed. His critical breach of decorum had fouled his focus and could put this mission in serious jeopardy.
He didn’t know how to process the experience. It would require days and weeks with her to untangle all the twists and kinks she’d thrown into his emotional wiring. For now, he couldn’t deal with all the hanging questions in his heart, so his only fallback was going full-duty mode.
He had no doubt her career—and her allegiance to the Network—was as important to her as his was to him. But reality was a harsh taskmaster—what had happened could well end up destroying one of their futures. If not both.
This was no longer just an exercise. It was a critical operation. And, until he made contact to inform his superiors of what he’d uncovered and who he’d teamed up with, he was essentially going rogue.
And he was taking Dek into the maelstrom with him.
Their stroll brought them to the outskirts of Sarcassius and beyond the wide, white sand beaches to a landscape broken by jutting outcroppings of long-cooled magma. They’d reached the fringe of the ancient lava flows that had once spewed from an underground magma tube—the now-hollow cave that, millions of calendars later, housed Sarcassius Site D and all its secrets.
Sno stopped at the base of an escarpment and pointed out a gap in the stone. “We climb through that crevice.”
“And then?”
“It leads to a stretch of sand behind an outcropping that we can use for cover. Your spotters won’t be able to see us. But it’ll be a hike—and later there’ll be swimming involved.”
Dek nodded. “Spiky Point. It juts out into the bay where the water’s really deep, and it’ll be pitch dark when Kattus sets. Is this your plan to approach the site?”
“Same one I used to leave it.” He let that sink in before asking, “You a good swimmer?”
“Is Cassie?”
That was so Dek. Answering a question with a question. “Like a fish,” he assured her, but his unrelenting look required an answer. Avoidance mode wasn’t going to fly on this sortie. If she couldn’t follow where he was leading, he’d have to be making some very tough decisions right here and now.
He couldn’t read her expression in the dark, but she gave him a response: “Reaching the beach won’t be a problem.”
Translation: She could swim.
“The issue,” she added, “is that once we get there, we’ll be visible to the spotter’s night vision.”
“We won’t.” Sno swung off his backpack.
“How’s that?”
This was it. Point of no return.
Time to open his bag of tricks and expose her to secrets well above her clearance level.
He had no question Dr. K would frown on his decision, but he’d brought Dek into his world and now there was no turning back.
12
Dek waded out of the water close beside Sno, moving slowly to avoid the sound of obvious splashing. Cassie, furiously dogpaddling along beside them, didn’t make a peep.
They were in clear view of the spotter on the cliff, in range of the spy-eye on the tower, and within shouting distance of the man posted at the Site D entrance…and no one knew they were there.
Before they’d entered the water, Sno had told her the device he’d engaged was a refraction pocket—a generated field that bent light around them, effectively making them invisible. In worked on land or sea.
“New technology?” Dek had queried.
“Actually…very old technology, just recently re-discovered.”
She’d given him a wry look. Now she knew how Sno had pulled off his trick of suddenly appearing in her proximity twice in the last several days. She hadn’t been distracted; he’d been using his tech.
The bubble the device generated wasn’t large, which required the two of them to stick close and work in tandem. Probably a good thing they’d already broken their personal space barriers, because things were pretty cozy.
Between them, CaSandra dragged her waterlogged body out of the ocean and stood up to brace her little forepaws on Sno’s knee and give him a pleading look. Poor little thing must’ve been exhausted after their long swim.
Sno scooped Cassie up, with her matted fur still dripping seawater, and deposited her on his shoulder. The shivering little StarDog draped herself around the back of his neck, her forelegs and rear legs on opposite sides.
Dek took Sno’s arm to get his attention, motioning toward the infrasound shield. The refraction pocket kept them hidden but offered no protection from the barrier encompassing the site.
Sno held out his hand, offering her an earpiece so they could communicate subvocally now that they were out of the water.
Dek glanced back up the beach as she inserted the device into her ear. “How do we breach the barrier?”
“Requires another sort of wrapper.” From his backpack, Sno removed two small bundles, handing one to her. He then placed Cassie on the sand at his feet. “Watch closely.”