Read Online Quantum by Jess Anastasi - Free Book Online

“Is he—?”
    “He’s alive, but I can’t bring him around. Without those medical supplies…” Graydon stared off toward what had become ground zero, a muscle pulsing in his jaw. “Someone is damn well going to answer for this. When I get back to the Swift Brion , I’m not going to stop until I find out who the hell is responsible for this frecking disaster.”
    “First we need to make it back in one piece,” she muttered, turning to lean against the cold rock surface.
    Any doubts she’d had before just went up in flames along with the wreckage of their shuttle. A missile instead of a rescue ship?
    Someone out there wanted to make sure no one had survived that crash. And unless Nazari or Jaren had some powerful enemies they didn’t know about, then either she or the captain admiral was the most obvious target.
    This situation had turned into one huge problem, because either the Reidar were onto her, or somebody was trying to assassinate the admiral, which didn’t fit in with Rian’s suspicions that Zander Graydon was no longer human…
    What if the Reidar planned to replace the admiral and this was their attempt to kill him so they could do just that? In that case, Graydon needed help and protection.
    An ache of confusion started behind her forehead. She had no evidence to support either theory and she was on her own, with no one to help her sort out this mess. She’d been due to check in with Rian a few hours ago—he’d wanted an immediate report on her initial impressions of Graydon’s state of mind.
    Well, she’d say Zander Graydon was pissed off and determined. That didn’t help her deduce whether or not he was human.
    “It looks like our decision has been made for us,” Graydon said as he moved to sit with his back against the boulder next to her. “We’re going to have to hike out of here come morning. I’m not going to sit around and wait for whoever’s out there to take another shot at us.”
    His gaze seemed to sharpen on her, and an uncomfortable buzz, like she was under interrogation, cut through her. She was meant to be scrutinizing him, so why did she suddenly feel like the one being examined?
    She picked up the display from where she’d abandoned it next to the packs, shut down the program, and disconnected her comm.
    “I’ve disabled the program scanning for ships. If someone out there is searching for us for the wrong reasons, they’d be able to use it to track us.”
    Graydon’s expression turned grim. “We won’t know if our people come looking for us. But you’re right. We can’t risk it. Looks like we’re on our own.”
    “So, now what?” Nazari asked.
    The admiral glanced at the sergeant. “We can’t risk hiking in the dark. It’s too dangerous, and we’ve already got one injured ankle to deal with. We don’t need any more.”
    Nazari straightened her shoulders. “I won’t slow us down, sir.”
    “I know you won’t, Nazari, but even if you weren’t injured, I still wouldn’t want to be taking on these woods in the dark. Hopefully whoever shot that missile at us is thinking they got lucky and won’t try anything else. We’ll stay right here and start out first thing, as soon as it gets light.”
    The captain admiral gave them each a watch, with Mae taking first shift, the admiral second, and Nazari the last and shortest. None of them were able to rouse Jaren. In the couple of packs they’d managed to grab, there were several more thermal blankets, but if they lost these, they’d be in for several cold nights.
    Graydon bunked down next to Jaren after checking on him one last time. While Nazari settled in on Jaren’s other side, Mae wrapped one of the blankets around her shoulders and stayed sitting against the boulder. As her three survival companions became still and quiet, the night noises of the forest sounded louder. Through the thick branches of trees above, two of Tocarra’s four moons shone weakly though a soupy cloud cover that also blurred the