Page 99 of Gates of Tartarus

His face looks bleak and unutterably sad. Just as he opens his mouth to speak, Smith’s and Walker’s shadows fall over us.

“Making up already?” Walker’s raspy voice pushes into my consciousness. “I have to admit, thought it would take more time than that.” I look up at him slowly. His eyes narrow, and he squats down beside Hideo, peering into my eyes. “You okay, Kai?” The concern in his voice hurts. He looks me over slowly, carefully. Trying to nudge Hideo out of the way, but failing, Walker reaches a hand down and turns my face towards him. “Kai?” he repeats, almost hesitantly. I try to focus on him, but it’s hard to make my eyes obey me. He nods once and turns to stand and talk to Smith, more serious than I’m used to seeing him. “She’s completely out of it. From the amount we gave her, she shouldn’t be up yet, but it wouldn’t cause this level of confusion. I’m worried about some deeper damage. Brain bleed or something.”

Smith stares down at me, brow heavy with concern. “Reed? You know where you are?”

I shake my head minutely, trying to move as little as possible, and he swears softly under his breath. “Okay. Okay.” I can see him take a deep breath and rapidly reassess the situation. “Kailani…”

“Oooo!” I mumble. “Shit must be getting real... you’re using my first name. Come on now, Madds. It can’t be that bad.”

He rubs a hand over his tired face and laughs once in a sad, exhausted sort of way. I frown. “That’s not your baby-making laugh. What’s going on?”

Maddox and Walker exchange a long glance before Maddox sinks to his heels to meet my eyes. “Okay, Kailani. I’m going to need you to head on back to the ambulance with Walker and we’ll go through everything with you there in a little while.”

“No!” I’m trying to talk but my voice won’t cooperate. “I want Deo.” I grab Hideo’s hand, and he grips mine just as tightly.

“I’ll take her,” he says firmly. He picks me up carefully, easily, and I rest my head on his shoulder. He is so gentle, but even that movement is too much, and I must pass out for a couple of minutes. When I come to, it’s to the sound of low, angry voices biting out harsh words. I crack my eyes slightly, just enough to see we haven’t moved yet, but I’m fairly sure that I could put on a clown hat and dance with a panda and the guys wouldn’t notice, they’re that deep in their whispered argument.

“She’s not going to thank you for any of this, Tanaka.” Walker’s voice, low and raspy, is like a whip.

“You think I don’t know that? Don’t pretend like you know her, asshole. You don’t. We’ve been partners and friends for years at this point. She’ll listen eventually. I’m going to fix this.” Hideo’s voice is unusually harsh and full of pain. Things must be going to hell if he’s letting his emotions seep through like this.

“Both of you need to back off. You’re bringing added tension into a situation already fraught with emotion. She clearly has no shields at the moment, and who knows what effect the initial intrusion had on her brain. We need to calm down and work through this.”

“I can’t work with someone who would betray a teammate’s trust,Smith. You know that. I don’t have to like the people I work with, but I need to be able to trust them.” He snorts derisively. “This buddy fucker can’t be on our team. He’s put everyone at risk with this shit. If we evenhavea team at this point. You lied to me, Maddox. You fucking lied.” The hurt in Walker’s voice is lightning, sharp and bright.

I frown deeply, and Hideo jerks slightly. I can feel him shake his head as his soothing voice washes over me. “You awake, KaiKai? Everything’s okay. We just had some stuff to work through. Let’s get you to the EMTs, okay?”

Pushing away from him slightly, I look up at his face. “What does Walker mean, Deo?” All three of the men exchange heavy glances, and I’m about to push it further when a Services woman approaches the group with drinks. She notices the tension too late, and passes out waters silently, then turns to me and asks me gently if I’d like anything.

“Coffee?” I whisper hopefully.

She smiles back at me, goes to a nearby table, and brings me back a very large Styrofoamcup. “No cream or sugar, I’m afraid,” she says kindly. “Just the basics. It’s hot. Be careful.”

“This is perfect. Thank you so much.” I completely ignore her warning and take a large gulp. Searing hot coffee burns my mouth and my throat, and for some reason that jolt of physical pain finally wakes my brain up, pushing me from zero to sixty. I jerk upright, almost falling out of Hideo’s arms, before wriggling myself upright and pushing off him. Waves of nausea wash over me as my brain is forced to relive the last few hours in mere moments. Bending over, I throw up the coffee, then dry heave violently, my muscles screaming in protest and my head pounding like it’s being punched. Gentle hands pull back my hair, and I go to shove Deo off me when I realize it’s Walker. He grabs my coffee and replaces it with cool water, which I sip slowly once I’m upright again. I’m wobbly on my feet but move away from the three men to stand on my own. Well, to lean against the back of a chair on my own anyways.

Finding a place somewhere on the far wall to stare at, I clear my throat uncomfortably and decide to break the awkward silence. “So. We’ll figure everything else out later. Where are we with the women?”

The guys can barely hear me over the din of the surrounding room and move in closer, making me feel caged and nervous. Hideo whispers helplessly, “Kai…” but I cut him off before he can continue.

“Where are we with the women?” Hideo feels like pieces of jagged glass, and Walker is a thunderstorm, so I turn to Maddox, who meets my eyes calmly, but with an unnerving intensity. Still, out of the three he’s the safest option at the moment, and I focus my attention on him.

His voice is deep and raw, giving the barest hint of the horrors he’s seen tonight. “We’ve gotten almost all of them out.”

“Almost?”

He dips his head in acknowledgment of my confused tone. “There is a small group who won’t leave. They’re clearly scared out of their minds when any of the officers approach them. We’re trying not to push them too hard, so at the moment we’re waiting on a trauma team to get here, but we’re still looking at a forty-five-minute arrival time.”

I clench my jaw. “You can’t justleavethem there!”

He shrugs helplessly. “I know, Reed. But we can’t force the issue, and for whatever fucked-up reason, there are no women officers who were tasked to come here tonight. Only about 15% of the force here is female, and none were on the books to assist tonight.”

Looking over towards the hole in the floor, I say in a shaky voice, “Are they still down there?”

“They are. They have light, water, and food, but are huddling together in a back corner. We’ve unchained them, but short of brute force, we can’t get them to trust us enough to come out.”

I straighten. “I’m going down.”

He scoffs, covering it with a cough, and says in a surprisingly gentle voice, “You can barely walk, Reed. You’re not able to go down.”

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