Alone in the Crowd (The Chronicles of Anna Foster Book 3) (29 page)

Anna nodded. “I can get you the proof you need. But, I need to go back into the caves, and I can’t go alone.”

“I don’t have any men to spare.” McClaskey’s flat response came as no surprise to Anna.

Danica turned to him. “Surely you can spare a few soldiers to escort her, especially if it could mean the life of every person in this colony. After all, you did say that the protection of the colony and all of its members is your top priority. Am I right?”

The colonel’s eyes narrowed as he gave Danica a withering look for several seconds. “Yes, I did. Okay, Foster. I’ll send three soldiers with you. You will have four hours to get this information and report back here. No more. Got it?”

Anna stood by herself at the edge of the landing field south of the colony, her hair whipping in the wind. She studied the half-dozen state-of-the-art fighters parked at the far end, ready to launch at a moment’s notice, and the lone mechanic crawling out from beneath one of the craft’s engines.

Watching the man brought back memories of her time aboard the mining station and her constant repairs on the aging facility. Though she had hated the endless stream of tasks, a part of her missed getting her hands dirty by digging through consoles, circuitry, and machinery day after day. She involuntarily flexed her hands a few times, craving the touch of a sturdy tool in her hand.

Anna’s wristcomp signaled an incoming message. She looked down for a split second before answering the call.

“This is Anna.”

“Foster, Haven Control.” She recognized the voice of the dispatch operator with his lackluster tone. “Your escorts are heading to your position. ETA: three minutes.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

She turned to face the houses and waited for the soldiers to appear. As predicted, an open-cab aircar occupied by three people emerged from between a couple of dwellings a moment later and sped toward her. She waved her arm to flag them down, and they adjusted their course, stopping next to her a moment later.

The woman with short, dark brown hair wearing fatigues that was sitting in the driver’s seat leaned her arm on the top of the door and smirked at Anna. “Going my way?” The other two soldiers, both muscular men, smiled at her remark.

Responding with a smile of her own, Anna climbed into the back, and the aircar continued its journey to the coordinates listed for the doorway leading to the underground ruins.

“Okay, Foster. Listen up!” The woman yelled over the sound of the wind ripping past. “The name’s Russell. Next to me is Murphy.” Anna’s eyes looked him over, taking in his chiseled, clean-shaven face and buzzed brown hair. “And, next to you is Wachowski.” Anna shifted her gaze to the dark-haired man sporting a bushy mustache and a toothy grin.

“Hi!” Wachowski waved subtly. Anna got the impression he was smitten with her. She was not impressed.

Giving her best smile, Anna greeted him and offered to shake his hand. He tenderly accepted her hand and shook it lightly as if he was afraid of breaking her. Should the combat occur, she did not think he would participate in much action.

Russell continued. “We were briefed before heading out that we may encounter some resistance while en route. Can you fill us in on any details and advice before we get there?”

“Yeah.” Anna fought against the wind, yelling over the deafening sound. “Be quiet.”

All three stared at her with looks on their faces that would force a charging rhino to pause and rethink its actions. Russell quickly returned her gaze forward. “Come again?”

“I meant while we’re in the cave. If we stay quiet, we may be able to avoid fighting anything.”

Murphy frowned. “That’s no fun.”

“If you’ve seen what I have, you might think differently.”

“I don’t know about that.” Murphy appeared too relaxed, overconfident maybe, for Anna’s comfort. “Couldn’t be too different from what I dealt with on New Avalon.”

“So, you haven’t encountered any of the native wildlife, then?”

He shrugged. Anna sighed, not looking forward to a repeat performance of the last trip through the cavern.

“Look alive, people! We’re here,” announced Russell as she slowed the aircar to a halt in the middle of an open field.

Wachowski hopped out of the back seat with his rifle in hand and looked around the large clearing. “Where is it?”

Stepping out, Anna swept her pointing hand across the field. “Somewhere out there.”

“That helps.” Murphy rolled his eyes before glancing back at the other two troopers.

Anna opened a channel through her wristcomp and waited. A couple of seconds passed, with only the sound of the wind lightly blowing through the trees. Murphy opened his mouth, intent on saying something, when part of the ground dissolved several meters ahead of them and revealed two openings. One of the holes was the one from which Anna and the group had exited – it was a couple of meters wide. The other, just past the small one, looked to be about a hundred times larger; large enough for a drop ship to enter comfortably.

Turning to regard the others, Anna paused when she saw them staring at the holes in the ground. Their astonished faces amused her.

Wachowski, the first to break the silence, pointed and stammered, “W…we could have fallen in!”

“But, we didn’t.” Anna emphasized her point with a smirk and an upraised finger. “Shall we go in?”

As the team gathered to journey through the opening, Anna’s thoughts wandered back to Jason as she said, “I wonder what he’s doing right now.”

* * * * *

Dripping wet as he stepped out of the shower, Jason pulled the closest towel from the rack and threw it over his head to dry his hair. Just as he finished and dried his face, he heard a knock on the front door. He stopped with the towel pressed against his face and listened, making sure he was not hearing things. Several seconds later, he heard another knock. He let his shoulders slump, berating himself for taking so long in the shower, and wrapped the towel around his waist. Wiping his feet on the shower rug, he rushed to the door and flung it open. “Hi! Sorry that I took…so…”

On the front porch stood Reverend Lieben dressed in a dark gray suit and maroon turtleneck shirt, a humorless expression on his face. He looked Jason up and down before clearing his throat. “I didn’t come at a bad time. Did I?”

“What?” Jason looked down at himself after temporarily forgetting he was still dressed in only a towel. Returning his eyes to the minister, he laughed in embarrassment. “Uh, come in and have a seat. I’ll get dressed.” He closed the door after his guest entered. With a cheesy grin, he darted into the bedroom to quickly dry himself and throw on some sweats before returning to the front room.

“Sorry about that. I just got out of the shower.” Lieben sat in one of the chairs from the dining table, which he had turned to face the sofa.

Lieben pointed to the sofa with his hand. “Please, have a seat.”

Jason sat down across from Lieben and took a deep breath, while the reverend rested his hands on his knees.

“So, uh, how can I help you today, your eminence?”

“Please.” Lieben raised his hand and slightly bowed his head. “Just ‘Reverend Lieben’ is fine.”

“Okay, Reverend Lieben.” Jason shrugged slightly. “How can I help you?”

“We haven’t seen each other much since our trip down here from the colony ship.”

Jason nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing fine. And, God willing, will continue to do so. What about you? How are you doing?”

“Fine. Fine.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear that. Getting enough to eat?”

Jason cracked a smile. “I suppose so. It would be sad if I didn’t, considering that we have this whole world to ourselves.”

“You have a point, Mr. Fuller.” Lieben cocked his head and nodded in agreement. “And, I assume that your girlfriend Catherine is currently working in the fields?”

“I believe so. She should be back in a few hours.”

“How is she doing?”

“Fine, I suppose. I haven’t talked to her in a couple of days. It’s a long story that I can’t talk about yet.”

“I see. I should get down to business. Mr. Fuller, it has been brought to my attention that your girlfriend Catherine has some issues with her relationship with you. And, my reason for visiting today is to discuss those issues with you to try to help her out.”

“Issues?” Jason furrowed his brow as he considered the minister’s words. “What issues did she mention?”

“We should probably discuss this in my office. Go get dressed, and we can continue this talk there.”

Jason returned to the bedroom slowly, deep in thought. What problems could Catherine have with him? He believed he was taking care of her needs and giving her lots of attention. The arguments they had were few in number and always over something trivial, such as whose turn it was to clean the dishes. He shook his head. He could not figure out why she had a problem with him.

What made it worse was that Catherine had taken it to the reverend instead of him. Did she not trust him? Her decision to seek counseling before bringing the matter up with him was painful. Why did she not want to discuss it with him first?

After Jason had found some more appropriate clothes to wear, he and Lieben walked to the main hall. The walk began without either of them talking. Jason figured the minister had a lot on his mind. “Religious people usually do.” Did he just say that out loud?

“Excuse me?”

“Um…nothing. Just thinking.”

“It sounded to me like you said that religious people usually do something. What?”

Jason stole a glance and found Lieben scrutinizing him closely, almost suspiciously. “Nothing. I mean…I was thinking that religious people usually have a lot on their minds, what with everything they’re doing.”

“I see. Like what?”

“What?”

“Yes. What? What is everything that we do?”

Jason had not expected the follow-up questions, and his mind scrambled. “Um…you know…religious…stuff. Helping people…that kind of…thing.” He knew he was digging himself deeper. Maybe the minister should just hand him the hole cover now and be done with it. Was he sweating?

“We do tend to stay busy, but we like to put our problems in God’s hands and let him handle them. It allows us to focus on helping people and doing other religious stuff.” His serious tone made the statement sound like a reprimand, but the way he emphasized the words at the end seemed like he was poking fun. Concentrating on it only served to confuse Jason more.

Jason forced out his best laugh and glanced at Lieben, who did not appear amused. “That was good, sir. That was a good one.” He turned his eyes forward, and berated himself for making the wrong choice.

The two men walked through the front doors of the main hall and down the corridor into Reverend Lieben’s office. Catherine, wearing the same style of white shirt and blue jeans that most of the other colonists wore while working in the field, turned to watch them enter.

The reverend indicated the open chair next to Catherine as he rounded his desk. “Please be seated.”

Jason fixed his stare on Catherine as he maneuvered between the seats and sat down. “Hi. What’s wrong?”

“I think you know what’s wrong.” Her demeanor took on a jagged edge he had never seen before.

Jason shook his head.

“Thank you both for coming.” Lieben weaved his fingers together as he rested his hands on the desk. “I know that you are both very busy, so we’ll try to focus on the matter at hand.”

Jason turned his full attention to Lieben.

“Mr. Fuller, we know that your assigned duties with the colony are to act as the attaché to Miss Anna Foster. Is that correct?”

“That’s right.” Jason nodded.

“And as a result of those duties, you spend a lot of time with her. Correct?”

Ah. So
that’s
what this is about? Jason didn’t like the taste of it. He nodded. “Yes.”

“So, it’s only natural that you develop a strong relationship with her. Am I right?”

Cocking an eyebrow, Jason found his patience growing thin. “What are you getting at?”

Pointing to Catherine with a wave of his hand, Lieben stated in a casual manner, “Catherine has expressed concerns to me that your relationship with Miss Foster has transcended the professional level and has become more intimate on a personal level.”

“Excuse me, sir,” Catherine interrupted Lieben impatiently. “But, cut the bullshit.”

She whipped her head around to stare accusingly at Jason. “Are you sleeping with Anna?”

“What?” The question sent him backpedaling as he attempted to comprehend the rationale behind it.

“Let me make it simple for you. Are you…having sex…with Anna? You know, bedroom wrestling, the horizontal tango, hide the salami? Are you fucking her?”

“Ms. Burns, please…”

Catherine jabbed a finger at Lieben’s face. “You aren’t helping!” She turned back to Jason, fire within her eyes. “Well? Spit it out. How long have you been fucking her?”

“We’re not…having sex, Catherine.”

The look on her face made it clear that she didn’t believe him. “Oh, come on! I’ve seen the way your eyes light up whenever her name is mentioned. You come home later and later each night. I’ve even heard you say her name in your sleep.”

“But…but…” Jason shot a glance at Lieben, who merely observed the argument. “I’m really not sleeping with her. Honest!”

“Then, explain why you don’t want to have sex with me when you get home every night. Hmm?”

“I’m tired. I do a lot of work each day.”

“So do I, but I still want to spend time with you.”

“I do, too.”

“Why don’t you?” Tears welled up in her eyes. “If you’re not sleeping with her, why won’t you spend time with me anymore?”