Landlocked (Atlas Link Series Book 2) (20 page)

Josh reached a hand into his pocket and took out his radio. He depressed the power button at the top.

“Isn’t that against orders or something?” I asked as I ran my hand up the back of his neck and into his brunette curls.

He leaned in and kissed me again. My toes curled as his lips trailed my jaw and neck. “I don’t want to be interrupted this time,” he said. His words tickled and a chill ran through me, igniting a feeling that pooled much further south.

His hands reached around to the front of my jeans, and for one sweet moment, I thought he’d undo the button and do away with them. He tugged out my phone instead and turned it off before tossing it onto the counter behind me. I grinned.

He scooped me off my feet. I wrapped my legs around him, holding on as he moved us to his bedroom, his hardness straining between us. He laid me down and hovered above me, trailing kisses as he went. He wasn’t aggressive but firm, a change of pace that both surprised and excited me. We tugged off our clothes in wild, uncaring movements punctuated by the sound of foil unwrapping.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said. His eyes raked over my skin, hands following their path.

I sat up and yanked him to me, crashing my mouth to his. He growled against my lips as he sank into me. Josh moved slowly at first, a blinding, tortuous slow burn that scorched me from the inside out. His named rolled off my lips, adding kindling to the fire blazing to life between us. It sent Josh into an animalistic pace. Ecstasy starburst behind my eyes and I dug my fingers into his back as he dove off the cliff with me.

He rolled over, pulling me with him. I nuzzled close and ran a hand up his chest. His strong arms pulled me ever closer, and I fell asleep grinning from ear to ear.

y brain throbbed in an intense, aching rhythm. I’d never had a headache like this before.

Maybe I’d died.

Flashes of a cloudy blue haze comprised my mind’s eye. Weird blue objects were connected by lines and numbers to other shapes far into the distance. I had to be dead. That was the only explanation.

A wave of nausea swallowed me whole. Maybe I wasn’t as dead as I thought.

My eyes shot open. Bucket. I needed a bucket. I didn’t find one. All that greeted me were sobering plastic curtains, and IV machine, and some other hospital contraptions. The nausea disappeared, dissipated by panic.

Think, Boncore. Think
. What happened?

Flashes of an artifact cache lined like a grocery store rushed me. Something glowed red. Then pain. Then nothing.

I tried to sit up. Everything felt like molasses. Thick, heavy, painful molasses. I swore and sunk further into the thin mattress beneath me with every breath. I turned over and saw one of those “call nurse” sticks next to the bed. I pushed the red button and a beep sounded.

From beyond the curtain, despite foggy eyes, I saw someone approach. They came through the plastic curtains and stood beside my bed. “It’s nice to see you awake,” Sophia said.

“I called for a nurse.”

She smiled. “You don’t need one.”

Even if she didn’t think I needed one, I
wanted
one. “I feel like hell.”

She smiled again. Why was she smiling so damn much at my pain? “It was touch and go for a while there. Luckily for you, whatever illness you contracted from the Link Piece—which we determined to be from the future, by the way—was close enough to the bubonic plague that we were able to treat it. You’re going to be fine.”

“
Bubonic
plague?” I sunk further into the bed, a heavy cold sweat coating my body. What the
hell
happened?

I groaned as another wave of nausea hit. I wouldn’t throw up. I would
not
do that in front of Sophia. I gripped the bed sheets until the wave passed.

“Trevor?” she asked.

“You told me I contracted the Black Death. Give me a second.”

She touched a hand to my arm. “You are already on the way to a full recovery.”

The fluorescent lights fed my headache, but at least the nausea was gone for now. My grip on the bed sheets loosened. “I remember the Piece glowing red. Why was that?”

She lifted her hand from my arm. “We’ll discuss it when you’re feeling better. For now, rest.”

I groaned, frustration taking the place of nausea. “Sophia, please.”

She stood firm. “No. Rest up, then we’ll debrief you.”

I lay my head back in resignation. “Fine.”

I made it to the briefing room a few hours later. Wheelchair-bound, but there. Maybe I shouldn’t have left the Infirmary, but I wanted to know what had happened. Pike watched me with narrowed, worried eyes like he expected me to break in front of him. Or like maybe he wanted to wheel me back to the Infirmary himself.

I didn’t need, or want, his coddling. I’d be fine, bubonic plague or not.

Bubonic plague
. Only I’d be lucky enough to catch that. But didn’t Sophia say the Piece came from the future? I shuddered. If that was the future, I didn’t want a part in it at all.

Dr. Hill hid behind a stack of files, shifting them every few seconds until one held his interest long enough to read in its entirety. Sophia walked in with General Holt, talking excitedly about something. Pike stood and acknowledged the General, then everyone took their seats.

General Holt nodded my way. “How are you feeling?”

“Like someone hit with me with a bus after giving me swine flu, but I’ll be fine. Doctor Hanney gave me a three-day base restriction. No leaving, no work, and no missions. Then I’m good to go.”

General Holt didn’t look convinced. Doubt worked its way into his aging features. “That’s great to hear, don’t misunderstand. But are you sure you’ll be up for work in three days?”

I was sure I’d been worse, but I couldn’t remember. The achiness could be solved with Advil. Doctor Hanney could prescribe me something for the rest. And given how this last mission turned out, odds were that General Holt would wait for Chelsea to return before sending us on another Link Piece hunt again, even if that was three months from now. “Yeah, right now I’m more interested in what happened than my health.”

“Reassuring,” was Dr. Hill’s muted response. Pike coughed. Dr. Hill looked up at him. “What?”

“He contracted the Black Death. Show a little concern,” Pike said.

Guilt swarmed Dr. Hill’s eyes. “You know what I meant, Trevor.” He’s probably been swamped since we got back, which I’d been told was a few days ago.

I nodded. “I’m good. And Sophia, you said once I felt better you’d tell me what happened. Here I am.”

Sophia sucked in a long breath before saying, “We believe the Piece you found was manufactured somehow, which was why it appeared red both on the scanner and to me.”

“To you?” I asked. She nodded. Chelsea had always described the Pieces appearing in shimmery blue, not red. “What do you mean by manufactured?”

“Given the disease you contracted in conjunction with the time period we were supposed to have landed in, the only explanation is someone traveled with the statue in their possession from a future time period, using a different Link Piece that’s probably in the cache somewhere,” Dr. Hill explained. “They must have been there recently enough that the contagion lived on the piece until you picked it up. Therefore the red could have meant either it was manufactured—not a natural Link Piece—as well as having a disease attached to it.”

“That’s a whole lot of coincidences right there,” I said. Beginning with the fact that the statue had to have been put there in less than twenty-four hours, maybe less. It also required me picking up the
one
infected artifact in the room, one thrown casually onto the table and left for naught. Why? Even we brought back our Launch Pieces if we could, since they traveled with you. “That doesn’t seem right.”

Shadows stormed in Sophia’s eyes. “No. It doesn’t.”

A nervous doubt released inside me. “We’re being watched,” I said. “Played. Someone knows what we’re doing.”

Maybe that someone thinks we’re close to finding SeaSat5. I squashed the surge of premature hope accompanying the thought. We needed evidence first.

“Thing is, the Lemurians have always known that TAO travels through Link Pieces,” Pike said. “
And
that we’re searching for SeaSatellite5. That’s why they try to stop us whenever they can. They think us attempting to control time travel is ridiculous. Entertaining.”

Funny, ‘cause so did I. This was so far above and beyond us; we were lucky to have any successes with time-travel at all. “What good would the Lemurians get out of killing one of us?”

I shouldn’t have had to ask. General Holt’s response cut through me, mocking my stupidity. “If Chelsea and Sophia are taken out of the equation, we lose our greater access to the Waterstar map as we now know it. We also lose our ability to add to what we have.”

“And find SeaSat5,” I said, heart dropping. “How did they know we’d be going there, though?” I couldn’t deal with another mole situation after Valerie and Dave.

A sharp pain in my chest set off a bout of lightheadedness. SeaSat5 was gone. And now so was Chelsea.

“Trevor?” Pike asked.

I tried to get a grip. Who here would sell the organization out? I chuckled. As if that were an easier question than who would’ve sold SeaSat5 out. I knew Valerie probably would have, but no one had expected Dave. “It could have been an accident,” I said. But even I didn’t believe it.