Noah: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 6) (7 page)

Noah gripped her shoulder, and she looked back at him. “Thanks for this, Laura. It was a great idea and, if it works out, it might save everyone in this base.”

A small smile played around her lips. “You’re welcome.”

***

As Laura entered the conference room in the base’s Ops Area, she saw that everyone was there already. General Holmes was talking to Marcus Steele and Roth Masters. Hell Squad was lined up against the back wall, murmuring amongst themselves and looking deadly. Elle was seated at a comp, tapping on the screen. A quick glance showed she was looking at a drone feed of the desert. Noah was standing beside her, looking over her shoulder.

But his head lifted, his gaze moving to Laura’s.

Her heart gave that hard, one-two thump it always did when she saw him. She might get used to the impact he had on her system—maybe sometime in the next century. She blew out a breath and wished he didn’t look so sexy simply wearing a black shirt over black cargo pants, with his dark hair pulled back at the nape of his neck.

“Laura, you made it.” Adam Holmes strode over and grabbed her hand.

“Sorry, last-minute prisoner issue. Nothing to worry about.” She thought Adam looked tired. There were small lines bracketing his mouth, and his blue eyes were weary. He was working hard on Operation Swift Wind, driven by his need to keep every man, woman and child in the base safe. But he was pushing himself hard. She knew he kept himself a little distant from the residents. He had to make tough decisions, had to be the one they could blame for certain things, so it left him very alone.

Adam stepped back. “So, you going to share this plan you have?”

She nodded and stepped closer to the large screen on the wall and turned to face everyone. “As you all know, Noah is working on an illusion system to cover the entire Swift Wind convoy. However, with our own technology, we aren’t able to power it.”

There were nods and a few murmurs.

“He’s been trying to use the alien energy cubes as a power source but—”

Noah moved up beside her, so close his shoulder brushed hers. Laura felt a flare of heat inside.

“I can’t get it to interface.” There was deep frustration in his voice. “Natalya’s tried, my team has tried, and I’ve tried everything I know. Nothing. We’re missing something.”

Laura looked at him, and he nodded. She picked up the thread of the conversation. “We questioned our raptor prisoner…but he’s a soldier, he doesn’t have the technical knowledge we need. However, he suggested we ask a raptor scientist.”

More murmurs around the room.

“And where do we find one of those?” Marcus said, his voice like gravel.

“The prisoner has given us the location of a raptor research outpost. It’s in the Simpson Desert in the center of the country. I’ve questioned him about this outpost some more. They wanted somewhere isolated where they could study our wildlife.”

Shaw made a rude noise. “Somewhere where no one would be bothered by the screams.”

“Maybe.” Laura didn’t like to think about poor animals being dissected and tortured. “But also because they would only have to leave one raptor patrol to guard it.”

Roth nodded, his rugged face thoughtful. “Then they can have the rest of the troops back in heavily populated areas, fighting and collecting up humans.”

Laura’s stomach hardened. She knew Hell Squad and Roth’s squad had rescued many human survivors from alien labs and testing facilities. Horror was acid in her veins. The Gizzida had come to Earth to capture humans and turn them into raptors. A truly horrifying thing.

“Elle, can you bring up the drone images of the coordinates I gave you?”

The woman nodded. “Sure thing.”

The screen filled with images of red-orange sand.

“There’s not much out here. It’s hot and dry and desolate. There’s a lot of sand, and it actually is the world’s largest sand dune desert.”

“I don’t see anything that looks like an outpost.” This from Hell Squad’s Claudia. “You sure the lizard gave you good intel?”

Laura nodded. “Coming up on it now.”

And there it was. Two orange-colored domes appeared, nestled between large dunes.

All the soldiers in the room hissed in breaths. They’d destroyed a dome like this only hours from Blue Mountain Base. One where the aliens were turning hundreds of humans into raptors.

“It isn’t as big as the Genesis Facility,” Marcus noted.

“There are only two small domes,” Laura said. “Much smaller than the dome you destroyed in the Hunter Valley. From studying the feed, it looks like one is personal quarters and the other is used for their research. Now, I have a recommendation for the mission. I need to perform the interrogation on site.”

“What?” Noah surged forward. “No way. The squads go in and bring back a scientist.”

“I questioned Gaz’da some more.” She pulled her gaze away from Noah’s hot one. “There are some high-value scientists out there.”

“Shit,” Marcus said.

Roth ran a hand through his hair.

“What?” Noah demanded. Then his face changed. “Damn. We steal some high-value raptor scientist, bring him here, and they might come after him.”

Laura nodded. “It might force their hand, make them invade Blue Mountain Base.”

General Holmes gripped the back of one of the chairs around the table. “Okay Laura, you’re in. You’ll conduct the interrogation on site.”

“Wait.” Noah stepped forward. “I’m going, too.”

“No!” Laura snapped. She felt all the eyes in the room swing her way.

“I’m the only one who knows the technical questions we need to ask,” Noah said.

“You can sit with Elle, feed me the questions over the comm.”

Noah shook his head. “If the comm goes down, which it often does, then what? A mission wasted, people put at risk for nothing, and still no way to protect the convoy.”

Desperation bubbled inside her. She looked at the general. “He’s a civilian. He doesn’t have the training or capability for a mission like this. And he’s too valuable to this base.”
To me
, a part of her screamed. Something twisted inside her. “We can’t risk having him on the mission.”

Noah rounded on her. “I can hold my own, Captain Bladon. I’m not stupid. I actually have the highest IQ in the room. And I can fight.”

They stared at each other, like two Old West gunslingers.

She wanted him safe. Not flying into some raptor facility, where anything could happen.

It was Marcus who cleared his throat. “I can vouch for Kim. He’s been training with me and he can hold his own.”

No
. Laura pressed her lips together.

Adam’s gaze switched between the two of them. Then he sighed. “Okay, Marcus, this mission will be Hell Squad’s. You decide who goes. When do you want to launch?”

Marcus stroked his jaw, staring at the barren desert around the alien domes. “I think it needs to be a night mission. There’s nothing around there for miles. Nowhere to hide, limited cover from the dunes.”

Roth nodded. “I agree.”

“Okay, then,” the general said. “Tonight?”

Marcus nodded. “Tonight.” His gaze landed on Laura and Noah. “Firing range will be free in two hours. I suggest you two plan to get your asses down there and brush up on using a weapon.”

Laura nodded, but Noah spun, shot her a scathing look, and stalked out.

As the others left the room, Claudia stopped beside Laura. “Word of advice. Surefire way to emasculate a guy is to say he isn’t capable of defending himself. Men are men. Doesn’t matter if they’re an alpha soldier or an alpha tech genius, they’ll still react the same way.”

Left alone in the room, Laura closed her eyes.
Crap
.

Chapter Six

Noah strode down the tunnel. He’d finished collecting everything he needed for the upcoming mission—armor, weapon, mini-tablet. He was as ready as he’d ever be.

He’d not been out on a mission before, but he’d helped from this side. Watched drone feed with the comms officers as the squads had moved in. He’d even filled in as Hell Squad’s comms officer a couple of times when Elle had gone into the field.

Hell, he was excited for it. For a chance to fight the aliens up close and personal.

His gaze fell on a door ahead and his jaw tightened. First, he had to have a conversation with a certain captain.

Noah thumped his fist on the door once, then quickly bypassed the electronic lock. The door opened and he stepped into Laura’s quarters.

She was standing in the middle of her living area and she spun, anger sparking in her eyes. “You broke in!”

Noah blinked. Some things he’d expected. Her armor was laid out on the bed—with neat precision. Almost everything in the room was tidy, including the hand-built bookshelves on the back wall that were loaded with books lined up like soldiers.

What wasn’t neat was Laura, and what she was doing.

She had a white sheet of paper pegged up to some sort of wooden easel. She wore a man’s business shirt that fell to mid-thigh and left her long legs deliciously bare. His gaze followed them down. Hell, she had damn good legs. Legs a man could easily imagine wrapped around his hips as he thrust inside her. He jerked his gaze back up to look at the rest of her. She was covered in paint.

In one hand she held a paintbrush, but multicolored streaks of paint decorated her arms and her white shirt—and not all of the paint looked fresh. Even her face had streaks of paint on it. To cap it off, the rich, lustrous red hair he loved was pulled up in a messy bun on top of her head.

“What are you doing here?” she said, her tone wary.

Noah closed the distance. He was looking at the painting now. It was as impressive as the woman. She was using paints in earthy tones—burnt oranges, smoky blues, vibrant green and dull yellow. He wasn’t sure if the wild, passionate strokes meant anything, but the more he looked at what he thought was an abstract, passionate splash of paint, the more he saw. The blue ruins of a city, the brilliant sunset on the horizon, the lushness of green, overgrown vegetation.

“This is really good.”

She shrugged and set down her paintbrush in a glass of water she had on the coffee table.

“I didn’t know you painted.”

She shrugged again. “I don’t just sit around studying interrogation techniques in my free time.” Her voice had a slight edge, then she huffed out a breath. “I don’t talk about it. I only started about eight months ago. I’m still learning.”

He looked again at the painting. It wasn’t a paint by numbers job. It was passionate, it sang with emotion. He saw a stack of canvases leaning against the wall. “Well, it’s amazing. Where do you get the paint?”

“I make it. Old Man Hamish from the hydroponic gardens gives me a few plant and vegetable extracts so I can mix up different colors. What paint we have in supplies is for maintenance, or for use in the school. I didn’t want to waste the supplies.”

No, Laura Bladon was far too sensible for that. And here was the passionate heart of her—a part she kept locked up and hidden—on display.

“It’s beautiful, Laura.” He reached out and tugged on a strand of red hair before tucking it behind her ear. He’d come here all angry at her, but seeing this…well, it had taken the edge off.

Faint color appeared in her cheeks. “Thanks.”

“That still doesn’t get you off for that damned stunt you pulled in Ops.”

She stiffened. “Stunt?”

His hand curled into a fist. “Not capable? Shouldn’t be on the mission?”

Her chin lifted. “You are a civilian, Noah. You haven’t been in combat.”

“We’ve all been in combat since the day the aliens attacked.”

“I’m military. I may not go on many missions, but I’m trained, I have the mindset.”

He gripped her upper arms. “Laura, I’ve been part of this fight against the aliens for eighteen months. I came straight to the base as soon as I saw the bombs start falling.” Noah had calculated the implications straight away. He’d tried to contact his parents first, hell, he’d even tried to get a message to Kalina. But the phones had been down. Instead, he’d jumped in his Porsche and broken the speed limit to get to Blue Mountain Base. He’d done a job here once, had known the base had everything humanity needed to be a safe haven.

General Holmes had welcomed him and his expertise straight away.

And after that…well, those first few months had been hell. Trying to organize things in the chaos, welcoming shell-shocked survivors, helping boost systems to do things they’d never been designed to do.

He’d been too busy to grieve for his parents and his grandmother. He’d just focused on what had to be done and piecing a tech team together from survivors who had the right skills.

“Sure, I may not have been pulling a trigger on a carbine, but I’ve been a part of the fight.” He shook her a little. “We all have to fight in this war. We don’t have the luxury of hiding and letting others fight for us.”

She was staring at his chest.

Hell, she was so damned gorgeous in just that paint-splattered shirt and messy hair. “Why?” he demanded. “Why’d you try to get me off the mission?”

Now she looked up, and there was so much emotion swimming in her eyes. “I wanted to protect you.”

His chest constricted. “Laura—”

“I lost someone once.” Her eyes squeezed closed. “I…I don’t think I can do it again.”

He yanked her to his chest. “Shit, honey.” There was a lump in his throat.

She pushed against him. “I’ll get paint on your shirt.”

“I don’t care.” He pressed his face against her hair. She smelled like Laura and paint. “Sometimes Lady Luck smiles on us…sends us someone who makes us feel good. Looks after us when we need to do something risky.” She’d clearly started being nice to Noah when she’d sent Laura to cross his path.

Laura pulled back and looked up, one brow rising. “You really believe that?”

He pulled a pair of dice from his pocket. “Let’s test the theory. Pick one.”

She eyed the lime-green one that was slightly translucent, and then the other, a fancy metal one that was intricately carved.

Not surprisingly, she picked the green one. Noah already knew she didn’t go for fancy.