The inn’s defenses shifted, as I realigned them. The last time I’d used the war room, I had configured Gertrude Hunt to repel a small army of bounty hunters after Caldenia arrived at the inn. The bounty hunters were truly an army of one – despite their number, every one of them was in it for themselves. They didn’t trust each other and hadn’t been interested in coordinating their efforts. The metal inlay on the Draziri leader’s forehead meant he likely led his own flock, a clan. Flocks were highly organized and disciplined. The Draziri would attack as a team. And they likely wouldn’t try to snipe the Hiru the way the bounty hunters tried to snipe Caldenia. Murdering the Hiru would be a religious triumph for them. They would try to breach the inn’s defenses and close in for the kill.
I tested the feeds from the cameras, turning slowly. Night had fallen, but the inn’s tech needed only a hint of light to present a clear image. The view of the orchard, the lawn, the oaks, the street, Sean’s Ford F-150 truck…
Sean’s truck. He’d said something about getting an overnight bag and left shortly before Mr. Rodriguez and Tony had taken off.
It was a short move, since his house was just down the street, but the truck was fully loaded and covered with a tarp. The truck springs creaked as he maneuvered it up the driveway and behind the inn.
Sean got out of the truck. He wore black pants and a skintight ballistic silk shirt, dark gray and black, designed to stop both a kinetic impact from a bullet and a low-power shot from an energy weapon. This was worth a closer look.
I waved my fingers half an inch and the inn zoomed in, expanding the image to the entire wall in front of me. The ballistic silk clung to Sean like a glove, tracing the contours of his broad shoulders and powerful back. Some men had muscular backs but a wider waist so they looked almost rectangular. The difference between Sean’s shoulders and his narrow waist was so pronounced, his back tapered into an almost triangular shape. His legs were long, his arms muscular. I liked the way he moved, fast, sure, but with a natural grace that very strong men sometimes had. There was something dangerous about him and his spare, economical movements. Something that said that if violence occurred, his response would be instant and lethal, and idiot that I was, I could stare at him all day…
“So what’s with you and the werewolf?” My sister asked next to my ear.
I jumped.
I didn’t hear her come in. I didn’t feel her come in, which was so much worse.
“Nothing.”
“Mhm,” Maud said. “That’s why you’re ogling him here on a giant screen.”
“I wasn’t ogling.” Yes, yes I was.
“You were holding your breath, Dina.”
“I wasn’t.”
Maud studied the screen. “He is kind of hot.”
“Kind of?” There was no kind of about it.
“There needs to be more…” Maud held her hands wide apart.
“More what?”
“Muscle. Bulk. I like them… oversized.”
“He’s big enough.” He was over six feet tall. “And he’s very strong.”
“Oh I don’t doubt that he’s strong and really fast, too. But… bigger.”
I squinted at her. “I thought you were over your vampire fixation.”
“I didn’t say anything about vampires. I just like larger men.”
“Sure, aha.”
Sean pulled back the tarp, revealing crates and weapons. He swung a long slender weapon onto his shoulder and picked up a black crate that seemed to swallow the light.
Maud squinted at the screen. “Is that a specter sniper rifle he’s packing?”
“Mhm. Looks like a recent model, too.”
Specter weapons used an electromagnetic field rather than a chemical reaction to launch projectiles. Jam-proof and almost completely devoid of moving and potentially malfunctioning parts, specter sniper rifles fired bullets at just below 300m/s, under the speed of sound, avoiding the sonic boom better known as the crack of a bullet. They were completely silent.
Maud was studying a twisted shape in the truck. “You don’t have a HELL unit?”
“I have two and some smaller solid lasers linked by a computer into a defense net. But he doesn’t know that.”
“Aw,” Maud said. “He brought a High Energy Liquid Laser to protect you. Twue love.”
“Shut up,” I told her.
“Seriously though, that’s some expensive hardware.”
She was right. Liquid lasers were like computers. The smaller they were, the more they cost, and the portable unit in Sean’s truck was way out of my budget. My two units were each the size of a medium-range sedan, and both were at least two centuries old. Compared to Sean’s sleek modern beast, they were antiques, but they packed a hell of a punch.
“Envirosuit, camo cloak, pulse sidearm… He’s got enough weapons to finish a small war. How can he afford all this? Is he secretly a prince? Are you dating a galactic weapon-lord? Does he have a rich father or possibly brother?”
“No! He isn’t a prince, he isn’t a gun runner, and his father isn’t rich, he is a lawyer, and Sean is the only child. He did some highly paid mercenary work.”
“So you are dating him.”
“I didn’t say that.” Technically going on a date once didn’t strictly qualify as dating.
“Sean and Dina sitting in a tree. K-i-s-s…”
“I will so punch you.”
Sean looked up. I could’ve sworn he heard me, except that the inn was soundproof. I concentrated and projected my voice.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” he said. He didn’t jump, even though I just spoke to him from seemingly thin air.
“Do you need a hand with all of that equipment?”
“Oh sure, he totally needs your help with his equipment,” Maud whispered.
I stomped on her foot, but she was fast, and I only got the edge of her toes. There was no way to just project my voice. I also projected the sounds around me.
“Do you have an armory?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Can I have access to it?”
“Full access,” Maud whispered and batted her eyelashes.
“Yes,” I told him, opening a tunnel in the ground next to him. “Enter…” if I said tunnel, Maud wouldn’t be able to contain herself. “The path I just made. Underground. The inn will move the weapons there.”
“I thought I’d visit Baha-char after I’m done settling all that in,” he said. “I need to talk to Wilmos.”
“Sure. I’ll open the door for you, but could you take Orro with you? He wants some sort of weird spices and I don’t want him to go by himself.”
“Will do.”
He grinned at me, the look on his face positively evil, and went down into the tunnel.
I watched the inn swallow the truck whole, pulling it into the garage, and turned to my sister. “I hate you.”
“Did you see how he smiled?” Maud asked. “Do you think he heard me? I wasn’t projecting.”
“Yeah, he heard you. My neighbors across the street heard you. Don’t you know how to whisper?”
“Are you blushing?” Maud asked.
“Here!” I opened a ladder to the battle attic and dropped it into the hallway. “Since you butted in, you can check the pulse cannons instead of me. Make yourself useful.”
“Yes, Mother.” Maud paused in the doorway and took in the war room. Her voice turned quiet and wistful. “Brings back memories.”
Yes, it did. When I had called up the war room from the depths of Gertrude Hunt for the first time, I had reshaped it to mirror the war room in our parents’ inn. Mother made us do countless drills in a war room just like this one.
“We’ll get them back,” I said.