Marcus by Anna Hackett Read Free Book Online Page B

talking
with the pilot about their landing zone.
    Elle fiddled with the edge of her armor. She
looked the part, even if the armor was a little big on her, and her
tiny, high-tech earpiece felt foreign. And the armor took a little
getting used to. Because of the exoskeleton built into it, it
helped her move faster and jump higher. Still, she felt like a
little girl playing dress-up.
    They had to get those data crystals.
Everyone was depending on her to get them there.
    She lifted her arm. The shiny, portable comp
screen was strapped securely to her wrist. It showed the location
of the library where Roth and his squad had seen the crystals.
She’d be doing some of her usual job on the mission, but the rest
of it was in Noah’s hands. He’d volunteered to be their temporary
comms officer for this trip.
    She swallowed, trying to clear the giant
lump in her throat. She’d faced down Marcus to come on this
mission, and now her nerves were eating at her like hundreds of
tiny ants.
    Looking for a distraction, she glanced out
the side of the Hawk at the ground below.
    Destruction. As far as the eye could
see.
    Sydney had been the shining capital of the
United Coalition—the combination of several Commonwealth countries
including Australia, Canada, India, the United Kingdom, and the
United States of America. Since advanced supersonic travel had made
the distance between the member countries negligible, they’d chosen
the beautiful Australian harbor city as their new capital.
    It had been a center of commerce, arts and
culture. Once upon a time, the city center had been filled with
huge, towering spires that housed all the global companies
headquartered there.
    Now all she saw on the horizon were a few
shattered shards still reaching into the sky, like bony fingers,
pleading for salvation.
    Directly below the quadcopter, bathed in the
afternoon sun, was what had once been the suburbs. At one time,
alive with families and life. The whole area was now just rubble.
The raptor hunting parties had cleared out any stranded survivors a
long time ago. Arching her neck, Elle thought she saw the area that
had been her parents’ estate, just north of the city. Her home.
    It was so surreal to see the extent of the
devastation. It left her feeling hollow.
    She’d hidden for several weeks after the
first waves of alien attacks. But eventually, she’d found the
courage to flee the city—that remained under siege—with a small
group of stragglers. They’d found some cars and a small amount of
fuel, escaped an attack by the raptors, and were finally picked up
by Hell Squad at the foothills of the Blue Mountains.
    She still remembered Marcus surveying their
small group. He’d been so…intimidating. She’d wondered at the time
if he ever smiled. Her lips quirked at the memory. He did smile.
Not often, but when he did it was worth the wait. She glanced at
him now and saw he was no longer talking with the pilot. Instead,
he was watching her with an intensity that made her feel like she
was naked.
    She glanced away, and looked again at the
view below, but now all she could think about was that kiss.
    Hot, possessive and so, so good.
    The kiss of a man who wanted a woman.
    But he was acting professional, so she
would, too. For now.
    Find the crystals, decode the map, destroy
the raptor comms hub. That’s all she could allow herself to think
about right now. She knew that many people back at base thought
that if they managed to destroy the raptors or drive them away,
life would go back to the way it had been before.
    With the destroyed city staring back at her,
she knew things would never be the same, ever again. Her shoulders
sagged under the empty feeling of chances lost, of what had
been.
    But at the same time, Elle realized that she
didn’t want to go back to the person she’d been before. She didn’t
want to be the shallow, self-absorbed Ellianna Milton who’d never
finished her university degree, who’d partied all night, and