The Oncoming Storm by Christopher Nuttall Read Free Book Online

fades away into nothingness.”
    He shrugged and then met her eyes. “Did you pull strings to get me onboard?”
    Kat didn’t want to admit to anything, but she knew she couldn’t lie to him. “My father pulled strings,” she admitted. “Far too many strings.”
    “I was due to assume command of a company anyway,” Davidson assured her. “I’m not too disappointed by the way things have turned out.”
    And few people know we were lovers, Kat thought. None of the crew from HMS Thomas had been assigned to Lightning. As far as anyone knew, she and Davidson might have crossed paths, but they were hardly close. But if someone had good reason to think strings had been pulled, they might deduce the truth. And then who knew what they would think?
    She looked up, meeting his eyes. “Can we talk freely?”
    “Of course,” Davidson said.
    Kat nodded. Captains couldn’t talk to anyone about their doubts or fears, not when it was important never to show weakness in front of their junior officers. The only person on the ship who came close to them in terms of authority and position was the Marine commander, who had similar tasks and responsibilities. They could talk to each other openly, if they developed a good working relationship. By that standard, she knew, Davidson and herself were probably far too close. They’d been lovers, after all.
    He’d seen her naked and vulnerable. He wouldn’t put her on a pedestal.
    “I don’t think some of my officers like or trust me,” she said, reluctantly. It had taken her time to unbend enough to really talk to new friends once she’d joined the Navy. Back home, anything said was almost certain to be used against her at some later date. “And I feel overwhelmed.”
    She waved a hand at the datapads on the desk. Three days after her arrival, the compartment had been cleaned, but there were still an enormous amount of files to read and paperwork to sign. Normally, a commanding officer would have much more lead time before assuming her post, enough time to read the files for herself and decide how she wanted to proceed. Kat had the uncomfortable feeling that she was falling behind, no matter what she did. It was one hell of a struggle to force herself to read just one more file . . . and then another . . . and then another.
    “You are young for your post,” Davidson pointed out. His eyes sharpened. “Did you pull strings to gain promotion?
    “My father did,” Kat said. She’d liked Davidson from the start because he’d never treated her any differently, even after learning who her father was. But then, marines from the aristocracy tended to assume false names when they entered boot camp. Everyone started at the bottom and worked their way up. “He has . . . concerns.”
    She hadn’t really wanted to talk about it, but the whole story came tumbling out. Davidson listened, carefully, as she outlined her father’s fears, then the steps he was taking to try to obtain some hard data. By the time she was finished, Davidson was frowning, an expression she knew meant trouble. He’d only looked like that once before in her presence, after one of his fellow marines had screwed up badly. It was a fearsome sight.
    “I have heard . . . rumors, through Marine Intelligence, that things are not good along the border,” he said slowly. “But only rumors.”
    Kat felt her eyes narrow. The Marine Corps had a separate intelligence section, something that irked both the Office of Naval Intelligence and the civilian External Intelligence Agency. It was normally geared around local intelligence collection to support Marine deployments, but it did tend to collect tactical and strategic intelligence as well. Sometimes, it even picked up on something the larger intelligence services had missed.
    “I see,” she said carefully. “What did they say?”
    “Nothing concrete,” Davidson admitted. “Mostly, there were concerns about the growing insurgency on Cadiz and the certainty that