Free Psion Omega (Psion series Book 5) by Jacob Gowans Page B

and not spoken to each other again for almost twenty years.
    “Everything about the situation was messy with
public support in Quebec already wavering for the NWG. Most of the former
country of Canada had already seceded and joined the CAG. We were sent to
figure out what was going on and help in any non-combative way we could. Orders
were clear to avoid engaging in combat unless authorized by the president.
    “General Wu ordered me and Emily to go in first for
reconnaissance. It was one of the first missions using stealth
cruisers—not nearly as good as the ones we have now. Our team arrived in
the dead of night. We entered the main government building through the roof.
Black clothes, skin and hair painted black, black goggles over our eyes. We
spent three days in the ventilation systems, in the walls, in the crevices of
the buildings. Took pictures and video, planted over a dozen mics and cameras
to provide the NWG with constant surveillance.
    “Emily hated it. After only a few hours, we knew it
was a hostage situation, but no word came down from Wu to take action. She
wanted to forget orders and call in reinforcements. But Emily was never one to
disobey her commanding officer.”
    “You were her commanding—?” Samuel asked.
    Byron nodded. Emily’s face floated in his mind, and
it made his heart ache. With everything going on these days with Albert and
Marie, their constant arguments, Albert’s recent turn to drinking for solace,
Samuel’s difficulties … I could use her
smiles. Her laughter. Her soothing embrace.
    “For some reason being on the same squad worked well
for me and Emily. I would not recommend it for most couples, but we loved it.
It seems to work for you and Gefjon too. We had each other’s back, and preferred
it that way. Maybe it was from all those hours we spent in the flight
simulators together.” Byron’s eyes met Samuel’s, and he nodded, certain that
his memories were still fresh in Samuel’s mind. “Days went by, but still no
orders, no contact. Our team continued to search for solutions to present to
Command. We sent a recommendation to have snipers take out key targets. We
advised an advanced clandestine operation to sneak out the hostages. We must
have given them a dozen different plans.
      “Despite
all our communications, we got no answers and no orders. After a week in Quebec
and no contact from anyone on Capitol Island, things grew tense. Everyone knew
something was going on back home with the higher-ups, but we were all in the
dark. The government trains us to be tough, you know that. But something about
that mission … we broke down mentally faster than we should have. We were all
young and inexperienced. Almost all the jobs they had sent us on up to that
point lasted two or three days. Now we were well over a week in enemy
territory, tight dark places, no contact from Command, no warning that there
would be loss of communication.
    “We had seven Psions there: me, Emily, and Victor,
of course. And Blake Weymouth, Muhammad Zahn, Annalise Havelbert, and Jason Ling.
Called ourselves the Lucky Sevens. Unlucky would have been more apt. Only Annalise and I are still alive.
    “On day ten with still nothing from Command, the
team asked me to override our orders and formulate a plan of action. Even Emily
advised me to disobey orders.”
    “Your wife told you to ignore Command?” Samuel asked
in a skeptical tone.
    “At first, I made the call to wait. No engaging the
enemy, only surveillance. But the situation with the hostages got worse. The
CAG agents’ treatment of them … It started with beating, starving, then turned
into rape and torture. The things they made the hostages do—my conscience
forced me to disobey orders.”
    A throbbing phantom pain started in the commander’s
legs, long past the joints where his bionic limbs attached to the stumps of his
thighs. The pain wasn’t so constant now as it had been months ago when he’d
first been injured. He tapped his