Shades of Treason Read Online Free Page A

hadn’t treated her right, hadn’t given her enough attention.
    A moment of silence stretched, became awkward. She seemed to be waiting for him to say something, but he didn’t know what she wanted to hear. When he didn’t speak, she sighed, and when her chest rose and fell, the overhead lighting reflected off her insignia.
    “Well, a belated congratulations then. The promotion was well deserved.”
    She shrugged. “I decided to focus on my career after we… Well, I decided to focus on my career.”
    “That’s good. Very good.”
    Hell. He’d dated this woman for two years. He should be able to carry on a better conversation than this, but he was exhausted, frustrated with Ash, and worried about Operation Star Dive. He wasn’t at the top of his game.
    “Yes.” Katie stepped to the side of the corridor so a few spacers could pass more easily. “Things are going well. How are your soldiers?”
    So that’s how it was going to be, a slip back into an old habit. The last few months they were together, all they could find to talk about was their work. He’d talked in vague terms about his cadets; she’d talked in vague terms about her patients.
    “They’re fine.” They were fine today. In three days? Computer models said up to forty percent of them would be dead.
    Unless Ash gave him the cipher.
    “You’ve read the anomaly’s file?” he asked Katie.
    She shook her head. “It’s classified. I didn’t get it until we docked.”
    Then she wouldn’t have a preliminary assessment of Ash’s mental state. He wanted someone to tell him he hadn’t missed something important during Ash’s training. If he missed something with Ash, he might have missed it with others. The training the anomalies received and the booster they injected biweekly gave them the capability to kill and destroy with remarkable efficiency. Even with the loyalty training, Rykus and the other instructors were careful about who they accepted into the program. They didn’t want the wrong man or woman to graduate and join the ranks of the Fighting Corps.
    He felt Katie studying him. When he looked up, some of the stiffness in her posture melted away.
    “You’re not personally responsible for every anomaly you’ve trained.”
    He was responsible for this one. The loyalty training hadn’t taken hold of Ash like it had the other recruits, but he’d thought her smirking, her bending of rules and regulations, was just one of the many quirks the soldiers sent to him so often had. Every cadet who’d been under his command was a little crazy, a little off in some way. All anomalies were.
    Exhaustion pulled down on his shoulders. He forced himself to straighten. “I was heading to the officers’ mess. Join me for coffee?”
    Katie hesitated. “I need to read Ashdyn’s file.”
    “And you’ll need to interview her fail-safe.”
    Again, she gave him a slightly sad smile, but she nodded and turned left toward the lift that would take them up a level to the mess hall. The doors slid open when they approached. He gestured Katie inside. As he followed her in, he took note of the curves beneath her snugly fitted uniform and the blond hair that—as per regulation—she’d twisted into a long, loose braid.
    “It’s good to see you again,” he said.
    She turned so quickly he almost ran into her. “Don’t,” she said. “It’s not fair.”
    “Fair?”
    The doors slid shut behind them.
    “My feelings for you never changed, Rhys.”
    “Neither did mine.”
    “I know.” She closed her eyes briefly, then let out a sigh. “That was the problem. I thought they would after a while, but… well, they didn’t. All I ever was to you was a pleasant distraction.”
    “You were much more than that, Katie.”
    She shrugged. “A good friend then. A sister.”
    He almost choked. “We slept together.”
    “I know,” she said pointedly.
    He was about to object again when the lift doors slid open. A pair of spacers stepped aside so they could exit.