Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

nano-coma to flush the toxins out. I woke up good as new. I suppose if I was a Leech, they would have skipped the last dose of painkillers before they woke me up.’

‘No, they wouldn’t.’ Ingram shook her head. ‘They would never have bothered to flush the toxins out in the first place. They would have left you to die or used you in a lab to experiment on.’

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I didn’t mean to suggest—’

‘It’s all right, Colonel, I know. I know…’ Her voice trailed off and she sighed loudly.

‘Carlotta… Aisha, I know that trying to understand Leech life and actually living it are two different things. I’m doing my best, but I have to admit there are limits to my imagination.’ He rested his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. ‘We Elite are conditioned to see life in a certain way. It isn’t right. And I worked hard to leave all that behind, but I can’t shake who I was born.’

‘I know. Neither can I.’ She bent her elbow, reaching for her shoulder, and placed her own palm on top of Gonzalez’s, but their eyes wouldn’t meet.

They sat in silence for a few seconds, their thoughts going off on a tangent.

‘By the way, while we’re on the topic of one’s birth,’ Gonzalez said eventually, ‘Ms Moretti accused Wagner of having been born a Leech. Do you have any idea where that came from? I thought she didn’t even know about his existence until she visited the 4th?’

‘No,’ Ingram lied. ‘I have no idea.’ She exhaled slowly, relieved that Gonzalez couldn’t see her eyes. She had many long years of training under her belt, but none of it had taught her how to lie effectively to his face. He was too perceptive.

‘Hmm…’ Gonzalez mused, making a mental note to ask Rivas about it.

‘More coffee?’ Ingram asked naturally. She stood up and retrieved his long-cold and half-empty mug.

‘Don’t waste your energy unless you know what to do with sugar,’ he mock-growled, adding another mental note to ask Eloise about Wagner’s birth as well.

‘I’ll do my best,’ Ingram promised, and turned to leave the room, but Gonzalez stopped her.

‘Aisha?’

Ingram paused, pleasantly surprised by the warm sensation she felt at his use of the first name she had called her own for so many years.

‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome, sir,’ she replied. There was no need to clarify what Gonzalez meant, though she was certain he was about to doggedly put it out in the open anyway.

‘I would have lost it with Eloise if it wasn’t for you. I’m sorry to have dumped this responsibility on you,’ he added, honest to the bone.

‘That’s what I’m here for.’ She shrugged. ‘But if I’m ever not here, a right cross might do her a world of good,’ she added, giggling inappropriately.

‘Aisha!’ Gonzalez tried to make himself sound strict, but an equally inappropriate giggle undermined the severity. He shook his head with resignation. ‘If I didn’t know you any better, I’d assume you actually relish the idea of punching her smug Elite face yourself.’

‘Never, sir!’ Ingram replied, trying hard to sound genuine and almost succeeding. ‘But should you decide to punch that smug Elite face…’ She let her voice trail off suggestively as she shrugged.

‘Get out!’ Gonzalez laughed, and Ingram ducked through the door frame before he could find something to throw after her. ‘And don’t you ever let me catch you saying something like that again!’

The last sounded unmistakably like an order, and Ingram had no trouble understanding why.

I would love to take that stuck-up Elite down a peg or two, but it would be wrong. And the colonel is right that talking about it, even in jest, is no better. She is annoying as fuck, but we do owe her a lot. With the shit-hell she’s been through, some moral support might not go amiss either, Ingram reasoned with a sigh.

And if I’m lucky, Rivas can take care of the moral support part, while I just focus on stamping down on my desire to shout at her until she sees the light. I don’t know when or how it happened, but he has sure as hell developed more than just an appreciation for the crazy woman. It might say odd things about his taste in women, but then again, who am I to talk about taste? Most of my relationships were there out of necessity to help me survive, and I definitely didn’t feel any appreciation for any of the assholes I tried to charm. At least Rivas gets to listen to his heart, rather than his survival instincts.

In the past, there might have been bitter regrets. These days Ingram knew how much she owed to her fine-tuned intuition and was happy to follow it anytime. A lost chance at a bit of romance was a small price to pay.

CHAPTER 39

Roc de Chere

Lac d’Annecy

Afro-European Alliance

Tuesday 28 April 2725

DAY 9

‘Let’s begin.’ Ingram pressed a button and the holo-display came up. All eyes, all seven sets of them, focused on the image.

Following Ingram’s recommendation, Gonzalez had carried through with his decision to bring in more people. In addition to himself, Ingram, Rivas and Eloise, Captain Federico Palmeiro and Sergeants Joshua Atkins and Ula Kizenberg were also in the room.

The comp conversation between Gonzalez and the General had been interesting to say the least. It was amazing how much disapproval a black silhouette and a computerised voice could express without actually saying anything. The disapproval had nothing to do with Gonzalez’s request for more people. He had every right to do that. No, it was directed entirely at Gonzalez himself.

The bounty on Gonzalez’s head had apparently been doubled after the attack on Givors. The wanted posters using both his real and cover names, as well as his mugshots from before the nano-transformation and after, had been shared with all of the police and military installations throughout the Afro-European Alliance. He hadn’t quite been all over the civilian news yet, but it