Ouroboros Episode One

  Chapter 16

  Carson Blake

  He was starting to get worried. Nobody had come to see him, nor had Nida reappeared.

  He stood sharply, the chair behind him toppling as he did.

  "Right," he muttered as he strode from the waiting room. He caught the first person he could find, asking them for some information on Nida.

  He was shocked to find she'd already been discharged.

  Too shocked.

  Figuring the nurse had been wrong, he checked in with the hospital's records himself - something he could do with his rank - and confirmed the news.

  She'd left without him.

  And worse than that, she'd been discharged.

  When he'd taken her to the hospital, she'd appeared in a bad way. Yeah, capable of walking, but he'd seen the pallid, sickly hue to her skin, and the horrible, tense way she'd clutched her left hand.

  ?.

  But they'd discharged her. Apparently, nobody could find anything wrong with her, well, physically wrong. According to the records he'd accessed, the doctor who'd seen her had made a note about stress and possible hypochondria.

  In a way, he couldn't believe it. He'd expected the doctors to find??something.

  Because there was something wrong with her.

  He shook his head as he marched forward.

  He headed back up to her apartment.

  In fact, he reached the lift at the bottom of the building at a jog and didn't wait when a cadet rushed up and told him to hold the lift.

  Instead, Carson crossed his arms and waited for the lift to shoot up to the right level. When the doors opened with a resounding ping, he sprinted through them.

  He didn't stop until he reached her door.

  Then he jammed his thumb into the intercom button. "Nida? It's Carson. Open up," he demanded.

  No reply.

  He kept his thumb on the button. "Nida, come on. Open up. You left without saying a word. I just want to check up on you," he couldn't keep the frustration from his voice. He couldn't keep it from tightening his chest and crawling its way up his throat.

  She still didn't answer.

  "Nida? Oh, fuck it," he took a step back, coming to a quick and hasty decision as he did. Without pause for reason, he overrode the lock.

  The door swished open, and he ran in.

  She wasn't in the main room. "Nida," he announced as he strode over to her door.

  It wasn't locked, and he walked in, hesitating and even bothering to knock first.

  ?.

  She wasn't in there.

  She wasn't anywhere in the apartment in fact.

  After he had searched it, he rested one hand on the kitchen table and swore again. Loudly.

  Where the hell was she?

  She'd been discharged a little under an hour ago.

  Anger rushed up his belly, and hot on its heels came worry.

  She may have been discharged - and that was a questionable decision, as far as he was concerned - but she was not in any state to be rushing around town at night.

  "Where the hell are you?" he muttered under his breath as he took a step forward and considered the view.

  He saw the rest of the Academy complex and the city stretching out beyond it. Everything was drawn in shades of midnight blue, set off with the sparkling lights of the city.

  In the gaps between the buildings, he could see a thin stretch of the bay with a luminescent night sky glittering above.

  It was beautiful.

  In some ways, he found his home planet far more amazing than the rest of the galaxy combined.

  But no matter how startling and still the night appeared, it couldn't distract him.

  He'd already broken the rules by overriding the lock to Nida's apartment, but he wasn't done yet.

  He accessed the private Academy communication lines from his watch. As a lieutenant, he had certain privileges, and as the head of the Force, he had even more.

  Usually, you had to have a very good reason to look up a cadet's personal contact details, and Carson never abused that power.

  Today, he didn't even hesitate as he dug up the number for Nida's communication device.

  He called it. Without pause.

  She didn't immediately answer.

  When the call finally went through with a click, he pushed his head back and sighed with relief. "Where the hell are you?" he snapped immediately.

  "Ah, whose wrist device is this?" someone answered.

  It wasn't Nida.

  "It belongs to Cadet Nida Harper. Now, who the hell are you?" Carson spat.

  "Ah, I just found this on the street," a man answered.

  Carson froze. The hand holding his wristwatch to his mouth stiffened to the point of turning to stone. "Where?"

  "Ah, I'm in the 4th District," the guy answered.

  "Return this watch to the closest Academy cadet or officer you find," Carson commanded.

  "I am one. I mean, I'm a cadet," the guy said with an awkward cough. "And you are?"

  "Lieutenant Carson Blake," Carson barked. "Take this watch back to the Academy now."

  "Whoa, Carson Blake," the guy's pitch changed from one of mild shock to reverence.

  "Just take the watch back to the Academy," Carson demanded. "And what's your name?"

  "Cadet Ye Lai, sir."

  "Well, cadet, you have your orders," Carson took a step back and closed his eyes.

  "Yes, sir," Lai answered properly.

  "Hold on, where exactly in the 4th District are you?" Carson asked pointlessly as he checked the location of the call on his own watch.

  "Just outside of Barney's Saloon, sir," Lai probably snapped a salute.

  "Right. Do you know Harper? Can you see her anywhere?" Carson asked, realizing how dumb the question was just as he asked it.

  "Ah??who?"

  Of course Lai didn't know Harper. Otherwise he would have handed her the watch.

  Shaking his head and sighing, Carson again told Lai to return the watch to the Academy and ended the call.

  "What the hell is she doing?" he asked as he whirled from the view and headed for the door.

  You didn't just lose your watch. It couldn't fall off. It was built to sit there on one's wrist through alien incursions, ship explosions, and apocalypses.

  Nope. Nida would have taken her watch off. But why? It was drilled into you at the Academy that you left the damn things on. They were communication and location devices, not to mention rudimentary scanners and computers.

  Yet she'd clearly taken hers off??for some reason.

  Carson swore again.

  He'd taken her to the hospital, and he'd seen how freaked out she'd been.

  "Goddammit, Nida," he said aloud.

  Then he blew a breath of air through his tightly clenched teeth.

  Just because she'd taken off her wristwatch didn't mean he couldn't locate her.

  Every cadet and officer at the Academy were micro chipped. But it was a big deal to access the system that could locate them. He would have to put an official request in. And to do that, he would have to be explicit about why he needed to track Nida Harper down so badly.

  He would have to tell people she'd taken off her wristwatch, and that could get her into some serious trouble.

  But it couldn't be helped.

  Just as he lifted his wristwatch to make the call, someone called him instead.

  Flustered, he answered before checking who it was.

  "And what the hell are you doing?" Travis asked without even a hello.

  "Travis?" Carson groaned. "Just get off the line. I'm busy."

  "Yeah, of course you are. Too busy to attend this E Club event, even though in many ways it was organized on your behalf to celebrate all of your incredible achievements."

  Carson groaned again. "I told you, something really important has come up."

  "Yeah, of course it has," Travis laughed. "You're too busy to come and help your buddy. Here I am, sitting at the bar, in desperate need of
a wingman so I can make my move on the lovely Alicia. But you're busy."

  The name Alicia grabbed Carson's attention. "Alicia's there?"

  "Yeah, with her flatmate."

  "Sorry? What did you just say? You mean??what's her name? Bridgett?" Carson took a startled breath.

  "Yeah, no, I mean her flatmate. Nida. I think I remember the difference between them," Travis said, his voice straining as he did. "I may have the lovely Alicia as a distraction, but trust me, I will never forget her flatmate. Nor will I forget what happened to her bedroom door."

  For a second Carson did nothing but stand there.

  He couldn't believe this. But Travis was right - he wouldn't be mistaken, and if he was making this up, Carson would kill him.

  "What? You've just gone all quiet on me. Are you finally realizing what you're missing out on? Because Bridgett is here too," Travis began.

  "Listen to me, go find Nida and check on her," Carson said quickly and sternly.

  "What, why? She just got here. She's helping Alicia out."

  "An hour ago I took her to the hospital, then she walked out without a word. She's also taken off her wristwatch. Some guy called Cadet Lai found it, and I'm having him take it back to the Academy," Carson couldn't get through his words fast enough. "Just go find her and keep an eye on her until I get there."

  "Wait, what's going on?"

  "I have no idea. Just go check on her. I'll be as quick as I can," Carson practically skidded for the door, plowing out of it as it opened.

  Then he ran, as fast as he could, to the closest transport hub.

  It took him approximately seven minutes to cross town.

  Then he found her.