"You'll take Desmond Delay out from here," Jessika had said, before she'd handed them a shortwave radio and locked Daniela and Niamh inside the closet. "We'll be out here kicking ass and taking names."
And now their job-hers and Niamh's-was done.
"Lyse?" Niamh said into the radio.
There was a crackle and then Lyse came online.
"Stay there. We're on our way."
The radio went dead and Daniela raised an eyebrow.
"Where the hell does she think we're going?"
Niamh smiled, her nervousness off the charts.
"What's wrong?" Daniela asked.
"Nothing-" Niamh started to say, but Daniela could tell that Niamh was going to lie to her, so she reached over and took the other woman's wrist.
A flash of a conversation . . . Thomas telling Niamh to stay with Lyse . . . and then Daniela was back in the closet with Niamh.
"What did you just do?" Niamh asked, shocked by Daniela's ability to invade her mind.
"You want to know if he's lying to you?"
Niamh stared back at Daniela, dazed.
"I . . ." She didn't finish the thought, just nodded.
"It's hard to tell unless I touch him for myself, but, honestly, I didn't get a bad vibe. If he wants you to go with Lyse, then you should probably do it."
Niamh visibly relaxed, the tension leaving her body.
"Really? Are you sure?"
"I think so," Daniela said. "And I agree. He's pretty hot. You could probably make out with him when this is all over."
Daniela had added this last bit because she had sensed how embarrassed Niamh was by her attraction to Thomas-and Niamh did not disappoint, blushing bright pink.
"Oh, no, is it that obvious?" Niamh asked.
Daniela laughed.
"No, I'm an empath and I just touched you. It's what I do."
"Oh, yeah," Niamh said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Okay, good."
There was a knock on the door and then the hatch opened to reveal Lyse and Jessika standing in the semidarkness of the passageway. Jessika was holding a gun, and she used it to indicate that they should follow her. It was very quiet on the ship, and the red emergency lights only added to the surreality of the situation.
Jessika put a finger to her lips, encouraging them to stay silent as they moved down the darkened passageway. A blast of gunfire rang through the air.
"Get down!" Jessika yelled before shoving Daniela to the ground.
A second later, Lyse and Niamh were on the floor beside her as Jessika returned fire. Someone at the end of the passageway screamed, and Daniela knew they'd been hit. There was more gunfire, which Jessika returned, and then she was grabbing Daniela by the shirt collar and lifting her to her feet.
"C'mon, there'll be more of those where that came from."
Daniela had never been manhandled so gracefully by another person before. Jessika was tough and gorgeous, and the woman knew her way around munitions. It was not the time to be getting all hot and bothered, but Daniela found herself completely turned on. She'd never had the best of luck with the ladies, but, dammit, she sure hoped when this was all over that she could spend a little time with Jessika.
"Stop drooling over our escort," Lyse whispered in her ear as they followed Jessika farther down the passageway.
"Can't help it," Daniela whispered back.
Their back-and-forth got a hiss to be silent from Jessika, and they stayed quiet after that. At the end of one passageway, they encountered two bodies, both in black combat fatigues . . . The Flood. Daniela was just glad they didn't have to step over any dead blood sisters.
After winding through passageway after passageway, they eventually arrived at their final destination: the mess hall. The interior was lit up like a shopping mall. Table after table filled with women . . . the blood sisters they'd rescued from the underground research facility.
"They're doing a lot better," Niamh said, her voice filled with surprise.
"They perked up as soon as you guys arrived," Jessika said, and they followed her as she threaded her way through the tables until she found Dev and the girls. Dev had given them stacks of napkins to play with and Marji was trying to show Ginny how to fold paper planes with them.
"It's working," Dev said as soon as they approached. "It was such a good idea."
She was smiling, but underneath the smile she was stressed.
"We took care of Desmond," Daniela said. "He's not gonna be messing with anyone ever again."
She knew her words sounded harsh, but she would cry over his death at a later date . . . and she wouldn't be mourning the man upstairs, she'd be mourning the death of the man she'd thought he was.