DAY

I am perched on the roof of the hospital in Batalla sector two hours before sunrise. This place again I'm fuzzy on the details but I'm pretty sure my history with this hospital isn't pleasant. I clearly remember breaking out eighteen years ago after being subjected to experiments and left to die in the basement and I have broken flashes of all sorts of other fantastic memories here too. If I'm going to have a private chat with the gunman though it's got to be before they move him to Batalla Hall in a few hours where even I wouldn't be able to break in. So June and I decided it'd be worth the risk to try to get to him tonight.

I hadn't exactly planned on telling June what I intended to do but after the speech I gave about "walking together" I couldn't very well turn around and sneak off into the night. Besides, she's June… she would have figured it out and followed me anyway. To my surprise she didn't argue with me, she simply agreed that the advantages of interrogating this guy on our terms, without anyone else knowing about it, outweighed the risk. Obviously, someone on the inside is a traitor so it's not safe to trust anyone else. One of the things I love about June is that her logic is pretty much infallible, so she plays by her own set of rules when it makes the most sense to her. Of course she didn't love the idea of letting me go alone but by midnight her hip was so swollen that even she couldn't pretend walking wasn't painful so she grudgingly agreed to stay back.

That doesn't mean she left me without help. It turns out the Elector had gallbladder surgery a few years back and June memorized the schematics of the entire goddy hospital when she organized security for his stay. So now I have a perfectly drawn, handy little map complete with a convenient rooftop entrance to the HVAC system in my pocket. I really can't tell you how much I love this girl. In twenty minutes, June estimates the guards on the gunman will change over and I'll have the best shot at slipping unnoticed into his room.

Twenty minutes is just enough time to think too much. Right now I'm standing on a ledge twenty-four stories off the ground wondering for the first time in my entire life if it's stupid to be up here. I mean one wrong move and I'd plunge to my death. Not goddy likely my ego scoffs at me … but it could happenand then what? Then I'd be leaving June and the baby…our baby alone the way my Father left us.

Father. My hand goes to the pendant at my neck and even though I feel guilty admitting it that word is sort of abstract to me. The memories I have of my Father are good ones but they are few and a little faded with age. The thought of actually being someone's Father is...

I keep thinking back on all the years I felt responsible for Tess and then Eden. I did the best I could to take care of them. I tried to be like a father, especially to Eden, but the truth is I needed them just as much as they needed me.

This is different.

I can't describe how but the world seems to have shifted over the past few hours and suddenly June's anger at the restaurant makes perfect sense. For as long as I can remember I've lived moment-to-moment, day-to-day. Even after I didn't need to fight for every meal or worry about surviving another year I hardly put any thought into the future. Maybe it was just habit or maybe it was because I feared the emptiness I felt before I found June again. Whatever it was, I barely thought about anything beyond the end of the week. Now though, now the years stretch out in front of me and I can almost see images of a family, our family, in ten, fifteen, even fifty years. I didn't know I wanted that life but now that it's within my reach it feels vital.

Standing here, looking out over the city where I grew up, it hits me that the changes June and I fought for actually helped build a better world. Not just for the people and their children but also for my children. The thought doesn't satisfy me though, it lights a fire in me, makes me want to do whatever I can to ensure that the world they grow up in is never corrupted. That the evil June and I survived will never touch them.

I used to believe that evil began and ended with the Republic but I've seen so much more of the world now and the truth is; evil is everywhere. Three months ago I lead an op that thwarted the sale of a dozen girls who'd been pulled off the streets in South America and were being smuggled into Antarctica. Some of the girls were as young as Tess had been when I met her. One little girl even had red hair and giant eyes that looked dead and empty when I carried her out of the disgusting rat infested cellar where they were being held... The memory makes me sick.

That was the mission where Jessalyn and I figured out that the trade mob was making a play to get votes in their favor at the next UN summit. Shortly after we started tracking the gunman who'd managed to get away hoping he'd lead us to bigger fish. I catch myself pacing on the ledge when I start thinking of Jessalyn and the AIA. I guess I should care that the Antarcticans think I'm a traitor. On any other day I'd be raising hell. But my thoughts are just in too many other places and next to June being shot and, oh yeah... pregnant, it's barely even crossed my mind before now.

Plenty of time to figure what that's all about later. Right now my twenty minutes are almost up, I shake my shoulders out and focus. Time to get this show on the road.

I slip into the HVAC system and quickly scale down to the forth floor right above the labs where June thought they'd take a high security prisoner. Thanks to the map it takes less than five minutes, which is pretty impressive, even for me. Sure enough when I arrive I see through the vents that four soldiers are stationed on the front entrance of the ward, fine by me, I won't be going in the front. Rather I shimmy my way to a darkened call room where a single doctor is sleeping on a cot directly below the vent. Soundlessly I open the vent and lower myself into the room. For one moment the doctor seems to sense someone else in the room and he stops snoring, but after a tense ten seconds he turns over and I am free to swing across the cot to the floor. On the way out of the room I grab his lab coat, ID and tablet then, for good measure, I tie on a surgical mask that staff wear if they've got a cold or something they don't want to spread. It's late and pretty quiet on this floor so I'm not really worried about being noticed, especially since my hair is sprayed a dark brown. But if there's one place I'm most likely to be recognized it's in the heart of the Republic. I do a quick loop around the nurse's station pretending to be fascinated by some lab results on the stolen tablet while I map out the floor. One solider is standing outside the room farthest away from the main entrance and lucky for me, nowhere near the group of nurses and doctors who are mostly engrossed in reading reports and sipping their coffee.

Right on time the guard checks his watch and a new solider walks in the door, the old guard is more than ready to leave and the new guy doesn't know what the doctors on this floor look like. The guards meet half way down the hall, as soon as they start talking I stroll confidently into the patient room next door where I wait with the sleeping occupant. Once the new guard is in position I wait for another few minutes before I step out of the room and pause at the gunman's door to pretend to consult my notes. Then I nod at the guard, swipe the ID across the security pad and walk right on in. I estimate I have ten minutes tops before he gets suspicious so once I'm inside I waste no time.

The gunman looks shrunken and a lot older than I remembered. For one second I feel guilty pulling the knife out of my boot and leaning over him, but then the image of those little girls come back to me and I press the knife to his throat with no further remorse. Considering I wasn't sure this guy would survive the night I'm a little surprised when he opens his eyes as soon as the blade touches his skin

"Hello Day."

Well that was unexpected. "How do you know who I am?" I respond, keeping my voice nonchalant, I don't hear Day much anymore and I certainly didn't expect him to have me pegged this fast.

"Not as good as you thought you were, huh? You were made." his voice is low and mocking with a thick accent I don't recognize.

"Doesn't explain how you know I'm Day...that isn't a name many people outside the Republic and the Colonies use." He grunts once and his mouth presses into a hard line. But it doesn't matter whether he tells me or not because it's obvious now what happened.

"Your contact saw me in Dakota, yeah? He recognized me because he's from the Republic." His eyes narrow and darken so that suddenly I have an answer to one of my questions from earlier too. "That's why they want you dead now isn't it? Because you got yourself followed and put your whole dirty operation at risk." He doesn't respond but I didn't expect him to, "So if you're a dead man anyway maybe you just tell me who the hell you're working with and why he wants the Elector's girlfriend dead."

"Is that what you thought? That they want her dead?" He laughs and it is an ugly sound "And here I thought you and that sexy whore of yours were supposed to be the Republic's best and brightest."

I try to keep my anger in check since this guy is clearly hoping I'll lose it but my knife presses a little harder against his skin and a thin line of blood blooms around the blade. The pain just makes him laughs harder.

"Please, kill me. Like you said, I'm already dead."

I take a breath and relax my grip a bit "What were you doing, if you weren't trying to murder Alisha? Sure looked like you were trying to kill someone."

"Oh, I was." His gruff voice drips with sarcasm, "But it wasn't her. The organization has plans for her. I was supposed to take out your little whore so she wouldn't cause trouble, lucky for her you got in my way."

My blood runs cold and my vision swims in red. If I don't step away right now I will kill this man and I do not want him to die that easily. I whip the knife away from his throat and fling it into the wall. Now I am losing it and I'm going to get caught if I don't calm down.

"Why did they want June dead?" I snarl, I can tell the man is enjoying this but I'm too angry to care.

"I told you, Day he thought things would be easier without her. Guess she's got a reputation. Doesn't matter though. That tasty little number your Elector's doing is well on her way to Dakota by now, and you can be sure they'll get everything they want out of her."

I hate this man. Hate him in a way I haven't felt for anyone in years. He's sick and evil and I can tell he's baiting me. Trying to send me flying out of the room to get back to June or find out what the hell he means by "on her way to Dakota". Maybe he's just trying to make the last few hours of his life entertaining. Whatever it is he's winning.

June might be able to stay here, take a calming breath and dig deeper, figure out what's really going on. But I'm not June and I can't. I barely have enough sense to pull the goddy knife from the wall before I'm out the door.

I don't even bother being sneaky I just walk out. If the guards stop me its fine by me at this point, because I'm pretty sure something's happened to Alisha and I have half a mind to call the Elector right now anyway. But I'm still wearing the lab coat and no one stops me.

The moment I'm out the door of the hospital I call June. She picks up instantly.

"Day!"

Her voice sounds frantic. June is never frantic and it fills me with dread.

"Day, Anden just called. Alisha is gone."

JUNE

BATALLA HALL

0640 hours

When the call woke me this morning I had no recollection of falling asleep.

It must have been before Day left because when I shot awake on the couch there were three blankets piled on top of me and a pillow was tucked awkwardly beneath my head. I had no time to chide myself for not noticing when he left because the moment Anden's voice came across the line I knew something was horribly, horribly wrong.

Nighty minutes later I stand in the conference room adjacent to Anden's office, my hands are clasped tightly behind my back as I stare out the window watching the glow from the JumboTrons on the sidewalk mix with the soft blue light of dawn. I am listening to Serge and Mariana argue and I'm silently willing Anden to say something, anything because I don't know if I can stand another moment of silence from him.

Anden has not said a single word in thirty-six minutes. Not since the encrypted call came through to his private line demanding the Republic cast their vote against new human rights and trade regulations the UN Economic and Social Council intends to put forth at the next meeting of the General Assembly.

In exchange for Anden's cooperation Alisha's life will be spared. If not…well, thirty seconds after the call ended one of my captains came frantically pounding at the door. A small girl with a smudged face, scuffed shoes and a brand new dress had walked right up to the guards outside the gates of the hall and delivered a little ebony box with a red silk bow. Inside was a pinky finger, unmistakably Alisha's. I recognized the subtle gold nail polish she had been wearing last night immediately. We questioned the little girl but all she knew was that a very nice lady had promised to give her a pretty dress to wear for the Elector if she would bring him a present.

The box is closed now but it still sits on the table and Anden has been silently staring at it while both Mariana and Serge do their very best to ignore it and to fill the silence with increasingly loud words. If this situation wasn't so awful I might find it amusing that after so many years I'm stuck in a room listening to these two bicker again. Mariana was officially named Princeps after I stepped down and Serge was appointed last year by Anden to be the Republic's UN representative. Both of them were called here once the political ramifications of Alisha's kidnapping became clear.

Serge is turning a pale shade of lilac trying to explain to Mariana why it is simply unacceptable to bend to the will of the kidnappers. As much as I hate to admit it, I might agree with him. Of course, Serge has personal political stake in this vote, he was on the United Nations Human Rights Council this year and helped draft the law the assembly will vote on in ten days. Until this moment his vote for the Republic was guaranteed. If he backs down it will look terrible for him, but he is bound by the wishes of the Elector.

I am a little surprised that Mariana has taken the opposite stance. She is generally a levelheaded, thoughtful woman and I respect her a great deal. Her argument is that the Republic only represents one vote and it is a relatively minor issue, not something like war or genocide. I wonder what Day would say to that.

I also wonder if Mariana is more concerned about Anden than she is letting on and if his obvious despair is coloring her judgment. After years of working so closely together I think she feels somewhat maternal towards Anden and it has made her protective of him. After we separated she refused to speak directly to me for almost three months. Now, I catch her casting an anxious glance in his direction as she argues her point and I wonder if she would be as quick to dismiss the importance of the human rights vote if it didn't personally affect Anden.

The bitter exchange is gaining momentum; the sound makes my head pound and the pain in my hip flares up. I'm tempted to call them to order the way I would soldiers in the barracks. After all I am no longer the child I was when I last stood alone in a room with these two and this type of behavior is precisely why I walked away from politics. But just as I take a step towards the table Anden finally speaks.

"Enough." His voice is soft but stronger than I might have expected. "Thank-you both for your advice. I will take your assessments into consideration." His words are polite but his meaning is clear, they are being dismissed. Serge opens his mouth like he wants to argue further but when Anden looks at him his gaze is hard as steel Serge's lips mash into a thin line and his words go unsaid. He stands and Mariana does the same, they both bow and I start to follow them as they head for the door.

"Commander Iparis, please stay for a moment." I pause ignoring Serge who glares at me before turning on his heel and walking out the door. He made it crystal clear this morning that he considers the events of the past twenty-four hours to be a monumental failure of behalf of the Elector's security and subsequently myself. He is absolutely right, it was. The Elector spent the night at Alisha's last night and woke early this morning to discover her missing along with one of my younger, recently promoted soldiers. Somehow the solider managed to spirit her away without any of the other eight guards noticing a thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if Serge starts lobbying for my resignation. Quite frankly I am not sure I would put up a fight if he did. Before she goes Mariana catches my gaze, her grey eyes are deeply troubled but they do not hold any anger. She places a hand gently on Anden's shoulder for a moment but she is still looking at me, silently imploring me to tell him it is ok to make the selfish decision. Save the girl, live happily ever after.

I don't know if I can.

Maybe that's why he asked me to stay because he knows I won't lie to him. I won't, but I haven't told him everything I know yet either and I'm holding out hope that the plan I've been formulating all morning will be a solution. When we are alone I cross to the table and sit gingerly in the chair beside him. Sitting is more painful this morning than standing but I barely notice. Anden doesn't look at me he simply says, "I can't make this decision right now June."

I resist the urge to reach for his hand. "Maybe you don't have to make a decision at all." I whisper, carful to keep my voice as low as possible so there is no way we are overheard. "At least not yet, I think we have a third option."

I describe my conversation with Day about the trade mob last night and I tell him what Day learned from the assailant this morning. I omit the part about the AIA cutting off Day's access to their system and someone wanting me dead, those are fairly minor details in the grand scheme of things. To his credit Anden doesn't flinch when I confess that I helped Day go behind his back and break into the hospital, I think he is simply grateful for the information.

"Send us go to Dakota." I finish "Daniel believes they are holding Alisha there and I think we can find her and figure out who's behind this."

"June, you have responsibilities here and I haven't forgotten that you were shot last night. I can't, in good conscience, send you on some desperate assignment to find her. I will have to… make other arrangements to get her back."

"You can, and I think you will. I was shot last night and everyone knows it, that's a perfect excuse for me to be absent for a few days. It has to be us Anden, we simply can't afford to trust anyone else with the information." I know I am walking a thin line here making demands of him so I make sure my voice is gentle when I say. "You can't allow these men to force you into a decision that might affect the lives of thousands of people…. We have a responsibility to the rest of the world now."

Anden's shoulders slump slightly and his eyes dart back to the box on the table, when he looks back at me they are full of sadness and a hint of guilt. I know we are both remembering a time many years ago when he asked Day to make a similar impossible choice. Back then he believed that one life was worth endangering to save the lives of many. Maybe it is, but the choice is not so simple when the one in danger is someone you love more than life itself.

He sighs and nods and his words are barely audible.

"Just bring her back."

Aside: Thanks so very much for reading everyone,! You are all amazing! I really hope you are enjoying this story so far. I have no goddy clue why these chapters keep getting longer and longer? I might be a little OCD about trying to make sure every single plot point has a backstory and reasonable justification. Anyway I hope you are still entertained! I would love to hear your feedback. Love it? Hate it? Wish something different would happen? Let me know (nicely, preferably ) I can't make promises…I do have a plan… but I'll absolutely take your thoughts into consideration!