The Office of Integration operated out of a nondescript office building tucked away in Red Mountain’s main business district. Kira took a certain degree of amusement in Bradley’s confusion as the aircar parked in an underground garage and their mercenary escort was met by a group of youths in black suits.
To Kira, the security handoff between Milani’s troopers and the plainclothes Palace Guard was obvious. She suspected it was less obvious to Neha Bradley, the gorgeous brunette sticking closer to Kira than before as they followed their escort to the elevator.
Unlike Bradley, Kira knew what was waiting for them—and what Milani’s strike team had found at the Equilibrium safe house the young woman had sent them to. She was still irritated enough with the contrite spy to let her squirm as they made their way to the thirty-third floor.
The lobby they entered was plush, decorated in well-balanced shades of blue and orange, and announced itself as a private wealth management company.
The young woman behind the reception desk was supposedly a sign of the wealth of the financiers behind her security doors, since only the richest of clients expected to deal with humans instead of artificially stupid holograms.
In truth, Kira could tell she was cut from the same cloth as the guard ushering Kira and Bradley deeper into the intelligence agency’s office.
“Why are we here?” Bradley whispered to Kira. She was still handcuffed and had—correctly—guessed that Kira had the keys for her manacles.
“You’ll see,” Kira promised.
A security door slid open and their guards ushered them into a more plainly decorated corridor that still reeked of expensive interior design. Their destination was an even more heavily secured door, though the corridor door took them past several open-plan office sections. Those desks were full of analysts even at this early hour in the morning, though their data exchanges had automatically gone full-headware when strangers entered the office.
The secured conference room door belonged in a bunker, not on the midlevel floors of an office tower, and Kira could see Bradley’s nervousness as they approached. It swung open and Kira’s amusement broke into a full grin as she recognized the woman standing in the door.
Brigadier Hope Temitope was now the second-in-command of the entire Redward Commando Corps, the elite special forces Kira had worked with to seize Deception. The golden-eyed woman had been a Colonel then, but victory shared many rewards.
Most importantly for Kira’s companion, however, was that the whip-thin, dark-haired Black woman was holding a child with equally dark hair, the baby curled into Temitope’s shoulder as the commando held her prize with extreme delicacy.
“You found her?” Bradley gasped, lunging across half the distance to the commando officer before pulling herself up short.
“And seven other children of various ages,” Milani’s voice told them, the armored mercenary stepping up next to Temitope with a duplicate of the control Kira had tucked in her pocket.
They tapped a command and Bradley’s cuffs unlocked, falling to the floor forgotten as the young mother completed her aborted lunge and gently took her baby from Brigadier Temitope.
“Other children?” Bradley said, her voice choked with tears as she rocked her child.
“Let the poor woman sit down,” Queen Sonia ordered. “We still need quite a bit from her this morning.”
Kira let Milani, with uncharacteristic gentleness, take Bradley by the shoulder and guide her to a seat around the conference table. Like the rest of the office, the conference room kept up the illusion of being a private finance company for wealthy clients, providing comfortable seats and absolutely up-to-date electronics.
Well, up to date for Redward, Kira reflected.
Bradley collapsed into the seat, clutching her baby to her. Kira would freely admit that she didn’t have much of a maternal instinct, but the sight twinged even her heartstrings.
Despite her tears, she managed to transfer a file to Kira’s headware.
“Everything I promised,” she told Kira. “Faces, names, locations… Everything I was able to learn while I was working for them.”
Kira flipped the file to Sonia, who smiled.
“Thank you, Em Bradley,” the Queen told the young woman. “Brigadier, we need to move on this quickly.”
“That’s why we have an office full of analysts outside and I have a battalion of commandos I trust on standby,” Temitope replied. “I’m on it.”
With a sharp salute, the woman bowed her way out.
“We are currently identifying the parents of the other children at that safe house,” Sonia told Bradley. “I took the liberty of ordering the officer responsible for your recruitment detained as well. They might be innocent, but it seems…unlikely.”
“I will give you anything I can,” Bradley promised. “I… I understand I committed treason. But…” She looked down at her daughter’s face. “I didn’t know what else to do to protect her.”
The room was silent and Sonia sighed.
“Do you know who I am, young lady?” she asked.
Kira couldn’t help but smirk at the shocked look on Neha Bradley’s face when the woman finally looked at her Queen and realized who she was talking to.
“Yes, ma—Your Majesty.”
“We cannot permit you to remain in the RRF after your actions, but there will be no further consequences after your discharge without prejudice,” Sonia told the young woman. “The files on this matter will be sealed. Kira?”
“You already retested on what I could test you on tonight,” Kira pointed out. “You passed all the tests, so I have to wonder just why you kept using the cheat program. I’m forced to conclude that you were trying to get caught.”
“I… I wasn’t sure,” Bradley confessed. “I was trying… I needed to keep her safe, but…”
“I understand,” Sonia told her. “I have a daughter of my own, Em Bradley. Not much older than your Jessica and my only child. I understand. But I also have to protect Redward.”
“I understand,” Bradley echoed. “So, what happens now?”
“The records are sealed,” the Queen repeated. “You will need to remain in protective custody for at least a week while we clean up as much of the Institute’s network as we can, as much to keep you safe as anything else.”
“I would prefer if she was able to keep up with at least a simulator routine in that week,” Kira said. Both women looked at her in confusion. “If, of course, Em Bradley is still interested in being a nova-fighter pilot and is prepared to become a mercenary.”
“I don’t know,” Bradley admitted, looking down at Jessica’s face. “I need… I need the money and it’s the only thing I’ve worked toward qualifications on. But I don’t want to leave Jessica, either. I don’t know.”
“That’s fair,” Kira allowed, looking over at the Queen. “I know she’s safe with you for now. If the Queen is willing to let me recruit you, I can give you a few days to make up your mind.”
“It seems a reasonable solution for everyone,” Sonia agreed. “If you don’t think her fellow trainees will be a problem?”
“Believe me, Your Majesty, I can make sure they aren’t.”
“Then I believe the decision is entirely Em Bradley’s,” Sonia noted. “For now, though, rest assured that you and your child are under the protection of the Crown of Redward.”