Welcome to stories from Among the Stars. You're listening to The Last Watch by J.S. Dewas.

Chapter 22

Cavalon clamped his eyes shut, as if a too.

Kavalon clamped his eyes shut, as if eliminating his sense of sight would somehow make him

quieter or still his pounding heart.

Rake's hand fell away from his face and he found the nerve to open his eyes, mostly to confirm

she hadn't abandoned him.

Rake still stood mere centimetres away.

Her fingers flashed across her nexus and the Combs interface showed a red

warning symbol. The mainframe hadn't fully rebooted. They couldn't call Jackin and the others.

Rake looked at him, her warm eyes serious, breath slow and controlled and deadly quiet.

She appeared the exact opposite of how he felt.

How was she not in a total panic?

It had to take a special kind of temerity to stand there, a meter from at least a half

dozen armed drudgers, shoved in an alcove with a man who'd never fired a gun in his life

and maintained that degree of composure.

It was honestly unsettling.

Rake kept her eyes locked on his, then raised one finger. unsettling. a short nod. She curled her fingers into a fist. Stay put, he gave another short nod.

Rake shouldered her rifle, then slid out of the alcove. After a frenzied squeak of boots on metal, a barrage of gunfire erupted, the sharp, chalky twangs of a plasma

rifle, he really hoped rakes plasma rifle.

Mere seconds later the bombardment ceased, punctuated by a meaty thunk,

then the heavy glumph of a body falling lifelessly to the floor, then silence.

...