Chapter Forty-Five
June 23, 2231, UTC Space Fleet Base Troy, Conference room
Erik had learned to deal with the death and destruction that came with being a soldier a long time ago. The only thing he could never stand in the military was the constant briefings, giving or receiving. He could understand the necessity in theory, but that didn’t mean they didn’t stick in his brain like an ice pick.
He’d mercifully been freed of them when he left, but his continued integration with the ID and the DD had brought them back. Alina’s desire to meet in unusual places wearing unexpected disguises had at least put some fun into it, but the vice-director was no Alina by any means.
In everything that had happened, her death felt like it happened years ago, an early casualty in the final battles of th
