Old Secrets (The Survivors Book Thirteen)

by Nathan Hystad

  We’d been ambushed, indicating someone had known we were coming. How? I trusted everyone with me, but that didn’t mean one of my lesser crew members couldn’t have been bought. How far did Lom’s reach extend from the future? I had to deal with him sooner rather than later.

  I almost smiled at my train of thought. I was locked in a cell, being held captive by Foral, and here I was, planning my attack on Lom in some future timeline.

  My personal tablet was still on my wrist, and I lifted it, checking to see where the others were being kept. The other four icons blinked a short distance away, telling me they were in a room together. Walo wasn’t tagged, since we hadn’t been expecting to bring her along.

  Footsteps carried from outside the cell, and I flicked the device off, not wanting to draw attention to it. I ran a hand over my chin, feeling only a slight amount of stubble. I couldn’t have been out long, suggesting we were likely still on Bazarn. That was a good sign.

  My cell was white-walled, the paint stained with brown markings in a few spots. I wondered if it was dried blood.

  “Dean Parker.” The female voice was sharp, and the metal door slid to the side, revealing the spider-like Padlog. Her hands were fuzzy, her eyes round and multi-faceted.

  “Foral, I presume?” I asked, standing and stretching my back and legs.

  There was a big Padlog behind her, armed to the teeth, which reminded me I didn’t have anything close to the upper hand right now.

  “Come with me,” she said, waving for me to exit the cell. I obeyed slowly, and she lingered nearby, assessing me. “You’re much less impressive than I was led to expect.”

  “Thanks,” I replied. “Does that mean you’ll let me go?”

  She smiled, a strange sight on her alien face. “I don’t think so, Parker.”

  She spun on a heel, and I moved behind her through the corridor. The lights flickered, and I guessed we were in an underground facility. The ceilings were short, and we ducked our heads as we passed into a larger room. She pointed to a chair across the room. “Sit.”

  I nodded, moving for the metal seat, but not before peering around the space, looking for something to help me out of this mess. It was empty, save a desk with no drawers, and a few pieces of paper strewn about. Water dripped from the corner of the ceiling, forming a brown sludge pile that rolled toward the front of the uneven room.

  “I said sit.”

  I sat. Foral stayed standing, arms crossed, and the guard stepped into the room, holding a gun that probably weighed more than I did.

  “What were you hoping to find out here?” she asked me.

  “I was hoping to get a little R and R. You know… gamble in the Cloud Casino, drink some nectar, find a beach.” I grinned.

  “Parker, don’t mess with me. At least one part of the rumor is true,” she said.

  “What, that I’m devilishly handsome?” I asked as she crossed the space slowly, like a predatory spider.

  Her hand sprang out, slapping my cheek. My head flew to the side, blood welling on my lips.

  “That you’re a fool, and your mouth is bigger than your brain,” Foral said.

  I kept my eyes down and wiped the blood away. “I’m glad your reconnaissance was right for once.”

  “For once?” she asked.

  “I know exactly what you’ve been doing. Lom let it slip. You think you guys are so smart, taking money from a ghost, but it’ll catch up to you. Not to mention the Alliance has been given your name and description, as well as your ship’s ID tags,” I told her, half lying. Some of that was true.

  “I don’t think…”

  “Also the Supreme. See, when he heard that one of his own had betrayed him, as well as the Alliance he’d worked so hard to join, he went berserk. Directed his private guards and bounty hunters to find you and bring you to justice.” That part was accurate. I’d made the call myself.

  “You don’t expect me to believe that.” Foral looked dubious, but I simply shrugged.

  “That’s for you to find out. I hope PlevaCorp has paid you well enough for you to go into hiding for the rest of your life.” From the expression that passed over her face, I had her. “Of course, there is another option.”

  “Letting you go?” She laughed, her pincers clicking together.

  “How does he communicate with you?” I asked.

  She nervously glanced at the guard, her expression telling me she’d lost power. I’d shifted the interrogation.

  “How?” I stood, and the guard raised the gun, aiming it at me.

  “It was a lot of credits, Parker. You’d have done the same thing,” she said softly.

  “I don’t presume to understand your situation. Perhaps I would have, in your shoes, but I’d also know when my time was up, and when I needed to barter for my life. You need to do that this instant,” I told her.

  “The message came from an executive at PlevaCorp,” she said. “We met, and they gave me the credits.”

  “What were the instructions?” I asked, stepping closer to her.

  “There was a list. From following your daughter to tracking Light. We have operatives on Haven, and elsewhere too,” she said. “You have to take me off the kill list. The Supreme will never let me live otherwise, and my crew didn’t have a choice. They work for me, but they don’t deserve this.”

  “Tell me everything,” I said, and she nodded.

  The first gun blast sounded from down the hall, and my eyes shot wide. The guard in the room with us turned, stepping into the corridor. A second later, he was firing at an unseen enemy, and I saw him drop, a pulse striking his skull. It sizzled and smoked, and Foral was on me, grabbing my neck from behind and pulling a knife. She staggered toward the doorway, calling for a ceasefire.

  “Stop. I have Parker!”

  I spotted Slate, blood on his face, Loweck limping beside him. They were both armed, and I locked gazes with my commander. He shook his head once, but I didn’t know what he was trying to tell me.

  “You’re going to let me out of here, and you can have your captain,” she said, shoving me into the hallway, still clutching my collar with a strong, sticky spider’s hand. We almost tripped on the big Padlog dead on the floor.

  Slate nodded at her, holding his gun at his side. “We’ll lower our weapons.” He started to crouch, and I felt Foral relax. The knife dropped from her grip a second later, and she fell over, knocking me to my knees. The gunshot hit her in the back, and Sergo stood behind her with a pulse pistol raised.

  “Any others?” he asked, glancing into the room.

  “Not in there.” I took Slate’s outstretched hand, letting him help me to my feet, and stared at Foral’s dead eyes. “Dammit. She was going to come clean. I had her hooked,” I told them.

  “Boss, we rescued you. Would you believe they let Loweck get close enough to one of their guns?” Slate beamed at his wife.

  “This was a big waste of time. We need to check for any pertinent information on them and get the hell out of here before reinforcements come. If we’re on Bazarn, you have to be sure someone from PlevaCorp is watching this place,” I said.

  Sergo was still standing there, staring at his old companion’s body. “I killed her.”

  Walo buzzed beside him, pulling the gun away from her boyfriend. “You’re going to be okay,” she assured him.

  “Let’s move.” I shook my head. What a waste, but hopefully, we’d learn something from their belongings. Otherwise, I’d risked our lives for nothing.

  Fifteen

  The memory of the Deity’s conversation with Jules was fresh, but with Patty in front of her, it felt like a distant event.

  “Tell me everything,” Patty said as they sat around the crackling fire. Dal’i had forced them to relocate from the peaks, worried the resting god would be eavesdropping on their conversation. Dean kept glancing at Jules, as if urging her to steal Patty’s powers and be done with it, but Jules didn’t want to act so rashly.

  “Why did you do it?” Dea
n asked Patty.

  “We’ve been through this,” Patty told her older brother. They sat beside one another on a fallen tree, her feet dangling on the tall seat.

  “Enough with the sob story about never fitting in on Horizon or the Academy. You abandoned your family,” Dean told her.

  “Not like you cared that much,” she told him.

  “Patty, he’s been out there all alone for the last seven months, trying to find you,” Jules assured the girl. Dean’s sister hushed up at that, and a smile broke over her face.

  “You did that?” she asked.

  Dean nodded, mumbling under his breath. “I did.”

  “You still haven’t told me what happened,” Patty said, and from the look on Dean’s face, he was in no shape to tell her. Jules rested beside Dal’i across the fire, and she sat up straighter, deciding to be the storyteller.

  She informed Patty about the Arnap, and how they’d invaded the Ritair. How the beings had been chased from Sterona and later tracked down by the same Arnap, and that Horizon had been sent to investigate rumors of genocide. Patty remained silent as Jules described the scene of Papa and Slate fighting off the Arnap on the bridge, while Jules and her mother saved Leslie and Natalia.

  Lan’i stood, his pacing behind them kicking up dust. “We need to find these Arnap. We’ll destroy them for what they did to your father, Patty.”

  Jules glanced at him, recalling the L & P etchings on Patty’s childish drawings.

  “You don’t need to do that,” Dean told them.

  “Why not? He’s right. We have to avenge…”

  “Jules killed them.”

  “But there are more. We can free the Ritair…” Patty was cut off again by her brother.

  “Jules killed every one of them.” His head hung low as he rested his elbows on his knees.

  Patty grew silent, and her gaze fell on Jules through the fire. It was so strange, seeing her old friend with bright purple eyes. “Thank you, Ju.”

  That day came rushing into Jules’ mind, the sheer power she’d unleashed, and she glanced at the other Zan’ra, recalling what the Deity had shown her. Ja’ri had killed her own people. This god had said she wasn’t really one of the Four. That she’d been created to fool them, and that Jules was supposed to free the Deities. Could she do this?

  “Do you feel anything of O’ri in there?” Jules asked Patty.

  The girl shook her head, frowning. “No. It’s all me. I do feel different, but that’s just the powers, I think. These gifts are wonderful. I can’t believe you moaned and complained about them for so many years. If anyone doesn’t understand you, then screw them.”

  “I’m bringing you home,” Dean told Patty, grabbing her by the arm.

  She tugged it free, shaking his grip. “I don’t think so.”

  “Mom is worried sick, and you didn’t even say goodbye to Dad,” Dean said.

  “Does it matter now? I have too much to do,” she claimed.

  “Like what?” Jules asked softly.

  “Sealing these Deities. Jules, you saw what they did on Uleera, right?”

  Jules had seen only too clearly, but that had been Ja’ri. These three had fallen in line, but why had they done it? Did they feel remorse? She couldn’t bring it up, not without giving it all away. She still needed to learn how to free the Deities, and that meant she had to learn how to seal them.

  “I know. Let’s go there, to Desolate… I mean, Uleera. Show me how to help,” Jules told them, and Lan’i smiled, his white teeth turning orange from the flames’ reflection.

  “That’s my girl,” he said, catching a jealous glance from both Patty and Dean, though for different reasons.

  “Jules, we have to return to Light. We promised your dad,” Dean said.

  Patty rose, floating up from the log, to land beside Lan’i, who put a protective arm over her shoulders. “We’re not going anywhere. You can go. You shouldn’t be here with us. It’s the Four, not the Five,” Patty told her brother.

  “Jules, can I speak to you for a minute?” Dean asked, and Jules nodded, stepping from the fire with him until they were out of earshot. “We found her. Can you use that crystal bracelet thingy and steal the essence or whatever so we can get the hell home?”

  She stared into his big pleading eyes and stepped onto her toes, kissing his lips. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. Not yet.”

  He spoke soft and slow. “Jules, you promised me.”

  “I know, but there’s more to this than bringing Patty home. I need to stop them,” she said.

  “The Deities?” he asked, glancing in the direction of the mountains they couldn’t see in the night sky.

  She peered over his shoulder, toward the flickering fire. “No. The Zan’ra.”

  Dean would have a million questions, but now wasn’t the time to discuss them. She kissed him again and whispered in his ear, “Trust me, okay?”

  “What choice do I have? I’ll trust you,” he said, giving her less of a fight than she’d expected.

  They returned to the fire and sat down, Patty staring at them. “How sweet. You two are finally a couple.”

  Jules was glad no one could see her reddening face in the darkness. “Tomorrow, we’ll hit the coffins and make sure none of them ever leak out again.”

  The Zan’ra smiled widely. She could only hope she wasn’t being played for a fool by a lying god.

  ____________

  “She was telling the truth,” Rivo said.

  “She was?” I leaned over the table, staring at the screen.

  “Yes. PlevaCorp delivered the funds and the instructions. They were basic, nothing we didn’t suspect, but the key is, we have a contact. A way to communicate with him,” Rivo told us.

  “We need to find this executive at PlevaCorp first. Why haven’t we destroyed them yet?” Slate asked.

  “First of all, we don’t know where their head office is. They moved years ago, and they’re more clandestine than Sergo’s love affairs,” Rivo said, inciting an annoyed buzz from our Padlog friend. She lifted her hands. “No offense.”

  “None taken.” Sergo slumped in his chair, visibly deflated after killing someone from his past, and a Padlog at that. It was a reminder of his former life, one he’d left behind to work with me on Light, but he was lucky to have Walo at his side.

  “Will you guys leave him alone? He’s had a bit of a tough day,” Walo said, and Rivo nodded, continuing.

  “They made contact with him on Bazarn. I’ve always suspected they had some form of operation here, but there was no proof. Now we have it.” Rivo exited the program, activating a map of the planet we were on. It revealed the region where the executive had instructed Foral to meet him at the start, and Rivo pinned it.

  “This is an island: not a floating one, but a real island in the Solemn Seas. It’s a very affluent area, and each island is customizable to one’s needs. This one is owned by an unidentified shell company, but they paid in full and have never been late with a tax payment. I suspect it’s connected to PlevaCorp. There will be guards, and shields, but if we hit them quickly and silently, we should be able to catch them off guard,” Rivo said.

  We were inside her offices in a floating island high above the oceans. It was well protected, far more secure than when her father Garo had lived here.

  We’d managed to escape the underground bunker, which had been deep in the Duup mountains. We were lucky enough for Rivo to be able to contact her shuttle pilot to find us, and a couple hours later, we were cleaned up and ready to strike PlevaCorp.

  “What are we waiting for?” Loweck asked.

  We all rose, heading out of the fancy boardroom past a bunch of Molariun employees, each with glowing HUDs floating in front of their eyes as they talked with business partners around the universe. Their cubicles had sound-dampening fields, and Rivo waved and smiled at them as we walked through with purpose. Slate looked like a giant compared to the short workers, and his gun was out of place, but we exited quickly and were usher
ed outside, where the pilot awaited us.

  Slate let out a whistle, eyeing the ship. “This isn’t any normal transport shuttle, is it?”

  He was right. The vessel was smooth, matte gray, with countless weapons systems jutting from the underside and wings. It was about four times the size of a normal shuttle, yet manageable within a planet’s atmosphere. As we entered the craft, I asked Rivo if I could see about getting my hands on one of these for Haven’s defenses.

  “We’ll talk.” She winked one of her four eyes, and I smiled, trying to convince myself I wasn’t nervous about the upcoming attack. We were taking our feet to the street and invading the private residence of a PlevaCorp executive, one that was connected to Lom in the future.

  Mary was going to have a heart attack when I told her about our adventures on Bazarn. I’d have to leave some crucial details out, depending on how this went.

  Once we were loaded in, sitting facing one another on the long white benches, four more arrived. They were the huge Duupa beings, the giants from the mountain regions, and they wore massive armored suits. Their guns were taller than I was, and I swallowed hard as one came to sit beside me. The bench groaned under the duress, and Rivo greeted them affably.

  “These are my friends, and friends, these are my personal guards,” Rivo said.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, and one giant only nodded, speaking in English.

  “Likewise.”

  The ship rose from the parking pad on the edge of the office’s floating headquarters, and we moved toward our destination.

  “From our surveillance, there’s one vessel docked at the island, and it’s a yacht. I suspect there will be defenses, but nothing this baby can’t handle.” Rivo patted the wall with her glove, the metal reverberating at the touch.

  Rivo was in her element here on Bazarn, and I decided then and there to give her more responsibility on Light. Either that or I’d have to dismiss her so she could return home where she belonged.

  Slate spoke up, and we listened with anticipation. “We’re going to head in the back entrance. The pulses on this ship will disrupt the shield just long enough for us to sneak through. Of course, that will alert them to our presence pretty quickly, which means we won’t have much time to access the building.” Slate flipped his tablet around, showing us an image of the property from above. “We’re going to the courtyard and entering through this side entrance. The servant halls will have less security, and we can gain entry to the main offices from there. From what we can tell, the executive spends most of his time here.” He pointed a big finger at the top right of the screen.