Her father smiled tightly. “Yes. No doubt.”
“I spoke with Chief Superintendent Van Dijk early this morning. She said Royal Intelligence has learned of something she’s calling a slydar detector and that the technology would be a great asset if we could get our hands on it.”
Oku lifted her eyebrows. That was wonderful news. Not only would it help with the war, but she knew that the Kingdom Fleet had never been able to catch Rache’s mercenary ship because of its slydar hull. It had been terrorizing the Kingdom for years, and every subject in the system wanted the villain killed.
Surprisingly, her father only nodded. Had he already known about the existence of such a thing?
“She’s going to report later about the possibility of sending a team through the blockade to try to get one of these detectors,” Boehm added.
“We’ve had poor luck getting anyone out except the occasional automated courier ship.”
“It would be worth the risk in this case, Sire.”
“I’ll read her report and think about it.”
Boehm hesitated. “Yes, Sire.”
Her father continued on, waving for Oku to follow.
They entered his private office, and she almost jumped when she brushed past two crushers guarding the doorway on the inside. Their empty faces, only vaguely human, gazed blankly at her. Why did they seem so much creepier—scarier—than Casmir’s Zee?
Her father ignored them and pointed for Oku to stand on the rug in front of his desk. He shifted a comm terminal around so that its camera would capture her upper body.
“It’ll be a few days before he gets this,” her father said, “so we’ll assume he has the crusher army built by then.”
“Crusher army?” Oku looked at the two dark figures by the door.
“Jorg ordered him to build a hundred new crushers to assist the fleet he’s putting together in System Stymphalia to attack the blockade. We’ve done some tests where we shoot them over to other ships like torpedoes. They force their way inside and take over. A couple of crushers have been destroyed or thrown out airlocks to drift in space, but they often catch the enemy by surprise. It’s been effective. We’ve got a couple hundred crushers already here on Odin and out with ships in the other systems, and we have the facilities to make more, but it will be useful for Jorg’s fleet to have some. Dabrowski appears to be following orders to make them. I don’t, however, think that’s Dabrowski’s highest and best use. I want him back here, brainstorming ideas for us, and working loyally for me.”
“Brainstorming ideas… to end the war?”
“Ideas for the future. I trust our forces will be able to end the war on their own.”
If that was true, would Odin be suffering through these bombings? How many people had died last night? How much of the city had been demolished? Oku was afraid to check the news with her chip, afraid to know.
“Are you still thinking of expansion?” she asked. “After all this?”
“Yes. When the time is right. For now, let’s see if we can secure his loyalty, eh?” He extended a hand toward her, as if to say, “That’s where you come in.”
“What do you want me to say?” Oku felt numb.
Maybe she wouldn’t have to say anything, and he would handle it all. But was that wise? To let her father do the talking without knowing what he would say? What if he promised Casmir her hand in marriage if he was an obedient roboticist? And what if it was a lie? Wouldn’t her father still want to use her to cement an alliance with a powerful government in another system? She was his only daughter, his only chance for that.
Not that she wished to be a bargaining chip. When she’d been younger and first told of her destiny, Oku had dreamed of running off, changing her face, and applying for an anonymous position in the science department of a university far, far from here. That dream resurfaced in her mind now.
“Just smile and be encouraging.” Her father shifted to stand next to her. “I’ll do most of the talking. You speak up when I cue you.”
“All right.”
Oku couldn’t manage any enthusiasm. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t later be able to send out a private message to Casmir via her chip to let him know that she’d been manipulated into this. It sounded like Royal Intelligence had snagged her past messages and shown them to her father. If she did something he would consider a betrayal, she didn’t know what would happen. At the least, Casmir’s family would be evicted from the protection of the Citadel.
After he ordered the comm to record, her father gave one of his not terribly convincing smiles and spoke. “Professor Dabrowski, I hope this message catches up to you before you do something foolish. I’m aware that you invited other governments to come get a piece of the wormhole gate I specifically told you to assist our Fleet in recovering in its entirety for us.” The smile had disappeared with his first words. “I didn’t want a handful of pieces. I wanted the whole thing and for no one else to have it, not until the Kingdom had studied it and determined its best use. I’m also aware that you assisted the secretary of education on Tiamat Station with becoming president there. We had a loyal minion in that position, one who would have given the Kingdom a foothold in System Hydra. I understand he may have been dead when your team arrived—your team that you were not authorized to put together and leave Ishii’s ship with—but we wouldn’t have chosen that woman for the position.”
Oku was glad her father didn’t have an arm around her shoulders, because his hands were clenched down out of view of the camera. She was sure his grip would have been hard.
“I’m concerned by my most recent report,” he said, “which hints that you might not be precisely obeying my son either. I don’t know what it is you hope to gain out there by working against us, but if you fancy yourself some future ruler of the Twelve Systems, know that assassins will find your back and you’ll never sleep.” He took a deep breath and forced another insincere smile. “I am, however, willing to allow that some of your choices may have been naive or even accidental.”
Oku, watching her father’s face, didn’t think he believed that at all.
“I’m offering you one last chance to come back into the fold, to take your place as court roboticist—you requested that position, as I recall—and to work at my side. Should you return to Odin and prove your loyalty, I’m even willing to offer you a prize.”
The sick feeling returned to Oku’s stomach. There she was. Her father’s prize to be given away to a suitor.
“Princess Oku is not yet betrothed, and I gather you have some interest in her. Royal Intelligence has been kind enough to decrypt the videos you two have been sending back and forth and share them with me.”
Oku’s heart plummeted into her gut. Confirmation. He had seen the videos, not just the text messages. How many people in Royal Intelligence had watched them? Seen her silly recordings of Chasca rolling around on her back? Seen Casmir dressing up his crusher for her? Mortification mingled with anger and indignation in her body until she was shaking.
“Smile, and say something,” her father murmured to her, nudging her in the ribs with his elbow.
Say something? She could barely think, barely see. She felt trapped. A prize trapped in a cage.
“Good morning, Casmir,” Oku said numbly, tongue almost tripping over the simple words. “I look forward to you returning to Odin and introducing you to Chasca. She isn’t, however, a lover of crushers, I’ve learned, so we may have to wait to introduce her to Zee.”
Oku bit her lip, not knowing what else to say. She didn’t want to make any promises to Casmir that she couldn’t keep—that she wouldn’t be allowed to keep. This whole setup felt so dishonest. A betrayal to Casmir. But had Casmir betrayed the Kingdom? She wanted his side of the story. She couldn’t imagine the affable man she’d been trading videos with having a secret nefarious side.
Her father raised his eyebrows, as if he expected more. What? That she wanted to marry Casmir if he proved himself? The thought of saying that mad
e her want to gag. It was manipulative, and she didn’t want to be bound by that any more than Casmir likely did.
“I hope the war will end soon, and that you and Kim have time to help me with my bee project,” Oku said. “Oh, and your family—hers too—are in the Citadel now. They’re safe. I, uhm, liked the picture of you holding your robotics trophy.” Her cheeks flamed, more because her father was watching her than because of any embarrassment she would have felt at confessing that to Casmir.
Her father must have decided she’d served her purpose with her babbling. He faced the camera again.
“I trust you understand clearly what’s at stake now, Professor, what prize awaits you if you do the right thing and support the world that gave you the opportunity to become the man you are now. Support the Kingdom, and you’ll have a place in it forever. Become its enemy, and you’ll regret it.”
Oku was still shaking, or shaking again, when he turned off the recording. She couldn’t believe he’d threatened Casmir right in front of her. How was that supposed to make him want to be loyal?
“Let us hope you are a sufficient enticement,” her father said, “and that he fancies the idea of being Prince Consort someday.”
“Would you actually allow that? Or is this all a lie?”
Her father’s nostrils flared. In indignation that he would be anything less than honest and honorable? “It is not what I had planned for you, but if he proves he can be more valuable than an alliance to another royal, I suppose I might. If he doesn’t, well, at least we might get some use from him in the meantime.”
“Why—” Oku paused to lick her lips. Her mouth had grown so dry. “Why does he matter that much to you? I know he was cloned from Mikita’s genes, but… he’s just a robotics professor.”
Her father’s eyes narrowed. “He’s demonstrating himself capable of far more versatility than his job title suggests. I wouldn’t have guessed—but your mother, it seems, was right. I want him working for the Kingdom, not against it. Not for his own gain. I made him. I made both of them. I’m not having another one turn against me.”
Another one turn against him? What did that mean? David Lichtenberg was the only other clone she knew of, and he’d been dead these last ten years.
Her father strode out without explaining, taking the two crushers with him, and leaving her feeling like she’d just betrayed her best friend.
17
The clanging of crusher fists against combat armor was giving Casmir a headache, but the whoops and cheers of Sultan Shayban, his son Samar, and two of his more bloodthirsty daughters ensured Casmir couldn’t shoo the impromptu arena match to another area. He supposed he should be glad that he’d been introduced to half of the sultan’s family and that the man seemed to enjoy spending time here among the crushers.
Completing his mission had been looking promising, though he only had the first batch of twelve crushers done, but depending on when Rache arrived—and, as he’d just learned from Bonita, Bjarke—Casmir might have to leave in a hurry. Still, he’d automated much of the process and with a little more tweaking, the other eighty-eighty crushers could possibly be produced without his supervision.
The din of combat died down, and Casmir spotted Asger, Qin, and Bonita, along with Princess Nalini, heading his direction. Nalini veered over to her father and said something to the sweaty Tristan, who’d been testing himself against four crushers. Casmir was also using Tristan to test his crushers, ensuring they would follow the orders he’d given them to defend themselves while not acting as aggressors.
Kim appeared next, riding an automated cart in through another doorway. She reached Casmir first, hopping off before it came to a full stop. He sighed with longing at the simple display of athleticism and tried not to think about the cart he’d crashed.
“How long until your earnest kidnapper arrives?” Casmir asked quietly.
The others paused to watch Tristan as he started up another round of ex-knight versus crushers. All save Princess Nalini, who’d continued on to her father. She poked him in the shoulder and pointed toward the ceiling, or perhaps some office on a level above where he was supposed to be working. Casmir had been surprised at how often the sultan had come down to check on the project. He reminded himself that one of these first dozen had to stay with Shayban, so he needed to make eighty-nine more, not eighty-eight.
“Which one?” Kim didn’t sound amused.
“I don’t know Bjarke well enough to know if he’s earnest.”
“Determined, if nothing else.” Kim lowered her voice. “I actually haven’t heard from Rache since we initially arranged this, so I’m not sure when he’ll arrive, but Asger told me that Rache attacked a Kingdom freighter accompanying Bjarke. And destroyed it utterly.”
“Ah.” Many more words flooded Casmir’s brain, such as that she was crazy to have any kind of romantic relationship with him, but wasn’t he himself engaged in a relationship with Rache? He’d come up with this plan, been willing to ask Kim to ask Rache for a favor… To protect her, Casmir could tell himself, but he’d started to think of Rache as something other than an enemy. Not a brother… but something. But how could he feel anything toward someone who targeted and killed Kingdom subjects? Or human beings of any kind? “Are you rethinking going with him?”
Kim flattened her lips together. In irritation? Disapproval? Distress? All of the above?
“I know you don’t want to make a killer weapon, but maybe it would be better to go back with Bjarke and tell Jorg in person that you won’t do it.”
“I wish you’d advised that before I asked him to come.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I was just worried about you and your family. I like your brothers. They never tried to beat me up with their elite warrior skills.”
“I never tried to beat you up either. Any punches were purely to instill proper behavior.”
Casmir smiled. “I know. You’re good people. All of you. I don’t want anything to happen to you, to them, to their dojo, their home. When did I start to fear our government instead of fearing for our government, Kim?”
“Probably when you met some of the people running it.” She squinted at him. “You never said exactly what happened in Jager’s dungeon. Did he threaten your family?”
“He didn’t. He only agreed that torturing me seemed reasonable. Van Dijk was the one to mention that my family could be used against me.”
“Wonderful. The chief superintendent of Royal Intelligence.” Kim rubbed her face. “That’s why I’m afraid to go to Jorg now, to defy him openly. But that’s not the reason I sent you that message yesterday, the one you failed to acknowledge.” Her eyes narrowed.
“Did I?” A number of messages had flown past while he had been engrossed in his work. He’d barely slept the last two nights. He was surprised he wasn’t a wreck. For that matter, he was surprised he wasn’t sneezing and sniffing incessantly from those trees along the walls. Some of them were flowering. Before Casmir could scroll back to check his messages, Kim reminded him.
“I said I needed to go along with you to Dubashi’s base.”
“Oh. I did think that was odd. I was going to ponder it before answering. And then I forgot to answer.”
A crusher thrown across the floor came to an abrupt stop nearby when the same barrier that had protected the equipment from Casmir’s cart popped up.
“I can see where you would be distracted,” Kim remarked.
The crusher hopped up, undamaged, and sprinted back to fling himself at Tristan—who was ready. Zee was watching from the sidelines, and Casmir wondered if he was selecting his future mate. And what the mate would think about it.
“Tristan isn’t the only one who’s been by. The sultan keeps bringing burly warriors to test themselves.” Casmir faced Kim again. “Why do you need to come along?”
“I met the scholar running one of the local research facilities, and her virologist father went missing three months ago, possibly kidnapped.”
“And would som
eone want a virologist for the same reason someone might want a bacteriologist?”
“Scholar Serg Sunflyer actually has a background in biological weapons, so he’d be a more logical candidate. I think I’m… someone Jorg feels he can call on because I’m a Kingdom subject located in the system he’s gathering forces in. I’ve been somewhat versatile and far-flung with my research and projects, but there’s nothing on my résumé that should have suggested me to him otherwise.”
“I do remember Jorg saying he feared Dubashi already had a bioweapon of his own.”
“I’m only guessing that his people may have kidnapped Scholar Sunflyer. His daughter, Natasha Sunflyer, said there hadn’t been any witnesses. But it does seem that Dubashi has perpetrated quite a few crimes recently on the Shayban family. His people, as I’ve learned, tried to kidnap Princess Nalini so she couldn’t be betrothed to Jorg.”
Casmir frowned. He hadn’t been that excited by the idea of infiltrating Dubashi’s base before the possibility of a bioweapon had come up. He’d only agreed because he’d needed the materials for the crushers.
“The crushers would be immune to a biological weapon,” he reasoned aloud. “If Dubashi does have something already built, I can send them in first, and they can destroy it.”
“One of your lugs bumbling into a biological weapon sounds like a good way to accidentally unleash it and kill everyone in the base.”
Planet Killer (Star Kingdom Book 6) Page 23