Covert Talents

by Amy DuBoff

  Ava glanced at Luke. “Oh, come now. We’ll all be part of the Federation soon enough, right?”

  “They issued her credentials. The system would have flagged her if it was a problem,” Luke interjected.

  “You a native of Coraxa?” the guard asked Ava.

  “I am.”

  “Ah, that’s it. Locals are an exception.”

  She breathed an inward sigh of relief. “I’m excited to see what new industry has come to my hometown,” she said with a cheery tone to mask the sarcasm behind her words.

  “Enjoy your visit.” The guard handed back her badge.

  “Thanks, have a good afternoon.” Ava stepped through the archway after Luke.

  They passed through a secured entry and entered a white hallway lined with doors.

  “That was way more intense than I expected,” Ava said as soon as the outer door was closed.

  “Lots of IP in there. Just want to make sure nothing walks out that’s not supposed to,” Luke replied. An upward shift in his eyes indicated that he was filtering his response for the benefit of the surveillance system.

  “I appreciate their dedication.”

  Luke picked up his pace. “It’s a top-notch group.”

  “You’re just saying that because you work here,” Ava jested.

  “Hey, I never said the opinion wasn’t biased.”

  “Yeah, whatever. Get this tour going.”

  Luke led her down the hall to an intersection and took a left. The hall opened into a common room filled with round tables. A buffet line was set up along the back wall, and the right wall was an expansive screen depicting nature images ranging from majestic landscapes to little fuzzy critters.

  He held out his arm in grand fashion. “I present you, the cafeteria.”

  Ava had made up the lunch room ruse at the front desk, but she did have to admit the room beat the mess hall at FDG headquarters hands down. “All right, I’m impressed.”

  “But I know what you really wanted to see was my workspace.” Luke crossed the cafeteria, heading for a door on the opposite wall.

  “Just curious how you spend your day,” she replied for the camera’s benefit. And getting some time on the network wouldn’t be all bad…

  After a brief walk down the hall beyond the cafeteria, the corridor terminated in an open space filled with workstations. A dozen individuals were scattered around the room, and they looked up with curious expressions when Ava entered.

  “Everyone, this is my friend Ava,” Luke introduced. “She’s an old friend of mine. We grew up together.”

  “Oh, another Coraxan native?” a thin man with dark complexion commented from a nearby station.

  “Yeah, I am,” Ava replied.

  “You have any of those special gifts everyone’s always talking about?” he asked.

  “She does,” Luke replied before Ava had a chance to stop him.

  “Really?” the man’s eyes widened. “What can you do?”

  “Oh, nothing too special,” Ava replied, casting a silencing glare toward Luke.

  “One of the gifted, huh?” a musical female voice said from across the room. “Now that’s something I have yet to see.”

  “Dr. Mason!” Luke’s face flushed. “I wasn’t expecting to see you over here.”

  “You know how I like to make the rounds.” The raven-haired woman fixed her gaze on Ava. “Who’s your friend?”

  “Ava, ma’am,” she replied. “And you are…?”

  “Andrea Mason. You might consider me the director of this facility.”

  “Well, it’s a lovely place you have here,” Ava said. “I can’t believe how much has changed since I was last in Tribeca.”

  “NTech always hopes to leave a positive impact on our communities,” Andrea said with too-sweet a smile. “I’ve been so curious about the abilities of the native population here.”

  “We’re not exactly native,” Ava corrected. “Our people colonized here the same time as the other human- and Torcellan-occupied worlds in this sector.”

  “Of course. And that makes it all the more fascinating that you so rapidly developed your unique connection with the Etheric.” She folded her hands in front of her. “How old were you when your gifts emerged?”

  Ava shrugged. “Around eight.”

  “That’s young, isn’t it? You must be very talented.”

  “There isn’t necessarily a link between the age when abilities emerge and their strength,” Ava said, skirting the truth. While it wasn’t always linked, in her case that had very much been the reality. Whereas the average age for a first Reading came around twelve, the early emergence of abilities had given her extra time with the elders to learn and study the craft.

  Had she stayed with them, she likely would have been the most powerful Reader in two generations.

  “I didn’t mean to imply,” Andrea said in that sickening sweet tone. “You must forgive me—I’ve never had the chance to meet anyone of your talents before.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you’ve met far more interesting people than me.” Ava took a subconscious step back and instinctually bolstered her mental guards.

  “We were in the middle of our tour, ma’am,” Luke said, seeming to pick up on Ava’s discomfort. “We have to be out of here by 17:00.”

  “Nonsense. We wouldn’t be here without the support of the Coraxans,” Andrea replied. “Ava, you’re welcome any time.”

  “That’s very generous of you, ma’am. Thank you.”

  “In fact,” the director continued, “I’d love to have the chance to meet with you in a more formal capacity.”

  The question caught Ava off-guard. “Uh… Well, I’m here on vacation, actually.”

  “I’d compensate you for your time, of course. I’d just like to understand better how you do what you can do.”

  The last thing I need is the director of this freakshow tracking my every move. Ava gave a polite bow of her head. “I appreciate your interest, but I’m—”

  “That’s a generous offer, Dr. Mason,” Luke cut in. “I think that might be just what Ava needs to reconnect with herself. That is why you came back here, right?” he asked while turning toward her.

  Ava resisted the urge to punch him in that gorgeous jaw of his. “Yes, just what I need,” she responded to him tightly, and returned her focus to the director. “Thank you, Dr. Mason.”

  “Call me Andrea, please.” She flashed a smile bordering on predatory. “Come in with Luke tomorrow morning and we’ll get to know each other.”

  “Can’t wait.”

  “If you’ll excuse me.” Andrea passed by them with a nod of farewell and disappeared into the hall.

  Ava glared at Luke and mouthed, “The fuck…?”

  He took her by the arm and led her toward a private office. “Now, Ava, aren’t you looking forward to being a guest in this facility? You’ll get to see so much more of it.”

  “Yes, right alongside the director.”

  “Dr. Mason is very busy, unfortunately. I doubt she’ll be able to spend all her time with you.”

  Ava caught on. And might leave me unattended in a place I couldn’t access otherwise. There were no guarantees, but it was worth a shot. She chose her words carefully in case anyone was listening in. “I look forward to whatever time with her I can get.”

  Luke looked around the room. “So, anyway, this is my office.”

  The room was approximately three meters square and contained a desk, a holographic workboard, and two visitor chairs.

  “It’s nice.” Ava eyed the desk. “I bet with a setup like this, you don’t have to leave to access all the files you might need for a project.”

  “My login is restricted, of course, but the facility is networked.”

  What I wouldn’t give to have Samantha or Nick here right now, Ava lamented. Her own hacking skills were nothing to dismiss, but her FDG teammates were the real masters. She only nodded in response.

  ***

  Andrea smiled to herse
lf as she walked away from the lab’s latest visitor. In all her research, she hadn’t had access to someone of Ava’s talents; it was the one gap in her otherwise rigorous exercise of the scientific method. With all the potential knowledge to be gained, Ava might be an unmodified human worthy of Andrea’s attention.

  She strolled to her office deep within the facility—down the secret D Wing only a select few knew how to access. Andrea had overseen the design and construction personally to make sure it fulfilled her vision.

  The observation room only had a single occupant: a brown-haired man named Jared who had replaced Tim after his unfortunate ‘accident’.

  “Jared,” Andrea addressed as she walked through the room, “I’d like you to look into a new visitor for me.”

  “Who, ma’am?”

  “First name is ‘Ava’. You should be able to find out the rest from her records at the front desk.”

  Jared made several entries on his monitor. “Full name is Ava Landyn. According to her public biometric records, she’s active duty FDG.”

  “FDG?” Events weren’t unfolding quite how Andrea had anticipated, but it made sense, given the break-in at the moon lab several days prior. She crossed her arms. “Does it say anything about her past assignments?”

  “No, sorry, ma’am. There’s a note that she’s on leave at the moment, but otherwise the details of her service records are classified.”

  “Of course. Anyone working in military intelligence can’t have their mission history out there on display.”

  “Would you like me to look into her?” Jared offered.

  Andrea shook her head. “It doesn’t take much speculation to figure out what a telepath with the FDG might specialize in.”

  Jared’s eyes lit up. “Oh, she’s one of the gifted?”

  “So I’ve heard.”

  A slow smile spread across the other scientist’s face. “That makes things interesting.”

  “It does, doesn’t it?” Andrea had a feeling Jared was going to work out much better than his predecessor. “Keep an eye on her. She might be just the case study we’ve needed.”

  “I will.” Jared paused. “And what about that information regarding the FDG mobilization around Nezar?”

  “Not an immediate concern. We must focus on our task at hand. Our benefactors won’t wait much longer.”

  She moseyed across the observation room to the corridor containing the holding cells for her test subjects.

  The one hundred Werepeople had taken years and significant resources to apprehend, but studying their nanocytes had given Andrea the breakthrough she needed to begin manipulating the technology. Coupled with the technical specifications furnished by her outside collaborators, she had been able drill down to the base level of nanocyte programming and design.

  The Kurtherians were incredible at math, but they didn’t seem to share in some of their core beliefs, and certainly didn’t share a desire to merge their nanocyte programs.

  The whole concept must have been anathema to them.

  When she compared the nanocytes of the Weres with her own, which granted her vampiric abilities, she had finally determined the common elements. During Stage Two of the trials, her vampiric abilities had been merged with Were traits. The treatment had only taken in two individuals, but those results still brought a smile to her face.

  Andrea approached the front plexiglass wall of Melissa’s cell—the spirited Were who would have had Tim free her and unleash the unstable nanocytes into the universe. “How are you feeling today?”

  Melissa glared back from her cot. “Where’s Tim? I know you found out about us.”

  “I’m afraid Tim no longer works here.”

  “What did you do to him?!” Melissa launched toward the plexiglass. Her nails had transformed into claws by the time she struck her hands against the transparent wall. Her eyes raged orange, and her mouth contorted into the beginnings of a vicious snout.

  “I killed him with my bare hands.” Andrea flashed her eyes red to taunt the other woman.

  Melissa snarled and raked her claws against the glass. “I’ll fucking kill you, bitch!” The words were barely intelligible in her half-transformed state.

  “He didn’t even put up a fight.”

  The pale gown that clothed Melissa ripped as her shoulders broadened, and a dark coat grew to cover her pale skin. She howled in agony and raked the walls of her cell, her claws tearing ribbons from the white plastic sheeting. The speed of her movements seemed to accelerate until she was almost in two places at once.

  It was vampiric speed, if Andrea had ever seen it.

  Andrea accelerated her own perception to better observe the Hochste’s movements. The fluidity and deadly force was a more perfect hybrid of abilities than she could have ever hoped to achieve.

  After two minutes of struggling, Melissa collapsed to the floor panting. She returned to her human form, her gown in tatters.

  “Thank you for the demonstration. It was quite enlightening.” Andrea turned from the glass. “You’ll be reunited with your Tim soon enough.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  What the hell is the FDG up to? The classified fleet orders that had passed through Karen’s desk on the way to the media had left her confused and worried. There wasn’t supposed to be any military action against the Nezarans—at least, not yet.

  She drummed her fingers on her desktop, trying to decide what would happen next.

  With the negotiations to become a vassal to the Etheric Federation in full swing, any political or military move would be magnified—it’s what they had been counting on with Karen’s placement in the president’s office—but any unanticipated actions also threatened their plans. The timing needed to be right.

  The shared history of the Nezarans and Alucians forever tied the two groups together, tracing back to when the alien worlds had been settled by humans and Torcellans as their people blended. With the Alucians committed to joining the Federation, the Nezarans had little choice other than to go along for the ride—unless they took drastic action.

  Karen’s role would do just that—a presidential assassination staged to look like a betrayal by the Federation. If handled correctly, it would be enough to reverse the discussions and guarantee the system’s independence.

  But that groundwork would all be undone if the Federation wiped out Nezar before Alucia had a chance to withdraw from the vassal agreement.

  Karen knew how much was riding on her, but the latest development with FDG activity could make all of her preparations moot. An FDG move against the Nezarans meant that Alucia and Nezar were no longer being treated as an inseparable pair—one was in the Federation and the other was out. If the Nezarans were left on their own… it wouldn’t go well.

  Uncertainty got the better of her, and she sent an encrypted message to her anonymous contact: >>Does this change the timeline?<<

  The reply came back a minute later: >>We will let you know when to act.<<

  She bit back her frustration.

  “Karen Carter,” the voice over the intercom interrupted her brooding. “Your services are needed in the president’s office.”

  Her heart leaped. They just told me to wait! Then she remembered her place and the other job she was there to do. “On my way,” she replied.

  Karen grabbed her tablet and hurried from her office.

  She took the elevator up two floors to the president’s suite, swiping her hand over the biometric lock. In seconds, the doors opened to a lobby floored with marble. Holographic overlays of news reports scrolled across the left wall. To the right, a slim young man of Torcellan descent sat at a reception desk.

  “Hi, Leon,” Karen greeted. “The president wanted to see me?”

  “Yes, go right in.”

  Karen took a steadying breath and walked straight ahead to the double-doors, passing by two security guards dressed in black. They nodded to her.

  She rapped on the door.

  “Come in.”

  Sw
inging the door inward, Karen composed her face in a polite smile. “How may I assist you, Mr. President?” She closed the door behind her.

  The roomy office had windows looking out over the city and the ice-filled river along the southern border. Afternoon winter sun cast long shadows across the icy landscape, illuminating the city in an uncharacteristic warm glow. The reflecting light gave the president a vibrant appearance, which was at odds in Karen’s mind with her knowledge of his imminent death.

  “I need to prepare a statement,” President Connors replied.

  Karen activated her tablet. “Subject, sir?”

  “That damned information leak about the FDG making a move on Nezar.”

  “What do you mean, sir? I thought—”

  “Those weren’t genuine orders,” the president grunted. “Fucking colossal miscommunication.”

  It went without saying that particular phrasing wouldn’t make it into the press release. “How do you want to play this, sir?”

  Karen would need to put her own spin on it, regardless of what was released in the official statement. Someone had intentionally fed her false information. If that wasn’t genuine, how much else has been doctored?

  She swallowed and gripped her stylus tighter.

  President Connors stroked his chin. “We need to look unified. The Alucians and Nezarans settled our homeworlds of ice and fire at the same time, and we are bound to each other. We must stand by one another and approach the future with our mutual interests at the forefront. Though we have not always agreed on every matter, we have made great strides toward establishing that shared vision for a better future. With the opportunity to bind our great nations to the Etheric Federation, we will soon be able to take an even greater step forward.

  “The rumors about FDG fleet movement toward Nezar are false. Alucia stands with Nezar now and into the future. We would not have reached this stage of negotiations with the Federation if we did not believe it would bring us a better future, and we will continue in good faith knowing that our new allies can be trusted with our lives.

  “No false rumors will come between us. Alucia and Nezar will soon be united with the Etheric Federation, and a new era can begin.”