by Lauren Dane
Any hope of bringing the material out to study back in the Federation was dashed. She couldn’t take a risk with any of this. Better to destroy it all and study the data, which appeared to be quite extensive, than to expose anyone to agents that could kill millions.
She was about eighty-five percent done when the lights went off and flickered back again, this time blue.
Vincenz began to remove the respirator but she jogged to him, holding it in place. “No! You can’t.”
“They’ll know there’s been a breach. I need to move easier.”
“You need to not be infected with one of the myriad ugly things in this room. You keep it on or I will kick you in the balls.”
Julian snorted but kept his respirator on as he began to set up where they’d have to defend their position.
“Disable the elevator.”
“I did.” Vincenz glared at her. “You had no right to be in here if this was so dangerous.”
“Be quiet and get your weapons ready.” She turned and went back to her work.
He snarled, but she knew he did exactly that because that was what he needed to do. He’d lecture her later.
She found the virus at the very end, right as Julian and Vincenz began to talk about how the Skorpios had nearly gotten around their blocks. Pfft, they were amateurs and her blocks were very good. Together with Vincenz’s work, they were nearly indestructible.
She had to trust it for at least another five minutes as she uploaded the data and replaced it with their data that would cascade through the system, not only destroying their entire system but any networked into it. That part, the communication to the other networked systems, had been working since she had finished the first station.
Hannah tried not to think about the data that scrolled up as she worked. All the people who’d been experimented on. So many had died horribly painful deaths all for the amusement and power greed of Ciro Fardelle and some of his ministers.
Finishing the last bit, she dropped the gas tab into the containment tubes and watched the gas turn colors as it ate at the contagion and destroyed it.
“Got it.”
Vincenz looked at her one last time to be sure he heard right and then he sent out the command to initiate the internal destruction codes. Each comm screen flickered and then data began to flow in long strings as it all began to collapse.
“I think it’s fair to assume they’re going to be using the internal elevator shaft to override the hold we have on the elevator.”
Julian nodded. “No way around it. We have to shoot our way out.”
Vincenz looked back to Hannah. “Fuck.”
“Just do your super-secret agent business. I know how to keep my head down and also how to use my weapon. Plus, remember you made me put on the vest. Let’s go. The longer we’re here, the more time they have to assemble a defense.”
Vincenz wanted to scream. Instead, he opened the elevator and motioned her inside. “Stay the seven hells down. We’ll do the shooting.”
“If I may,” she had the audacity to say and he narrowed his eyes, “if we keep the masks on they might think we have something with us from in here.”
Julian nodded. “Good idea. It can’t hurt.”
“Hard to see around this respirator.”
“Hard to see with a bullet in your head.” Julian shrugged and Vincenz knew he was right.
He sighed. “Fine. But you still stay the fuck down.”
She moved to the place he indicated as Julian opened the hatch in the ceiling of the elevator to check. “Movement below. Let’s go. Now or never. Kill everyone you come across. We don’t have the time and I sure don’t have the inclination to spare anyone but your mother.”
Hannah sucked in a breath, and he realized he didn’t have the time to worry about the choices he’d made. They were made, and he’d need all of his attention to survive this.
She had her comm out so he waited until she’d finished, knowing she had a plan.
“I’ve disabled the light and sound announcements for when the elevator arrives on a floor.”
“I’d kiss you for that, but you’ll have to wait.” Smart, their woman.
“All right, let’s do this.” He pushed the button and they began to descend.
They heard the Klaxons even before they’d arrived down in his father’s office. It was clear their presence had been detected. He had a moment to worry over his mother before the doors slid open and he and Julian took as much cover as they could and began to shoot at whatever was waiting for them.
Hannah held up a hand grasping a silver cylinder.
“Back, you fools!” one of the Skorpios ordered.
Vincenz recognized that voice. Davis Dolce, the head of the Skorpios. The man who’d personally trained him.
The soldiers scrambled backward, weapons still aimed.
Vincenz had no use for any of them and so he and Julian took as many out as they could. Which turned out to be quite a few. One-handed, he grabbed Hannah, who’d attempted to stand on shaky legs, and hauled her out, keeping her behind him.
“What do you want?” Davis called out from his cover behind the throne.
Julian shot the throne with a pulse blaster and it cracked, falling apart.
“Where is he, Davis?”
“Vincenz?” Davis broke cover and stood alongside the rubble, making himself a target. “Is that you?”
He nodded and Davis threw his weapon down and went to one knee. “I pledge my fealty to you.”
Well, that was unexpected.
Vincenz noted the remaining Skorpios had faltered at the sight of their commander on his knee. He lowered his weapon slightly and Hannah whacked his arm. “What are you doing!”
There was no way this was a trick. Most of the Skorpios corps might be addicted to his father’s special bars loaded with stimulants and drugs, but they didn’t surrender. Not even as a feint.
“It’s all right.” He nodded toward the doors. “Julian, secure the space.”
“I’ll take the weapons.” Before he could argue with Hannah, she’d simply started to do it.
He growled. “Take care that they’re dead before you go touching them.” He turned his attention back to the soldier and ignored Hannah’s grumble. “Stand up, Davis.”
He did. “May I approach, sire?”
He was no one’s sire. But suddenly he understood Ellis’s offer better. If these men followed him, they could not only destroy his father’s lab but his father’s rule.
“Yes.” He pulled the respirator off and Hannah threw her hands up in disgust.
“It is you.” He clasped forearms with Vincenz. “Seven hells, it’s good to see you. I thought you were dead.”
“Not yet, but maybe soon. Who else is coming? What are we facing?” Vincenz simply took command as he’d been taught to do.
“I can handle my men. Rank and file are in the outer halls and in the streets though.”
“Where is my father?”
“He was heading toward your mother’s chambers.” Davis’s face paled and Vincenz felt sick. “One of your informants was picked up earlier and confessed. Not that it was you. But not many can stand up to torture.”
Vincenz headed to the door and Hannah grabbed his arm, digging her heels in. “Not so fast. Make a plan first! You can’t help her if you rush out there.” She pulled her respirator and hat off, her hair all over the place as she shoved it back with her free hand.
“Hold for a moment.” Davis spoke into his wrist mic, sending his men toward Esta’s rooms with orders to let no one but him past. “Let’s go.”
They burst from the throne room and began an all-out run.
So well trained were Davis’s men that not a one lifted a weapon, even when they saw Davis wasn’t alone.
Vincenz kicked the doors open and went into a crouch as Julian swept the room on his left.
Hannah rushed past them both toward the place where Esta lay, crumpled and bleeding on the pale blue carpet.
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“I need some first-aid supplies. Now!” she barked at one of the soldiers, who quickly dug through his pack and gave her one. “Vincenz …” She licked her lips. “She needs you now.”
Hannah pulled her old gloves off and Julian helped her with the new ones before she threw herself into doctor mode.
Esta looked up at Vincenz as he fell to his knees on a broken cry. “Mai, I’m here. Hannah is a doctor. She’s going to fix you. Where is he?”
“In my bedchamber.” Even Vincenz heard the liquid in her voice.
Julian rushed past them, bursting through the doors only to come back some moments later. “He’s dead.”
Esta winced as Hannah tore open the front of her blouse. “I’m sorry. I need to get to your wound.”
A wound it was. Close-fire blaster shot.
Hannah didn’t even pause, didn’t pale, just continued to work, cleaning, using a paste to deaden the nerves for pain relief. Her hands were gentle but her eyes held sorrow.
“He didn’t expect me to kill him.” His mother clasped his hand. “That’s why he’s dead now. I always expected him to kill me.”
Hannah packed the wound. “Are you injured anywhere else?”
“Just there.” She coughed, the blood bright red. Hannah handed him a clean cloth with one hand while she worked on his mother with the other. Vincenz wiped his mother’s mouth and chin, relentlessly holding back the sob boiling up in his gut.
“He’s dead. You won. We’re going to get you better.”
His mother shook her head. “No, you won’t. I’m dead now, even if you won’t admit it. Please know I did everything I could to keep you and Carina safe. I love you both so much. I’ll be sorry not to hold your babies.”
“She’s married now. To the soldier who escorted her out of here.” Julian crouched next to them. “You did a good job with your children, Mrs. Fardelle.”
A sob broke from Vincenz as he watched his mother work to take each breath.
“Do something!” he yelled at Hannah, who flinched, but kept working.
Julian reached out and squeezed his forearm. “She is, Vin.”
“A Fardelle has held this place for generations.” Esta paused to take another breath, growing more pale with each moment. “Don’t let that end. Be the man your father wasn’t.”
“Mai, please. Please don’t let go.”
“I can’t hold any longer. I am grateful I was able to see you once more. I love you. Tell your sister I said the same of her.” Her hold on his hand loosened as she slipped from this life.
It was as if all the things holding him up simply dissolved and he collapsed into a heap over her body, shoving Hannah’s hands out of the way.
Hannah watched him fall apart. Watched all that careful reserve wisp away as he wept over his mother’s body. Wept over the woman she couldn’t save, even after Vincenz had saved Hannah.
Julian stood and addressed the man Vincenz had called Davis. “What is the status of your men?”
“We’re under Vincenz’s command. With Ciro dead, I don’t foresee much resistance from our rank and file. But …”
“Speak freely.”
The man looked Julian up and down and then over to Vincenz before he spoke again. “Ciro had ministers instrumental in whatever nightmares he had brewing in the lab. Once they find out Ciro is dead, they’ll attempt to take over.”
“Let’s be ready to crush that then, shall we?” Julian looked down to Vincenz and squeezed his shoulder. “Cuomo, you need to be present for this.”
Vincenz looked up. The front of his shirt and pants were covered in blood. He took a deep breath and stood.
“Does this mean you’ll be leading us now, Vincenz?”
Hannah said nothing as she watched the man she loved so much pull himself together, wiping his hands on his pants, clearly thinking.
“Yes. Yes, unless there’s someone else in the wings. I understand I have a brother.”
“He’s still in short pants. His mother is barely older than a child herself. Any real challengers have been disappeared. I believe the people would follow you. I believe the military would follow you.”
Vincenz took a deep breath and before her eyes he took on the mantle of leadership. “Have my father’s ministers arrested and brought before me. I need to contact some people on the other side. Get his body out of here. My mother needs to be prepared for interment. The military needs to stand down.”
Hannah stood and handed the kit back to the soldier who’d given it to her. “Thank you.” She noted his pupils and paused. “What is it you’re a slave to?”
He started. “What do you mean?”
“What substance are you addicted to?” It couldn’t be most things or he would be unable to be out in the field. She examined his skin, noting his pores and the hue of his fingertips. A stimulant, given the fingertips.
“It’s the bars.” Another one of the soldiers addressed her. He held up a protein cake of some sort.
“You are given these? On purpose?”
“Yes, ma’am. They give soldiers stamina in the field.”
She sniffed, annoyed. “They create a physical addiction. You don’t need this to be strong in the field. And you certainly don’t need to be beholden to your commanders to receive your daily substance or go into withdrawal. I imagine it’s quite painful.”
“Hannah, we can deal with that later.” Julian tried not to smile. It wasn’t hard for her not to when all she wanted to do was cry.
She nodded and stepped back, not wanting to touch anything because she was covered in blood.
There’d be time to fall apart later. For now, she needed to contact Ravena to transmit the data she’d received. Julian and Vincenz got caught up in whatever they were doing so she asked one of the soldiers to lead her to a comm station, and she set up in a quiet office and began to work. He also brought her some clean clothes and a carafe of kava and some food.
Chapter 28
Vincenz looked up, bleary-eyed, numbed by grief and the sheer immensity of the task he’d agreed to undertake. “Where is Hannah?” He’d meant to reach out to touch her at least a dozen times and each time he’d been interrupted.
“The woman you came in with?” He’d been assigned an assistant already. Julian had been liaising with Ellis, who in turn was working with Roman to accept a peace agreement. They’d all meet sometime soon. His head spun at all the details.
“Yes.”
“I’ll find out.” The man left and Vincenz went back to work.
The man came back some minutes later with a tray of food. “She’s working in the library.”
“Has she been fed? Shown to my rooms?” He stood. “Never mind, I’ll see to her myself.”
It was … odd to walk the halls of this place. The place he’d grown up. Only now he had no parents. He’d been away for years and had come back to sabotage his father only to take over in a bloodless coup.
He reeled, ached, filled with rage and frustrated impotence over his mother’s death. He’d spoken with Carina some time ago and they’d cried together. Thank the gods Daniel had been there with her.
Speeding his steps, he moved to Hannah, needing to know she was all right. Realizing he hadn’t connected with her since that scene in his mother’s rooms. She was probably shaken up from the labs and all the chaos, and he hadn’t been there for her.
And there she was. Still in the same clothing she’d worn earlier. Fatigue all over her features. Wrapped up tight in a blanket, her head on her knees as she looked off into space, seeing nothing.
“Beautiful Hannah, there you are.”
Startled, she jumped and her gaze met his and … the absence of that warmth, that instant connection he felt every time she looked at him, slapped him.
She stood and papers went everywhere. “I’m sorry.” She bent and began to pick them up and he joined her, taking her hands. So cold.
“Sorry?”
She pulled them back and resumed straightening the pap
ers. “I’ve been trying to find someone who’ll get me to town so I can get out but everyone’s been busy.”
He shook his head, confused and alarmed by her behavior. “What are you talking about? I know the day has been … long and horrible. Has someone done something?”
She shook her head and moved to stand, jerky and uncoordinated. He hadn’t seen that in a long time.
“You’re scaring me.”
“Why? Why? Why don’t you leave me alone? I’m trying to go. I couldn’t …” She broke down, and he just didn’t know what to do.
“Go? What are you talking about? Please talk to me. I’m all fucked up and wrung out, I don’t know what you need but I want to give it to you.” He went to his knees but she backed up.
“I still have blood on my clothes.”
He shouldn’t have felt rejected, but he did anyway. “Come to our rooms. We’ll get you a bath. You’ll feel better after a bath and some sleep.”
She dropped her head and her hair swept forward but not before he saw the tears in her eyes.
“You’re scaring me, Hannah.” He stood, being firm. “Come with me.”
She gathered her papers and the blanket, holding them against her body and filling her hands so he couldn’t take them.
“Have you seen Julian lately?” He tried to make small talk as he led her down the hall toward the rooms he’d taken over. Not his father’s. Certainly not his mother’s.
“A few hours ago.”
He’d have to be sure she was taken care of better from then on.
“Have you eaten?” He hated this awkwardness between them. Made him feel out of sorts and cast adrift.
“I’m fine.”
He opened the doors and as he did, someone else came down the hall, hailing him. He turned. “Not now. I’m going to be with my woman for a while. I’ll find you when I’m ready. Can you find Julian please and send him in and have a meal for three brought up?” The man nodded and hurried off to carry out Vincenz’s wishes.
When he turned back she remained, just inside the doors.
He took the stack of papers from her, placing them on a nearby table and closed the doors. “Bath first.”