Diplomatic Agent (The Empress' Spy Book 4)

by S. E. Weir

  Perhaps she just needed to make sure she took a mental break each day, even if she was super busy.

  Phina wandered the park for a while before she flung herself down on the simulated grass and closed her eyes, letting her thoughts drift.

  After a few puzzle pieces in her situation shifted into focus, she had a better idea as to how she should tackle the tension. Relief filled her now that she had a definite game plan.

  She pulled out her tablet and sat up before bringing up the app that allowed her to call her family.

  She needed to see one person in particular.

  Excited shrieks pierced the biodome when the call connected. “Phina! I can’t believe you’re finally calling!”

  After a beat, Alina’s face came into focus. “Wait a minute, I’m mad at you! What’s taken you so long to call? I’ve been waiting forever!”

  “I’m sorry, Alina.” Phina felt a pang when she realized how much she had missed her friend and seeing the hurt on Alina’s face. “I go to bed every night exhausted. All my time has been spent training or accomplishing my mission here.”

  “Well, I’ll forgive you if you tell me what you’ve been doing.”

  Phina ignored the determined glint in Alina’s eyes and shook her head. “You know I can’t do that.”

  “I don’t know anything except we made a pinky promise in third grade not to keep secrets from each other after that mix-up about Jesse Hamlin.” Alina crossed her arms in an attempt to seem tougher while still holding the tablet.

  Grimacing, Phina shook her head and tried to ignore the guilt trip Alina was heaping on her. “That was more than ten years ago, Alina, and it doesn’t count when it’s a top-secret mission.”

  Alina’s gaze narrowed. “Pinky promises are forever, Phina. If you can’t trust pinky promises, you can’t trust anything.”

  A shadow moved behind Alina. Phina saw two large arms coming around from behind her friend, which would have alarmed her had she not recognized them.

  “Malyshka, why are you giving Phina a hard time for doing her job?”

  Alina turned her face up with a wide smile. “Maxim, you’re home!”

  The joy on her face sparked a pang in Phina’s heart. She missed her best friend so much, and she was missing out on her life by being away. It made her miss Todd even more. Being away from both of them so long was harder than she had thought it would be. A week home between missions hadn’t been nearly long enough.

  “I wasn’t giving Phina a hard time.” Alina sounded mulish. “I was just reminding her that she needed to share with her best friend and that keeping secrets will get her nowhere.”

  Phina turned away, the stress and tension she had shed before beginning to come back.

  “Alina,” Maxim chided gently. “You are being unreasonable. You know Phina isn’t allowed to talk about everything with me either, and I have a higher clearance than you do.”

  “I have the highest clearance. I’m her best friend,” Alina insisted.

  Phina saw Maxim giving his wife a look that caused Alina’s face to crumble. “I know, I know. It’s just...I miss her.” She turned her teary face to the screen. “I miss you, Phina. I hate it that you’re gone.”

  “I miss you too, Alina.” Phina spoke softly, wiping away stray tears. “I can’t do all that much about it, though, and this won’t be the last time it happens. I promise I will tell you everything I can when I’m done. I’ll call sooner, too.”

  “You better, or I’m going to thump you in the arm. I don’t care how fast you are now. I’ll chase you down.”

  Alina put on a tough face for a few beats before they both broke down into giggles.

  Maxim sighed but had a smile on his face as he lightly squeezed Alina’s shoulders.

  Alina grinned as she wiped away the stray remnants of tears on her face. “So, now that that’s out of the way, are there any cute guys there?”

  Phina sighed, but she couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips. Alina could always cheer her up. The tension began to leave her again.

  “Forget guys,” Phina teased. “You should see where I’m sitting now. This place is amazing.”

  Alina straightened with a gleam in her eye. “Tell me everything that’s not about the mission? And don’t leave out the men, either.”

  Grinning, Phina proceeded to do just that.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Gaitune-67, Spy Corps Headquarters and Base, Large Training Room

  “Attention!”

  Phina straightened, her gaze moving to the front of the room where Jack Kaiser stood, his eyes blazing with a fierce light.

  “Agent Shaw has told me you lot have requested a competition to test your skills and settle which one of you is the best.” His gaze raked the group of trainees, causing some to stiffen in their spots. “Since you asked so nicely, Agent Shaw has decided to oblige you. As your training and the determination of your skills isn’t up to you, we have decided to push you farther than you have yet been pushed.” His voice was mocking as he turned to Cade and Jasper. “After all, the best trainee will win, right?”

  He glanced at Phina with a harsh glint in his eye she hadn’t seen since she had first arrived. What sludge had gotten into his engine?

  Cade and Jasper froze, their focus on the beta agent. It was just as well Jack had moved on. The two of them weren’t capable of answering coherently.

  “You will enter a series of tests. Everyone will test on each weapon, even if you have never picked it up before. Tomorrow, you will fight one of us three for up to five minutes. After that, there will be one more task for you all to accomplish. Are you ready?”

  Most of the agents currently in residence at the base stood lining the sides of the room. At his question, they all hissed an agreement that gave Phina chills.

  Jack gave the trainees a harsh grin. “Then let the games begin. It may or may not be fun for you, but it will definitely be fun for us.”

  Phina had a feeling it would be a long day.

  Scratch that. A long week.

  Shaw stood with his arms crossed during the weapons challenges. Each student had been paired with another student until there was a clear winner. Two winners were paired in the next round, and so on until an overall winner was declared.

  Over the past several days, they had tested everyone on throwing daggers, knife fighting, shurikens, crossbows, single sword, dual swords, katanas, and batons.

  Phina had asked him one day if there was a reason the training aligned with that of an assassin. He had told her it was because spies often had to utilize the skills of one or they could be caught or killed. He would never forget her response.

  “Are you certain you aren’t just trying to make being a spy spicier?” Phina had frowned as she threw a mat to the side of the room. “I would think acting, negotiation, and deflection skills would be more effective in many circumstances.”

  His mouth had fallen open. “Spicier?”

  She had shrugged and walked away to pick up another mat. “You know, hot, cool, more exciting, special... That kind of thing.”

  “Right.” He’d pulled his gaze away from her. What had they been talking about again? “Well, those skills would come in handy, too.”

  “Are those skills taught to the trainees here?”

  “No.” He had rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably. “They are more specialized skills established agents get taught.”

  She had straightened from bending over to pick up another mat and turned to him with a frown. “That seems shortsighted.”

  He had shaken his head again to clear it. “What?”

  She’d sighed, tired and impatient. “It’s stupid not to emphasize those skills. Those should be commonly taught Spy Corps skills, not specialized ones.”

  “Well, that’s how things have been.”

  “Well, you can be damn sure that’s not how they will continue,” she had muttered as she’d walked away from him. “I never thought I would find value in commu
nication skills, but leaving them the way things are isn’t smart.”

  Shaw shook his head now, bringing his thoughts back to the present. He could believe she had that sort of pull with Greyson Wells as her mentor. The comment had made him wonder if the alpha agent had been grooming her to take over his position in Spy Corps. He didn’t know what to make of that.

  The competition had moved to the shooting range with half the trainees walking forward to take their place across the room from their targets. They would shoot five rounds at each target placed at ten, twenty-five, fifty, and one hundred feet away. They would be ranked according to their scores.

  Since Jack Kaiser was a control freak on his best day, he had taken on the task of calling out the commands. Shaw would be reviewing the computerized scores to make certain there were no errors once they finished.

  “Range is hot!” Jack called.

  The trainees picked up their pistols, loaded their ammunition, and one by one, stood waiting with the barrels pointed at the floor. This etiquette had been drilled into them over the last several weeks.

  Shaw glanced at Phina, who was in the second group of trainees to shoot. However, she currently stood at the side of the room behind the firing line with her arms crossed, frowning. He followed her line of sight to see Cade standing at the line with his finger inside the trigger guard.

  “Cade,” he called, causing the young man to jerk toward him and fire a round into the padded wall at the side of the range.

  Shaw scowled at the man, who appeared both angry and embarrassed. “Get your finger out of that trigger guard. This is exactly why that rule exists.”

  He heard agents behind him snickering. “Moron,” someone muttered.

  Cade’s face turned dark with anger, but he remained silent as he corrected his stance.

  When everyone was ready, Shaw gave Jack a nod. Jack called, “Commence firing.”

  Shots fired down the line. Shaw assessed the trainees from his position behind them. Most of them did fine, but no one stood out until he observed Jahlek calmly placing round after round into each bullseye.

  “Cease firing!” Jack called.

  Shaw sent the unspoken request to the base’s EI to reset the targets and bring the marked targets forward. After a flurry of machinery, Shaw had them in hand. He sat down to check the scores while Jack declared the range to be cold, and the trainee groups switched positions.

  He glanced up briefly to make sure everyone was following the proper protocol before continuing his calculations as Jack called the commands.

  Phina stood on Shaw’s left side, lifting her weapons one after another and smoothly firing them into the center of the targets. No one watching her would think she hadn’t fired a gun before a few weeks ago.

  “Cease fire!”

  The sound of shots firing died down. Once Jack was satisfied that all the guns were on the tables next to the trainees, he declared the range cold.

  Shaw pulled the targets from the second group and compared them to the first. There was a clear delineation of talent between the top four people and the rest, with one outlier in between them.

  The buzz of conversation rose as he stood and folded his arms behind his back, a habit he had picked up in the Marines.

  “Attention in the room!” Jack called.

  The buzzing died down, everyone’s focus on Shaw. “Cade, you failed outright for disregarding basic range safety.”

  Cade opened his mouth to argue, then changed his mind when he saw the resolute expression on Shaw’s face.

  Shaw nodded. “Continuing. In fourth place, we have Kabaka Annane.”

  Cheers sounded from around the room as the friendly man straightened with a surprised smile.

  “In third place, Savas.”

  The cheers sounded more muted than they had been for Kabaka. The Shrillexian thrust his chin out with a nod. Shaw wasn’t certain if that meant Savas felt happy or frustrated about his placement.

  “In second place, Phina Waters.”

  Almost everyone cheered. Looking around, Shaw felt certain some of them didn’t want to offend the alpha agent’s protégé in front of the staff, while others felt genuine respect. He had caught several agents peeking in at Phina while she was training, interested in Greyson’s recruit. She never acknowledged them, let alone allowed herself to be distracted by them.

  Phina merely nodded at the placement and smiled toward the crowd.

  “In first place, Jahlek!”

  A mixture of excited cheering and polite clapping sounded for the Noel-ni.

  “That concludes the competition for tonight,” Jack announced. “The rest of the skills assessments will take place tomorrow. Dismissed!”

  Shaw stood with his arms crossed as everyone mingled and chatted, exiting the shooting range into the hangar.

  He glanced around the room, catching sight of Jack’s conflicted expression. He followed the man’s gaze to see Phina quietly putting her equipment away.

  Frowning, Shaw glanced between the two of them. Phina seemed oblivious to the attention, but Jack hardly blinked as he stared at her.

  After Phina walked away, Shaw thought about talking to the beta agent but decided against it. He didn’t know what the man’s deal was, but Shaw knew his own conflicting thoughts about the younger woman.

  Could a chestnut-haired beauty with an all-too-knowing gleam in her eye sway him from fulfilling his duty?

  Once more, the dedicated and devoted man came into the presence of his Empress. This time, he entered not with a sense of eager fulfillment of his duty but with anxiety and concern.

  “Report.”

  The Empress’ dry voice caused his throat to close, and he struggled with his words.

  “Y-yes, my Empress.” He bowed his head. “I regret that I have not yet been able to complete my duty.”

  “I have noticed.” The tone of her words sharpened. “I have noticed and am deeply disappointed that you have yet to carry out the mission I gave you.”

  “I understand, my Empress,” the man whispered.

  “Do you?” She stared sternly at the bowing man. “You understand that you have disobeyed my express wish?”

  “Yes, my Empress.”

  “Do you understand that you have only one more chance to fulfill my prior order?” she pressed.

  His shoulders stiffened. “Yes, my Empress.”

  “And the penalty for failing?” Her voice turned harsh.

  The man swallowed roughly before responding. “Yes, my Empress.”

  “Good. I’ll give you three days.”

  “Three...” He caught himself and nodded in determination. “Yes, my Empress. In three days, the traitor Phina Waters will be killed according to your order. Long may the Etheric Empire reign.”

  The Empress dismissed the devoted man, having received the promise she sought. As he left her presence, she thought, Long may the Empire reign indeed.

  Gaitune-67, Spy Corps Headquarters and Base, Large Training Room

  “Attention!”

  Phina straightened as the near-déjà vu scenario took place. She stifled a yawn that wanted to be let loose and examined the training room as Beta Agent Jack Kaiser continued to speak.

  “Today we will focus on individual combat assessments.” He spoke sternly as he paced in front of the trainees. Phina often wondered if the man missed being in the military since he seemed to treat them as if they were all troops to train. “Each person’s bouts will emulate the minor assessments that took place at the beginning of your training.”

  The beta agent stopped at the front and clasped his hands behind his back. “However, this time will be far more difficult. You will begin the bout with each of us while wearing your full loadout. Once the five-minute mark is reached, or you have been disarmed, you will both drop the weapons in your hands and continue the bout hand-to-hand. This will continue until you reach a second five-minute mark or are unable to continue.

  “Any questions?” he asked.

&n
bsp; Jasper raised his hand. Jack’s gaze moved past him as if he couldn’t see him. “No? Good. Remember to follow the instructions of the current referee.”

  After waving his hand and getting no reaction, Jasper lowered it with a scowling grumble she could hear from several feet away. She suppressed a smirk as she followed the instructions that the beta agent called, filing to the side of the room where their weapons and equipment were stored.

  Since Ian was first for assessments and Balehn second, they both geared up.

  Phina leaned against the wall to watch the initial bouts and scanned the room. Her gaze caught on Shaw, who had strapped on his weapons already and stood waiting in the middle of the floor. Over his shoulder, she saw the slim form of Link waiting to see how things would go. When they’d last spoken, he had mentioned he wanted to watch the bouts to see the potential each recruit had for himself.

  “First up, Ian McAllister!”

  Ian nervously tugged on his weapons belt one last time and walked to Shaw. A quick scan of his mind revealed that Ian felt nervous about using real weapons. They had all gotten used to using the Pod-doc after acquiring injuries, but Ian still had an aversion to getting hurt. It was one reason he continually brought up the rear of the pack when utilizing their weapons skills.

  Jack barked out the command to begin. The bout lasted longer than anyone expected, but he barely reached a minute for each phase.

  After resetting his weapons, Ian went against Masha, then Jack. Both bouts were lackluster and disappointing.

  As they switched out for Balehn, Phina became aware of a conversation several feet to her right. When she tuned in, she realized they were the two agents Shaw had been sitting with when she had first seen him in the dining room weeks ago.

  “Nah, man. You can’t go over there. Shaw warned you off her.”

  “He told us a pack of lies about her being Todd Jenkins’ girlfriend and super important to people. If she’s Jenkins’ girlfriend, why is she here? That makes no sense.”