by Vi Keeland
“Harrick, just monitor the channels and keep me informed. If anything changes radio only me on my secure channel.” Dallas checked the charge on his Treljon laser before holstering it. “I’m taking Thaegan with me. The rest of you sit tight. Jones, you be ready for that interview. We’ll hook up with Bastower and Lelkin, see Tervoss safely through his speech and back to his transport and continue with our plans to take down Grebetz at the tavern.”
His partner stared at him, a knowing look passing between them. In that instant, they both understood the interview at the tavern had been a ruse to keep the QAL contingent occupied on the desolate planet. The Ambassador’s unscheduled visit to Garalon Five had no doubt been planned weeks in advance—and someone had known about it. Someone who intended to make sure the man didn’t live long enough to be inaugurated.
As he and Thaegan passed through the wall at a dead run, Dallas didn’t want to think his night with a beautiful woman—a woman who had wiggled her way straight into his heart—had been nothing more than an assassin’s very convincing fact finding mission.
She’d seen him. He had to be here somewhere.
It hadn’t been ten minutes since she’d seen the asshole on the televid. Lilly had known the minute she’d hit the crowded street and seen the lights of luna cabs backed up for blocks that there would be no getting through the backed-up traffic. Obviously the surprise visit by Ambassador Tervoss was no longer a surprise to anyone in the Plaintar Quadrant of Garalon Five.
Lilly had sprinted the distance from the hotel to the landing site in seven minutes flat—and in heels no less. But as she pushed through the crowd, the Drikspa was nowhere to be seen. There was no way in hell that dickwad slave runner was getting away from here. Lilly didn’t give a shit if the guy had a bounty on his head. She’d mete out some of her own justice if the authorities didn’t want to listen to her story.
The way he’d been moving around the podium, Lilly was sure the alien was part of the security detail. She laughed in disgust. Wouldn’t that be just the way? It seemed QAL just continued to protect the criminals in its midst and punish the innocent. Assholes. Revenge tore through her, hot and hard, solidifying her resolve. The Drikspa would pay—not for what he’d done to her—but for the nearly one hundred souls he’d stolen from Earth.
Revenge was a mighty sword and she’d wield hers with deadly force.
This night she would not be denied. Lilly had been in enough dangerous situations to know how to take out one slave-running scum-bucket of a Drikspa and slip away undetected and unharmed. Searching the crowd, she made note of all the televid cameras readied for the ambassador’s speech. The Ba’alkin dagger lay in her palm, mostly hidden by the long sleeve of her jacket. Whatever she did to take this guy down, it would have to be away from the eyes of viewers. Though with the number of aliens filing onto the tarmac, she wasn’t sure there was anyone in the city sitting at home watching.
The mob pressed forward, anxious to see their future leader who promised so much change. Lilly had believed it was the human colonies inhabiting Reigis Alpha who had voted him in. But this crowd of mixed aliens appeared to be happy to meet the human who would be inaugurated in a few days into the most powerful position in the galaxy.
Lilly reached into the inside pocket of her coat, pulling out the earpiece and the QAL badge she’d had forged on Dallas Eight months ago. She would like to have put on the sunglasses for disguise, but even the flood lights pouring down on the tarmac didn’t make them necessary in the darkness of Garalon Five. Checking her timepiece, Lilly tamped down the panic. It was nearly time for Tervoss to take the podium. She’d wanted to find the Drikspa before he spoke, but perhaps hunting him down would be better done while the crowd was focused on Tervoss’ speech.
Jostled once again, Lilly realized she needed to get out of the growing crowd. She debated working her way to the secured tented area to her left, pushing her way into the thick of Tervoss’ security. But getting close to the Drikspa when he was so intent on studying the crowd, would be difficult for sure. If she was going to take him down without bloodshed, she’d need to do it with secrecy as her advantage.
Lilly searched for another plan. To the right of her, a staging for media had been set up. The front of the platform was lined with televid cameras pointed down at the crowd. Behind them stood several aliens she recognized as city officials. Perhaps from that vantage point she could better scan the crowd.
And that’s when she saw him—behind the media, mingling with dignitaries—the Drikspa who, six months ago, had made her worst nightmares a reality. Her world became a narrow focus of anger, revenge and the alien. He spoke to another Drikspa. Their heads were close together, their eyes surveying the area, wrists lifted to their mouths as they spoke to an unknown entity. Definitely with security. The two looked at each other and nodded before separating and her Drikspa headed off the platform.
But she no longer followed his movements.
The crowd burst into a loud round of applause and she was vaguely aware of Ambassador Tervoss taking his place behind the podium. The roar of the crowd barely penetrated the rush of blood pounding in her ears. Lilly stared in disbelief as the second Drikspa took up position behind the media, hidden among the dignitaries.
The crowd quieted and the ambassador spoke. “Good evening. I’m pleased to be here on Garalon Five…”
But Lilly wasn’t focused on what Tervoss was saying. The Drikspa above the crowd now had her fully attention. Sometimes karma smiled and shined in her direction. The alien above her wasn’t a Drikspa by birth. This alien wore the tattoo of a Braugtot and the marks snaking along his neck to swirl up his cheek and around his left eye were the same ones she’d seen on Grebetz’s communicator last night. Hij’Rozhod. Lilly had no doubt. He’d come here to take out the Commander-elect.
“…will be meeting with the league of galaxies and begin working…”
The Ambassador’s words rolled into the background noise of the crowd around her. The instincts of a detective, honed from years on the Chicago force, kicked into gear without any thought for her safety. Lilly’s own problems would wait. She had probably been the sole witness to the last-minute plans of an assassin whose intended target was Ambassador Tervoss.
She had no time to stop the man above her on the media platform. Bringing attention to him at this point would only leave the ambassador vulnerable to any number of weapons the alien may be carrying. Lilly’s only course of action was to get to the man behind the podium.
Propelling herself through the crowd, Lilly ignored the protests of the aliens she pushed aside. Unapologetically, she flashed the fake badge, her only care—protecting the ambassador. She’d answer to the authorities later. If Hij’Rozhod succeeded, the galaxy would be thrown into turmoil and the criminals would score another win.
In excruciating slow motion, the other Drikspa with the missing horn stepped out of the tent on the far side of the security area. In sight of everyone, he lifted a Treljon laser, aimed it directly at Tervoss and managed to pull off two rounds before being taken down by security. The zip of beams cut through the air, but she couldn’t tell what, if anything, they hit. The ambassador was swarmed by security, blocking him from her view. Screams reverberated as chaos erupted.
Lilly pushed against the flow of the crowd as they swarmed in a panicked mass away from the podium. Tervoss, surrounded by his security team, was pushed directly toward the staging on her right. More security rushed across the platform, clearing the escape route for the ambassador. The Braugtot-Drikspa moved with the contingent, in direct line with the approaching Commander-elect. Her Drikspa had only been the catalyst to put the assassination plan in motion.
She broke through the crowd with the credentials flashing and screamed, “There’s another assassin on the platform!”
A feral yell of frustration roared from her left. “You bitch!”
Lilly turned to see the Drikspa near the stage pull a weapon of some kind from his sleeve. With de
adly precision he shot two of the security guards and sliced a lethal energy beam across the neck of a third. The aliens crumpled at his feet. In the time it took to blink, the Drikspa turned to her, his eyes burning with recognition. The flashes of light blasting from the weapon were nearly blinding in their intensity, the sound of the energy unusually loud in her ears. Pain exploded in her back just before she went down hard on the tarmac.
Fire burned in her gut, spread out to lick hungrily at her arms and legs and explode in her head. Lilly rolled to her back, moaning with the wave of pain the motion brought.
“Lilly.” Her name echoed through the haze of agony. “Lilly.”
She was sure the angels were calling her. When her eyes focused, it was Dallas’ face that swam in her vision. His halo was nearly blinding in its intensity and she shut her eyes against the beauty, hoping he would carry her from the agony crackling along her nerves into the serenity of heaven.
“Oh no you don’t. Lilly, stay with me.” Dallas’ voice broke with emotion. “Open your eyes.”
She forced herself to obey. Deep lines of worry marred his angelic features. “Why are you here…did I…”
“You saved him, Lilly.” She watched Dallas’ hand move down her face, but she couldn’t feel the gentle caress of his fingers against her skin. The scorching pain had been extinguished by ice that now flowed through her veins.
She wanted to talk. To ask who she’d saved, but she couldn’t get her teeth to stop chattering.
“Thanks to you, Thaegan took down Hij’Rozhod.” He leaned in close to her face, his beautiful eyes glistening in the bright lights. “Lilly, you saved the ambassador. Now I’m going to save you.”
Dallas’ voice was a faraway echo that she couldn’t understand. The cold became a roaring black hole, surrounding her in its vortex. It consumed light and sound, dragging her down with it. Lilly wanted to make it stop, to beg Dallas to hold onto her and keep her from getting lost in the darkness. But she couldn’t find him in the swirling vacuum as it engulfed her. The noise and heat and cold and pain disappeared as Lilly was sucked into the blackness alone.
Chapter Ten
Lilly hadn’t expected heaven to feel this way. Everything hurt. Jesus, even her hair follicles pulsed with hundreds of pinpricks of pain. Then it occurred to her, perhaps that wasn’t where her soul had gone. She wondered if she could stay in this darkness and not acknowledge where she was.
“Lilly.”
Inwardly she sighed. She shouldn’t be surprised someone in the bowels of hell knew her.
“Lilly, it’s Dallas. If you can hear me, open your eyes.”
Her lids fluttered, light spearing more pain through her skull. She forced her eyes to focus and he was there, his smile warm and inviting. Had he been sucked into the darkness with her? His happiness made no sense.
“Hi, beautiful,” he said. “You scared the living crap right out of us.”
“Is this hell?” The words were gravel scraped over the soft skin of her throat.
“You’d have thought so if you’d had to put up with him over the last couple of days.” Thaegan leaned in and slapped Dallas on the back.
“You were no picnic with your pacing and hand-wringing, my friend.” Dallas laughed and kissed her forehead. “But no, you’re in a hospital. You were hurt really bad. It’s been touch and go.”
“That explains why I hurt everywhere.”
Dallas offered her water and she drank cautiously, unsure she’d get the liquid past the hot lump of pain in her throat.
“Easy.” He pulled the straw from her mouth. “You’ve been out for a couple of days. They told me to have you go slow. Too much and you’ll puke.” He shrugged. “Despite our best efforts, you haven’t seemed to want to come out of that slumber.”
“I thought I died and went to hell.”
“No, that would’ve been Thaegan’s endless stream of Ka’al prayers he kept repeating in your ear. I kept telling him it was sending you deeper into a coma, not the other way around. But he never listens. Sorry you had to put up with that.”
“Like she was enjoying your reading of Homer. Boring Earth drivel if you ask me.” Thaegan grabbed a chair, turned it backward and sat down with his powerful arms thrown over the back, his hands resting comfortably on her shin. “You certainly were tap dancing this side of death’s door. But thanks to this guy…we had a happier outcome.”
Dallas actually blushed. “I just donated blood.”
“Yeah, indestructible blood.”
If it were possible Dallas’ face deepened in color at Thaegan’s statement. “Well it’s blood-blood, it’s just that…”
“Your body heals faster,” she said. “And obviously isn’t affected by my prowess.” She wiggled her fingers in the air.
“Yeah.” Confusion furrowed Dallas’ brow. “How’d you know?”
“Thaegan told me.”
The alien lifted his hands in surrender when Dallas glared at him. “Hey, I didn’t say a word.”
She hurt too much to laugh at their exchange and simply relaxed into their comfortable banter. “Well, not straight out. More like he mentioned it while I was,” she motioned air quotes, “sleeping.”
“At the cabin?” Dallas asked and she nodded.
“Yeah, we wondered about that Sleeping Beauty routine,” Thaegan said, squeezing her leg.
“What else did you hear?” asked Dallas.
“That you lost someone important to you…to you both,”
Dallas shot Thaegan a look she couldn’t quite discern. “Lilly, we lost several team members in that operation on Canus Delta. Sarah just happened to be one of them. And every one of their deaths weighs heavy on us.”
“You were betrayed by a leak in QAL?”
“Well, that leak’s been plugged.” Thaegan’s hands tapped out a quick rhythm on the chair back. “Not that we give a shit.”
“Who was it?” she asked.
“Bastower,” Dallas replied through clenched teeth.
“What? Didn’t you tell me he was your boss?” Was there no end to the double agents in QAL? “How’d you—”
“Well, we have you to thank for that.” Dallas ran his hand down her hair, letting it rest at the back of her neck, his thumb caressing her cheek. “I saw you on the televid at the news conference. I’d laid down the law about you staying put in your hotel—”
“And he knew how well you always listened.” Thaegan laughed as he reached out again and rubbed her leg. There was comfort in their touches.
“Anyway, the determination on your face shouted loud and clear that you believed something was going down. I wasn’t sure what you were seeing, but a new member had joined our team several months back. A Drikspa, allegedly wounded in the line of duty. It occurred to me the timing aligned with your kidnapping.”
“Bastower had just presented us with some flimsy excuse to pull the Drikspa to Tervoss’ security detail and things began to add up.”
“You also mentioned Grebetz’s boss was a Braugtot—”
“Bastower’s a Braugtot,” Thaegan continued seamlessly. “He’s been everywhere the assassinations have taken place over the past three years because we’ve been chasing Hij’Rozhod.”
“Actually turns out my QAL team was giving him cover,” Dallas said.
“Why would QAL want to assassinate all those government officials?” she asked.
“Not QAL. Bastower,” Thaegan clarified.
“The same reason he had the Drikspa transferred to our team. Two words…”
“Slave trade,” she responded.
Dallas absently brushed hair from her eyes. “At first Hij’Rozhod was simply eliminating anyone publically opposing the slave trade. Over the last few years, he turned his attention to Tervoss’ campaign. Seems having Tervoss or any of his cronies at any level of the planetary governments would have meant a crackdown on their very lucrative business. They’ve been systematically taking out Tervoss’ strongest supporters and filling in the positions wit
h dirty officials who were willing to turn their backs on the problem.”
“And your boss Bastower was involved?” she asked.
“Right up to his hairy Braugtot ass,” replied Thaegan.
Lilly settled deeper in the pillows. “The two were working together at the airstrip then?”
“One causing a distraction…your Drikspa,” Dallas said.
“And one doing the killing…our boss,” Thaegan finished.
Lilly wanted to laugh at the ridiculous way they spoke in tandem. But from their expressions, she assumed they weren’t even aware of it. “They’re both in custody?”
“Nope, dead.” Thaegan said it as if the men had simply gone for a walk. “Dallas shot the Drikspa when he tried to take you out. Pushed you to the ground—”
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough. He managed to get off two shots with some new high-powered luna crystal gun.”
“The weapon’s in government hands now,” Thaegan said.
“You took one shot in the gut and one to the side of your head.” Dallas swallowed hard.
“The man doesn’t give himself enough credit.” He slapped Dallas on the back. “If he hadn’t gotten to you when he did, that second shot would’ve pierced your heart instead of bouncing off that thick skull of yours.” Thaegan smiled.
She ignored Thaegan’s playful jab. “And Bastower?”
“One day in jail convinced the man he wouldn’t have survived the rigors of being a dirty cop in the midst of all those low-lifes looking for revenge,” said Dallas.
“Offed himself with a bed sheet.” Thaegan mimed hanging from a noose, complete with his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth.
Lilly wanted to feel bad, but too many good people had died at the hands of the two aliens. “So it’s over?”