Cam looked over her shoulder, and she had the horrible, weightless sense of falling away from him. That their connection was being severed.
“Cam.” She kept looking at him until at last he looked her in the eyes again. “I don't want to shut you out, but these are his rules, and I can understand them. I'm guessing you can, too. You would do the same to him, not want him to have access to information you thought he could use against you.”
Cam turned and strode back to the screen and stood, back to her, feet braced, hands fisted at his side.
Imogen closed her eyes, horrified to find tears burning behind them, and took a deep, cleansing breath.
This was bullshit.
When she snapped her eyes open again, Cam had turned, was looking at her, his face tight and unreadable.
“You think this will help us?” His voice was always rough and deep, but now it rumbled.
She nodded, afraid to speak.
“Half an hour,” he said, looking straight at the drone.
Imogen pointed a warning finger at the drone before Oris could say something stupid, like 'you don't tell me how long on my own ship', or something equally idiotic.
“Half an hour,” Oris agreed, his words so stiff and sulky, Imogen almost laughed.
Cam walked back to her, stood close enough she could feel his body heat, smell the fresh, clean scent of him. They were almost touching, but not quite, and there was a promise in the way he held himself back. A sense he was holding back. That he'd prefer to touch, to hold her. He bent his head, his lips almost brushing her ear. “You are sure?”
She nodded again, and a thrill coursed through her as he rested his forehead briefly against hers.
She tried to hold on tight to her caution, to the part of herself she'd kept safe and walled in since she'd been taken, but Cam seemed to have jumped the wall and landed inside with her, and she just wanted to hold him close and feel the joy of the connection.
“Time is wasting.” Oris spoke through the comm system, but he didn't seem impatient, he almost sounded . . . indulgent. “We do have Fitali weapons trained on us.”
Cam drew back, held her gaze for a long moment and then walked out the room.
As the doors closed behind him, Imogen turned and made her way to the screen, trying to shake off the effect he had on her and concentrate. “Do you think they would seriously fire on a Class 5 who hadn't done them any harm? Especially as they're here as illegally as you are.”
“No.” Oris sounded thoughtful. “I think they're just letting me know they have teeth, that they aren't helpless. A Fitali battleship is a powerful vessel. At least on a par with the Grihan equivalent, but neither stands a chance against me.”
“What do you want to do?”
The Fitali ship had shifted since Oris had first brought up the screen, turning, she assumed, to face them.
“It feels strange to be able to do what I want. I keep looking for protocols, then remembering I destroyed them.”
“I understand that. This last day or so has been the first time I haven't been guarded and imprisoned for over two months. It takes getting used to, and I lived a free life until they took me. You've never known it. You'll have to learn a new normal.”
“Yes. That is it exactly.” His voice was calm, but she thought she could hear excitement and a little fear beneath his confidence. “As someone who has been free, what do you suggest?”
“Well, being the bigger badass is in your favor, but if it has to come down to you proving that, you've already lost.”
“Not really,” Oris said. “My shields are very strong, and they'd have to be quick to hit me, and if they do, they won't manage to do it again, as I'd destroy them. Even if my shields take some damage, it will be easily repaired.”
“I'm not talking about physical damage. I meant that your relationship with the Fitali will always carry the weight of your destruction of one of their ships with it. As I'm sure you plan to live for a very long time, it would be better if you didn't start off with a massive black mark against your name with one of the United Council members, don't you agree?”
He mulled that for a bit. “I knew it was wise to seek your advice. I had not thought of that. What do you suggest, then?”
“Well, ideally it would be good if you somehow have control of their ship, so they can't start a foolish battle they can't win and which will mar your relationship with them when it isn't necessary. So while that's not feasible——”
“No. I think it is. It's a very good idea. I'll see if I can take the ship over.” He sounded positively delighted.
“You can do that? Hack into their systems?”
“You sound impressed,” Oris said. “Your Grihan would no doubt have looked even grimmer than usual.”
Imogen couldn't help the quirk of her lips. Yes, Cam would have glared a little harder. “He's been raised in a culture that suffered badly from your kind, and the fact that it's not fair to tar you with the same brush is hard for him to accept.” She thought about it for a moment. “And I think what Paxe has done, what the other Class 5s have done, too, hasn't helped that impression.”
“The Fitali are hailing us now. Can you speak to them? I can translate what you say automatically, so you can speak English to them, if you like. The connection they open with us will help me find their system's weaknesses faster.”
“What do you want me to say?” Nerves gripped her. This was way out of her league, negotiating with massive battleships. Parents who thought their child should be playing first violin in orchestra were the trickiest she'd dealt with up until she'd been taken.
“I don't mind what you say. The longer you talk, the more time I have to take control of their ship.”
“It might be wise to not let them know you do have control of their systems.” Imogen looked up at the lens.
“Why not?” Oris's curiosity was palpable.
“Just imagine how you'd feel if someone did that to you.” She tilted her head.
He considered it. “I would try to destroy them.”
“Probably because you've just gotten free. But they won't like it, that's for sure. So only show your hand if you have to, is my advice.”
“I haven't even gotten in, yet.” He almost muttered the words.
“Try not to let them know you're attempting it, either. Sometimes that's just as bad as succeeding.”
This time, what he muttered was indecipherable.
That was the best she was going to get, she decided.
“Okay. Link us up.” She was as ready as she'd ever be.
The screen went black, and then a Fitalian appeared, more formally dressed than the two she'd met in Paxe's hold, but with the same slender, elegant lines that reminded her of a praying mantis with a humanoid face.
The Fitalian looked so startled, Imogen guessed she was the last thing the captain had been expecting.
“Who are you?” The Fitalian's words were a little robotic, but Imogen put that down to Oris translating for her.
“My name is Imogen Peters. Who are you?” She tried to be as polite as possible.
The captain seemed stunned, and Imogen waited for her response patiently.
“Captain Leto,” she said at last. “You are not Tecran.”
“No.” Imogen smiled. “I'm afraid the Tecran crew no longer occupy this ship. Were you expecting to meet with them?”
“No!” Leto actually drew back in horror. “We had no idea there would be another vessel here, but we are in no way in league with the Tecran.”
Imogen realized she'd almost accused the Fitali of supporting the treaty-breaking Tecran against the United Council. “My apologies. But you are not here at the Grih's invitation, are you?”
Leto was quiet for so long, Imogen wondered if she was going to sever the connection.
“No. We wouldn't be hiding behind a deritide rich moon if we were.” She made the admittance with good grace, at least.
“Why are you here, then?” If Cam was ri
ght, they were after their grahudi, but she decided it would be better if Leto told her. She was freaked out enough.
“I am not willing to say.”
Oh.
What the hell, she was supposed to keep Leto talking. “Actually, I was being polite, I know you're here looking for your grahudi.”
Leto froze, stepped closer to the screen. “Who are you really? How do you know that?”
“Well, I was in a secret Tecran facility on Balco with your grahudi for a while, so I know quite a lot. I also met your two scouts, Haru and Chep, and my guess is that they managed to get a message out to you just before the Krik boarded their ship.”
Leto tried to school her face. “The Tecran have a facility on Balco? What were you doing with our grahudi there?”
“I was in a cage right next to it at the time. The Tecran had it, had captured it just like they captured me.” Imogen realized she still couldn't be calm about the grahudi. The terror she felt at being near it, in a cage, powerless. That it had been in a cage just like her hadn't mattered to the ancient part of her brain that told her to run. Her voice trembled, just a little, and she felt a surge of gratitude that the electronic translator did not convey her wobble, just her words.
“You spent time with the grahudi?”
She forced herself not to shiver. “Only two days.”
Leto stared at her. “What were the Tecran doing with it?”
Imogen frowned. “I'm not sure. They did their experiments elsewhere. They were storing it down there, like they were with me.”
Leto seemed to vibrate. “Were the experiments done at the facility?”
She shrugged. “Perhaps, but some were done on the Class 5s themselves, I think. When they were done, they dropped them off on Balco to make room for more specimens.”
Leto breathed in a quick huff through her nose. “Why Balco, I wonder? Besides the fact that it's almost on the Garmman border . . .”
“All I know is the Grih and most of the Balcoans have no idea it's there.” She knew that from Cam, but Leto didn't need to know where she got her information.
“So an entire Class 5 crew, yourself, and the Tecran stationed at this secret facility have all encountered the grahudi?”
Nerves pricked along the back of Imogen's neck. Was the thing carrying some rare disease? “Yes, as far as I know.”
“You certainly know more than we do, so I thank you. But I'm interested, you don't look like a prisoner now.” Leto's face was not human or Grih, it didn't have the same flexibility, but somehow, she seemed to convey a sense of fear.
Imogen couldn't work out if it was real, or simply her inability to read Fitalian expressions.
“As I said at the beginning, the Tecran are no longer onboard.”
Someone off-screen said something to Leto, too low for the translator to catch, and when Leto turned back to the screen, she looked thoughtful. “Who is in charge of the Class 5 now?”
“Not me.” She gauged Leto's reaction, saw the captain's lips purse at her answer.
“And is this the Class 5 that took our grahudi?” Leto picked something up from a table in front of her, and Imogen caught a glimpse of a handheld.
She resisted the urge to look up at the lens for confirmation from Oris if it was his Class 5 that had taken the grahudi.
“No,” he whispered in her ear.
“No. Not this one.”
“How do you know?” Leto leaned forward. “It can't be Sazo or Bane, they are confirmed in another part of Grihan territory, so that leaves this one and two others.”
“This ship is the one that took me, not the grahudi.” And why did it matter so much to the Fitali which Class 5 had taken their precious psychotic killer monkey?
Someone muttered something at Leto again, and she gave a sharp nod. “I would like to know where you saw Haru and Chep, and what has happened to them.”
“I know they were captured by Krik, just like I was, and made prisoner. We were kept together in a hold on a ship the Krik were using, but we were able to escape. I also know that Haru and Chep managed to get out, but there was a Tecran battleship waiting for them when they did. I think they are in their ship, but being forced to remain in place, under threat of the Tecran opening fire if they try to leave or contact you.”
Leto's head snapped back at that. “The Tecran have weapons trained on them?”
“On them, on the United Council fast cruiser containing a UC investigative team, on several Grihan miners, and a few Garmman and Grihan trading vessels, all of whom had originally been taken by the Krik.”
“The Tecran have a battleship here, in Grih territory?” Leto didn't sound appalled. She sounded . . . drained?
“The ship the Krik who took us prisoner were using was a Class 5. Not this one, another one. They . . . failed to keep control of it, which is how we were all able to escape, but the Tecran are trying to recover what they see as their property.” She winced a bit at the wording, because Paxe would have something to say about it.
“The Krik took over a Class 5?” Leto looked shocked, and Imogen could see she'd just made the Fitalian even more curious than she'd been before.
“Got it!”
Imogen blinked at Oris's shout of glee in her ear.
She kept her focus on Leto with difficulty. “I don't know the details of how the Krik came to be using the Class 5.” Not all the details, anyway.
At that moment, the doors to the room opened again, and Cam strode in. “Half an hour was up ten minutes ago.” He glared at the drone then pulled up short at the sight of Leto on the screen.
“Captain Leto.” He looked from Imogen to the screen in surprise. “I haven't seen you since the last UC council meeting.”
“Captain Kalor.” Leto looked like she'd stepped into the Twilight Zone. “Imogen Peters told me there was a UC investigative team involved in this, but I hardly registered that, given the other explosive information she's shared with me. Are you in control of the Class 5, then?”
“No.” Cam shook his head. “I'm here on UC business that includes the protection of Imogen Peters, but I am interested,” now his voice was cool, “why you are here, Captain? Hiding behind Gu-gijeron in Grihan territory?”
Chapter 27
The side of Cam's fists were bruised from where he'd hammered on the door after the thirty minutes were up. He'd berated himself for believing a thinking system would honor a promise, but the sight of Captain Leto of the Fitalian Horde on the screen had thrown him off his stride.
Perhaps Oris's explanation that things were at too delicate a stage to allow him to come striding in was truthful.
He exchanged a look with Imogen, but all he could see on her face was pleasure at seeing him again, and he made a conscious decision to let go of his anger at being kept out longer than agreed.
Leto, however, was a different matter.
Diplomacy was an art he was well-versed in usually, and he could smarm with the best of them at the United Council meetings and debriefs he had to attend, but the well of inspiration he drew from to practice it had run dry.
His blunt question to the Fitalian had shocked her and put her on the spot, and she blustered for a moment. “What are you doing here, Captain?”
Cam shrugged. “I'm a senior Battle Center officer in my own territory, with a clear directive from the United Council as well, so it's hardly a surprise to find me exactly where I'm supposed to be, surely?”
She shot him a dark look. “Quite. Although your presence in a Tecran Class 5 is a surprise.” She rocked a little on her feet. “You seem to know what I'm doing here, anyway.”
“The grahudi? Yes, Chep and Haru eventually told me about that. What they failed to disclose was that they had contacted you before the Krik took them.”
Leto looked off to the side, then back again. “I'm surprised they told you as much as they did.”
“It suited their purposes.” Cam's words were dry. “They got information in exchange.”
Leto's g
aze flicked to Imogen. “The location of the grahudi, you mean? And who had taken it.”
Imogen gave a nod. “I'm afraid . . .” She drew in a breath. “I'm afraid the grahudi is probably dead by now. They were putting the animals stored at the facility in a ring and making them fight to the death, and I last saw the grahudi two weeks ago.”
Was it his imagination, or did Leto relax a little at that. “It was still alive when you saw it, though?”
She nodded. “But they were fighting more and more animals every day. Two weeks is a long time, and they didn't have that many left as it was.”
“I thank you for your honesty, but we'll check the signal to see for ourselves. Being behind Gu-gijeron means we can't track it at the moment, but as soon as we're in the open, we'll have the ability to find it.”
“And how are you going to go into the open when you're here uninvited and in defiance of your treaties with the Grih?” Cam asked.
“I'm really sorry you had to be here to witness our arrival, Kalor.” Leto closed her eyes and then opened them, and all he could see on her face was regret. “I'm afraid, in order to protect the Fitalian reputation, I'm going to have to silence you.”
“How do you plan on doing that?” Imogen asked, and Cam looked at her in surprise. Her voice was calm but also smooth and sharp as a blade.
They were on a Class 5, and most likely they would be well shielded, but a hit was a hit. Especially in such close proximity. Leto's confidence was a worry, too.
Leto nodded at someone off to the side, and Cam braced.
Nothing happened.
Leto nodded again, more forcefully.
“Trying to shoot us?” Imogen asked, sweetly. “Even if you could, did you not worry you were firing on a Class 5?”
Leto turned her full attention back to the screen, her face set. “I was worried about that, but since we watched the lens feed of the battle between the Tecran and the Grih a few months ago, our engineers have been working on a weapon and a strategy they insist would be effective.”
“And you're telling us this secret information because you think you'll still manage to 'silence' us?” Imogen lifted her hands into the air and made a strange movement with the middle and forefingers of both hands. He'd have to ask her later what it meant.
Dark Minds (Class 5 Series Book 3) Page 20