Toby cried out at the rough treatment. The boy’s eyes had grown round and solid black in his fear. Tracy watched as her brother futilely looked around the room for father or Duran, neither of whom would ever again offer him any protection.
“No, my baby! Please!” Melinda cried.
With her heart pounding in fear, Tracy ran to the front door. She opened the door a crack before it was yanked all of the way open.
“I thought I saw the arrival of a shuttle. We need to have a talk. At least you came to your senses and came home,” Strass said in a haughty and arrogant tone.
For a moment, Tracy stood there with her mouth as open as the door. “Strass, now isn’t a good time. Go home. I’ll call you later.”
Strass’ eyes turned blacker. He wasn’t a strong telepath, but he was strong enough to know that something was very wrong within the Jarreau home. He projected his awareness and sensed the fear in the house.
“Go, Strass,” Tracy pleaded.
“I’ll go for now, but this isn’t over.” Strass made a show of storming off. At his transport, he called his father before sneaking into the backyard.
The assassin removed the blade from Toby’s throat and shoved him away. “Where is Dr. Heintz’s regeneration research?” he demanded.
Tracy knew she had to get the man out of her house and away from her family. “It isn’t here. Duran didn’t want us to learn what he was doing.”
“Quit stalling, and tell me where it is.” He grabbed at Toby again, but the boy darted away and close to their brother Tam.
“Leave him alone! I’m the only one who knows where it is or how to interpret it.” She realized that the man in front of her was a Parvac and assumed his employer was the man most wanted by the Parvac Empire, the original upon whom the clones had been created.
“I don’t have time for this,” he said as he lunged for Tracy.
At that moment, the pool door flew open, and Strass entered with his sonic blaster aimed at the intruder. The assassin drew his own blaster and fired at Strass. The shot went wild hitting the ceiling. Angelica had kicked the assassin’s arm, but he retained his hold on his weapon.
“Go to your mother! Now!” Angelica ordered in a voice none of them recognized.
Toby and Tam ran to Melinda.
Strass had his blaster aimed at the intruder, but didn’t have a clear shot. “Take the boys and go to the front yard! I called Father before I came inside,” Strass said.
The man had grabbed a handful of Tracy’s hair. She was bent over and trying to get away from him.
“Strass, my daughter,” Melinda pleaded.
“Go,” Strass ordered as he put himself between Melinda, the boys, and the intruder.
Alerted that the authorities would soon be there, the man jerked Tracy by her hair to the pool door.
“Drop,” Tracy heard clearly in her mind.
Tracy let herself collapse to the floor. Her hair was yanked hard as the man was forced to let go of it. Angelica delivered two quick roundhouse kicks to the man’s head. He caught her ankle after the second impact, dragged her upside down, and flung her across the room. Strass took the opportunity to fire at the man with his sonic blaster. However, his shot didn’t cause any actual damage. It didn’t even make the assassin pause. The assassin aimed his blaster at Strass. Having sensed his intentions, Strass dove behind the couch. Tracy heard his grunt of pain. The man grabbed Tracy and hauled her to her feet. She struggled and clawed at his hands with her fingernails, but he ignored her attempts to cause him pain. He dragged her outside to a shuttle that had landed on and flattened a few of their lounge chairs.
“Get in,” he ordered as he shoved her inside. “Where is the research?” he asked as he aimed the blaster at her.
“It’s in a secret lab in the middle of Fig Forest.” It was a lie, but it was the only thing she could think of to get the dangerous male away from her family.
He took the shuttle up and to the coordinates Tracy had given him. Through the shuttle’s window, she could see Enforcers arriving at their house. A consciousness latched upon her, seemed to hold her still, and then filled her mind. Relieved, Tracy moved aside within her own mind to give Jazon all of the room he needed. Through Tracy’s eyes, Jazon saw the shuttle’s coordinates. He, Agata, and Vasco intended to arrive there first.
“You calmed down rather quickly,” the Parvac assassin observed with calculation.
“My family is no longer in danger. To Laconians, family means everything. You aren’t Laconian. Who are you? For whom are you working?”
He ignored her questions.
Jazon had eased his control of her mind, but continued to make observations through his wife’s eyes. Through the viewport, Tracy saw two fighter ships swooping down from the sky. They appeared to be on a heading for the lab in Fig Forest. Anxiety filled Tracy as the man turned the shuttle and sped to the land port.
“It’s a trap!” Jazon yelled. Blaster fire rocked the underground bunker.
“I have a reading on two fighters. The shuttle has set course for the land port,” Agata reported. Simultaneous blasts had sections of the ceiling crumbling down on top of them.
“Is there another way out?” Vasco asked over the blaring alarms that had begun to sound. Loud grumblings of stone scraping and grinding against each other along with a thin cloud of dust rolled down the stairs.
Jazon said, “The front exit is blocked.”
“There is another way,” Agata said dryly. He led them into the maintenance and power room where he removed an old manhole cover from the stone floor. They dropped down into the tunnel and ran.
Angelica ran from the house and into the backyard. She barely had sufficient time to leap up onto the stone wall and launch herself up close enough to the rising shuttle for her magnetic wrist and ankle cuffs to clamp onto the hull. Unfortunately, she hadn’t had time to grab a breathing mask, but her position on the shuttle’s hull provided her with some protection from the wind. At least she was able to drag in a few quick breaths. If the assassin’s sensor readings alerted him to her presence, one pulse through his shields would be all it would take to send her plummeting to the planet’s surface. Even at the low altitude at which he currently flew, there would be less of her to clean up than there had been of Duran Jarreau. His accomplice, a professor from the academy, had been the luckier of the two, having died a quick death by poison.
Lord Radford had entrusted the surviving members of the Heintz family to her care, and she had no intentions of allowing harm to come to one of her charges at the hands of an alien assassin. Angelica held her breath as the shuttle dropped down to dock at the land port. Disengaging her magnetic cuffs, she dropped from the hull and rolled away to take cover behind the nearest ship. Angelica activated her visual displacement shielding and blocked her thoughts from her opponent. She would strike when he least suspected it.
Chapter Thirteen
The assassin set the shuttle down beside Jazon’s merchant ship. “Open the hatch,” he ordered someone through his communications console.
Tracy watched as a land port crew applied a device to the ship. It appeared they were draining its energy. Tracy’s level of fear increased. The man definitely wasn’t working alone. “Who are you?”
Again, the assassin ignored her inquiry. She willed Jazon to see through her eyes.
In her mind, he said, “They are diverting power from the shields long enough to use a magnetic override on the hatch.”
Devices such as the ones the men used were not legal to obtain. They were used only by government entities in emergency situations. Obviously, the assassin’s employer was not restrained by expense or legalities.
The assassin waited until his men had opened the hatch. Then, he flew the shuttle into the transport bay. Tracy watched as he stood from the pilot’s seat and strode toward her. She cringed and tried to avoid his grasping hands. However, he took her by the hair and dragged her along with him.
“The serum isn’t h
ere!” Tracy said.
“Oh, I know that. Newlin admitted to me that it didn’t work and never would.”
“Then why?” Tracy cried out in pain. Releasing his fistful of her hair, he grabbed a hold of her upper arm instead. He hauled her into the lift and hit the command to take them up to the habitation deck.
“My employer feels as though a piece of himself is missing,” he said as he shoved Tracy from the lift.
“Andy, run!” Tracy screamed.
The man slapped her hard across the face. The sting of it shocked Tracy and made her eyes fill with tears. “You will not interfere. After all, I avenged your father, and no harm came to your family. However, your usefulness to me has come to an end. You would be wise to remember that.”
Through her tears, Tracy could see Andy from where he stood near the medical bay. He had been working out in the gym.
“It is regretful that chance kept us from meeting on Sinope. Had I realized at the time that you were in the hospital, my plans would have been greatly simplified. Come with me. Your creator has much to teach you,” the assassin said to Andy. The man had managed to modify his appearance and now wore the convincing smile of a politician.
“I don’t want to go with you,” Andy said.
The assassin raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you really think you have a choice? You are a clone and have a purpose. Your existence depends on your ability to fulfill the requirements of your creator. What do you think will happen to you in the Parvac Empire? What promises have these people made to you? Do you think they will let you live? You will be executed by reverse nanite technology.”
Tracy watched as doubt and fear washed over Andy’s features. It hurt her worse than the vicious slap, because she couldn’t assure Andy that the man’s words weren’t true.
“It is the slowest and most painful death ever devised. With your creator, you will have wealth, power, and all of the females you desire.”
Andy looked at the blood on Tracy’s lip.
The assassin followed his eyes. “Do you want this one for yourself? If you want her, she is yours.” At his declaration, Tracy backed away. “Is that a look of disgust on your face, Tracy? Does the thought of a clone pumping himself between your legs sicken you so?”
“Andy is like a son to me, so yes, that is gross.”
“He hurt you,” Andy said.
Tracy touched her face. “I’ll be okay,” she said reassuringly. To the assassin, she said, “Please, don’t hurt him.” Tracy looked back at Andy. Helplessness gnawed at her. Through a sob, she said, “Everything will be alright, Andy. We will find you.” Tracy’s eyes swelled with tears. What she had said had been the truth. She did love Andy as she imagined a mother must love her son.
Andy walked toward them. “I would prefer to take my chances in the Empire.”
“Wrong choice,” the assassin replied. He aimed his blaster at Tracy.
Tracy screamed as white-hot pain filled her thigh. She fell to the floor and clutched at her leg. Searing pain more excruciating than anything she had ever before felt consumed her. She tried unsuccessfully to scoot away from the feet threatening to trample her. Her sweet Andy had been transformed by an animalistic rage, and all of it was focused on the man who had blasted her.
The men grappled for the blaster. Shots scorched the ceiling. The assassin broke free from Andy. However, before he could stun Andy with a blast, he was struck from behind. Andy ducked out of the line of fire. Through pain-glazed eyes, Tracy watched as Angelica delivered a series of kicks to the assassin’s head. He dropped down and swept Angelica’s legs out from under her. Then, he drew a lethal blade. Angelica grabbed a kitchen chair and used it to deflect his strikes.
Suddenly, he grabbed the chair and yanked Angelica forward. Then, he shoved the chair up into Angelica’s face and twisted, knocking her back into the kitchen table. With a loud clatter, she fell. As he aimed his blaster at her, Andy rammed into him and knocked him into the wall between Jazon and Agata’s quarters. Fortunately, the assassin had been ordered to cause no harm to Felix’s clone. Unfortunately, Andy was no match for a trained killer.
“I see I will need to restrain you. Someone has been teaching you to fight,” the man said.
“I would be one of those someone’s,” Jazon growled.
Andy rushed to Tracy. He supported her back and dragged her away from the fighting. Her leg left a trail of blood. Andy and Angelica may have been severely outmatched, but the assassin didn’t stand a chance against Jazon. Unable to concentrate on Jazon, Tracy attempted to focus on breathing through the pain in her leg. It was all consuming.
“Everything will be okay, Tracy. You are safe,” Andy whispered to her.
Angelica watched from the kitchen floor as the Laconian hybrid attacked. Fear kept her frozen to the spot. In his rage, he had ripped away the telepathic wall she had hidden her thoughts behind. Her neural blocker had been providing her nothing but a false sense of security. A feral rage battered at her mind and made her hair stand on end. She forced another mental block up between her and the dangerous male. She watched as he shattered the assassin’s blade wielding arm with a single punch. The assassin couldn’t defend himself or attack because the hybrid soldier knew what he planned to do before he could act upon his thoughts. The hybrid soldier’s fists came down again and again. Two Parvac soldiers arrived and pulled him off of the unconscious killer.
“Stand down! We want him alive,” Captain Agata warned.
As soon as Angelica had answered the questions of the Parvac soldiers and Enforcers, she left to report to her employer. The hybrid had unnerved her. The reports she had read about their abilities had not prepared her for witnessing one in the grip of a complete loss of control. Now, Laconian prejudices had resulted in seventeen of the deadly hybrids turning themselves over willingly to the Parvac Empire. The hybrids were one more weapon in Parvac’s already overflowing arsenal.
When Tracy regained consciousness, she saw their family physician watching her from a chair. She was in her room in Duran’s mansion. Monitors made beeping noises around her. Her confusion diminished when she felt the soft kiss placed on her forehead.
“Mother?”
“I’m here.” Her mother had the stoic expression she reserved for trying times.
“Jazon!” Tracy cried out in anguish. The last she remembered, he had been fighting the assassin.
“He’s fine. Here,” Melinda said as she handed Tracy a vid-screen.
Tracy activated it, and a direct line of communication appeared. Jazon was wearing his uniform. “Are you okay?” she asked. “Where are you? Are you leaving me?” Frightened tears spilled from her eyes.
“Lady Ponidi, I will never leave you. I am at the land port. Now that I have seen your face and heard your voice, I am fine. We required a larger ship and better security for our return to Parvac. One has only just arrived. After I have seen to the transfer of our prisoner into his maximum-security confinement cell, I will come for you. Jazon out.”
Relieved, Tracy sighed and laid back against her pillows. Her mother took the vid-screen away and placed it on the nightstand. Then, she turned all of her attention to her daughter. Tracy could see her own pale reflection in her mother’s solid black eyes.
“You married a Laconian hybrid Parvac soldier. Couldn’t you find anyone scarier to marry, like a possessed mountain goat or something?” Melinda asked.
“He isn’t scary. He’s a beautiful man, and I love him.” Tracy sounded petulant even to herself. With her emotions calmed with the realization that Jazon would return for her, she was unable to ignore the dreadful throbbing in her leg. “Oh, my leg hurts.”
Sympathy softened Melinda’s face. “Yes, and that is with a few pain and nanite patches.”
Confused, Tracy asked, “What happened?”
Melinda’s eyes filled with tears. “After that evil man took you…” she began before a sob stopped her words. “I couldn’t protect you. I’m so sorry.”
Doub
le knocks on her open bedroom door distracted them. Toby and Tam were peeking in at them. Tracy noticed that Enforcers were stationed in the hall outside of her room to either side of her door.
“Tracy, can we come in? We made you something to help you feel better,” Tam said. He and Toby presented her with a cane made of fig wood. “We carved it from a dry limb.”
“I sanded it,” Toby said. “We just needed a little help.”
Tracy knew the help had come from a retired gentleman down the street. He was always creating something beautiful from wood. Her brothers handed the cane to her. There was no way they had carved the leafy vine around the cane. “It’s beautiful. Thank you. I’m sure this will help a lot.” Carefully, her brothers hugged her neck. “In fact, I’ll try it out right now.” Tracy looked toward her bathroom.
“Oh, no you don’t,” the doctor said.
“You can’t put any weight on your leg. Wait a moment. I’ll get someone to help you. Strass!” her mother called.
Tracy inwardly cringed. She knew their doctor was too old to lift her, her mother and brothers weren’t strong enough, and she didn’t exactly want Strass’ help, but having an Enforcer who she didn’t know carry her to her bathroom was completely out of the question. She wasn’t sure if she was the one who was still upset with Strass over the last vid-chat they had had, or if it was because Jazon didn’t like him. Regardless of her confused feelings for her former boyfriend, he had bravely tried to protect her family. Angelica had tried, too.
“Mother, I think Lord Radford was working with Duran.”
Melinda shook her head. “No, dear. Lord Radford was suspicious of Duran. He feared Nathan had been murdered, but there was no clinical proof to be found.”
Strass overheard them as he entered. “Tracy, again, you have such foolish thoughts at times. Father hired Angelica to investigate Lord Jarreau. Her credentials as a nanny were prefabricated to gain her admittance into the household. Her real assignment was to find evidence against Lord Jarreau implicating him in your father’s murder. When you left Aurilius, father sent men to bring you home, but then he decided it might be safer for you to be away from Lord Jarreau’s reach and kept your location a secret from him.”
Jazon: An Omnes Videntes Novel Page 12