Shades of Honor (An Anomaly Novel Book 2)

by Sandy Williams

  Taya’s protest came too late. The door silently slid open to reveal a completely empty corridor.

  Damn it, damn it, damn it.

  Ash looked over her shoulder. “This is a breakout?”

  “It’s not a breakout. It’s—”

  “You don’t stand around and have a chat when you’re helping someone escape.”

  “I wasn’t sure—”

  “Get out.” Ash grabbed Taya’s arm and shoved her out the door. When she did, her hand touched something hard beneath Taya’s jacket.

  “We need your help,” Taya said.

  “We? Who’s we?” She looked down both ends of the corridor. Still deserted but for how long?

  “Promise you won’t tell my brother.”

  “Tell your brother?” She focused on Taya again, this time noting the pistol-shaped lump beneath her jacket. “How much trouble are you in?”

  Taya squared her shoulders, recovering her poise. “Not as much as you’ll be in if we stand around here chatting.”

  Ash bounced on her toes. She wanted out of there, but the loyalty training urged her to stay. It urged her to keep Rip’s sister out of trouble.

  “Time’s ticking, Ash.”

  “I’m trying to decide how pissed Rip will be if I go with you.”

  “He’ll get over it.”

  “Not if I get you killed.”

  “You might get me caught. If we don’t leave right now.”

  Ash eyed the pistol hidden beneath Taya’s zipped jacket. Actually, Rip might thank her for discovering the potential danger that had his little sister carrying. He’d want to know who Taya was flying around the KU with. She had to be getting help from somewhere. This jailbreak wasn’t something she could do alone.

  “All right,” Ash said. “What’s the plan?”

  “There’s a skimmer waiting outside, but I need your word you won’t tell Rhys—”

  “You aren’t getting it.” Ash shoved Taya in front of her.

  Taya spun back toward her and crossed her arms. “Then you aren’t getting out of here. All I have to do is trigger the alarm.”

  “All I have to do is…” She stared at Taya’s comm-cuff. Damn it, Ash couldn’t leave. Not yet.

  “Where would they take my cuff?” she demanded.

  “What?” Confusion wrinkled Taya’s brow.

  “I need my comm-cuff.” Trevast’s files were on it. The Javerian she’d chased into the recyc tunnels was another lead on the telepaths, but he might have vanished. And the files… Ash needed to know what was in them. She needed to know the truth. “Where can I find it?”

  “I don’t know. I—”

  There wasn’t time for this.

  “Get out of here,” Ash said. “Don’t get caught.”

  “Hey,” Taya called when Ash turned away. “Hey, this is my breakout.”

  This was an administrative building. Her “cell” was temporary, but its security lens was permanent. There would be an observation room somewhere. If her cuff wasn’t there, she might be able to determine which room it was in. The question was, could she do it without getting caught?

  Her heart rate picked up, and an almost giddy energy filled her veins. She had an objective. Her mind and body synced to do whatever it would take to accomplish it.

  “My father’s office.” Taya’s words came out rushed.

  Ash glanced over her shoulder.

  “It might be there. Come on.”

  Ash hesitated only a second before she followed Taya to a stairwell. The early-morning hour meant the corridors were deserted. They made it to the northeast corner of the building without a problem.

  “This is his office.” Taya stopped in front of a heavy-looking black door.

  “You can’t open it?”

  “I’m his daughter, not an officer with security clearances.”

  Ash dropped to a knee beside the door’s keypad. “I need your cuff.”

  “We really don’t have time for this.”

  “We’re already here.” Ash held out her hand. After a brief hesitation, Taya unfastened her comm-cuff and handed it over. The device didn’t have Ash’s settings and software, so this would take longer than usual, but at least the security to the general’s office wasn’t as strong as the security to the building. Ash had seen the Extruder990 when they brought her inside. She’d have been screwed if the same keypad had been installed here.

  Taya’s cuff beeped when it established a connection with the door lock.

  “What did you do with the guards?” Ash asked.

  “They were relieved.” Taya shifted her weight side to side as she stared down the corridor.

  “Relieved by friends of yours?”

  “Yes.”

  “What kind of friends?”

  “Just friends.”

  Ash made it through the first layer of security. It was easier than she’d expected. Taya had a few interesting modifications in the cuff’s standard settings.

  “What, exactly, do you do for a living?” she asked.

  “I’m an environment inspector for Herson Capsules. Can you hurry up?”

  She stared up at Rip’s sister. “That’s a very boring, easily overlooked occupation.”

  “It is.”

  “It also comes with access to all areas of a capsule.”

  “It does.” Taya clenched her jaw shut.

  “You’re smuggling, aren’t you? Or stealing?”

  “Just forget about the cuff,” Taya said. “We’re out of time.”

  “Door’s open,” Ash said. It slid aside when she rose. Taya muttered something under her breath when Ash handed back her cuff, but Ash was already inside the general’s office. A long, wooden data-desk filled most of the room. An upright screen sat in its center with neat stacks of printed documents to either side. Ash had been worried she’d need to do a thorough search of every drawer and cabinet in the office, but in between the two stacks of paper was a small, shiny cube: a daytris container. The thin material prohibited any kind of signal from entering or exiting the container.

  Ash walked straight to it and opened the top. Her comm-cuff rested safely inside.

  She kept the cuff in the box, then replaced the lid and pressed down hard. The container collapsed under her weight. Picking up the daytris-encased cuff, she bent the malleable metal a little more, then slipped it inside her waistband. Not the most elegant carrying solution, but Ash wanted her hands free and she had no idea if the Javerians had compromised it with a tracking bug.

  “I’m ready now,” Ash said.

  Sweat beaded on Taya’s brow despite the cold air. She stared at the face of her comm-cuff as she fastened it around her wrist, then she shook her head. “We’re out of time. My friends have initiated Plan B. You’ll need these. Taya held out a small round case. Inside were two nearly invisible nose filters. Military grade too. Who the hell was Taya working with?

  Ash took the tiny tubes and inserted one into each nostril. They were uncomfortable, but as long as she breathed through her nose and not her mouth, she wouldn’t take in whatever substance Taya’s cohorts were currently leaking into the air.

  Taya led the way back to the stairwell. Ash stayed close enough to shield her if someone appeared in front of them, but there was no shuffling of footsteps or murmur of voices. There were no sounds of life at all. Not until they approached the ground floor.

  Beside a door leading to the outside world, a man waited. He wore black clothing and a dark scowl on a face that was streaked with sweat. Literally streaked. When Ash reached the bottom step, she was close enough to see the man’s cosmetics were running, and beneath the layer of paint, his skin had small, freckle-sized blemishes that were almost pearlescent.

  Ash swung Taya behind her.

  “It’s okay,” Taya said. “I know what he is.”

  “What?”

  Taya knew she was gallivanting around the galaxy with a Saricean?

  The streak-faced man silently opened the door. Ash scanned him,
noting the bulky muscles beneath his clothing and the Maven energy pistol holstered at his hip. Its grip was fatter than it should be, meaning it was likely fingerprint locked. It was an expensive addition to the weapon that probably made him feel more secure, but fingerprint locks almost always failed when they had the most potential to screw up a mission.

  “Come on,” Taya whispered. She passed the Saricean and stepped into the night.

  Ash followed. In the darkened alleyway, a skimmer waited. Taya and the Saricean both headed toward it. Ash would rather take her chances alone in the city, but that would leave Taya on her own. She’d taken a huge risk helping Ash escape. Why? Exactly what kind of help did the daughter of a Javerian general need?

  Reluctantly, Ash climbed inside the rusting vehicle. Rykus was going to throttle someone when this was over. Ash hoped she wasn’t the one who ended up in his crosshairs.

  15

  After three hours under guard in a corridor of the Astaela, Javery’s triple-domed capitol building, a soldier led Rykus into a secured room. Tersa was already there, pacing by a window that overlooked the night-draped city. She turned when the door clicked shut. Clasping her hands behind her, she stood rigid.

  “Ashdyn has sabotaged my efforts to enlist Javery into the Coalition. Is she still under the influence of Valt?”

  Rykus came to an abrupt stop.

  “No.” His response sounded like a threat. He didn’t care. The Javerian soldier assigned to watch him had given him little information about Ash. He knew only that her wound had been treated and she was being detained for an indeterminate amount of time. The Javerians were treating her like a criminal. Ash didn’t need the prime treating her the same way.

  “You say that with such certainty,” Tersa said, ignoring his tone. “How do you know for sure?”

  Because he knew Ash, and he’d seen her expression when she’d first made eye contact with the security guard. She’d looked startled.

  Almost as startled as when he’d told her he loved her.

  His throat tightened. It took an effort to keep the turmoil bouncing around in his chest from showing on his face. Ash had asked him to command her feelings away, and he didn’t know if that was because she was pissed he’d kept a professional distance between them or if it was what she truly wanted.

  “She was pursuing a target, a threat.” He made sure his voice didn’t betray his worries. “She’s doing what you ordered her to do: detecting the enemy.”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “You think the security guard ran for no damn reason?”

  “Maybe she spooked him. Maybe he knew her from the past.”

  “You don’t believe that,” he said.

  After a long, tense pause, the stiffness left Tersa’s shoulders. “No. Those are the general’s hypotheses.”

  Rykus held back a curse. His father was putting forth hypotheses. That meant Tersa hadn’t told him the truth.

  “You have to brief the triumvirate,” he said.

  She stared out the window again. The lights highlighted the sharp line of her jaw. “I want Javery to join the Coalition.”

  And revealing a threat to the interplanetary government would do the opposite. They’d been over this more than once. Tersa would do anything to keep the cracks in the alliance hidden.

  “If you want Ash to be at Ysbar Station, you don’t have a choice.”

  She nodded slowly, as if that was a point she’d been debating with herself these past few hours. “But will they believe us?”

  “They’ll believe me.”

  Her eyes locked on him, making it look like she wanted his words to be true. He was almost certain they were. No matter their differences, his father respected Rykus’s military intelligence. He would know his son wouldn’t fall for a ruse. He’d at least listen to what they had to say.

  Tersa walked to the data-table and wrapped her long fingers around the handle of the white mug sitting on its surface. She didn’t lift it to her lips; she just held it and stared at the surface of the liquid. “The more people who learn about them, the more we risk the truth spreading.”

  “It will leak out eventually.”

  “I know, but I need more time.”

  “More time for what?”

  The door opened before she had a chance to answer, and his father entered the room accompanied by two armed security officers.

  “General Rykus.” Tersa released her grip on her mug and resumed the poise of a confident, competent leader. “Has my request been approved?”

  “No.” His father’s gaze locked on him. “Your anomaly has refused to talk.”

  Tersa stepped forward. “An official representative of the Coalition must be present with any of our military men and women before they are able to discuss sensitive information. That’s why I requested to see her.”

  “I want to know why she’s important.” His father addressed him, not Tersa. “Why did you need to request a favor from me to receive a transfer off the Obsidian?”

  Rykus looked at the prime, who let out a sigh then flung her hand in the air. “If the security officers leave, then fine. Tell him the story.”

  General Rykus looked at the two men, nodded, and they departed the room.

  “Is this being recorded?” Rykus asked.

  “Yes,” his father replied.

  “Actively watched?”

  “No. Not in this building. All surveillance vids and audio must go through the First Citizen’s office for approval before they can be accessed.”

  “Do you have the power to prevent the access?” Tersa asked.

  “I do.” He said the words in a way that sounded like, “I won’t.”

  Tersa’s mouth pinched into a frown. “It’ll have to do. Go ahead, Commander.”

  He faced his father. “I requested the favor because I believed Ash was in trouble, and I’d been placed on a restricted access list for my part in helping her elude recapture on Ephron.”

  To his father’s credit, his expression didn’t give away any hint of surprise or shock. “Go on.”

  “Ash and her team were sent on a mission into Saricean territory. They achieved their goal, but on the way back to Coalition-held space, they were intercepted by an unknown ship. They were boarded, her teammates were murdered, and Ash was telepathically assaulted.” Only the slightest narrowing of his father’s eyes at that. “She was imprisoned on the Obsidian and questioned, but the telepath made it physically impossible for her to tell us the truth about what happened. She managed to escape, taking War Chancellor Hagan as hostage. I pursued her to Ephron’s surface and took her back into custody, but before I could contact authorities, Hagan…” How to explain this? “Ash was able to speak with Hagan telepathically. He wasn’t restrained in what he could say, and that’s how I learned the truth.”

  Silence. His father had a way of making the lack of noise sound deafening.

  “Anomalies are telepaths now,” the general said.

  “We don’t know. All we know is that telepathy is real and there is a faction or factions out there who have infiltrated the top levels of our government. They controlled Hagan until Ash was able to break through to him. And they silenced Ash.”

  “And one of them became a member of your security team,” Tersa added. “What is the man’s name?”

  After a long pause, he said, “Caben Riddel. He’s been on my personal security force for three years. He has a perfect record, a good relationship with others on the team, and a girlfriend he’s dated for almost five years.”

  “And in his spare time,” Rykus said, “he runs from anomalies without any provocation.”

  His father’s face darkened.

  “Have you spoken to the girlfriend?” Tersa asked.

  “Briefly.” The general’s gaze shifted back to the prime. “Her home is under surveillance. Do you have any proof Riddel is a telepath or that telepaths exist at all?”

  “If we capture Riddel, we’ll have proof,” Rykus said.
r />   The general shook his head. “Riddel is a Javerian problem. The Coalition has no jurisdiction over him.”

  “And you have no jurisdiction over Ash.”

  “She’s on the planet. By your own laws, she’s subject to our justice system.”

  Rykus’s hands tightened at his sides. “Release her.”

  “No.”

  “You’re keeping her here to spite me.”

  “To protect you.”

  He laughed. “You’re protecting a member of a non-Javerian military? Your brain must have been bent in one too many capsule jumps.”

  The words hit his father hard, for the first time causing the general to visibly grimace. Rykus kept his expression cold, unforgiving, but he wondered if his father had had a change of heart. Did he regret past decisions?

  “We have a telepath in custody,” Tersa said.

  His father’s posture returned to that of the rigid military man. “Who?”

  “His name is Jevan Valt,” Tersa said. “He’s the telepath who murdered Ashdyn’s teammates and invaded her mind. Release Lieutenant Ashdyn, General. Keep us informed about the search for Riddel. If you want proof of telepathy, I’m willing to allow you access to Valt and his… his interrogator.”

  Rykus frowned. Why had she hesitated?

  “All I ask,” Tersa continued, “is you reject whatever trade deal the Sariceans offered you and agree to an alliance of mutual protection. You don’t have to join the Coalition, but we may call on you for information to help us in our fight against the Sariceans, the telepaths, and any other enemies who threaten our member planets. In return, we will come to your aid should you call.”

  She was betting that the Sariceans wouldn’t take the rejection of their trade deal well. Honestly, it was a safe gamble. His father saw it too. Javery had been balancing on the edge of neutrality for almost a decade. Waver too much one direction, and they’d fall into a war.

  “I will discuss it with the First Citizen and First Prefect,” he said. It was probably the biggest gesture of goodwill ever given to a Coalition leader by a Javerian official, and still, it fell far short of a commitment. “Lieutenant Ashdyn will remain on the planet until her case makes it through the proper channels of the justice system.”