Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2

by EJ Fisch

  Did this – oh, what did they call it – Nostia give her some uncanny ability to survive a gunshot? Emeri had agonized over whether or not to go public with her secret. In the end he had decided against it, fearful that he would get in as much trouble for hiding knowledge of her power as she would for wielding it. Once she was gone, it was like a massive burden had been lifted from his shoulders, but now that he was so uncertain about things, he found himself once again trying to decide whether or not to reveal what he knew.

  Other than being entirely uncomfortable being around anyone who could exercise such power, Emeri wasn’t exactly sure what all the fuss was about. After the Federation had retaliated against the Resistance and outlawed the use of nostium close to twenty-three years earlier, the Haphezian government had followed suit and threatened to execute all Nosti for fear of attracting a Federation presence. Emeri was by no means interested in starting a revival or some such thing – few Nosti had ever occupied Haphez as it was – but he didn’t see how one person who had been careful not to reveal her secret could possibly be an issue. It was yet another reason he had chosen to keep his mouth shut about Ziva, and why he now decided there still wasn’t much point in bringing it up again.

  The silence of his office was suddenly shattered when his comm system came alive. He barely caught one of his secretaries announcing he had visitors before the door burst open and in walked Skeet Duvo and Zinni Vax, looking sleep-deprived but more driven than he’d seen them in a long time. It was a vast improvement from the two sorry people he remembered from two days earlier.

  Emeri hardly had time to open his mouth before they were upon him, looming over his desk with determination in their eyes. “We need to talk, sir,” Skeet said.

  Somehow Emeri knew this was about Ziva and the investigation, and of all people, they were the ones he felt the most comfortable discussing such matters with. He motioned for them to be seated in the chairs opposite him and used his desk’s control panel to lock the door and tint the windows.

  “Believe it or not, you’re just the people I wanted to see,” he said, “but let’s hear your story first.”

  It took the two of them a moment to get going, and when they did it was slow and methodical, almost as if they’d been rehearsing what they were going to say. Each of them took turns filling him in on progressively important details, a technique most agents used as they decided whether or not they could trust their audience. He learned they had been in contact with Veya Shevin, the missing wife of Kade Shevin, though they refrained from specifying where. He learned of their suspicions about Dasaro and how they’d started keeping tabs on him until he and the other two captains had disappeared unexpectedly. Most importantly, he learned that the bird was still in flight, a message that supposedly could have only been passed on by Ziva herself.

  Emeri leaned forward, looking them each squarely in the eyes before speaking. “Are you sure?”

  Skeet and Zinni glanced at each other and shrugged as if there had been no point in even asking. “There just doesn’t seem to be any other explanation,” Skeet replied. “The details don’t make any sense. I mean, unless Ziva somehow reached out from the grave, there’s no way Veya Shevin could have been familiar with that phrase.”

  “You said Lieutenant Tarbic knew it,” Emeri put forth. That brought a moment of silence as the three of them contemplated that idea. It was true that Tarbic had been in league with Dasaro and could have somehow passed on the message, but it was also clear that in order to do so he would have had to be in contact with Ziva somewhere along the way – other than when he’d shot her, of course. Judging by Aroska’s actions right there in the office two months before, he didn’t strike Emeri as someone who would go through the trouble of betraying Ziva’s colleagues after she was dead, even if he had been working with Dasaro.

  It was a while before either Skeet or Zinni spoke. Their silence gave Emeri the impression that perhaps they had already considered Tarbic’s involvement and had concluded that he was still on their side.

  “I just don’t feel like he would do that,” Zinni said, “not after making a point of coming to us the way he did.”

  “People can be devious, Officer Vax,” Emeri said, more of an idea to keep in mind than an actual suggestion.

  “Think of it this way,” she continued. “Ziva’s always right – you know that as well as anyone. She told Aroska to shoot her, and maybe it was for a reason. Maybe she had a plan.”

  “We reviewed the footage,” Skeet said. “If you look at the placement of his shots and the way Ziva fell down that riverbank, it’s possible that she’s still alive, that the two of them staged it all. And if they did, they did a hell of a job.”

  “And wherever she is, she’s probably injured,” Zinni added.

  “Do you think she would trust him enough to do something like that, given their history?” Emeri asked.

  Skeet shrugged. “I think something happened between them. I’m not sure what it was, but I think he’s one of the only people she can trust right now.”

  Emeri paused and rubbed a hand over his face. Now he was convinced that there was more going on than met the eye. The players: Ziva, Dasaro, and the rest of his missing agents. Maybe Ziva was innocent and Dasaro was hunting her for some reason they had yet to discover. Maybe she was guilty and he was simply tracking her down like he’d been trained to. Either way, there were far too many secrets being kept and too many unanswered questions for Emeri’s taste.

  “I want you two to bring Special Agent Luko Zona on board,” he said. “Tell him everything you just told me. Between the four of us, we just might be able to get this mess cleared up.”

  -68-

  Kat’s Hideout

  Chaiavis

  Kat Reilly took a moment to study the three people she’d just brought into her garage. They were quite the motley crew, bruised, beaten, and exhausted. Two men and a woman, two ops agents and an RG officer; it seemed there were a hundred ways to look at it. Ziva Payvan in the flesh – Kat still couldn’t believe it, especially since she was supposed to be dead. Aroska Tarbic was quite the looker, strong and handsome, but he seemed fidgety and his mind was obviously elsewhere. Then there was the third member of their party, Kade Shevin, whom they had picked up on the way back to her place.

  They’d managed to fit both her car and theirs into the small shop – parking anything on the tiny landing pad outside was bound to raise questions they didn’t need. The space where she lived was one of several former mechanical shops belonging to a company that had gone bankrupt years before. Since no one else had bought the corporation after it died out, this property and others like it remained unclaimed and untouched. Up until now, no one else knew she resided there – she had a separate legitimate address where packages could be delivered and messages could be left, if necessary.

  This downstairs area served as a garage, living room, and workspace, furnished with shelves of tools, a workbench, a ratty sofa, and an old heating panel that glowed a soft orange. A large overhead door and a man door separated them from the landing pad and tiny balcony outside. Upstairs was the little lavatory and the two office spaces she had converted into a crude kitchen and sleeping quarters.

  Kat placed her helmet on the car’s hood and took another moment to study her three visitors. “So Bosco sent you, we’ve established that much. But that still doesn’t really explain what you’re doing here.”

  “He said you’d be able to help us,” Aroska said.

  How two veteran agents and a respectable RG officer expected her to help them, Kat had no idea. By now, she’d heard each of their names on the intragalactic news networks – Ziva’s, mostly – enough times to deduce that they were in some sort of trouble, but she couldn’t fathom why Bosco would have referred them to her rather than just taking care of them himself.

  “Oh he did, did he?”

  “Have you ever heard the name Diago Dasaro?” Ziva asked. She went on to explain the basics of their predicament: h
ow she had escaped HSP custody, how she’d sought Aroska out, how she’d had to go back to get Kade before the three of them made it off the planet. Much of this Kat already knew from news at the embassy, but hearing the story from Ziva’s perspective helped fill the numerous gaps the reporters and HSP had left.

  “So you’re telling me you didn’t kill the Royal Officer,” Kat said. She’d had a hard time believing Ziva was guilty from the beginning – based on her own investigative experience, everything had seemed too clean cut in terms of the investigation and much too sloppy on the part of a professional like Ziva.

  “That’s right. This is all a set-up and we’re reasonably sure Dasaro is behind it.”

  “I think I believe you,” Kat said, perching on the edge of the car beside her helmet. “The main reason is I’m pretty sure Dasaro is dirty too.”

  None of them said anything for a moment, but the reaction she’d provoked was clear. Ziva began moving slowly toward her, arms crossed, drilling into her with those intense crimson eyes. She finally paused about two meters away, and Kat’s focus shifted to her scar and bruised face.

  “What do you know?” she growled.

  There weren’t many things that made Kat squirm, but she found that Ziva was one of them. “It turns out I’ve been looking for you just as much as you’ve been looking for me,” she replied, doing her best to hold her ground. “You’ve got quite the reputation, and I figured you’d be the best person to help me with a little problem of my own. When I saw you in Endion I couldn’t believe it – I wasn’t sure if my message had even gotten through, and once you were arrested I didn’t think—” She stopped when she noticed the look on Ziva’s face.

  “What message?” the woman asked.

  Kat hesitated. “I thought maybe that was why you came to Chaiavis in the first…. Forget it. I contacted HSP several days ago, the morning you were taken into custody, hoping to talk to you. I spoke to someone else – Vax, I think her name was, and I disconnected after she transferred me to someone in records. Of all people, I figured you’d be able to find me even with so little information.”

  It was a relief to see Ziva’s expression soften somewhat. “Well, I’m here now,” she said. “What does Dasaro have to do with any of this?”

  “I’ve been doing some research of my own over the past few years,” Kat replied. “His name has come up a couple of times in conjunction with other information I’ve found, though it’s never been enough to pin anything on him. That’s where I hoped you’d come in.”

  “What kind of research are we talking about?” Ziva asked.

  “It has to do with the mining operations in Argall. That’s where I came from, I guess. I’d been trying to—” Once again, Kat paused when she saw the thoughtful look on Ziva’s face. “What?”

  Rather than respond, Ziva turned to face the two men. “Argall came up during my search as well. It was only once and

  it didn’t make much sense, but—” she returned her attention to Kat “—if we pool our resources, we may yet be able to make some sense of all of this. Give us a few minutes to get settled, and then I think we need to have a long chat.”

  -69-

  Kat’s Hideout

  Chaiavis

  There wasn’t much settling to do, given the space available and the amount of equipment they’d brought, or lack thereof. It was decided that the three of them would stay there with Kat rather than return to the flophouse – Ziva was glad, as it was not only safer but they would actually have some supplies at their disposal. Kade had made himself at home at the tiny kitchen table upstairs, engrossed in his computer as he closed in on decrypting the files. The rest of them remained in the garage, with Kat and Aroska exchanging small talk and a bit of harmless flirting while Ziva perused the various shelves and storage boxes.

  It appeared there would be adequate tools to properly modify her newly-acquired rifle, one more thing that brought her a bit of relief. There were still materials needed to create the custom ammunition for it, and certainly Kat would know the best places to find them. The weapon itself had already been laid out on the workbench and waited patiently for her to begin her work, surrounded by the other various parts Bosco had found for her. The main concern was the scope. Korberos rifles weren’t known for their range capabilities, but with a little work she would be able to increase it to her liking. Extending the range, however, would leave her with somewhat inadequate sights. It was better than nothing though, and she’d worked with worse.

  Ziva removed a tiny blowtorch from the shelf and spent a moment examining it. “So what exactly do you do, Kat?”

  “A lot of things,” the young woman replied, still giggling in response to some lame joke Aroska had just told. “I’ve been on my own for about seven years now, and I’ve spent that time doing whatever odd jobs come my way. A little bounty hunting here, some errands for the embassy there. Mostly I work as a fixer, with a slight twist on the popular definition. People say I’m a mercenary, hiring myself out the way I do, but in reality, all my time is spent helping people.”

  Ziva set the blowtorch in the pile of other tools she thought she might make use of. “Where’d you get the kytara?”

  There was silence for a moment as Kat contemplated a response. “I guess I could ask you the same thing,” she said. “I got it on my very first job after I left the embassy. My client’s brother was a Nosti survivor who got picked up by Federation police; I was paid to infiltrate his apartment and destroy all evidence of Resistance affiliation before the Feds searched the place. Not really sure why I decided to keep it; it was probably a stupid thing to do. I’ve practiced with it over the years and thought I’d gotten pretty good at it, but then you showed up and kicked my ass.”

  Ziva couldn’t help but smirk. “I’ll admit you caught me off guard. You ever been exposed to nostium?”

  “Hell no,” Kat replied, shaking her head. “The Feds are usually a little more lenient about kytaras. With a city the size of this one, it’s not uncommon to find somebody who took one off a dead Nosti back in the day or even tried to make one of their own. But if they do a brain scan and find evidence of nostium, you’re a goner. I’ve got enough on my plate as it is – don’t want to wind up on the Federation’s shit list.”

  Ziva nodded and continued her exploration of the shelves. “So you’re a fixer.”

  Kat hummed an affirmative. “A friend of a friend is in trouble with a drug cartel, or maybe they’ve got a debt to pay and someone’s not happy about it. I do my best to bail them out, or at least resolve the situation as peacefully as possible – for a price, of course.” She let out a good-natured scoff. “My last job involved one of the officers from the embassy – the guy got jumped in an alley, got his service weapon stolen. He was scheduled for promotion, but if his superiors found out about the theft, he would have lost his job. He’s got three little kids to support. So I tracked the gun down and got it back for him.”

  “Sounds like rewarding work,” Aroska said.

  “It is,” Kat replied. “It pays the bills, sure, but there’s nothing better than resolving an issue and seeing a person be able to breathe again.” She smiled gently, but the smile faded after a moment as she stared vacantly ahead. A flicker of some emotion Ziva couldn’t pinpoint flashed across her face, but it was gone just as fast as it had appeared.

  Wondering what it meant, Ziva continued her circuit around the room and paused in front of the heating panel. The shelf mounted above it was smaller than the others and contained various items that appeared to be mementos rather than tools. One in particular caught her eye, an older model data pad with a familiar Haphezian style to it. Odd, considering Kat hadn’t set foot on the planet since birth. Ziva picked it up and turned it over in her hand. “What’s this?”

  For a moment Kat seemed almost defensive, leaping from her place on the sofa, but she carefully took the device and looked it over herself. “I’m not entirely sure,” she answered. “It’s from home, that’s all I know. I
t was sent to me care of the embassy about three years ago, with no note and nothing else stored on it. I’ve been tempted to throw it away several times now, but I always figured if it came from home it had to mean something.”

  She held the data pad out and Ziva found herself viewing what appeared to be a map – of what, she had no idea. The path was long and winding, represented by a thin yellow line against a gray background. Other than some headings indicating north and south, there were no other symbols or written instructions.

  “You said you got this three years ago?” Hearing the words from her own mouth struck a chord in Ziva’s mind and she took a moment to process what she’d just said. Dasaro. Argall. Three years. “It has been three long years – almost to the exact date – since this happened.”

  She shook her head when she realized Kat was speaking. “That’s when I first got curious about home,” the young woman said. “Well, I’d always been ‘curious,’ but I’d never taken any action. I figured if they got rid of me, they probably had no interest in hearing from me.”

  “And suddenly someone showed interest,” Aroska said.

  “Exactly,” Kat replied, “only I never figured out who. With such limited access to databases and records, it was hard enough finding anything out about Argall itself.” She paused, forcing a scoff and adding a sad wag of her head. “I’ve never even been there, and after all these years I’m still calling it home.”

  It suddenly struck Ziva how absurd the whole exile rule was. Here was a person who, other than having different colored eyes and hair stripes, had absolutely nothing physically wrong with her. Here was a person who would have made a fine soldier in the Grand Army or a field agent at HSP. Ziva remembered the problems Skeet had had as a boy, what with the abnormal coloring pattern in his hair. The final verdict had been that since the orange was consistent with his eyes he would be allowed to stay, though to this day there were some people who still questioned why he hadn’t been sent away. Those people – the ones who held prejudices against the Defectives – vastly outnumbered those who didn’t, the reason people like Kat and Bosco were still unwelcome on their homeworld.