Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2

by EJ Fisch

  “And you’ve been digging again, right?” Kade said. “Three years ago, you were digging. Now, you’re digging. What else has happened both times?”

  Ziva remained silent for a moment, eyes fixed on the file Zona had labeled CONCLUSIONS. “No,” she murmured, partly to herself and partly in response to his question, “that was completely unrelated.” The harder she thought, however, the more she understood his hint. He’d no doubt already seen what was in the file.

  “What do we know?” he asked, encouraging her along.

  “We know Dasaro is behind my set-up now,” she replied, rubbing her eyes. “So, what, I’m getting a little too close so he decides to frame me for an assassination to shut me up? You think the same thing happened three years ago?”

  “It’s possible, isn’t it?”

  Ziva clasped her hands in front of her mouth before the trembling could set in. She was having trouble replacing the image of Foda standing before her battered body in that bunker with the one of him on his knees downstairs. It seemed pretty clear that he was working for Dasaro now, if only as an informant, so it was quite possible that they could have been in league three years earlier. In fact, the idea made sense.

  “There was no motive,” she muttered.

  Nobody had ever been able to figure out the exact reason behind her capture, other than the fact that she was one of the agents tasked with putting the pirates’ operations to an end. During all her time in captivity, they had never asked a single question regarding troop placement or how much HSP knew. It wasn’t an interrogation – it was torture for the sake of torture, performed by someone who had been paid to take his sweet time carrying out instructions from a third party and not question his orders.

  Ziva felt her face flush with anger and mashed a button on Kade’s keyboard, opening the Conclusions file. The notes it contained only reinforced the theory she had already formed. Three years earlier, she’d been searching for a connection between Dasaro and Argall, and the captain had arranged a seemingly unrelated circumstance to either incapacitate or kill her. Now she’d been investigating again, and again he had arranged a way to get her off his trail. She kicked herself for having not caught on sooner, but at the moment she was more bothered by the fact that Foda had done everything he did under orders.

  The wound on her shoulder began to seep again as her blood pressure rose. She jerked into a standing position, nearly upsetting the table and all the computer equipment. Kade all but leapt aside to give her space as she stormed past him, descending the stairs on feet so light she could barely hear her steps over her own pulse. Once again it seemed as though time itself had slowed when she caught sight of Foda. Kat stood behind him, holding his tentacles as she removed a dirty old rag from his face. He sputtered and coughed as water ran down his body and contributed to the puddle that had already formed on the floor. Aroska stood with the bucket poised over his head, growling questions that Foda wouldn’t have answered even if he’d been able to.

  Things were still only moving at half speed when Ziva reached the bottom of the steps. Without breaking stride, she turned toward the others, sliding her pistol from its holster as she did so. She took aim for Foda’s gaping mouth, the one that had sneered at and spit on her as he’d tormented her. His eyes widened when he noticed the gun.

  “Whoa!” Kat exclaimed, leaning forward over Foda’s head.

  Her sudden movements made Ziva hesitate just long enough to give Aroska time to turn and seize her forearm, but his grip was no match for the adrenaline surging through her veins. She threw her arm forward, knocking him off balance, and brought her elbow across his face. He flinched and tried to duck away, only to end up on the receiving end of a powerful left hook. Her fist met the side of his head and the impact sent him reeling backward. If there was a time in her life when she’d hit someone harder, she couldn’t remember it.

  Taking advantage of the few seconds of freedom, she pivoted and leveled the gun at Foda’s chest. She pulled the trigger once, twice, three times, and watched his body buck and fall backward. A stunned silence fell over the room. Kat and Aroska stared, wide-eyed, and Ziva was vaguely aware of Kade standing on the stairs behind her.

  Let them stare. There were some people who warned that revenge would never bring peace; perhaps that was true, but revenge was also sweet, wasn’t it? Standing there staring at Foda’s limp form, Ziva couldn’t help but be happy she’d spotted him in the street. He would have met his demise eventually, but it wouldn’t have been by her choosing. This outcome was much more ideal. She stepped forward and put one last round through his head for good measure.

  She wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there with the gun still aimed at him before Aroska approached her from behind and placed his hand over her own, pistol and all. “Give it to me, Ziva,” he said, his voice quiet but firm.

  Ziva released the gun after a brief hesitation and let her arm fall to her side. She didn’t resist when Aroska took her by the shoulders and led her across the room to the sofa where he sat her down and kneeled before her, forcing her to look him in the eye. He said nothing, but his face displayed the same qualities as it had on the landing pad outside the Dakiti facility on Sardonis – a hint of awe, but mostly fear and disappointment.

  She watched him through narrowed eyes and shook her head. “He didn’t know anything anyway,” she muttered.

  Aroska rose to a standing position and crossed his arms, looming in much the same way Dasaro had in the interrogation room. He was joined after a moment by Kat, who was in turn joined by Kade, and she felt smothered by their collective stare.

  “I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m not going to tell you I’m sorry, because I’m not.”

  “Nobody’s asking for an apology,” Aroska replied, “but we’re all in this together, so I think the rest of us deserve a nice long explanation of what the hell is going on.”

  So there it was. All along, Ziva had known she’d have to tell her story at some point, but over time she had found herself putting it off and hoping everyone would forget. She looked up at each of them in turn – Kat and Kade were wide-eyed and confused, and Aroska‘s face was stone cold. But they were all waiting expectantly.

  Ziva stood up to escape their intense stares. She took one last look at Foda’s body, using that time to gather her thoughts. The trembling had already set in, so she placed her hands on her hips in hopes of stilling them.

  “I’m sure you all remember hearing about the series of attacks on the weapons transports three years ago,” she said, keeping her gaze directed toward the dead Cobian. “I was part of a task force assigned to track the pirates down and I ran point on a strike team that infiltrated the old base on Cobi…”

  -77-

  3 years ago

  Smuggler’s Compound

  Cobi

  Ziva froze and held up her right hand, signaling for her team to halt as the garbled transmission came through her earpiece. Exasperated, she pressed her back up against the wall of the outbuilding they were concealed behind and waited until the five agents with her had done the same.

  “Red Leader here,” she responded.

  For a moment there was nothing but static and jumbled voices as two transmissions vied for priority. She barely caught Skeet’s voice: “Z, are you seeing this?”

  Without turning around, she held out her hand and received a viewscreen that displayed an infrared bird’s-eye-view of the old military compound in which they stood. There were two other teams identical to hers, headed up by Skeet and Zinni, that held their positions on the other side of the compound and were represented on the screen by clusters of yellow dots. Those clusters were moving outward and away from the base’s center structure, away from the target.

  “What the hell?” she muttered. “Command, this is Red Leader. Why are we retreating?”

  The original transmission finally got through and she found herself listening to Dasaro’s voice. “Repeat, all teams fall back,” he said. �
�New intel. I’m sending exfil coordinates to you. Report back to the base ship for briefing.”

  “But sir!” Ziva said, stealing a glance around the side of the building. They were so close! “My teams are all in position – if we move now, we can take the warehouse.”

  “Tachi’s orders, Payvan,” Dasaro replied. “We just received an anonymous tip – some members of Foda’s gang were spotted in the city.”

  “But there’s a high probability we’ll find Foda himself here.”

  “An order’s an order, Payvan. Pull out now!”

  Ziva handed the viewscreen back to the agent beside her and took a moment to examine each eager face as the others waited for the verdict. It had taken nearly two hours of sneaking and creeping for them to reach their current position, and she dreaded to think it had been for nothing.

  “My brother worked on one of the transports that was attacked,” one of the agents spoke up. “Foda’s gang killed him. I’m with you all the way, Lieutenant.”

  “As am I,” said another.

  The other three nodded in agreement.

  The wheels in Ziva’s head began spinning. If they managed to advance another forty meters or so, they’d be past the point of no return and HSP would have to let them continue. They’d need to move fast or an extraction team would catch up to them and blow any chance they had of bagging Foda.

  She considered opening a transmission to Dasaro but decided against it for fear that he would send someone after them before they had time to move. “Let’s go,” she said.

  Two of the agents moved out in front of her, sweeping the area and providing cover for the rest of them as they darted across the grass to the next outbuilding. They froze halfway across the clearing, sending a nervous tingle through Ziva’s body. She looked up to see a group of six Cobians forming a barrier across their path – they were all armed and held their weapons up and ready. There was a rustling behind them and she turned to find seven more blocking the way they had come. She was too focused on them to notice the two flash grenades rolling toward her.

  Ziva tried to look away as they went off but found herself staring straight into the glare of a third one that had been thrown by the other group. She turned, blinded by the spots and stars that danced in her eyes, and collided with one of the other agents. They fell to the ground, their feet entangled, and her rifle slipped from her grasp. Heavy footsteps thundered around her and she was vaguely aware of shadows passing by overhead. She caught sight of her weapon, or more accurately, two of her weapon, and reached for the nearest one, but her hand came away full of dead grass. Her vision began to right itself and she reached for the real gun; her fingers touched metal just as the stun baton hit the back of her neck.

  -78-

  Kat’s Hideout

  Chaiavis

  “I never saw any of the other agents again,” Ziva said. “When I woke up, I was alone, strung up by a chain in a dark room. I was under the influence of something – I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. Foda and some of his men showed up before long and….”

  She felt her eyes start to sting and her cheeks start to burn. She cupped her hands over her nose and mouth, blinking rapidly to keep the hot tears at bay. There were times when she could still feel the sensation of the rusty chains digging into her wrists, and this was one of them.

  The only sound in the garage was the little heater as it kicked on and began to hum, causing the items around it to vibrate ever so slightly. Aroska, Kat, and Kade all stood in uncomfortable silence, unwilling to make eye contact. Ziva looked over each of them in turn, glad they seemed to regret ever asking her what her problem was. She gritted her teeth and grimaced, keeping her voice steady despite the tears that finally broke free and spilled down her face. “And then I spent the next week being cut, burned, violated, and beaten by that huhren shouka souhn.” She thrust a finger in Foda’s direction.

  It was Aroska who finally dared to look at her. His mouth formed a straight line and the familiar teasing glimmer was absent from his eyes. “So that’s what you meant when you said you couldn’t go back,” he said. “In the café on the transport, you said you couldn’t ‘go back’ to the Haphor Facility.”

  Ziva heaved a sigh and wiped the back of her hand across her face. “Yeah, that’s what I meant,” she said, almost a whisper. “I think I would have shot myself before having to endure all of that again.” She returned her hands to her hips and cleared her throat, taking a moment to stare up at the ceiling. “It was Skeet who finally found me. He launched an independent rescue mission, something totally unheard of in spec ops. They say I probably wouldn’t have lasted another night if he hadn’t reached me. Everyone else was already dead.”

  She was overcome with another wave of shame. “Looking back on it now, it all makes more sense!” she snarled, sweeping her hand across one of the nearby shelves and sending its contents clattering to the floor. “If Dasaro really orchestrated the whole thing like Zona thinks, that explains how the Cobians found my squad. I was conveniently out of his hair while his men were out in Argall killing the Reilly family and dozens of others. And HSP was too focused on me and the way I’d screwed everything up to notice what he was doing. I’m sure he was hoping I’d just rot in that bunker, and I almost did thanks to his Cobian puppets.”

  Kade cleared his throat. “That might also explain how Foda and his crew were able to escape after that,” he put in. “If Dasaro managed to cover up the situation in Argall, he easily could have arranged for them to slip through the cracks while the rest of HSP was off chasing false leads.”

  Ziva nodded in agreement, feeling emotionally spent and angry at herself for not having been able to see through Dasaro’s charade. “I tried to explain to everyone that there was never even an interrogation, that it was just mindless torture, but he would always step in and remind them that I was the one who defied orders, it was my fault we were captured. Those pirates would have found us regardless of whether we’d retreated or pressed on.” She shook her head again, gnawing on the inside of her lip. “Always shifting the blame back to me. And here I thought it was just because he hated my guts.”

  “And everyone thinks you blamed Tachi for your capture because he called off the mission?” Kat asked, staring at the floor.

  “In a lot of ways, I did blame him. The rest of the Haphezian population saw that as a motive for murdering him. Now that we know the truth though, I can see that his orders to retreat had nothing to do with anything that happened. For all I know, Dasaro could have fabricated this so-called tip that prompted Tachi to give the order in the first place.”

  Ziva paused for a moment and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes, letting a quiet growl escape her throat. She walked to the green car and took out the sack with her precious chunk of bariine. She removed the little brick and ran her fingers over it, staring down at Foda’s body as she did so. His chest had been torn open by the three rounds she’d put into it, and the flesh on his forehead was crusted and charred around the hole she’d blasted through it. Perhaps it had been overkill, but it had felt good. She looked down at the metal in her hand. One shot was all it would take from now on.

  “Somebody get rid of that frouchten body,” she muttered, addressing no one in particular.

  “What are you going to do?” Aroska asked.

  Ziva held the bariine up, estimating the number of rounds she could get out of it. “I’m going to make some new friends.”

  -79-

  Central Spaceport

  Chaiavis

  The trash compactor behind the spaceport’s maintenance shop wasn’t the most discreet place to dump a body, but with any luck the machine would be activated and Foda’s corpse would be destroyed before anyone noticed it. Besides, this was Chaiavis, where species of all shapes and sizes roamed and where law enforcement jurisdiction was almost never clear. It was doubtful anyone would care too much about a dead Cobian.

  Aroska stepped back to examine his handiwork. He selected another ch
unk of discarded metal and arranged it over the conspicuous body-sized package he and Kat had lifted into the compactor moments before. As satisfied as he thought he’d ever be, he found his footing and worked his way out of the machine.

  Kat stood at the end of the alley keeping watch, and she came to meet him when she saw their task had been completed. She took a look into the compactor and sighed. “I guess that will work.”

  “You sound unsure.”

  Without another word, she got into the car’s pilot seat and motioned for him to get in. He did so without question and Kat brought the vehicle out of the alley and into traffic. They flew in silence for a minute or two until they were a suitable distance from the spaceport and the dump site. The car came to a stop, idling in mid air behind a tall building.

  He could tell there was something on Kat’s mind – she sat still, gripping the controls, blue eyes staring off into the distance. The quiet was becoming uncomfortable. “What’s wrong?”

  She turned toward him. “Here’s the thing. You said it yourself – we’re all in this together. I’ve chosen to put my trust in you people; I’ve welcomed you into my home. I need to know that what just happened won’t happen again. I need to know that the choices one of us makes aren’t going to wind up hurting everyone else.”

  Aroska sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, at a total loss for words. He didn’t blame Ziva the least bit for her actions, but at the same time he knew Kat was right.

  “I’ll talk to her,” he said.

  “Will she listen to you?”

  “Probably not.”

  “She’s lost her mind, Tarbic,” Kat said. “I sought her out because I needed her help, and I’ll be damned if all my hard work goes down the drain because she can’t control her temper.”