Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2

by EJ Fisch

  “Curious, aren’t we? I’m not sure if I see how that concerns you.”

  “It sure as hell concerns me,” Ziva snapped. “I’m not stupid, Diago. You’re after her for the same reason you’re after me and Kade Shevin.” She paused, wondering how he’d react at the mention of Argall. At this point, his involvement was really only an educated hunch based on Zona’s findings, and bringing it up was a bit of a gamble on her part. She wasn’t even sure what was going on there, other than the murder of innocent people. It was, however, a risk she was willing to take. “It’s because we know about Argall.”

  The look on Dasaro’s face was just as good as it had been when he’d answered the call. He stood there with a gaping mouth, obviously unaware he was being watched, and whirled around to face Nejdra and Kyron. They each approached, and Ziva heard a faint click as Dasaro switched the call to an open transmission so the two of them could listen in.

  “You’re running quite the little club, aren’t you,” Dasaro said. “Can I assume Lieutenant Tarbic is with you as well?”

  Ziva said nothing and brought the pad of her index finger to rest against the trigger.

  “Let me tell you something, Ziva. You’re talking like you’ve already won, but I can assure you that if the four of you think you can put an end to what I’m doing, you are sorely mistaken. It’s far too late – you’d only be wasting your time.”

  She had to admit he had a point. Now that he knew that they knew, there was no telling what he might do to speed up his operation or erase evidence of his involvement. Still, she didn’t regret contacting him.

  “Maybe so,” she replied, “but you’re not going to stop me from trying. Just like you didn’t stop me the other night. Just like you didn’t stop me three years ago.”

  Once again, there was a short hesitation on Dasaro’s end. Yes, now both of his precious secrets had been uncovered. “It was worth a try, wasn’t it?” he said. “You were the only person who ever gave a guhr hound’s ass what I was doing. If it makes you feel any better, you had to be eliminated because you were the only real threat.”

  Ziva smirked. “You flatter me, Diago.”

  Through the scope, she saw Nejdra step forward to get Dasaro’s attention. “We can still salvage this, Diago!” she hissed. “We can get eliminate her before she has a chance to expose anything. There are ways.”

  “You’re wrong, Captain Venn,” Ziva said. “You may have noticed that I’m pretty good at disappearing. And if you send anyone else after us, any more of your Cobian dogs, I’ll kill them – pretty good at that, too.”

  Dasaro merely chuckled, and the sight of his content smile made her sick. “Stand down, Ziva. You can do whatever you want – run, hide, fight – but you can’t win, not at this point.”

  “Well see about that,” Ziva said. She paused, adjusting her sights ever so slightly as a new thought came to mind. “Do you know how long it takes a bariine round to travel eight hundred meters?”

  -83-

  Haphezian Embassy

  Chaiavis

  It struck Dasaro as a rather odd question. The words were barely out of Ziva’s mouth when he heard a moist thump and his face was spattered with warm blood. Nejdra crumpled into a deformed heap at his feet, a jagged exit wound marring what little remained of her face.

  “That’s how long.” Ziva’s voice carried through the comm.

  The transmission ended abruptly.

  -84-

  Government District

  Chaiavis

  Ziva had the rifle up and was shrinking back onto the roof before the transmission was even cut. She scrambled to her feet and slung the weapon’s strap over her shoulder, sprinting for the car. Aroska was hot on her heels, clutching the comm equipment and the viewscreen. He leapt into the pilot’s seat and had the car moving before he had even settled in.

  “What the hell was that?” he exclaimed. It wasn’t quite a demand – his voice was filled with surprise and confusion, maybe even relief.

  Ziva remained silent, unable to decide for herself what had prompted the sudden change of plans. “Just get us out of range,” she said, massaging her forehead.

  Aroska scoffed. “Oh don’t worry, I think it will take Dasaro a while to figure out we were beyond eight hundred meters. And that’ll only be after he cleans the sheyss out of his pants!”

  The corners of Ziva’s lips twitched upward for a brief moment. Perhaps that was exactly what she’d been thinking. Her quest for revenge, however, had been a mistake. Getting inside people’s heads had always been her specialty, and after allowing Dasaro to beat her at her own game, all she’d wanted was to take the reins back from him, show him that he was no longer in control. To her credit, it had worked – the fact that she’d done it all under the influence of her emotions was where she’d gone wrong.

  There was no time to waste now that Dasaro knew she was on the planet, knew she was on to him. Things could always be worse, but thanks to her, they were now more complicated than they needed to be. If she’d just killed Dasaro, they might never have had the opportunity to find out what he was planning. Alerting him to her presence, however, could wind up costing hundreds of people their lives. She felt her face flush and slammed her hands against the car’s dash, allowing her stinging palms to command her attention for a few moments.

  Aroska pushed the vehicle to its top speed, weaving in and out of the busy afternoon traffic. “I hope you’re happy.” His voice possessed the same accusatory tone as it had during their confrontation in the garage.

  “I screwed up,” she growled, clenching her hand into a fist to keep from tearing her hair out. I blew it. I was wrong. I hope you’re happy.

  “I won’t disagree with that,” Aroska said. “Let’s make up for it by catching up to Dasaro before he has a chance to finish what he started.” When she didn’t respond, he turned toward her and nudged her shoulder. “We’ll fix this, okay?”

  Ziva shook her head and turned to look behind them, keeping her eyes peeled for any signs of HSP or Dasaro’s ship. “This has never happened before,” she muttered. “I’ve never lost control like this.”

  Aroska remained silent, knuckles white as he gripped the controls, no doubt kicking himself for his actions in the garage earlier. At least Ziva hoped that was the case. It was tempting to blame him for her lack of focus, and in a way she had every right to do so. But at the same time, she had lost control and she knew it. She was better than that – that was why she was in this position, why she had been targeted by Dasaro in the first place. This was exactly what he wanted, and it angered her to no end that she had faltered.

  Ziva turned back to face the front of the car and wiped the sheen of sweat from her forehead. They continued the trip back to the garage in silence. There was still much that needed to be said, but now it was time for a break. And now that Dasaro knew they were coming for him, there was a lot of thinking and planning to do.

  They pulled the vehicle into the shop alongside Kat’s. She and Kade appeared on the stairs momentarily, watching from a cautious distance as Ziva and Aroska unloaded their equipment from the car. Ziva took the rifle to the workbench and leaned over it, feeling hot under their expectant gazes as they waited for an update. It was Kat who spoke first. “What happened?”

  Ziva ignored her, unsure what to say. She knew good and well that Kat was unhappy with the way she was handling things, especially in Foda’s case. Telling her Dasaro was still alive and no doubt headed back to Argall to kill her brother wouldn’t go over well.

  “In short, Nejdra Venn is dead and Dasaro isn’t,” Aroska responded.

  Ziva finally lifted her head to make eye contact. Kat’s hands had curled into fists but she remained in her place, her face set in stone.

  “That’s interesting,” she said, slowly descending the remaining steps. She walked right past Aroska and angled toward Ziva, crossing her arms but continuing to keep her distance. “Do you think that was the best idea?”

  “No,” Ziv
a snapped, growing weary of the constant reminders of her mistake. She approached Kat and took up a similar stance. “But I can’t very well change that now, can I?”

  Kat drew in a breath and opened her mouth to speak, but she was silenced when Ziva lifted her hand and took another step forward. “Listen. I don’t imagine you’re happy with the approach I’ve taken on this, and believe it or not, neither am I. But whether we like it or not, I sent Dasaro a message and he read it loud and clear. He knows I’m not going to quit until one of us is dead. He’s going to be moving fast, but so will we. I promise you I won’t let him touch your brother. Nobody else is going to die.”

  It struck her strange that Kat’s face didn’t soften at all after hearing those words. In fact, that same flicker of sadness Ziva had noticed before appeared briefly in her eyes, and she glanced down to the floor before nodding.

  Ziva brought her hands down to rest on her hips and gave Kat a bit of space. “Screw everything. Screw Dasaro and this damn conspiracy, and screw the exile law. It’s time for us to fight back.” She paused and looked around, briefly locking eyes with Kade, then Aroska, and finally Kat. “We’re going home.”

  -85-

  Haphezian Embassy

  Chaiavis

  As Diago Dasaro stood there watching the local law enforcement officials secure the straps on Nejdra’s body bag, he couldn’t help but notice the trembling in his hands. He placed one on his hip and rubbed the other over his chin, praying no one else would notice. The hairs on the back of his neck had yet to settle back down and Ziva’s chilling words continued to echo through his head: “Do you know how long it takes a bariine round to travel eight hundred meters?”

  It had been nearly an hour since she’d shot his colleague, and during that hour he’d felt more uneasy than he’d ever felt in his life. The realization that Ziva had been staring right at him for the duration of their conversation had hit him first, followed immediately by the unnerving idea that she could have just as easily killed him. Now he stood there obsessing over why she had chosen to shoot Nejdra instead. Was there something he was missing? The round she had used – or what was left of it, anyway – had indeed been partially composed of bariine alloy, a substance commonly found on Haphez and neighboring Fringe worlds. Surely she hadn’t been using one of her own rifles; all of her personal weapons had been confiscated immediately following her arrest. And yet she had still been able to make the shot. It was clear that she had managed to catch up to him, judging by what she had revealed during the transmission, but now he feared she was actually a step ahead.

  Dasaro shifted his attention from the body bag to the embassy doors when Kyron Hoxie emerged with a pair of investigators. “Nothing,” he said, handing Dasaro a viewscreen that displayed infrared views of every rooftop within eight hundred meters. “No signal from the communicator, either. She’s not stupid enough to leave it lying around.”

  A mistake Dasaro had already made when he’d continued to use the comm code he’d shared with Lieutenant Tarbic. That explained how they’d managed to track him to the embassy and contact him. Using Foda’s communicator had been clever indeed; the Cobian had no doubt been captured while searching for Kat Reilly, and Dasaro guessed he was dead now. He kicked himself for having answered the call so readily after Foda had failed to check in at the appointed time.

  He lifted his eyes and gazed out at the surrounding buildings, mentally eliminating any that were too short or obscured by other structures. He paused to look at several towering buildings a bit further away. “She was beyond eight hundred meters,” he said, shaking his head. “Think about it. She’d want to be as far away as possible so she’d have plenty of time to escape again. She’s a coward.”

  No, she’s a crack shot, but saying otherwise still made him feel better. An eight-hundred-meter shot was child’s play for a marksman like Ziva, and she was the type who could turn even the worst of weapons into effective killing machines merely by holding them.

  It had always driven him mad how good she was. As her superior officer, he should have been proud to have someone so talented under his command. The higher rank still didn’t help the fact that she was better than him, however. He’d been the top dog in spec ops since she was still carrying around mock weapons at basic training, and suddenly she’d been bombarded with opportunities and job offers, all because she’d managed to kill some rogue Nosti. She’d gone straight into special ops training without graduating – or even completing – the Junior Guard program.

  One would have expected someone like that to be a cocky, mouthy little shouka, but that had never been the case with Ziva. In fact, she rarely spoke. She was just always there – he had to suppress a shudder – lurking around, waiting to steal more opportunities from him. She was good and she knew it, but she never flaunted it. Dasaro often wished she would, just so he’d have a more legitimate reason for disliking her.

  His hate went beyond petty jealousy though. He was at the top of the food chain in special ops for a reason, so there was no point in being envious of Ziva’s abilities. It had taken him years to finally be named lieutenant of the Alpha team, and after a mere nine months in that position he’d been bumped up to captain to make way for Ziva and her team. In all reality, the promotion had seemed like more of a demotion, and he had fought for the chance to continue some field work. The director claimed it was because spec ops needed someone younger, someone fresh, but that Dasaro was still invaluable and the agency couldn’t afford to lose him. It had always struck him as a glorified way of sweeping him under the rug.

  Okay, so maybe he was a little jealous, but only because he’d worked his whole life to get to where he was and she’d simply been adopted into the program. The woman had skills, and he’d been totally honest in saying that she was the only real threat to his operations, which were the only thing that made him feel like he was in control anymore. It wasn’t that others were incapable of catching on. It was just that, knowing full well that he despised her, Ziva tended to keep a closer eye on him than anyone else at HSP. She was bound to find out about Argall sooner or later, the reason she’d made a perfect candidate whenever he needed to arrange a distraction for the rest of the agency.

  He suddenly became aware of Hoxie speaking. “…we check those other buildings?”

  Dasaro shook his head and turned to face the other captain. “Sorry?”

  Hoxie released an exasperated sigh and started over. “They’re willing to extend the search radius and look again,” he said, gesturing toward all the structures surrounding the landing platform. “If we check those other buildings, maybe we—”

  “We’d be wasting our time,” Dasaro finished for him. “Ziva is long gone by now, and now that she knows about Argall, she will no doubt try to launch some form of offensive. We need to make preparations to return to Haphez.”

  “She’s got three people with her,” Hoxie said, lifting an eyebrow. “How will they be any match for us?”

  “They won’t, but they can still talk. Nejdra was right – we can still tie everything up, but we have to hurry. Ziva will go straight to the director, but I think I know how to buy us some time.”

  “What should I tell Loric?”

  Dasaro was quiet for a moment, contemplating the ultimatum they had finally reached. “Shut everything down,” he said. “Everything.”

  Hoxie reached for his communicator but stopped before he had removed it from his belt. He shook his head. “You’re really prepared to kill all those people?”

  “Keep your voice down,” Dasaro growled, taking several quick steps away from the investigators. Hoxie reluctantly followed, and the conversation resumed. “We still have a chance to save ourselves here, but it will mean getting our hands dirty.”

  “They’re not dirty already? HSP is going to find out what’s going on.”

  “Time, Kyron!” Dasaro said, taking him by the shoulders. “The key is time. Erasing as much as possible will slow HSP down enough that we can get safely away.
We’ll be rich men, with the resources to hide and start new lives.”

  Hoxie set his jaw and shook his head again, making a show of securing his communicator to his belt. “This isn’t what I signed up for. You promised us crystals at the beginning. You never said anything about wiping out an entire city.”

  Dasaro moved his hand down to rest on his holster and loomed over Hoxie, looking him squarely in the eye. “So that’s it then? After everything, you’re going to just walk away?”

  “What are you going to do, shoot me?” The former soldier remained unfazed. “No, not here in front of all these people. Come on, Dasaro. Payvan’s on to us, Nejdra’s already dead. I think I’ll take my chances and get out while I’m still breathing.”

  Dasaro stared him down a moment longer, but it was to no avail. He could see in the man’s eyes that the decision was final. “Fine,” he muttered, not wishing to make a scene with so many people around. He took a step back and gestured for Hoxie to be on his way.

  The other captain nodded his thanks and took off at a brisk pace toward the embassy doors. He paused just outside and turned back for a moment. Dasaro saw him mouth the words I’m sorry and with that, he was gone.

  The apprehension he’d felt over the past few days was nearly overwhelming. He’d been anxious after hearing of Ziva’s escape, and even more so when he’d found out she was still alive. But this new wave of anxiety that washed over him trumped all the others. This was like a game of chess and his opponent had just put him in check. On top of that, he’d just lost the only two people he trusted to help him.

  Angrier than ever, Dasaro pulled out his communicator and opened up a transmission to Emeri Arion. Trying to hide now was pointless, as there were plenty of witnesses who could place him there at the embassy. There was still a card he could play, a card that could potentially redeem the situation if he was lucky. However, he couldn’t help but feel his luck was running out.