Hidden Enemies (Book 9 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  She considered Jacob for almost ten seconds. “I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt until I get more information, but I’m not a wilting flower to be protected. I’ve killed more men in combat than your most seasoned warriors, I suspect. I will not shy away from protecting my person with arms.”

  “Then I demand satisfaction,” Isidro said with a sneer. “Meet me blade to blade and we shall see who is a warrior and who is not.”

  “Isidro, you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into,” Arturo said sternly. “Following your own logic, challenging a woman would be murder and so not allowed. The fact that she’s a far better warrior than you merely mean injury and humiliation for you. Assuming, of course, that she doesn’t cut your head off. Idiot.”

  The man at the center of the table surged to his feet. “I forbid this! There will be no fighting in this hall.”

  Isidro gave the man a dismissive glance and glared at Arturo. “Neither of you have the power to stop me. The law is clear. She assaulted me and I demand satisfaction here and now. She claims to be a warrior, so I am within my rights. I will see her blood.”

  “Accepted,” Kelsey snapped before any of the other men could respond. “But I will not fight to the death over something so trivial. First blood only.”

  “If you mean the initial spilling of blood, then I accept,” Isidro said with a wolfish smile. “Whosoever shall lose the first drop loses this challenge.”

  Jacob held up a hand. “As the son of the chief I feel it necessary to warn you what a terrible mistake you are about to make, Isidro. Did you learn nothing from when she subdued you the first time? Step back from this madness.”

  “You think your father shields you from all the consequences of life,” Isidro sneered. “He doesn’t have the fire of our ancestors. Perhaps one day someone with true spirit will challenge him during the yearly festival and take leadership of the Clan back to revive our greatness.”

  Jacob laughed. “Do not mistake benevolence for weakness. My father is strong. The reason no one challenges him for leadership is that they know he’s a wise ruler, even if he can be an ass. The people you speak of would take the Clan back to what they were before the crash. Mad dogs fighting over bones.”

  Isidro’s face reddened. “That mouth of yours will get you dead one day. You think over much of yourself. Gallivanting across the kingdom playing at being a spy. Your day will come, too. Perhaps much sooner than your father’s.”

  The man stepped forward into the center of the hall, walking outward until Kelsey was between him and the tribunal’s table. “Face me with a blade in your hand, woman. I promise I won’t take more than a finger or two for your insolence.”

  Jacob held up his hands in surrender. “I tried to spare your honor, but you’re too willful to see good advice for what it is. I hope this loss will be relatively painless. Actually, that’s a lie. I hope it hurts like hell.”

  He turned his attention to the tribunal. “I also hope this will be educational. Watch closely and you’ll see that this woman is a powerful warrior who is not to be trifled with. Perhaps then you will hear her with an open mind.”

  Once Jacob had stepped to the side of the room, Kelsey drew her swords. The true challenge of this fight wouldn’t be winning. It would be winning without grievously injuring her opponent.

  Isidro drew his sword and stalked forward, a grin on his face. He began circling to the left of her, feinting with his weapon.

  She didn’t fall for his probing attacks. She had absolutely no doubt that she would spot the true strike when it came. And, on due consideration, she didn’t have to actually use her sword to get that blood.

  The next time the warrior feinted at her, Kelsey slashed at his blade with the sword in her right hand. Her edge struck his blade just above the hilt and cut cleanly through, sending the dangerous part of his weapon clanging to the floor.

  He stood there, his mouth agape.

  Rather than waiting for him to recover, Kelsey darted forward and knocked the hilt out of his grip with the back of her hand, sending it spinning into the corner of the room. She then slammed her forehead into his nose, sending him staggering back.

  She’d very carefully pulled the strike as much as possible. She had no desire to kill the ass. With the Graphene reinforcement to her skull, the impact hardly bothered her. In fact, it didn’t even make her blink.

  Not so for the arrogant warrior. He clapped both hands over his blood-gushing broken nose and staggered back, howling in agony.

  Kelsey sheathed her swords and turned back toward the tribunal. “Are we done here? Is there any lingering doubt that I’m a warrior?”

  “Look out!” Jacob shouted.

  Based upon the horrified expressions of the tribunal, Isidro had decided to go beyond first blood after all. Her enhanced hearing confirmed that he was racing up behind her and her implants calculated his approach velocity and probable location.

  He wouldn’t be attacking with his bare hands and his sword was ruined, so he probably had a short blade of some kind in his dominant right hand. Timing was going to be everything. She had no doubt that she could disarm and subdue him, but she wanted to do it with style.

  When she believed he was in the appropriate position, she spun on one foot and lashed out with the other. He was indeed at just about the right spot with a dagger in his right hand and murder written on his face.

  Her spinning back kick took the blade from his hand, snapping bones in the process since she hadn’t held back on her strength. After all, there was a lesson to be taught here.

  Even before his face began registering the terrible agony of his shattered hand, she’d planted the spinning foot and was lashing out at him with the foot she’d spun on. Strength was key here. She had to restrain herself to a very carefully calculated strike or she might kill the man.

  Kelsey’s snap kick was just about perfect. Her foot rose and landed directly between his legs with just enough force to completely double him over.

  He collapsed, gagging and retching. This fight was over.

  Once again, she turned toward the tribunal. “I am Kelsey Bandar, chief of Clan Persephone. I am a warrior and will not be trifled with. I’m willing to explain how I came to be here and what I intend, but realize now that you have no authority over me.”

  The head of the tribunal’s expression hardened a little. “Your ability to fight is shocking, but this matter is far from settled. Rest assured that Isidro will answer for his actions, but we will still judge you on your violations of Clan etiquette.

  “And we will fully evaluate your claims that you do not belong to our clan at all. Trust me when I say that should that statement prove true you will have some explaining to do.”

  Kelsey started to answer, but a commotion outside the main doors interrupted her response. She turned toward the entryway just in time to see the doors open and a dozen Pandorans stride into the hall.

  “All will stand fast,” the tall Pandoran warrior in the lead said sternly. “I speak in the name of King Estevan of Raden. I call upon you through the treaty you have with our kingdom to assist me.”

  The tribunal, which had seated itself, once again rose to its feet. The man in charge bowed slightly. “Clan Dauntless will honor our treaty. What assistance do you require?”

  “I seek Kelsey Bandar, chief of Clan Persephone. Is she present?”

  Since he was staring directly at her, Kelsey was quite certain he knew who she was. She stepped forward and bowed.

  “I am Kelsey Bandar.”

  The man nodded, obviously expecting her answer. “In the name of the Kingdom of Raden, I detain you. You will be taken immediately to an audience with the king. There you will explain yourself and he will sit in judgment. If you resist, my warriors will use all necessary force to subdue or slay you. I command you to stand fast and surrender your weapons peacefully.”

  Well, that certainly sounded ominous.

  Still, she didn’t exactly have a lot
of options at this point. “I will comply, but only with the understanding that my weapons will be returned to me when I am released.”

  The Pandoran smiled slightly. “That assumes that you will be released. You are not of the humans that were granted permission to be on this world. It is within my liege’s rights to deal with you as he pleases. If he believes you to be a danger to the kingdom, you may be imprisoned or even slain. He will not allow mad dogs to roam this world.”

  Interesting. That was the second time that phrase had been used.

  The Pandoran glanced at Isidro, who was still curled up in a fetal position on the floor, bleeding.

  Not the best visual for a first impression, Kelsey had to admit. The idiot’s timing had put her in an awkward light. Still, if push came to shove, the marines would get her out. It was far better to try and solve this peacefully than to fight.

  Kelsey began removing her sword harness. “You’ll want to leave the blades in their sheaths. They’re very, very sharp. My other weapons are technological. I believe that Jacob is familiar with their use and can provide guidance in their safe handling.”

  The Pandorans surrounded her as she finished disarming herself. Some of them collected her weapons and the rest began herding her toward the doorway. One way or the other, she had to make her meeting with the king of Raden work. Her people’s survival depended on it.

  9

  Veronica hurled herself backwards, ducking to the side to avoid the madwoman’s blow. She held no illusions about who’d win if they became fully engaged.

  As quickly as she’d acted, Veronica only barely managed to avoid the lethal strike. Rather than hitting her in the throat, Renner’s attack struck the side of her head with blinding force. Sparks of light shot across Veronica’s vision as she fell out of the chair and sprawled on the floor.

  Renner landed on top of Veronica and clamped her hands around her throat like steel bands.

  “Die, murdering bitch,” the security officer said, her eyes alight with murderous rage.

  Moments later, Colonel Talbot clamped his arm around the other woman’s throat and dragged her back. The two marines from beside the hatch pulled Renner’s hands off Veronica’s neck with great difficulty.

  She sat there on the floor, gasping for breath as she watched the three marines struggle with the ferocious woman. The hatch opened and extra marines rushed in to aid their companions, finally subduing the fierce, primal force that Renner had become.

  All the while, Renner shouted at Veronica, promising her a horrible death that she couldn’t escape from. It was surreal. What in the world had triggered the woman?

  Once the marines had secured Renner’s wrists, Talbot stepped back and helped Veronica to her feet. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she said, surprised at how much her throat hurt. Her voice sounded a bit rough to her own ears.

  Talbot gestured to his men. “Take Commander Renner to the brig. Lock her up and keep her in isolation. Put her into a restraint belt, too. If she gets froggy again, I’d like to be able to take her down easy.”

  None of that slowed the invective that Renner was hurling at Veronica. Even after the hatch closed, she thought she could still hear the woman shouting.

  Rubbing her throat, she stared at Talbot. “What the hell was that about?”

  “Call it a hunch, but I think she had some kind of relationship with Castille. A serious one, I think, at least on her end. She went off as soon as you said you’d killed him.”

  “I’d imagine we’re not going to get anything out of her at this point.”

  “Probably not,” Talbot admitted. “We’ll just put her on ice for a while and see if she cools down. Do we need to stop by the medical center and have Doc Zoboroski check you out?”

  Veronica shook her head. “No, I’m fine. Seriously. She didn’t have enough time to hurt me.”

  “If that first strike had landed clean, you’d be in a lot worse shape. I think I’m going to have to reassess our security protocols when questioning prisoners. I think we need somebody with a stunner in the room.”

  That wasn’t a bad idea. Of course, most of the prisoners wouldn’t be that aggressive. Veronica hoped not, anyway.

  “So, what do we do now?” she asked. “I think I’ve had about enough interrogating for today.”

  “I’ll bet,” he said with a chuckle. “Let’s go do something less interactive. I want to show you the new hardware we picked up. Have you ever actually seen a System Lord?”

  “No. As you might imagine, they’re picky about who they allow into their presence. Still, it’s just computer hardware, isn’t it?”

  “Pretty much. Just a lot more of it than one might expect. Back when we installed one on a superdreadnought, it took up the entirety of the computer center and only just barely fit.

  “Over on Persephone, the engineers had to gut and jury-rig several compartments adjacent to the computer center. I’m not sure how they managed to get the work done so quickly, but I suppose they have their ways.”

  Veronica gestured at the ship around them. “Not to criticize, but shouldn’t you install it here?”

  He headed toward the hatch and she followed. “This ship is trapped here for the foreseeable future. That AI must get out and back to the New Terran Empire, even if Audacious doesn’t. The commodore and my wife will understand that.”

  They stepped into the corridor and headed for the lift. She considered what he’d said for a moment before asking another question.

  “Are you going to make it the ship’s computer, too? That seems dangerous. System Lords are ruthless. I shudder to think of what one in control of a ship could do.”

  “It’s not as bad as all that,” he assured her as they stepped into the lift and he sent it heading up. “We’re using the original system code with a couple of tweaks made by Carl Owlet. This computer will not become a System Lord.”

  She considered him for a moment. “I’ve heard a lot about this Carl Owlet. I still can’t believe that he’s married to Major Ellis?”

  Talbot nodded. “Yep. Those two are total opposites. She is an unstoppable physical machine and he is a brain without comparison. Together, they make a formidable couple.”

  Veronica thought about that on the ride over to Persephone. Building a System Lord still sounded reckless to her, but she had exactly zero say in what happened here. She could only pray for the best.

  She monitored the approach to the Marine Raider strike ship through the cutter’s scanners via her implants. The Empire had nothing like that ship and she wanted to know as much about it as she could.

  Crews were working outside, apparently installing access hatches near where fighters were docked on the hull in makeshift cradles. This was probably something being done because the carrier couldn’t leave this system and Persephone could.

  The cutter docked in one of the ship’s original cradles and they boarded the ship. Major Ellis was standing there. Veronica wondered if the other woman knew things had gone a bit awry after she’d left.

  “Welcome aboard Persephone,” she said with a smile. “The commodore and my husband are already aboard. I have to get back to the bridge, but I wanted to take the time to officially greet you.”

  “She looks like an interesting ship,” Veronica said. “I look forward to talking with you about her.”

  “Perhaps over dinner? I’ve got to run.”

  While Major Ellis headed off down a corridor, Colonel Talbot led Veronica to a lift. The trip was short. They stepped out near what Veronica knew would be the computer center on the small ship. Coming from the opposite direction were Commodore Anderson and the person she suspected was Carl Owlet.

  Anderson smiled at them. “Colonel, Commander. I hope you’re both well.”

  “Well enough,” Veronica said. “We had a little bit of excitement, but it all worked out in the end. The colonel tells me you found an artificial intelligence. I have to confess that’s scary.”

  “Ther
e’s nothing to be afraid of,” the young man assured her. “We’ve been through the code many, many times. These aren’t the artificial intelligences you’re familiar with.”

  “I’m certain the people that developed the System Lords thought pretty much the same thing,” she said dryly. “Right before the computer killed or enslaved them.”

  “Hmmm. You might have a point there. Still, we do the best we can. The code that made the System Lords do what they did isn’t in these iterations and we’ve had two of them for quite some time without any kind of problem.”

  The young man turned to Talbot. “We really need to consider where this one ends up once we get home. We have two, so it should probably go to the Pentagarans.”

  “We’ll have plenty of time to figure that out,” Talbot said as he gestured toward the hatch down from the computer center. “They should be just about finished setting up. Commander Giguere has offered to have the new AI verify her honesty when she says that she wants to work with us.”

  “Excellent news,” Anderson said. “I’d much rather have you and your people as allies than enemies, Commander. You’re far too resourceful for me to sleep easily at night, even with you locked up and under guard.”

  Veronica laughed and gestured at the marines trailing her. “I think you’ve pretty well got me covered. Even though I have no desire to fight you, I completely understand and endorse the caution you’re taking. I have to confess, though, that hooking myself up to an AI is a frightening prospect.”

  “Then allow me to assure you that it’s nothing to be worried about,” Owlet said. “I’ve administered this procedure many times and there’s no pain or risk. It’s read only. The AI will have no access to directly affect you in anyway.”

  She sighed. “How long until it’s operational?”

  The scientist shrugged. “We were just heading in to find out. Based on the general information that I have, probably no more than half an hour. Explaining the situation to our new friend might take a little bit of time after that. I’d say if you allow for another hour, that will easily cover everything we have planned.”