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

by Terry Mixon

  “I need a doctor!” the man shouted, his voice loud in her ears.

  She winced. “Did you have to do that right in my face? I’ve got a terrible headache.”

  And she did. Her head literally felt as if someone had clubbed her. Obviously.

  A quick check got a basic physical condition report out of her medical nanites. Individually, the little things weren’t very sophisticated but each sent information back to her implants and they put everything together. That gave her a fairly decent idea of how bad any damage was.

  The good news was that her skull was intact. Her brain was also in good shape, though the impact of the throne fragment had jarred her pretty badly. The nanites were busy repairing the damage she had and their prognosis for her was good.

  Her scalp was bleeding profusely, of course. Head wounds always looked worse than they were. She knew all about that.

  It was kind of embarrassing that such a small injury had taken her out, even if only for a couple of seconds. She decided she’d just leave this little part out when she filled Talbot in on what had happened while she was off making contact with the locals.

  Kelsey sat up, wincing again when her head throbbed. “I don’t need a doctor. Is your father okay? Did you get the shooter?”

  “The assassin? Yes. My father is bruised but alive, thanks to you. At this moment, I’m much more concerned about your health. You took a nasty blow to the head and risked a terrible death on our behalf.”

  “Annette Vitter told you about the machines we have in our bodies, yes?” At his nod, she continued. “Mine are more advanced than what she has. I have a coating on my bones that makes them very tough. That includes my skull. I’ll be fine.”

  He seemed unconvinced. “I think I’d rather have one of our physicians look at you in any case.”

  Looking around the room, Kelsey saw that his description of things was correct. The guard that had tried to kill the king of Raden was dead in a bloody heap with several other guards searching his body.

  Derek’s father was walking back from the man who tried to kill him, now with two hulking guards staring at everyone with enhanced paranoia. He stopped several steps away from her and examined her closely.

  He turned toward the man nearest him. “Send for the Royal physician. Tell him to make haste.”

  “It looks worse than it is, Your Majesty,” she said. “I’m a lot harder to kill than I look.”

  “You’re a lot faster than you look, too,” he admitted wryly. “I barely had time to wonder what was happening before you’d thrown me off the dais and saved my life. I suppose at this point, I’m going to have to accept my son’s wild story as true.

  “No one should be able to move so quickly. Certainly no one from the Clans. While their distant ancestors once had machines in their body capable of doing miraculous things, none still living have them. And none should have been able to do what you did, in any case.”

  An older Pandoran man rushed in clutching a dark bag. He raced up to the king and began circling him. He demanded something in the Pandoran language.

  “Speak Standard,” the king said. “Our guest is the one I wish you to examine. She saved my life. Make certain that she does not lose hers.”

  Once again, Kelsey considered arguing but decided that it wouldn’t do any good. Doctors seemed to be the same from one end of the universe to the other. She’d bet the same drive extended to different species as well. She was just going to have to put up with it.

  The man’s poking and prodding were painful, but the powerful drugs her pharmacology unit had dumped into her system muted that somewhat. Eventually, he opened his bag and pulled out something to clean the wound.

  That stung. Why is it that any liquid made to clean a wound had to sting like crazy? Even her painkillers seemed ineffective against the cleaning of wounds and always had. Weird.

  Kelsey allowed the doctor to proceed until he pulled a needle and thread from his bag. That’s where she held up her hand.

  “My people have different healing techniques. If you can just put something over it, I’ll see to it later. In fact, the machines in my body will make it close before very much longer in any case. There’s no need for that.”

  More importantly, there was no need for her to go through the pain and discomfort of having him poke sharp objects through her skin.

  Seeming somewhat disgruntled, the physician folded a cloth and placed it on the side of her head, using another cloth to secure it in place by wrapping it all the way around her head. He tugged the knot very tight, possibly because he was annoyed with her.

  That, too, was par for the course when it came to physicians, whatever their species.

  She rose to her feet, pleased that the world stayed steady. That allowed her to get a much better look at the throne. The assassin’s flechettes had virtually destroyed the heavy chair. Its bulk had saved her life.

  “Does that happen often around here?” she asked. “Shouldn’t anyone with that kind of weapon be very trusted?”

  “He was,” the king said grimly. “That man diligently worked his way up in my service over the last three decades. Until today, I would’ve wagered any amount of money that he was perfectly loyal to me. I would do so for any of my personal guards.”

  “And now you’ll be wondering if that man was only the first,” Kelsey said softly. “Why now? What caused him to strike at you today?”

  Derek inclined his head toward Kelsey. “It had to have been you. Nothing else makes sense. Your arrival changed something. Our enemies, who have obviously spent significant time placing knives close to our backs, felt it was necessary to discard their advantage because you arrived.”

  Kelsey wished she could argue with that idea, but she couldn’t. It seemed her appearance had upset the applecart. Based on what she’d heard from Derek earlier, odds were very good that the assassin had worked for the Empire of Kalor.

  That raised an interesting question for her, though. If they had someone close enough to execute the ruler of their enemies, why hadn’t they used him before? Why allow the king of Raden to live one minute longer than necessary?

  That was the question, wasn’t it? And one she had no answer for.

  “Perhaps we should speak somewhere a little bit more secluded,” she said. “I suspect that you probably don’t want word of what I have to say getting back to the Empire of Kalor.”

  The king grunted, waving the physician away. “That’s probably a wise decision. Come. Let us retire to my private audience chamber to discuss matters of import to both our peoples.”

  As he led her toward one of the side doors, Kelsey wondered if she should call for backup. She knew that Talbot had marines on standby outside the city in case she needed them. If he found out that she’d gone through all of this and hadn’t even summoned them to her side, he was going to be pissed.

  But if she did, that might cause other issues. The king had no reason to trust her, really. She should start with small steps.

  “Is it possible that I could get my weapons back?” she asked. “I’m feeling a little under protected at the moment.”

  The king snapped his fingers, attracting the attention of every guard in the room. “Whoever has my honored guest’s weapons, bring them to her immediately.”

  He smiled at her. “After all, if you wanted me dead, all you had to do was stand there.”

  “I’m not certain I could ever stand by and let something like that happen. That’s not who I am.”

  The older man clapped his hand to her shoulder. “That’s to your credit, young woman. Come. I want some closed doors around us, a hot drink in my hand, and your story in my ears.”

  As much as Kelsey wanted to leave it at that, she knew she had to do one more thing. If she didn’t, Talbot would rightfully have her ass.

  “Considering the unsettled situation, I need to send a message to someone. I hope you don’t mind a few extra guests.”

  Talbot tried not to clench his teeth as the p
innace headed for the ground outside of the capital city of the Kingdom of Raden. He was sure that Kelsey hadn’t told him the complete truth about the events she’d been through this afternoon, but what she had said had been bad enough.

  He’d known sending her in by herself had been a mistake as soon as she’d suggested it. The woman was a trouble magnet. Wherever she went, chaos followed. And assassination attempts, absolutely. And likely large explosions, given enough time.

  Because they were going to have to fly under the scanners, so to speak, all of the marines with him wore flowing cloaks and loose clothing over their armor and had their rifles hidden in rough bags that would barely slow their deployment.

  He had absolutely no idea if their clothing would blend in with the locals and he frankly didn’t care. That was someone else’s problem.

  No matter what Kelsey had told him, there was no way he’d leave her here alone. How the hell had she even found any assassins? No one here even knew her.

  The plan called for him and his men to make their way to a major road nearby. Kelsey assured him that there would be a party waiting for them there. He was curious whether it would be human or Pandoran, or perhaps a mixture of the two.

  His wife had insisted that she hadn’t been seriously injured in the fighting. The way she’d stressed the word ‘seriously’ had him certain she was playing a word game with him, so he’d brought Doctor Zoboroski along.

  To say the medical officer looked different would be something of an understatement. Talbot had only ever seen the man in uniform and now he looked like a desert raider. All he needed was some kind of turban and a decent war cry and he’d be set.

  “I’ve accessed her telemetry remotely,” Zoboroski said. “It looks as if she took a knock to the head, but it doesn’t seem serious. Her medical nanites are going to take care of the issue, I suspect. If not, I can pop her into the regenerator and have her back to baseline quickly enough once we get back into orbit.”

  Talbot raised an eyebrow. “You can access her nanites from here? I know that’s built into the marine packages, but even though Kelsey is technically a marine officer, I didn’t think she had that kind of remote access enabled.”

  The doctor smiled. “You’re not the only one that knows our princess. Doctor Stone enabled the functionality and then passed word on to me when I became the senior medical officer in the task group.”

  “That’s good to know,” Talbot said. “Shunt me a copy of what you’ve got.”

  He examined what the doctor sent to him and nodded slowly. Looks like she’d taken some kind of blunt impact to the side of her head. Like someone clocked her with a club. Her pharmacology unit had registered a couple of seconds of unconsciousness, but had labeled that only a minor concern.

  Talbot wondered how the machine had made that determination. Anything strong enough to knock out a woman with a graphene-coated skull had to be pretty forceful.

  He knew it was useless, but he was determined to get her back up to the ship as quickly as possible. She was their leader. She didn’t need to be down here where people could take shots at her.

  Of course she was going to resist. Tell him that this was diplomatic and that she had to be here.

  It was complete and utter bullshit.

  A chime sounded in his ear announcing their impending landing. Thirty seconds to touchdown.

  He put away his misgivings and pulled the external scanner feed through his implants. They were coming down about a kilometer from the road. They’d already deployed a couple of drones in the area, so he knew there were no hostile forces waiting for him.

  Unless, of course, the greeting party at the road were actually hostile. Low odds of that, but they’d be careful.

  The pinnace settled into a small clearing that had been used at some point in the past as a campground. Not recently, though. The small firepit didn’t appear to have been used in the last several months.

  He let the team lead the way out as the ramp went down. Unlike some people, he knew when to let other people go in front.

  Yeah, he was pissed. He’d need to get a handle on that before he bit Kelsey’s head off in public. Or private, for that matter.

  No, it was much better to be low key and make her feel guilty. She’d be expecting a frontal assault, so he’d see about undermining her walls instead.

  The marines spread out and everyone began making their way toward the road. He heard the pinnace retracting its ramp and lifting off behind him. It would be waiting somewhere in the sky in case they needed fire support.

  The other pinnace he’d put in the area was on the other side of the city, ready to drop reserve troops in if they needed them. He hoped to God he didn’t, but one really never knew when Kelsey was involved.

  About fifteen minutes later his people were within sight of the group waiting on the road. Talbot relaxed a little bit more. It was a mixture of Pandorans and humans, but he recognized one of them. Jacob Howell, one of the men they’d captured earlier and the son of the chief of Clan Dauntless stood with the greeting party, obviously relaxed.

  Talbot found himself smiling a little. If they felt the need to send out someone that important, he wasn’t going to argue. Without a doubt, Jacob would know what had really happened. Better yet, he’d tell him everything. Then he’d know how to make Kelsey regret her impulsiveness.

  13

  Veronica stared around Carl Owlet’s lab curiously. While she’d occasionally had cause to consult with specialists in what had passed for the lab aboard her old destroyer, she’d never been in such a large scientific facility with so many people working on various projects.

  The young scientist had come back aboard the carrier with Veronica and her crew once they’d been cleared by Fiona. Apparently, now they were fully trusted. She didn’t even have a guard.

  That seemed a little shortsighted to her, but they apparently believed she couldn’t fool the AI. Maybe they were right. She had absolutely no way of knowing because she really didn’t plan on betraying them.

  Just when she thought she was getting a handle on how large this man’s lab was, he went to another compartment that was just as big and filled with even more people doing unexplainable things.

  “Just how big is your lab?” she asked the scientist suspiciously.

  He grinned at her. “There’s another couple of compartments about this size. There were a lot of researchers on the Dresden orbital and they were working on a bunch of projects. We’ve rebuilt them here and the folks are getting back to work, only for the New Terran Empire now.

  “I also have a private lab. We won’t be going there. While we trust you guys, you’re not cleared for everything that I’m working on. Some of it is really secret.”

  “That’s fine by me. I understand need to know. What exactly are we doing?”

  Owlet gestured toward a group of men and women huddled around a large bench with a couple of pieces of equipment strapped to its top. “My new associates have run into an unexpected glitch in their testing. We’re going to see if we can figure it out. Commodore Anderson cleared you to see what we’re working on.”

  As they approached the table, an older woman stepped away and greeted Carl warmly. She turned to Veronica with a gaze that seemed guarded.

  “Commander Veronica Giguere, meet Doctor Jacqueline Parker. Jacqueline was the senior research scientist aboard the Dresden orbital.”

  Veronica immediately felt her interest level rise as she extended a hand to the woman. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Parker. Allow me to assure you that I’ve been completely vetted. I mean you no harm.”

  “So Carl said,” the woman said. “You’ll forgive me if I’m not completely convinced or enthused. People like you put a bomb in my head.”

  Unsure what to say—not sure that anything she said would ever be enough—Veronica only nodded. “I understand.”

  “What have you got?” Carl asked.

  Doctor Parker never took her eyes off Veronica. “C
oncerns. A lot of concerns. I don’t believe we should be sharing information like this with people like her. I don’t care what your new pet AI says, neither she nor anyone else working for the Rebel Empire can be trusted.”

  The woman’s words hung in the air for several long heartbeats before Veronica nodded. “I can understand where Doctor Parker is coming from. While I had nothing directly to do with what happened to her, people in similar positions to me enabled those who did that. And, to be fair, I’ve certainly done a number of things that I wish I hadn’t done to comply with my orders.

  “I think it might be best if I excuse myself. I don’t need to know what you’re doing down here and I can help where everyone feels comfortable with my participation.”

  Carl shook his head. “I’m afraid you’re both going to have to come to some kind of compromise. As we get allies inside the Rebel Empire, we can’t be doubting them once the truth of their loyalty has been established.

  “Jacqueline, I understand how you feel, even if I don’t have all of your history to back it up. Commander Giguere isn’t lying to us or concealing anything. She honestly intends to help us overthrow the AIs controlling the Rebel Empire. We will work with her. Commodore Anderson has made her will crystal clear. And now I’m doing the same.”

  Veronica was impressed. He hadn’t seemed the type to be so firm, but his tone brooked no argument. He commanded here and left no doubt on that fact.

  Parker didn’t say anything for a moment but then nodded, her expression making clear her doubt. “If there’s anything I understand, it’s carrying out orders that I don’t agree with. It’s your show, Doctor Owlet. We’ll do it your way.”

  Carl sighed as the older woman walked back over to the bench, her body stiff. “I was afraid of something like this. I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” Veronica said. “The issues she has with me and everyone like me are things that we caused. Even though I didn’t put that bomb in her head, I might as well have. You removed it, right?”