Dakiti: Ziva Payvan Book 1

by EJ Fisch

  “Come on, Aroska,” she said a little louder, shaking him harder. His mouth had moved a bit and his eyes had stopped twitching. He seemed to be growing cognizant, albeit slowly.

  Becoming impatient, Ziva slapped him hard in the face. His eyes opened wide and he coughed and sputtered for a moment, blinking. Taking in a deep breath, he groaned and moved his head from side to side until his squinting eyes settled on her.

  “Ziva?” he murmured.

  “Wake up. We need to get out of here.”

  Aroska coughed again. “You came back for me?”

  “Of course I came back, you idiot,” Ziva muttered, going to work on the clasps.

  She freed his arms and moved on to his feet. His skin was slick with sweat but was cold and clammy to the touch. It had also taken on a sickly pale gray tone, much like how she had found Jole. Aroska’s toes wiggled when she touched his feet.

  “I don’t think I can feel my legs,” he said, barely audibly.

  “Well, you’re moving them,” Ziva responded, releasing the final clasp. She picked up each of his legs in turn and lifted them over the edge of the table. “Can you sit up?”

  He took the hand she offered and hefted himself into a sitting position with her help. His body was quivering slightly and his eyelids were drooping. Most of his previously neat hair had come loose from his ponytail and was plastered to the sides of his face with sweat.

  Ziva took hold of his head and forced him to look her in the eye. “Look. We have a very limited amount of time to get out of here, and we still have to find Tate.”

  “Tate?” Aroska repeated, more of an airy sound than actual word.

  “He’s alive. He and Jole both are, but he won’t be much longer if we don’t go now.”

  Aroska said something unintelligible and held her for support as he slid off the table. Ziva put her arm around his shoulders to help him stand up, but his legs immediately gave out and he fell, his weight bringing both of them down against the case of syringes.

  Ziva cursed and scrambled to her feet, rushing outside long enough to grab a pistol from one of the dead guards. She readied herself for an onslaught of soldiers, but nobody seemed to have paid their commotion any mind. Aside from distant shouting and the howling alarm, all remained quiet.

  She returned to the room and rolled Aroska onto his back, dragging him over to the wall beside his things. He weighed at least twenty kilos more than she did, and his head bobbed limply from side to side as she propped him up. He was in no condition to be going anywhere.

  Frustrated, Ziva leaped across the room and went back out into the hallway, catching a panicked doctor by the collar of his jacket just as he was running by. She spun him around and threw him against the wall. “Be quiet and listen to me,” she shouted in Sardon, pinning him there with her pistol to his forehead. “I need epinephrine, and you’re going to get me some.”

  He whined something she couldn’t understand, so she covered his mouth and leaned down closer. “I’ve got no reason to kill you unless you give me one. Get me that epinephrine and I’ll let you go. Understand?”

  Beads of sweat glistened on his forehead and he managed a nod. Ziva released him, keeping the gun aimed for his head, and followed him down the hall. He led her to a small supply room around the corner, one of the many that she and Aroska had investigated while searching for Jayden. The shelves were thoroughly stocked with spare equipment and medical apparatus, and an emergency response station, void of all its weaponry and gear, was positioned against the near wall. A large cabinet containing more syringes and vials of medication stood before them.

  With trembling hands, the Sardon used his access key to unlock the case. He reached in as gingerly as possible and selected a vial from which he then filled one of the empty syringes. He handed it over to Ziva, an uncertain look in his eyes.

  “Now get out of here,” she said sternly, taking it from him. She left him standing there and tore back to the exam room, wondering how much time was left before the building would collapse on top of them. Aroska was exactly as she’d left him, against the wall, head sagging.

  Not wanting to waste any more precious moments than they already had, Ziva immediately dove down to him and jabbed the needle into his chest. The plunger let out a faint squeal as she injected the adrenaline and then tossed the syringe away. “Come on, Tarbic!” she shouted, rubbing the injection site with one hand while shaking him with the other.

  Within a few seconds he sat bolt upright and gasped loudly for air. He glanced around for a moment, disoriented, but upon seeing Ziva he seemed to remember everything that was going on and quickly reached for his boots. “I don’t understand,” he said tugging them over his bare feet. “How can my team be alive?”

  “If we don’t get moving, we’ll die before we find out,” Ziva replied, helping him stand.

  Aroska teetered for a moment until he found his balance, then he bent down and took up his shirt and the tool belt from the flight suit, both of which he put on. “Can I assume the military showed up after all?”

  Ziva nodded and collected more weapons from the dead guards as they exited the room. “If I’ve counted correctly, we have about seven minutes to find Tate and get out before we get buried under this place.” She handed Aroska a pistol.

  They began to run.

  -55-

  HSP Headquarters

  Noro, Haphez

  Emeri Arion stopped pacing the second that the transmission came through. In his haste to accept the call, he knocked a small sculpture from his desk. It fell to the floor, shattering upon impact. He swore, bent down to clean it up, decided it could wait, swore again, and finally managed to press the right button.

  “Yes!” he answered frantically, nearly shouting.

  The voice that came through belonged to Kevyn Sheen. “Director, my men found Sergeant Duvo and Officer Vax, as well as Jayden Saiffe and another HSP agent. They are preparing to return to you per orders from Lieutenant Payvan.”

  Ziva. Emeri wasn’t sure what sort of title she would hold when he was done with her – certainly not lieutenant. “Is she there? Let me talk to her now!”

  “She’s not here, sir,” Sheen replied. “She’s still inside.”

  “Still inside!”

  “Lieutenant Tarbic was captured and she’s attempting to extract him as we speak. We haven’t heard anything since she ordered Duvo and Vax to leave, and we haven’t been able to re-establish contact.”

  Emeri leaned down over his desk and rubbed his face. “Do you have men inside the facility?”

  “Yes sir. I’m with a squad inside overseeing the collection of some of our captured troops. We’ll be evacuating shortly.”

  “Keep an eye out for Payvan and Tarbic. If you find them, put them through directly to this office. I want to talk to them yesterday.”

  “Understood, sir,” Sheen said. “I’ll inform you when we begin the attack.”

  -56-

  Sublevels

  Dakiti Medical Research Center

  Sardonis

  The number of people in the hallways had diminished significantly, Aroska observed as he pushed his weak legs to keep up with Ziva. Everyone had either surrendered already or had tried to escape, and all available security personnel had been called to deal with the impending attack. The alarm still blared, grating on his nerves and aggravating the headache he already had.

  Ziva seemed to know where she was going. Without a word, she had led him to the next level down and had begun working her way into an older area of the building, judging by the deteriorating condition of the walls and floor. Aroska couldn’t fathom that Tate and Jole were still alive, and wondered if he was somehow still sedated and it was all part of a dream. However, the injection site in his chest was a throbbing reminder that Ziva had just saved his life and that if he didn’t move fast, all of her work would be crushed as Dakiti fell in a matter of minutes.

  The two of them presently came to a set of secure double doors that seem
ed to lead into a separate wing of the facility. “The holding cells are just up here,” Ziva said breathlessly, reaching to her belt for the access key.

  The beep of the scanner and the sound of the doors hissing open were drowned out by the thunder of footsteps and sudden Haphezian shouts behind them. Aroska instinctively raised his arms in surrender and turned to find a squad of angry GA soldiers arranged in a tight semi-circle around them, fingers only a twitch away from pulling the triggers on their weapons.

  “Turn around, hands in the air!” one of them, apparently the man in charge, ordered.

  “Friendly! HSP!” Ziva screamed back, hands out in front of her but poised to draw her pistol at a moment’s notice. “Don’t shoot!”

  “Lieutenants Payvan and Tarbic?”

  “Yes!”

  The man signaled for his men to lower their rifles, which they did immediately. “Colonel Sheen, Grand Army,” he introduced. “Are you alright?”

  “Never been better,” Ziva quipped.

  Sheen removed two earpieces from his pocket and handed each of them one. “I have instructions from your director to give you these. It’s a direct line to his office. Now, I’m going to have to ask both of you to come with us – we’re the last group to evacuate, and we have to leave now.”

  “No,” Aroska protested. “I’m not leaving without Tate.”

  Ziva nodded in agreement and turned to continue through the doors, which had been standing open for the duration of the conversation. “There’s still time for us to get out, but the longer we stand here, the more we waste.”

  Sheen seemed reluctant, but dipped his head respectfully. “I’ll see if I can buy you a couple extra minutes. Lieutenant Woro left your ship waiting on the north landing platform.”

  Aroska waved his thanks and turned to find Ziva already hurrying away. He sprinted after her and caught up just as she made a right turn into a narrower corridor lined with old-fashioned prison cell doors. One of them had been left ajar and Ziva approached it, pistol ready. Without too much hesitation, she pushed it open the rest of the way and rushed inside, quickly concealing herself in the shadows from anyone who might be waiting in the darkness for them to return.

  After hearing no gunfire or surprised shouts, Aroska ventured a few steps into the cell. His boots sank a bit into the muck and water on the floor, and when he tried to lift his feet he nearly slipped. The crushing stench of the room almost forced him back out the door, but Ziva’s hand beat it to the task.

  “I’ll get him,” she said. “You make sure we don’t end up with company.”

  Aroska obediently returned to the hallway, wondering how much help he could be anyway in his weakened state. As much as he hated the thought of constantly bowing to Ziva’s wishes, he felt that in this particular situation they would both benefit if he let her take center stage.

  A noise in one of the other cells grabbed his attention and he took several cautious steps toward it. After listening further and hearing nothing else, he disregarded it and turned back around to where heavy footsteps were approaching.

  “That was fast,” he said, ready to follow Ziva out of the building and to safety.

  Aroska’s body went rigid and his eyes widened. He couldn’t even raise his arm to aim his gun at Saun, who had come up behind him and now stood between him and the open cell door. Her right arm was trembling and extended a gun toward him, and her left arm dangled limply at her side, a nasty blast wound marring her shoulder. Her face was green and her skin and clothes were soaked through with sweat. She was panting, taking in deep, raspy breaths, and her eyes were burning with hatred.

  Aroska recovered his composure and shifted his weight, however refraining from raising his weapon. Saun wouldn’t kill him, not now. The only way she could win now was to give herself up and get out with them, and he would try to help her work out a deal when they got back to Haphez. The choice would have to be hers, though, and judging by her twisted facial expression, convincing her of anything wasn’t going to be easy.

  “Last chance, Saun,” he said flatly.

  Saun gritted her teeth and took in another breath that almost sounded like a growl. This was not the same woman that he had shared the past three months of his life with. The creature standing before him now was a confused, terrified monster who had had everything taken away from her by those she thought were her allies. Worse yet, despite the current turn of events, her cold eyes were still looking on him as the enemy when in fact Aroska believed he was the only one left capable of saving her.

  “This place was all I had left,” she said, almost a whisper, “and you just helped destroy it. You killed me, Aroska, and you’re going to die too for what you did to me.”

  The quivering in her arm stopped when her muscles tensed and Aroska knew she was going to pull the trigger. He raised his pistol to defend himself, or at least he thought he did. His arm was still at his side, suddenly paralyzed at the thought of having to kill this person he cared so dearly for. On the verge of panic, Aroska willed it to move with all of his strength, and it finally sprang into action just as a shot echoed through the hall.

  Saun fell, twisting one leg and collapsing onto her back as she hit the floor. Her gun bounced out of her grasp and clattered to a stop several centimeters shy of her hand. Her other hand clutched at the hole in her chest where the scorching plasma round had burned through her body. She lay there gasping, wheezing, writhing slowly.

  Aroska shifted his attention to the cell door, where Ziva stood with her smoking pistol still aimed at the woman on the floor. She looked up to meet his gaze, breathing hard and supporting Tate’s limp figure with one arm and one knee. The area fell silent except for Saun’s rasping as she curled her fingers in a hopeless attempt at reaching her weapon. Blood pooled under her head where her skull had collided with the hard floor.

  As he strode over to her, Aroska could feel the first signs of tears creeping into his eyes. However, as he looked down upon her twitching form, the sympathy and regret he’d expected to feel were trumped by anger and disappointment. Why did you do this? He shook his head, blinking back the stinging tears, then without another word or thought he shot her in the head.

  Saun’s body bucked violently one last time and then went still. Aroska watched her for what seemed like a long time, though it was probably only a few seconds. Some bizarre compulsion urged him to nudge the gun away with his foot, so he did so and watched as it slid across the floor. He was vaguely aware of Ziva coming around behind him, but was startled when he felt her hand firmly squeeze his shoulder.

  “We need to go.”

  -57-

  Landing zone

  Dakiti Medical Research Center

  Sardonis

  The shuttle’s boarding ramp hummed closed and Sheen held on to one of the grab rings as it lifted off the ground. He watched out the viewport as the landing pad where Lieutenant Payvan’s ship sat grew smaller and smaller. It had been nearly five minutes since he’d met up with her and Tarbic, and he prayed that they hadn’t run into any delays. He didn’t want to postpone the attack any longer than they needed to, but at the same time the protector in him felt a great need to wait until he knew they’d made it out.

  “Do we know where they are?” Adin Woro asked. He and the other three agents with him watched Sheen expectantly, eager for some good news.

  Sheen nodded and braced himself as the shuttle banked and headed toward one of the bigger flagships. “We found them in the second sublevel prison wing,” he answered. “They were going back for someone and refused to come out with us, but they should be on their way now.”

  “Can you delay the attack?”

  “We’re already running late as it is. I’m afraid we’re going to have to proceed and hope they make it. I’ll see what we can do about focusing the initial strike on something other than that main structure, at least until we hear from them.”

  The shuttle docked with the flagship with a hollow thud. Sheen exited, along with his s
quad and the HSP agents, and made his way through the ship to the bridge. The pilots and technicians stood when he entered, but he motioned for them to go about their business and went straight to the communications center where the holograms of his subordinate officers awaited instructions. He took a stance on the communication pad and faced them.

  “Begin the attack procedure,” he sighed.

  -58-

  Main level

  Dakiti Medical Research Center

  Sardonis

  “Payvan!” the director screamed through the communicator, followed by a string of colorful language that made even Ziva flinch. With the noise around her, the sound of her own breathing, and the static over the system, his voice was nothing but angry gibberish. Amid the chaos she caught, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  Aroska loped along beside her as she carried Tate on her back in the same manner that she’d carried Jole. He was in worse shape than his comrade, if such a thing was possible, and his head and arms bounced and bumped against her as she ran.

  “Sir, you have to understand that we came here with the best intentions,” Aroska said in response to Emeri’s demand.

  “I’ll handle this,” Ziva snapped as the director went off on another rant. They rounded a corner and an exit could be seen at the end of the hall. “Sir, everything is under control.”

  “That’s not what it sounds like to me!” he shouted. “I’m here trying to explain to the Royal General why some of his best men are following my people’s lead on an operation that was never authorized by either organization. Are you trying to start another war with Sardonis?”

  They burst through the doors and found themselves in a small patch of swampy jungle that probably concealed the entrance from the air. A wide path was carved before them, and the landing pad that Colonel Sheen had described was visible through the trees a few hundred meters ahead.