Dakiti: Ziva Payvan Book 1

by EJ Fisch

  “It’s a long story, but I think we were on the brink of war anyway and we didn’t even know it. I’ll explain everything when we get back.”

  “I’m looking forward to it!”

  Something exploded somewhere above them and struck the top of the massive building, telling Ziva that the attacks had begun. The blast wave shook the ground, causing her to stumble, but she caught herself and kept running, clutching Tate’s legs to keep from dropping his slippery, fragile body. She turned briefly and looked up to where a bright orange fireball billowed from the side of the building. Debris rained down behind them, crashing through the foliage.

  From this point, Ziva could see that the landing pad was in fact part of some ancient structure, with only the foundation and six magnificent columns remaining. The Intrepid waited for them on the far side, landing ramp already down.

  Emeri was hollering again, but Ziva was too busy listening to the droning hum above to pay him any mind. A fighter belonging to the GA was plummeting toward them, billowing with jet black smoke. It crashed into the trees with a loud crack and fell through, almost directly on top of them.

  “Go, go!” she screamed at Aroska, pushing him along as best she could while supporting Tate. “Move!”

  The fighter struck the ground behind them and erupted in a fiery cloud. Ziva fell forward, throwing the unconscious man from her shoulders as she landed in the mud and wet leaves. Aroska came down several steps ahead of her and rolled, scrambling back to his feet with surprising quickness considering what he’d just been through. He began to run again but pulled up when he realized that Ziva wasn’t following.

  “Ziva?”

  She remained where she had fallen, clutching the long chunk of metal shrapnel that had impaled her left leg just below the hip. “Take Tate to the ship,” she ordered through clenched teeth.

  He came back and dropped to one knee, leaning over her to get a look. “Let me help you,” he said, reaching for the piece of metal.

  Ziva kicked him away with her good leg. “I said go! I’ll be right behind you.”

  Aroska blinked and hesitantly rose to his feet. He gathered Tate up and stumbled up onto the landing pad, the edge of which was only a few meters away from where Ziva lay. She watched to make sure he obeyed, and then turned her attention back to the metal embedded in her leg.

  It had entered at such an angle that it hadn’t penetrated very deep, but rather had slid in horizontally like a splinter under several layers of skin. With a deep breath, she established a firm grip and pulled. For a moment it seemed to be caught, but ever so slowly it began to ease out, blood dribbling with it. Once it was most of the way out, she let out an agonized cry and gave it a final yank, and it ripped free with a disgustingly moist sound.

  Panting and in pain, Ziva managed to get her legs under her and stand, only to be knocked back down when something on the edge of the landing pad erupted in another explosion. She covered her head with her arms as small chunks of stone showered down around her. Aroska was lying on the landing pad, having been on his way back across to assist her. For a split second, Ziva was afraid he was either dead or had been knocked out, but then she saw him rub his head.

  What she also saw was one of the ivy-adorned columns begin to topple, its shadow crossing directly over where Aroska lay – and he was making no effort to move.

  Before Ziva knew it she was running, pumping her legs as fast as the nasty wound would allow. “Tarbic! Get out of the way!”

  Even from that distance she could see his eyes widen as he finally realized what was happening. He flipped onto his side to get up, but it was clear that he wasn’t going to make it. Within another two strides Ziva was there, diving, sliding across the landing pad on her back. Aroska was almost to his feet. She put her arms up.

  Oh please, oh please, oh please.

  The gigantic column actually rested in the palms of her hands for a fraction of a second before it shot back up into the air, propelled by a wave of Nostia that Ziva had felt building inside of her for the past several minutes. She struggled against its weight for a moment, using all of her body strength plus all the power she was capable of. The structure quivered unsteadily in the air, rolling and bucking in her invisible grasp before it finally began to float away. As soon as it was out of range, she scooted backward and let it fall. It came down with a monstrous crack.

  The explosions around her, the ships passing by overhead, even the director’s voice in her ear demanding to know what was happening – all of it was drowned out by the sound of Ziva’s own heart thumping mercilessly inside her chest. She worked her way into a standing position, feeling weak and drained of energy. Her stomach churned as she turned to find Aroska standing on the ship’s boarding ramp, watching her with an expression that read of awe, fear, and anger simultaneously. His mouth was open, but no sound came out and he continued to stand motionless.

  For a long time they both did. Eyes locked. Heads spinning. The thump thump thump was almost deafening in Ziva’s ears as she waited for him to show any form of reaction and as she herself tried to process what exactly she had just done.

  Aroska ran his tongue over his dry lips, though the rest of his body remained still. “You’re a Nosti,” he murmured in disbelief.

  All in one instant, the heartbeat died away and everything around her came back to the front of Ziva’s mind. She heard Emeri ordering either of them to respond, asking for a repeat of Aroska’s last statement. She saw Tarbic still staring at her, confused, one hand to his ear as he listened to the director.

  “That’s it. Lieutenant Tarbic, arrest her!”

  In a flash, both of them had their pistols out and aimed at each other. Ziva stared him down over the barrel, contemplating whether or not to just shoot him on the spot. She thought back to the old man she’d killed in the alley as a teen. It had been necessary; she’d had to make sure he couldn’t tell anyone what he’d seen, and she’d taken every precaution since then to make sure no one ever saw her again.

  This time was different. This time, Aroska had not only witnessed it, but the director of HSP – a man who was already unhappy with her – had heard about it directly. Killing Aroska would do her no good at this point, Ziva knew, being as half the Haphezian government had probably heard the news by now. She was still presented with the option of taking him out anyway and then making a run for it. HSP had trained her to do exactly that, after all. She knew how to disappear, to be invisible.

  An image crept into Ziva’s mind as she stood there with her mind racing. She saw herself dangling from the cliff outside her house, nothing but Aroska’s hand stopping her from plunging to her death.

  That was his choice. He could have just let you fall. You owe him nothing.

  She didn’t move. He saved you because he’s a good person. He doesn’t deserve to die.

  But this is what you do! Pull the damn trigger!

  No matter what her brain was saying, she couldn’t make herself put the gun down. She did reach up and dig the communicator out of her ear, glad to be rid of Emeri’s incessant shouting. She dropped the device on the ground and crushed it under her boot.

  He’s a threat. Treat him the same way you’ve treated every other threat in your life. This was the professional killer talking. Put him down. It’s necessary.

  But you know what else was necessary? The Nostia, she realized. Using the Nostia had been necessary. But it hadn’t been to save herself like it always was in the past. She’d done it to save someone else – a man who hated her, of all people. Why would you do that? Confusion gripped Ziva’s mind, rendering her speechless and immobile. It dawned on her that if she hadn’t pulled the trigger by now, she probably wasn’t going to.

  The silence between them was suddenly broken when Aroska fired his weapon. Ziva had just enough time to inhale a short breath before the searing plasma bolt struck her in the right knee. Almost by reflex, she transferred all her weight to her left leg – which was only slightly less painful – befor
e she could fall. She saw Aroska’s pistol shift slightly as he took aim for her other knee and realized what he was doing. He’d done what he was trained to do, the same thing she’d have done had she been on the opposite end of the situation. She wouldn’t be able to outrun him now, and if she wasn’t going to kill him then the only option was to surrender.

  Ziva suddenly noticed that she had been holding her breath. She exhaled everything at once, and the decrease in pressure allowed her to drop her arm. Her blood felt like it was boiling under her skin, and her eyes and nose began to sting. Maintaining eye contact with Aroska, Ziva threw her pistol aside and slowly dropped to the ground, keeping all her weight on her good knee. She lowered herself onto her stomach and interlocked her fingers behind her head. Then she waited.

  It seemed like a lifetime before Aroska moved down the ramp and took hold of one of her arms. She stood up as best she could on her own, though both of her legs were in so much pain that she allowed him to do most of the work. He was moving stiffly, unsteadily, telling Ziva that he was entirely uncomfortable with what he was doing. She let him shove her back into the ship without fuss, and he led her into the cargo hold and sat her down on the single bunk amid several supply boxes.

  “I think it will be better for both of us if you don’t say anything,” Aroska said quietly. He began rummaging through the boxes.

  Ziva didn’t look at him as he put a pair of cuffs over her wrist and fixed her to the bunk’s metal frame. She thought of the picks that were still tucked into her boot, but there was really no point in using them. The only alternative was to lie down and be quiet. Fire shot through both of her legs, burning so fiercely that her entire lower half felt like it was going numb.

  Aroska watched her a bit longer, unsure whether she was going to stay put. He was taking in deep, hissing breaths through his noise, and when he finally cleared his throat it sounded like he might cry. He turned and stormed away into the cockpit.

  The ship’s engines roared to life and the ground shook from the nearing explosions. Ziva closed her eyes as she felt them began to lift away from the landing pad, part of her hoping they’d get shot down and the other part arguing that Aroska was doing exactly what she would do and there was still no reason for him to die. Seconds passed and they didn’t get hit. Minutes passed and the sounds of the battle began to die away. When the ship eventually lurched forward at FTL speed, Ziva knew there was no turning back. She settled down and let her mind go blank.

  -59-

  HSP Headquarters

  Noro, Haphez

  The early morning sun cast a warm glow over the city, bathing the rooftops in pale yellow light and shrouding the streets in shadows. It glinted harshly off the thousands of aircars that passed by HSP headquarters. A rectangular shaft of light, interrupted by Aroska’s elongated shadow, penetrated the director’s dark, cold office.

  He squinted against the sun, looking at nothing in particular, and thought. That’s what he’d spent the last day and a half doing – pondering, considering, mulling things over. Several times he’d thought there was nothing left to think about, but try as he might, he hadn’t been able to stop. He’d thought the whole way home from Sardonis. He’d thought for the entire day he’d been held under observation at the med center. Now here he was again, thinking. His mind was exhausted, his body was exhausted, and he was ready to get this over with.

  When the door opened and the lights flickered on, Aroska turned to find the director standing there, hand still hovering over the door controls. “Lieutenant,” he said when he realized who was intruding in his office. He went to his desk and set down the data pads he’d been carrying. “They told me you wanted to see me first thing this morning, but I guess I wasn’t expecting you quite this early. Shouldn’t you still be at the med center?”

  “I just had to ask the nurses nicely and they let me go,” Aroska replied with a sheepish chuckle, immediately regretting it. What was he talking about? He was starting to lose focus, and he needed to hold himself together for a few more minutes, at least until he had accomplished what he had come to do. Emeri was watching him with one eyebrow raised, so he added, “I’m fine. Any word on Tate and Jole?”

  The director brought up the agents’ information on his computer. “They’re both still at the Severe Cases Center in Haphor. From what they’ve seen so far, Sergeant Imetsi is already showing great signs of improvement and is expected to make a decent recovery. As for Agent Luver, we know he’s going to live but the extent of his recovery is unclear at this point. He’s in pretty bad shape, Lieutenant.”

  This he knew – after all, he’d helped rescue the man and even carried him part way. He was nothing but skin and bones, in the most literal sense of the phrase. “Do we know how either of them could still be alive in the first place?”

  Emeri brought up several photos on the screen; Aroska immediately recognized the location as the explosion site where Tate and Jole had been presumed dead. “As soon as we received word that you found them, I sent a team out to take another look at ground zero. As it turns out, there was something there that we had originally overlooked being as we never thought they could have possibly survived. That particular building was a crucial hub for intel during the War and even before your time. It had an ingenious system of tunnels and passages running both through it and under it. It’s possible that Solaris could have infiltrated the building while you were outside and smuggled them out through one of the tunnels. They knew that explosion would be enough to make everyone think your team was just vaporized along with that entire half of the structure.”

  “Saun was no doubt behind it,” Aroska admitted. The thought of having ever trusted her made him want to kill himself.

  Emeri nodded understandingly but said nothing. The entire office remained silent for several long seconds, making Aroska fidget. He looked down at his feet to stop his mind from wandering again.

  The director opened the secure drawer of his desk and removed an antique bottle of some aged exotic liquor, then proceeded to pour himself a glass – odd for this time of day, Aroska noted. He obviously knew something was up.

  “I know you’re concerned about your team, Lieutenant,” he said, staring at the glass he’d just poured, “but something tells me that’s not the reason you’re here.”

  “You can’t execute Ziva,” Aroska said quickly. There. He’d said it.

  Emeri lifted the drink to his lips, smelled it, then set it back down on the desk with a soft smile and a wag of his head. “And why is that?”

  “Because she saved my life.”

  This time he actually took a sip from the glass. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

  “She saved me twice – three times! She saved both Tate and Jole. Without her, Jayden and the rest of us would probably be dead and you know it.”

  “The GA saved all of you and you know it.”

  “That’s not true!” Aroska exclaimed, slamming his palms down on the director’s desk.

  “Why are you suddenly defending her?”

  “Why aren’t you? She’s the best agent in the history of this organization and you’re never going to be able to replace her, do you understand? She’s your best weapon and you’re going to just throw her away like a piece of garbage.”

  “She made a mistake,” Emeri replied coldly.

  “A mistake that didn’t hurt anybody! A mistake that protected me from getting hurt! She knew she was putting her life on the line, but it was the only way she was going to save me and she chose to do it anyway.”

  “You’re missing the point. I don’t care what she meant by it – she broke a law punishable by death, and I’m not going to make any exceptions to that penalty, not even for Ziva. She knew the consequences, and she did it anyway.”

  Aroska sighed and rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. “Exactly.”

  Emeri downed the rest of his drink and glanced at the bottle as if he wanted more, but instead he put it back in the drawer. Aroska could tell the whe
els were starting to turn inside his head, albeit slowly. “I don’t know what you want me to do.”

  “How many people have you told?”

  The director leaned over his desk, staring down at his hands, and didn’t reply.

  Aroska bent down to a closer proximity and asked again. “Who have you told?”

  Emeri looked up at him and made eye contact from under his furrowed, gray eyebrows. “No one,” he admitted gruffly. “If we go public with the story, the Federation will be out here running a witch hunt in a heartbeat. And the last thing we need around here is a bunch of people thinking they can recreate that sorcery just because Ziva did it.”

  Aroska blinked. “You haven’t said anything?”

  “All the government and the rest of the agency know is that she’s scheduled for execution due to a severe – and highly classified – violation of agency protocol.”

  “That’s it then! Just drop the charges and nobody will ever know.”

  Now the director took a seat and rubbed his face with his hands, which he then folded in front of his mouth with his elbows resting on the desktop. “A week ago, you stood right here ready to kill Ziva because of what she did to your brother. Now you’re asking me to spare her. How much sense does that make?”

  “Things have changed,” Aroska replied bluntly. “I may not agree with how Ziva operates, and I may not be happy that she killed Soren, but I learned some things during my time with her. She’s done – and still does – some horrible things, but what she did on that landing pad wasn’t one of them.”

  The director remained silent, hands still folded in front of his face. The golden sunlight reflected off his eyes when he turned and looked out the window.

  Aroska stepped back and crossed his arms, also stealing a glance out the window. “I felt like I at least needed to plead her case,” he said quietly. “I owe her that much.”