But the biggest surprise was the sight of four IS men herding Nicole out the door, dressed only in her robe, then stuffing her into one of the skimmers. The leader nudged Tony along with the gun, pushing him roughly into the vehicle beside Nicole.
Then the IS people got into the skimmers and left, except for two men they left behind. After their comrades departed, they went into the house, closed the door, and turned off the lights. To wait for Jodi.
She felt her stomach drop away into infinity. Had she arrived a few minutes earlier, they would have caught her. Had she arrived a few minutes later, they would have caught her. Someone, presumably the God she had never really believed in, had been looking out for her. She could only hope that Nicole and Tony would be all right.
For now, she had to look out for herself, because she knew that if the security forces captured her, Borge’s secret would never see the light of day. She would silently, tragically, disappear. She looked at her watch. Twenty-three hundred. She had about six more hours of darkness.
Six hours to find help.
***
“What in the hell is going on, senator?” Tony Braddock demanded angrily. He and Nicole sat on the opposite side of a security shield, guarded by four IS agents with drawn weapons. Senator Borge sat on the other side, his face a mask of sorrow.
“Please, Councilman, captain,” he said solemnly, “this situation is not as I would like, but events have taken place that demand the most extreme action.” He looked at them gravely.
“And what is this ‘situation?’” Nicole asked coldly.
Borge nodded. “Earlier this evening, less than an hour ago, to be more precise, Reza Gard escaped from the detention facility at the hospital. Shortly thereafter, he murdered President Nathan.”
“That is not possible!” Nicole said incredulously, jumping to her feet. “Reza would never do such a thing!”
“I wish that were the case, but there is evidence to the contrary.” He nodded to his aid, who activated a holo recording showing Reza materializing in Nathan’s bedroom. Moving close to the bed, he withdrew a knife and, after only a moment’s hesitation, plunged it into the president’s chest. The alarm went off a few seconds later, and Reza disappeared from the room as mysteriously as he had come.
“I don’t believe it,” Tony said firmly. “This is some kind of a hoax or a frame-up. Reza gave his word to Nicole that he would not try to escape, and he would never have broken it. You’ve got the wrong man, senator. I don’t know how, but you’ve got the wrong man.”
“Besides,” Nicole asked, grudgingly retaking her seat, “what does this have to do with us? Are you implicating us as accomplices?”
Borge shook his head as if he were mortified at the thought. “You two? Heavens no. But Commander Mackenzie is another matter. She attempted to see Reza again tonight, even after her earlier little… tiff… with Colonel Thorella.” He looked at them significantly. “I would like to know why. Internal Security knew, of course, that she was staying with you, and that naturally was the first place to look.”
“This is ridiculous–” Nicole growled.
“Even if this is all true,” Tony interrupted hotly, “does that give you the right to hold us at gunpoint in our own home, without so much as a search warrant?”
“I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation, Councilman Braddock,” Borge said slowly. “In accordance with constitutional law, I legally inherited the powers of the president just as Nathan took his last breath. I will not allow his death – his murder – to go unpunished. I apologize for the zealotry shown by the IS agents at your home, but I am taking no chances, and I will spare no effort to get to the bottom of this. You two are friends of both Captain Gard and Commander Mackenzie, and are our only leads to them. I hope that you are able to put aside your personal feelings in this matter – and I realize that will be terribly difficult – and help Internal Security find Reza Gard and Commander Mackenzie.”
“And if we do not?” Nicole asked.
Borge looked at them with eyes glowing with barely concealed ferocity. “I will have you both cited with contempt and thrown in prison until you decide to cooperate.” He leaned forward, his hands spread before him. “Please,” he begged, “please do not make this any more difficult than it already is. The president was a good friend of mine for many years, and to me his loss is a very personal one. Captain Gard is implicated in his murder, and Commander Mackenzie was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If he is innocent, and she is not involved, fine. We will find who is. But I want answers, my friends. Quickly. And I will have them, one way or another.”
Nicole and Tony looked at each other helplessly. There was little they could do. And the image of Reza driving the knife into Nathan’s heart was more than convincing, at least to anyone who did not know him. He had powers that were arguably supernatural, and both of them knew that Reza could easily do what the video had shown.
Until Tony remembered what Reza had said about what had happened on Erlang with Thorella’s little holo act. Who was to say that they weren’t witnessing a repeat performance? But he kept that to himself. Right now, Borge held all the cards in this particular deadly game.
“What do you want us to do?” he asked quietly.
***
Jodi was running out of time. She had made her way as quickly as she could back into the subterranean complex that made up the city’s core. She realized that it would be more dangerous for her there, but she needed information, and that was the only place she could think of to get it.
The news, when she saw it broadcast on the holo banners in the main mall, stunned her. President Nathan was dead, murdered. Reza Gard, having escaped from the hospital, was the prime suspect, and Commander Jodi Mackenzie was believed to be involved. There was her picture, for all to see, on at least a dozen banners that were in her direct view.
The only thing that saved her was that the mall was so crowded with people seeking out the capitol’s nightlife. Most of the wanderers ignored the holo banners. They ignored the broadcast. They ignored her. For the moment, at least, it appeared as if she could still move about. But that was not going to last for long.
She moved quickly to a vid terminal, putting her back to the crowd and the gruesome images of the president’s death that were finally getting some attention: more and more people were stopping and staring.
“God,” she whispered, “what in the fuck’s going on? What am I going to do?” Her hands were shaking. Come on, she shouted at herself. Think. She needed shelter and information, maybe a new identity. Transportation. Money. More than all that, she needed to find Reza. She knew the escape story was garbage, but where did that leave him? And how could she possibly find him? She could not make it more than a few kilometers by herself. She needed help. But with Nicole and Tony out of the picture, whom could she turn to who was close by? She couldn’t use any inter-city transportation or she’d be picked up for sure.
Something nagged at her memory. A name. Someone she knew, someone close by. For a while, it refused to come to her, instead fluttering just beyond her recollection, taunting her.
Tanya. Tanya Buchet.
The name sent a shiver up her spine. She closed her eyes and slumped against the wall of the booth. Of all the people in the world she would have to turn to, why did Tanya have to be the one? It just had to be someone who probably still hated her guts after all the years since they had last seen each other. Maybe even as much as Jodi hated her. They had not parted on the best of terms. But Tanya had everything that Jodi needed.
“Oh, Lord,” she moaned. “Why her? Why that fucking bitch?”
After a moment, her mind was made up. She had no other choice. Calling up the directory, she quickly found Tanya’s address. It was the same as it had been all those years ago. Glancing at the flow of people behind her, she darted to the rear of a boisterous group of Marines making their way back to one of the local barracks, using them to mask her escape through the near
est exit to the surface level.
***
The tiny suburb called Hamilton had changed little over the years. Jodi had last seen it while in her late teens, when she was still in school. She had befriended the daughter of a wealthy family that normally lived in Europe, but that had given their young daughter a cottage here, only a few kilometers from the capitol, where she could live during the school year. It probably would have come as no surprise to her parents to learn that she was seldom alone there. She was brilliant, beautiful, and cloaked by a touch of darkness that Jodi and many others had found irresistible. She was Jodi’s first lover, and without doubt the cruelest.
Sensing Jodi’s need for her affection, her approval, Tanya Buchet had kept her almost as an emotional slave, alternately tormenting her and pleasing her as she might an animal in an experiment. Jodi finally realized the extent of her plight when she found herself holding a blaster to her own skull, having discovered that her first love had been cheating on her. With the cold muzzle of the gun pressing into her temple, Jodi suddenly thought how much better it would be to kill Tanya instead, but she had let it go as only an unpleasant – if gratifying – thought. She had moved out that day, and it was not long after that the Navy whisked her away for what Jodi had hoped would be forever.
But forever hadn’t been as long as she’d hoped. Walking up the steps to the cottage, she saw how well it had been kept up. In fact, except for the growth of the trees and new paint, it had hardly changed at all.
Her spine crawling with dreadful anticipation, she rapped on the door of what had once been an emotional Hell. If there is a God, she thought, please let Him be with me now.
There was no answer, no indication of anything or anyone stirring within. She hesitated, then knocked again, louder this time.
The old wooden door suddenly opened without a sound, swinging back on well-oiled hinges. Startled, Jodi took two steps backward, nearly falling down the steps in surprise.
The woman who stood in the doorway was stunning, clothed in a black dress that was as elegant and beautiful as it was plain. Her long brunette hair framed a flawless ivory face, the hazel eyes appraising, predatory. The smile, when it finally came, exposed perfect teeth behind full, sensuous lips.
“Jodi,” those ruby lips said, exposing the husky voice that had come with womanhood, “how very nice to see you.”
***
Now, sitting on the sofa in the small parlor and holding the cup of tea she had been given, spilling half of it in the saucer from her shaking hands, Jodi faced the witch of her adolescent years.
“Believe me, Tanya,” she told the woman, who sat quietly in the chair opposite, her unblinking eyes focused on Jodi’s, “I’m not here because I want to be.”
“Jodi, dear, you didn’t come all this way just to hurt my feelings, did you?” Tanya replied evenly, shifting herself to reveal a little more leg from under her dress.
“No, of course not,” Jodi replied hastily, consciously looking away from Tanya. She would not, could not, let herself be drawn into that spider’s web again. “I didn’t even know you’d still be here. Even now, I can’t believe you are.”
“And why shouldn’t I be? This has been my home. I go to the family estate in Europe sometimes, when I feel like it. But Hamilton and New York serve my purposes adequately. I sometimes board students here who attend our old school.”
Jodi suppressed a shudder at what must happen to the students here.
“Didn’t you ever do your civil or military service time?”
Tanya laughed. “Of course not, dear! Who do you think is going to make the only daughter and surviving member of the Buchet family play soldier in this silly little war? I’m one of the five richest people on this entire planet, probably in the entire Confederation, and have been since just after you ran away. I’m quite content to let you little generals run about and play war games with the Kreelans. My interests lie elsewhere.”
Jodi gritted her teeth, forcing back the response that fought its way to the surface. “That’s obvious enough,” she muttered instead. “What about your parents?” she asked. “What happened to them?”
Tanya waved her hand, dismissing the issue as if her parents had never been of any consequence. “They got themselves killed on a transatlantic flight. I don’t remember the details, really. It’s not important now.” Like a wraith, she uncoiled herself from her chair and came to sit beside Jodi on the sofa, putting her arm across the sofa back behind Jodi’s neck. Jodi could feel her own body reacting instinctively to Tanya’s nearness, sensing her warmth, smelling the alluring scent of her perfume. “What is important,” Tanya whispered, “is you. Tell me, why are you here?”
Downing the last of the bitter tea that she suddenly hoped was not drugged, Jodi set the cup and saucer down on the coffee table and turned to face her nemesis-benefactor. Tanya’s gaze held hers. Her lips were so close…
“I need your help, Tanya,” Jodi told her, forcing out the words while looking Tanya in the eye. She had conjured up the sight of Nicole and Tony being held at gunpoint by the IS, and the anger that uncoiled in her chest gave her the strength she needed to resist Tanya’s magnetic gaze.
“I thought as much,” Tanya said, a smile touching her scarlet lips. “I suppose it’s not every day that I have a chance to speak with someone who conspired to kill the president.”
“That’s total bullshit,” Jodi spat. “Reza Gard did not kill the president and I didn’t help him get out of the hospital. We were both set up: Reza because the real murderer needs a scapegoat and me because I found out something I’m not supposed to know.”
One of Tanya’s eyebrows arched. “Really? And just what might that be?”
“It’s a long story,” Jodi said uncomfortably, suddenly wondering why she had come here. More and more, she felt as if she were in a trap. The words suddenly came to her: Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly…
“Well, dear,” Tanya said, casually examining one of her perfectly manicured blood-red nails, “I have plenty of time.”
Jodi bit her lip. “Please, Tanya. I have nowhere else to turn, no one else to go to. There’s a lot riding on this, a lot more than just my life. There’s something terribly wrong in the Confederation government. I think I know who murdered the president, but it wasn’t Reza Gard.”
“Well,” Tanya said, looking up from her nails to pin Jodi with her gaze, “I’m sure President Borge would be happy to hear about it.”
Jodi felt her black skin go pale as the blood drained from it. “President Borge,” she whispered. She closed her eyes. She was too late. “Dear, sweet Jesus.”
She felt a cool hand against her face. “Jodi,” Tanya asked with what almost sounded like genuine concern in her voice, “are you all right?”
“No,” Jodi choked. “The Confederation’s fucked. We’re all fucked, now that that bastard has gotten what he wanted.”
“Tell me,” Tanya said softly, “why do you say that? Borge has been a friend of our family for many years. I know him quite well.”
Somehow, that did not surprise Jodi. Their personalities seemed to go hand in hand. God, she thought, what do I do? She had no choice but to tell her. “I think Borge had President Nathan murdered, and I think I know who he used as an assassin.” And then she began to tell Tanya about her time at the research center, about Borge and Thorella, and all that she had learned there.
When she finished, Tanya was quiet for a long time, looking out the window at the dawn sky. She was a night person, Jodi remembered, forsaking the light of the sun for the moon and stars. Like a vampire.
When she finally spoke, Jodi almost didn’t recognize her voice: it was wooden, dead.
“I knew Markus Thorella,” Tanya said. “Our parents were very good friends, actually. I had always liked Markus.” She smiled bitterly. “He was everything a young girl could have wanted in a boy. I remember the accident, too, how horrible it was. I used to visit him in the hospital every Tuesday, when m
y parents would let me fly over to visit him. But when he finally woke up, he had… changed. He was quiet, sullen. Arrogant. But I didn’t let that stop me. He had been through a lot. I would not abandon him. We were friends.”
She stopped talking, her words drifting into the silent void that the room had become. Jodi felt her skin crawling at Tanya’s revelation. The picture of Borge’s evil, horrible as it was, was becoming ever clearer.
A single tear slid down Tanya’s cheek, glistening in the morning light. “I kept seeing him even after he left the hospital,” she went on, more softly now. “That’s when I first met Senator Borge. He seemed like such a nice man. Much like Markus’s father had been. I spent a great deal of time with them. That’s why Mama and Papa bought me this cottage. Just so I could be closer to them. To him. My friend, Markus.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “The friend who raped me when I was fifteen.” She smiled then, an evil, hateful smile that floated on a sea of anguish and pain. “But who could I tell? Who would believe me? That Markus Thorella had raped his best friend? No one would have believed it. I was no saint, even as a child, but Markus was. Had been.” She shook her head. “I said nothing, because I still thought he might… love me. But my body was all he wanted, and he took it whenever and however it pleased him. He made me do things, terrible things. And when he was old enough to enroll in the academy, he left without a word. He tossed me aside like rubbish. And now you’re telling me… that it was not even him.”
Jodi was now beginning to understand her own past. In her anger and self-loathing, Tanya had taken out on everyone else the love/hate she had felt for Markus Thorella. He had warped her, had emotionally and physically raped her, and she was trying to purge herself of the demons he had left inside her. And there had been no one for her to confide in, no one who would believe her accusations because of the legacy of the real Markus Thorella, whose word had once been honorable and true. She had never told anyone what had happened until this day. Jodi had been one of her victims, and doubtless there had been many more, some probably not as lucky as Jodi had been. But the greatest victim of all had been Tanya herself.
In Her Name Page 81