“What hearing?” he asked, voice much sharper.
“Before the Universal Magistrate. I told you, they aren’t too happy with what I did.”
“They called in a UM for this?” He was on his feet now, a looming shadow that made her shift on nervous feet.
“Uh, yeah. I did break the law. Several, actually.”
“But not Kaskan law.”
“No. I just bent those,” she said ruefully and edged toward the door.
He moved after her, a stalking shadow that tripled her heart rate. His hand snaked around her elbow, pulling her to a halt. “Why?” he asked, his voice a geologic rumble that emphasized the molten heat of his touch.
She tried not to panic. “I—” She needed to try harder. “It wasn’t right. What they did wasn’t right,” she managed in a breathless whisper and pulled away from him, knowing that if he kept touching her the real reason would come spilling out. “I have to go.”
“Keza,” he stopped her. She paused on the threshold, looking over her shoulder at his dark shape. “You never smiled until you got here.”
What should have been an irrelevant comment sank into her like a blade. She opened her mouth, closed it again to swallow the lump that was blocking her voice, and then managed to croak, “Smiling is overrated.”
Then she hurried away, nearly running back up the stairs to her room, haunted by the memory of his devastating smile.
The morning took its sweet time making an appearance, but once it did the day began with a whirlwind of activity. Her mother rushed her through breakfast, lecturing the entire while on Kaskan law and what their defense would be to the Magistrate. Myelle also managed to ignore Keza’s siblings, who were determined to go to the hearing with them. Liss ranted, Nade reasoned, and Rogue demanded, but their mother acted as if they were just background noise. Loud, obnoxious background noise.
Keza finally had to tell them to stop. They were giving her a migraine. They followed her and her mother out to the landing field, but when they tried to board the shuttle Myelle stopped them with her best icy glare and a clear, “No!”
Rogue turned sullen for the time it took Keza to say goodbye to her sisters. Liss was irreverently philosophical about the whole ordeal, giving her a hug while chirping, “That old dodger doesn’t stand a chance against the dragon anyway.”
Keza almost smiled at that one. “You know, he might not be old. Or a he.”
Liss shrugged. “Try offering sex, than.”
Rogue laughed at that one while Myelle called a rebuke from inside the shuttle, “Mariliss bet Marish!”
“What?” Liss called back with wide-eyed innocence.
Nade hugged Keza as well and then gave her a solemn look that belied the twinkle in her eyes. “Just remember, if all else fails you can kidnap the Magistrate, bring him home, and we’ll force-feed him my brussberry pie. He’ll be ours forever.”
Keza snickered then lightly punched her brother when he said, “Shouldn’t be hard for you, since you’ve had practice with that whole kidnapping thing.” He pretended to be mortally wounded for a second before wrapping her in a warm hug.
“Thanks,” she said to her three siblings, stepping out of Rogue’s arms and into the shuttle. “See you soon.”
Keza endured Myelle’s continuing lecture until midway to the orbiting station. Then she calmly turned to her mother and said, “You’re driving me crazy.”
Myelle opened her mouth, a protest clear in her expression, but she must have seen something in her daughter’s eyes that changed her mind. She closed her mouth and cleared her throat. “Right. Let’s just…try to relax.”
Keza snorted in dark humor and rolled her eyes.
The worst part was the waiting. She didn’t like being treated like a criminal, with the inspection of their shuttle and belongings and being asked to step through scanner after scanner on their way through the station. But it was the waiting at each point that drove her batty. Wait for the inspection, wait for the scan results, wait outside the hearing rooms, wait inside the hearing rooms with the Collectors.
When the Universal Magistrate finally made an appearance, Sukeza almost got up and kissed his lined face. She liked him even better when he got right down to business. Smoothing the front of his matt-black, collarless jacket before he sat, he looked at them over his spectacles and said, “Opening case number KH3958, Universal Collection Agency versus Sukeza bet Marish.” He paused, clearing his throat and looking down through his spectacles, reading the holo-images projected for his viewing only. “The accusation is aiding and abetting the escape of a known convicted criminal, Chase Stryker, aliases too numerous to mention, from mental containment.” He looked back up at Sukeza with the blandest expression she’d ever seen on another human being. “How do you plead?”
“Guilty,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster.
A hint of humor softened his lined visage. “Well, that makes for a short hearing.”
“Your Honor,” Sukeza’s mother began, but the Magistrate made a conciliatory gesture.
“Yes, Myelle, I know.”
Sukeza twitched and glanced at her mother in surprise, but Myelle acted as though she was unaware that the man had addressed her so familiarly.
“Collecting Agent Brindle, will you proceed?”
The man and woman seated across from Sukeza and her mother shared a quick glance before the man stood and addressed the Magistrate. He began to describe Stryker’s first confinement and the fortuitous accident that had torn the brain band from his head, giving him an opportunity to recover and flee. But the Magistrate stopped him with a wave of his hand, studying his spectacled information before he said, “These events do not pertain to Ms. Marish, correct?”
“That is correct, Your Honor, but—”
“Then move forward, please. I’m aware that you tracked Mr. Stryker for several months before receiving information of his whereabouts from a resident of the Bristol Cross outpost. Please give your account from that point on.”
Sukeza felt a fleeting disappointment that she wouldn’t hear the details of Chase’s first escape, but her stomach was too knotted with nerves for her to linger on the regret. She also wondered with a flash of anger who had turned Chase in, but the agent’s description didn’t ring any bells. Someone who’d recognized Chase and had a grudge—her attacker maybe, she mused as the agent continued.
Agent Brindle was thorough in his catalog of events. Perhaps a bit too thorough vg Sukeza thought, blushing to hear her nakedness and position in bed spoken of in such cool narration. The Magistrate flicked a glance at her, absorbing her response but not showing any reaction of his own. Myelle simply listened with alert concentration.
When the man finished, the Magistrate thanked him and turned to Sukeza. “Do you agree with the sequence of events as he has described them?”
“Mostly.”
“Is there anything you would like to add?”
Sukeza gave him the carefully edited account of how she had managed to spirit Stryker away, citing crowd distraction as her means of cover instead of mentioning Bella and her machinations. She also downplayed the Maltby twins’ involvement, saying she hired them on the spot after dragging Stryker away from the Collectors. When she finished with her reintroduction to Kaskan space, the Magistrate looked at her with humor curling his mouth.
“That was quite a…inventive account, Ms. Marish.”
Sukeza felt her stomach drop through the floor and her throat clicked when she swallowed.
“Your Honor?” Myelle asked in a cool tone.
The Magistrate turned his almost-smile on Sukeza’s mother. “You know very well a Magistrate’s spectacles do more than retrieve data. But since Ms. Marish’s elaborations only serve to reinforce her complicity in the crime, I must assume she is merely trying to protect those who assisted her.”
Those damned glasses could tell if she was lying? Oh, shit. Why hadn’t her mother warned her?
“Now, Ms. Marish, th
is may be stepping into personal territory and I apologize for the invasion of your privacy, but could you explain the nature of your claim on Chase Stryker?”
Sukeza flushed bright red even though she’d been expecting this question, but decided that would be to her advantage. If her level of discomfort rose to the point where it equaled the signs of a lie, she just might get away with this. She let her voice stammer through an account of meeting Stryker, what had occurred on the farming planet, and her complicity in that escape as well. For the first time, the Magistrate seemed disturbed, making a note in the air when she spoke of how the citizens had turned mob on them. She described their flight to the small station where Stryker had planned on acquiring transport for her to get home. While waiting for the transport, they had become intimate…
Sukeza faltered, letting memories of their night together flow through her mind to increase her heart rate and color her cheeks. Then she lied. “I laid Kaskan claim both verbally and physically to Chase Stryker.”
The Magistrate studied her, a faint frown forming between his brows. He obviously suspected something. Turning to the Collectors, he asked, “Do you dispute?”
They’d taken note of the Magistrate’s reactions as well. The woman stood and said, “Yes. We have no proof that either a verbal or physical claim was made.”
Myelle objected, “By their account, it seems clear that a physical claim was made.”
“They were found naked in the same bed. But no samples were taken—”
“Agent, please,” the Magistrate rebuked with a small grimace of distaste.
“We have no evidence that they were engaged in sexual intercourse, Your Honor.”
The Magistrate turned to Sukeza, his gaze piercing. “Let’s hear it, Ms. Marish.”
Despite the color flooding her cheeks, she let him hear it. “I had sexual intercourse with Chase Stryker. More than once,” she added with a defiant lift of her chin.
The Magistrate’s lips twisted as if he wanted to smile. “Prior to the Agents putting the band on him?”
“Yes.”
“Well, now, that was the truth. However, as we all know, bedding a man does not a candidate make. He must be aware and agreeable to the claim. Did you make it clear what it was you asked of him, Ms. Marish?”
Damn. “S-sir?”
“Did you explain what he would be getting himself into?”
Her mother came to the rescue. “Your Honor, he was an escaped convict. If offered a choice, do you really think he would refuse to come to Kaska?”
The Magistrate turned his sharp gaze on Myelle. “So why was this not explained to the agents when they discovered the two together?”
“My daughter was under a great deal of strain. She had never been in such a situation before.”
“I panicked,” Sukeza added glumly. It was the truth, after all.
“And Mr. Stryker? His record seems to indicate that he has been in such situations many times. Why did he not speak up?”
Myelle raised delicate eyebrows. “I assume because he was not clearly aware of all the ramifications. Perhaps my daughter didn’t fully explain how the Kaskan claim worked. From all accounts, they were—” she coughed lightly into one fist. “Involved in a rather distracting activity at the time.”
The Magistrate gave her a wry smile. “Well played,” he said softly, but Myelle only looked at him with cool composure. The Magistrate straightened, losing his smile. “However, because there is question regarding this claim and it has been disputed by the Agency, the court requires proof. Do either of you have any evidence to show in this matter?”
Sukeza felt her insides shrivel unpleasantly. She shook her head.
“Any witnesses?”
She had to shake her head again, tasting bile in the back of her throat. This was not going to go well.
“Very well, since there is no proof of a Kaskan claim, this matter is subject to Universal Law only—” the Magistrate paused in his recital of her doom, staring at nothing through his spectacles with a faint frown. Then he tapped in the air and said, “Apparently a witness has stepped forward. Please enter.”
Sukeza turned to the door with a frown of confusion. When Chase strode in with Harle on his heels, all the air left her lungs. “Goddess be blessed,” she heard her mother whisper. She couldn’t have agreed more.
Chase looked grim, but then again, he usually did. The question was would he rescue her or damn her? It was in his best interest to back up her story, but if the Magistrate caught him lying, they both might be given to the Collectors.
“Have a seat,” the Magistrate said in a strangely informal tone.
Chase took a seat on the bench between the opposing sides, his dark eyes fixed on the Magistrate. Harle, looking supremely uncomfortable, edged to an audience chair in the back and eased down onto it.
“For the record what is your name?” the Magistrate asked in a mild tone.
“Chase Stryker.”
“Thank you. You are coming forward as a witness on behalf of Sukeza bet Marish. Is this correct?”
“It is.”
“The events of your capture and subsequent escape have been described to both parties’ satisfaction, except for authenticity of the alleged Kaskan claim. Can you elaborate?”
One corner of Chase’s mouth curled, his voice lowering and roughening with an intimacy that turned Sukeza inside out. “She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
“She explained what it means to be a Kaskan candidate?”
“I don’t remember much explaining. Demanding, begging, lots of screaming—”
“Mr. Stryker,” the Magistrate cut him off with a wry glance over his spectacles.
Sukeza thought her face was going to catch on fire. There were other areas of her body that were catching on fire as well, from the rasp of his voice and the memories he evoked. He sure as hell hadn’t lied yet.
“Did she or did she not make a claim?”
“Oh yeah, she definitely made a claim,” Chase said, voice husky as he stared at the Magistrate.
Sukeza felt her insides fluttering and swallowed hard. He was a much better liar than she would ever be.
“So why didn’t you speak up when the Agents came to collect you?”
“I didn’t find out ‘til I was on Kaska that telling them about it would stop them from taking me. You better believe I would’ve sung like a bird if I’d known it would make a difference.”
The Magistrate studied him for a moment before saying, “I do believe you. Since the claim has been witnessed and the Marish House has authenticated it, I remand this matter into Kaskan legislation. Has it now been explained to you, Mr. Stryker, that as a candidate you are subject to Kaskan laws and are forthwith confined to Kaskan space?”
“Thoroughly,” Stryker drawled.
Sukeza’s mother made a small, derisive sound in her throat, but her face remained composed.
The Magistrate turned to the Collectors. “As this is now a Kaskan matter, I thank you for your service, Agents, and dismiss you from this duty. You may leave Mr. Stryker in Kaska’s capable hands.”
They both nodded, looking stoic, but Sukeza thought the man’s eyes flashed with bitter anger.
The Magistrate turned to look at Sukeza’s mother. “I gather you will be taking point on this, Mater Myelle?”
A faint smile played around her mouth, but she gave no other indication of being affected by his verdict or his implied familiarity. “Yes, Your Honor.”
“I don’t have to ask if you’ve thoroughly researched his background.”
“I have.”
“So you know what kind of trouble you’re taking on. No offense meant, Mr. Stryker, but your record is rather spectacular.”
“None taken,” Chase responded, looking impassive and immovable.
“If I feel uncomfortable in any way with Mr. Stryker’s conduct, I will immediately remand him back to the Collectors. This has also been thoroughly explained to him,” Myelle added with
a sharp glance at Chase, who acted as though he’d stopped listening.
The Magistrate lifted a fist to his mouth but couldn’t quite hide the grin that appeared there. “Very reassuring, Myelle. In that case, I consider this case closed, unless you reopen it. Good luck to you all.”
He rose and left the room to a murmured chorus of, “Thank you, Your Honor,” from Myelle and the agents. The agents headed for the main exit, giving Chase hard looks as they passed him. He ignored them, rising to his feet and glancing once at Sukeza before striding for the door. Just one look from those dark eyes and she was a quivering mess.
Rising on shaky limbs, she accepted her mother’s congratulatory hug, but her gaze followed Chase as he walked away. “Wait!” she called, startling herself as much as her mother.
Light of Kaska Page 19