by Jaye McKenna
Deep, deep inside, past his shields, past the core of light at his center, past the darkness beyond it. A place where nothing could touch him, nothing could hurt him.
Nothing could reach him.
Chapter Twelve
It was dark when Draven reached Iral, but getting there had been simple enough. The high-speed train took him right to the heart of the city. From the station, it was only a few blocks to the tall, glass-and-steel apartment building where Miko said the rest of the team would meet him. As he approached the front entrance, he tugged on the thread connecting him to Miko.
A mixture of tension and relief vibrated down the thread.
Draven had only met Pat Cottrell once before, when he’d been in FedSec custody, but he recognized the man instantly. He was of average height and build, with dark brown hair and dark eyes. At first glance, he didn’t look that dangerous, but Cottrell had been a field agent for years before he’d been promoted to the directorship of FedSec’s psi hunter unit.
It wouldn’t do to underestimate him.
Cottrell was dressed in a finely tailored, dark grey suit. The white shirt would be a problem if the plan involved slipping through dark alleys, so Draven guessed they’d be walking in the front doors.
A muscle in Cottrell’s jaw twitched as Draven entered the lobby and held his hands out to his sides to show that he wasn’t holding a weapon.
“Draven.” Cottrell’s lips pressed together in a grim excuse for a smile that didn’t even come close to touching his eyes. “Thanks for coming.”
“Cottrell.” Draven gave him a brief nod. “Miko says we have a truce.”
“We do. The rest of the team is upstairs in my apartment. We need to go over the plan with you before we leave.”
Draven followed him to the elevator. A volatile mixture of anger and adrenaline roiled through Cottrell’s mythe-shadow, so close to the surface that anything Draven said was likely to ignite it. He kept his mouth firmly shut as they rode up to the twentieth floor.
Cottrell’s apartment was sparsely furnished, with nothing out of place. Sitting at the table were two men Draven recognized immediately: Alek McKinnon and Luka Valdari.
McKinnon got to his feet, tension evident in every line of his body. “Is he armed?” The question was addressed to Cottrell, but McKinnon kept his gaze fixed on Draven.
“I hope so.” Cottrell turned to Draven. “Are you?”
Draven pulled the semi-automatic Cam had given him out of his jacket and held it up.
McKinnon’s eyes widened as he recognized the weapon. He started to speak, but Cottrell silenced him with a warning look.
The kid — Luka — kept his mouth shut, sharp green eyes darting from face to face, taking in every nuance of expression.
“Is Miko ready?” Cottrell asked. “We’ve been out of touch with him since we left the shuttle.”
“I’ll check,” Draven said, and gave the thread a tug.
“Miko is ready,” Draven said.
Cottrell gestured toward the table. “Then let’s take a look at the map and get you briefed on the plan. If you have anything to add or any concerns about it, don’t hesitate to bring them up.”
Draven moved toward the table and looked down at the map.
“Miko thought hard copy would be safest,” Cottrell said. “This is FedSec Central Processing, where Cam and Eleni are being held. Main floor is administration and testing. Holding cells and interrogation rooms are a level down, here. Draven, can you ask Miko where Cam is now?”
Draven relayed the information to the others, pointing out the cells on the map.
“The bastards hurt Eleni?” Luka’s voice was high and sharp.
“We guessed they would, Luka,” Cottrell said. “It’s not worth their time to hurt Cam, and they know it.”
McKinnon cast a wary eye toward Draven. “How do you know he’s telling the truth? We have no way of verifying what Miko actually said to him. He could get us all arrested without even trying.”
“Including myself,” Draven said drily. “Don’t worry, McKinnon. Your goals and mine are aligned at the moment.” He gave McKinnon a wolfish grin. “I’ll give you a five-minute warning if that should change.”
Luka snickered, and McKinnon glared.
“Let’s just get this done, all right?” Cottrell said. “Once Cam is safe, we go our separate ways, but until then, we’re a team. That means we have to trust each other. Can we do that?” He looked from McKinnon to Draven and back again.
“Don’t lecture me on trust, Cottrell,” Draven said softly. “If anyone’s in enemy territory here, it’s me.”
“He’s got a point, Alek,” Luka said. “Took some industrial-sized balls just to walk in here, man.” He paused long enough to give Draven an approving nod. “He wants Cam out of there as bad as we do. Ain’t that enough? After we get Cam out, you don’t ever have to see him again.”
McKinnon responded with a loud sigh and a small, reluctant nod.
Cottrell leaned over the map. “So the plan is—”
“Does FedSec have access to Drexavin?” Draven asked.
Cottrell blinked. “What?”
“Drexavin. You might know it by a different name. It’s a drug that makes psions and non-psions alike invisible to psi. Romani’s operatives use it whenever there’s a chance they might tangle with your psi hunters. I’ve been out of the loop since the Aion Incident, so I don’t know if it’s hit the open market yet or not.”
“I’ve had a number of field operatives report the existence of a drug that can do that,” Cottrell said, “but they didn’t know the name of it, and FedSec doesn’t use it.”
“Are you certain?” Sergei would never have made Drexavin available to any but his own people, but Alan was in charge now, and he had very different ideas regarding the handling of Cy-Tek’s intellectual property.
“I’m the director of their psi hunter unit,” Cottrell said. “I’d better be. A drug that could make my agents invisible to psions would be a powerful weapon to have in our arsenal. Believe me, if something like that was coming down the pipe, I’d know about it.”
Some of the tension melted out of Draven’s shoulders and neck. If they didn’t have to worry about FedSec officers drugged against psi, they might just have a chance of pulling this off. “All right, what’s your plan?”
* * *
Draven was not used to an infiltration operation going so smoothly. Cottrell had a private parking spot on the roof of the building that housed FedSec Central Processing, and it was late enough in the evening that most of the staff had gone home. Nobody even looked askance at a director-level executive whose ID and thumbprint opened every single locked door. They didn’t pay much mind to his entourage, either, thanks to McKinnon’s ability to make them blend in.
Draven had thought he was along to communicate with Miko, so doors could be opened and surveillance equipment tampered with, but with Cottrell’s high-level clearance, there was little for him and Miko to do. It wasn’t until they reached the holding cells that Miko’s talents came into play. Cottrell got them into the holding area, but didn’t have access to the ind
ividual cells.
Cam and Eleni were right where Miko said they’d be, on opposite sides of the hallway. Eleni was on her feet, pacing the cell. Her eyes widened in recognition as she saw them, and Draven sensed both surprise and grudging approval as her gaze settled on him.
In the cell across the hall, Cam lay on the bunk. He looked unconscious, but his mind felt farther away than it should, even taking into account the fact that they’d probably drugged him with Anarin. Across the openings of both cells, force-walls hummed and flickered.
They waited in silence until finally, the air in front of the cells shimmered, and the lights around the perimeters went out. Draven was into Cam’s cell and kneeling at his side before anyone else had even moved. Moments later, Eleni knelt beside him and ran her hands over Cam’s unresponsive body, dark eyes focused inward.
“He doesn’t feel like he’s unconscious,” Draven said.
“This isn’t physical,” she replied. “They gave him Anarin, but not enough to knock him out.”
“We don’t have time for this now,” McKinnon said, pushing his way in between them. Eleni was nudged gently out of the way, but Draven got an elbow in the ribs. He scowled as McKinnon hoisted Cam up over his shoulder and straightened up. “Let’s get the hell out of here before someone notices us.”
Draven started to followed him but staggered when Miko tugged hard on the thread connecting them.
“Someone’s coming,” Draven said in a low voice.
Cottrell’s eyes unfocused briefly. “Four. Not psions.”
Draven drew his stunner, but before he reached the door, the mythe stirred, and a controlled burst of psi-energy flashed through the hallway beyond the cell block.
“They’re down,” Cottrell murmured. “Good work, Luka. Let’s get them into the holding cells. Quickly!”
Though Draven had been briefed on Luka’s abilities, it was still impressive to see him in action. He gave the kid a quick nod of approval, which was returned with a cocky grin.
When the unconscious men had been dragged into the cells, Draven sent to Miko,
“Need to hurry,” Draven told the others. “They’re waiting on a report from the med-tech.”
“Right, let’s move.” Cottrell pulled Eleni close to his side.
Miko reset the force-walls on the holding cells, and they were just leaving when Draven sensed another stirring in the mythe. Extending his psi-senses, he caught a whiff of a potential problem.
“Psi hunter headed this way,” Draven reported. “Miko’s tracking her. He’s going to show me the safest way out.”
McKinnon muttered a curse under his breath, but Cottrell moved aside and let Draven lead the way. With Miko murmuring directions in his head, Draven led them through the building and up to the roof without incident.
The cold night air was a shock after the warmth of the building. A dusting of snow covered the tarmac and more swirled through the air.
They were only halfway across the roof when the high-pitched whine of a stun-shot rang out, and Luka yelled from just behind him, “Alek, move your ass, we got company!”
Draven turned to see several men in FedSec uniforms pouring out of the rooftop access. One of them setting up a huge weapon: a stun-field generator. That could end the rescue mission damn quick. His own stunner didn’t have the range to hit the whole group, so he set it to fire a concentrated beam, aiming for the man with the generator. Before he could fire, every uniformed figure crumpled to the ground.
At the same moment, Luka dropped to his knees, retching. Draven grabbed the kid and hauled him to the flyer with one arm, keeping his own body between the door and Luka.
When he reached the flyer, the engines were already humming. He shoved the kid in and climbed in after him. The moment the door was shut, he yelled, “Okay, go!” and the flyer lifted into the air. In the middle seat, Luka was struggling with the safety harness, his hands shaking too much to fasten it. Draven settled next to him and helped him strap in. “You okay?”
“Shit, that hurt,” Luka muttered, pressing his hands to his head. “Never done two so close together before.”
“Worth it,” Draven told him. “If they’d managed to fire that thing, we would have all gone down.”
“Stay low, McKinnon. Miko’s trying to get us off the grid.”
“Will they come after us?” Eleni asked from the seat behind him, where she was seeing to Cam.
Draven twisted around to look past Eleni, into the darkness behind them. He could see nothing, and when he swept his awareness out toward the building, he sensed nothing that felt like pursuit.
“I don’t think they’ll dare,” Draven said slowly. “Not once they figure out that one of us knocked out an entire group of their men.”
“I can’t do it again.” Luka’s voice sounded strained, and the kid had his arms wrapped tightly about himself, as if he was trying to hold himself together.
“I don’t think you’ll have to,” Draven said. “They won’t risk getting that close again until they know they can take us.”
“So once Miko gets us off the grid, we’re safe,” Luka said.
“Didn’t say that. Once they realize they can’t track us through Traffic Control, they’ll try to track us with psions. We’re probably safe as long as we’re in the air. Landing could be tricky.”
“Yeah,” Cottrell said grimly. “And if they find Rhys and the shuttle before we get there, they’ll know exactly where to set up an ambush. Damn, I wish we had some of that drug you were talking about.” He turned to McKinnon. “Just fly like hell, Alek. We need to get to the shuttle before they find it.”
McKinnon poured on more speed, and Luka let out a groan as he was pressed back against the seat. “Jesus, am I the only one that wants to throw up?”
“Head between your knees,” Draven advised him.
“Yeah, I know, an’ kiss my ass goodbye,” the kid grumbled.
* * *
By the time he’d finished blinding the Traffic Control AI to the flyer and wiping all record of its presence from the logs, Miko was sweating. His body might be sitting quietly at the conference table in Anja’s office, but his mind was split at least three ways. Part of it was attuned to Draven, who was the Wanderlust�
��s only connection with the extraction team on the ground; another part was tracking the communications between the psi hunters pursuing the flyer; and a third part was keeping an eye on a rather unsettling development in Aurora Station’s data-net.
Had FedSec found the shuttle? Miko scanned FedSec’s comm traffic as well as the station’s, but found no mention of it. He hated having to work so fast; he feared he’d miss something critical, dooming Cameron, Eleni, and the men who had gone to rescue them. Defending stationary data structures was a lot easier than hunting for relevant messages buried in the tangled mess of comm traffic.
“We may need to leave in a hurry,” Miko said through the voice synth. “Space Fleet just went on alert.”
Across the table from him, Kyn and Anja exchanged a worried look.
“They found the shuttle?” Kyn asked as Anja rose from her seat.
“I’m not sure,” Miko said, “but I think we should get the Wanderlust into the departure queue.”
Anja nodded, as cool and calm as ever. “I’ll submit a departure request to the Station Master.”