Saved by Venom: 3 (Grabbed)

by Lopez, Lolita

  Thorn took the criticism in stride. “I didn’t even know she existed until a few days before the embassy bombing in The City. I should have known. There’s no excuse for the way I abandoned sweet Lina.”

  At the mention of her mother’s name, Dizzy finally found her voice. “How did you know my mother?”

  Thorn sighed heavily and glanced at Torment. “Did you tell her?”

  The Shadow Force operative shook his head. “I felt it was best to hear this type of truth from you.”

  Thorn motioned to a nearby chair. Dizzy gratefully sat down, certain her legs wouldn’t hold up through the story she was about to hear. Her father leaned back against a table and gripped the edge with his hands. She spotted the bright-red cuff encircling his thick wrist. It was similar to the white cuff Vicious wore on his left wrist—a cuff that matched Hallie’s collar.

  “You’re married?”

  Thorn nodded. “Yes, but that came after your mother—and you.”

  She guessed that was better than the alternative.

  “You know that your mother was a stewardess with Cross Colony Air, yes?”

  “I do.”

  “What you don’t know is that Lina was recruited as an asset for the Shadow Force within weeks of gaining employment there. Her position with the airline gave her a good clean cover for ferrying information to undercover agents. It allowed her to complete secret surveillance on passengers we suspected of being Splinter sympathizers or terrorists themselves.”

  Dizzy’s mind reeled. What had Danny said at the wedding reception? Hadn’t he mentioned something about the Shadow Force cultivating contacts and assets in this sector for decades? “My mother was an agent for your government?”

  “A very good one,” Thorn confirmed. “People saw that beautiful face of hers and immediately discounted her as being nothing more than a pretty girl. She used that to her advantage.” His mouth curved in a wistful smile. “They had no idea how incredibly brilliant and talented she was.”

  Dizzy tried to reconcile this new information with the memories of her mother. She couldn’t believe that a woman who ran a muse agency had been a highly skilled operative for a foreign government. “How did you two…?”

  “At the time, I headed a small forward operating base on Safe Harbor. That was my official cover. Truthfully we were running a covert operation to build the foundation of the Shadow Force in this sector. We sensed the small Splinter movement gaining ground at the time would soon spiral out of control. This end of the solar system was so wild and unknown. We believed it would be the one place they would look to hide so we wanted boots on the ground and agents in play. Your mother was one of those foundation agents.”

  Thorn’s gaze skipped over her shoulder. He seemed to be reliving the memories of her mother as he spoke. “I tried to ignore my attraction to her but it was futile. She ensnared me with one smile.”

  Dizzy hoped he wasn’t going to get very specific about their affair. She didn’t think she could handle that much truth.

  “I loved that woman.” He caught and held her gaze. “You are never to doubt that you were created in love. You weren’t a mistake or an unwanted inconvenience. You are the natural product of a love so deep and so strong it spanned decades.”

  Dizzy blinked as tears welled in her eyes. “If you loved my mother so much, why did you bail? Why weren’t you around when I was a baby? Why am I only meeting you now?”

  “Our love was forbidden. Operatives are never supposed to cross that line—and I damn sure never should have crossed it with a subordinate and a native. When I was promoted and moved to the front lines, I couldn’t take her with me. I didn’t have enough points. If I had taken her as my mate they would have demoted me or bounced me out of the force entirely.”

  “So you chose your career over my mother?”

  “At the time I planned to come back for her when I had the points. By then though, she had married Jack Lane. Once I learned she had married, I stopped digging and Grabbed a mate from a different planet. I didn’t ask about any children in their marriage. It wasn’t until I came to this sector with the Indefatigable that I learned you even existed. I realized then that she had married Jack to protect you.” Thorn hung his head with such deep shame. “I won’t stand here and make excuses. I own that mistake—and it was a mistake. It’s the biggest regret of my life.” His mouth slanted with sadness. “Not that hearing that makes any difference to you.”

  “Not really,” she said crossly. “For what it’s worth, my dad—my real dad—more than made up for your absence.”

  Thorn flinched. “I’m glad to hear that he was the man I couldn’t be.”

  “Touching as this family reunion is,” Orion carefully interjected, “we are in the middle of a Splinter attack. If this can wait—”

  “It can’t,” Torment interrupted. “What General Thorn hasn’t told Dizzy is that her mother was never deactivated as an agent. When she married Jack Lane and moved to The City, she continued to operate as an in-country asset for the Shadow Force. Her position as a wealthy banker’s wife and as a business owner allowed her to mix and mingle with the government and social elite of Calyx.”

  “My mother was spying the whole time?”

  Torment nodded. “She correctly projected that the League of Concerned Citizens would develop as a front for the Splinters. Over the years, she mapped out the connections between members of your government, the Sixer gang and the Splinter forces. So much of the intelligence framework for our current mission came through Lina. When she was killed, we scrambled to fill her spot. We needed someone who could keep his finger on the pulse of the Splinter movement, someone with the right connections.”

  Dizzy’s mouth gaped as it all started to make sense. “You used my dad.”

  “He didn’t know,” Torment explained. “Not exactly,” he added. “We used one of our other undercover assets to provide him with the seed money to start his black market operation. We were able to keep tabs on the Splinters through the movements of supplies along his chain. He’s been incredibly useful to us—until now.”

  She narrowed her eyes at Torment. “What does that mean?”

  “It means I made a colossal mistake,” Thorn answered instead. “A few weeks ago, Jack tried to contact me. We hadn’t spoken since you were in the infirmary aboard my ship. When we parted, it was not on good terms.”

  “Meaning?”

  “He told me that I owed it to you to give you a better life but I didn’t know how to do that without hurting my wife so very much.” He gulped. “She had recently lost a child and I didn’t know how to tell her that I had a daughter down on the planet. I couldn’t reveal your existence without revealing everything about Lina and my earlier connections with Shadow Force.” He shook his head. “And then it was too late. You had been discharged to Jack and I convinced myself you were better off never knowing the truth.”

  Dizzy’s stomach pitched. For a man who insisted she was created with love and not something he considered a mistake, he sure as hell had taken every opportunity to deny her very existence.

  “Jack’s most recent messages to me were mishandled and jumbled. I thought he was trying to blackmail me into giving him money. What I realize now is that he was being blackmailed by someone who knew that I was your father. He needed money to pay them off and get the heat off you.”

  “Selling my lottery number was just a smoke screen, wasn’t it? He wanted me off the planet. He wanted me to be safe.”

  “Yes,” Thorn agreed. “Jack knew that if you were Grabbed our link would be discovered during the intake physical. He knew I would protect you.”

  Dizzy kneaded her temples as the horror of it all hit her. “What were they blackmailing him to do?”

  “Jack was making inquiries about hiring a transport ship for a cargo run between Calyx and a planet called Ryzina,” Torment explained. “It’s a planet inside Splinter territory. Our man on the inside doesn’t know the details but he confirms the trans
port arrangements were made. If we fail to recover the fuel rods before they’re moved to your planet, we must be able to intercept them before they reach Ryzina.”

  “Well—what the hell do you want me to do?” Dizzy gawked at Torment. “I haven’t spoken to my dad in weeks.”

  “Jack has gone off the grid,” Torment said. “No one can find him, not even Danny. After the wedding, he tried to touch base with Jack but he had vanished. The letter Terror passed to you reached him through four or five sets of hands. If Jack is still alive, he’s only going to reveal himself to you.”

  “No!” Thorn’s voice echoed like a whip crack. “You are not sending my only child down there as bait.”

  Torment turned that dead gaze of his to his superior officer. “With all due respect, General Thorn, you aren’t in Shadow Force anymore. This is a call we make.”

  “Gentlemen!” Vicious stepped between the two men before things got any more heated. The admiral slid out a stealthy hand and carefully dragged her back behind him, tucking her out of the way in a protective maneuver.

  Vicious pointed to the screen covering the far wall. “The SRU alpha team is preparing to breach and sweep the Splinter ship suspected of carrying the fuel rods. If the rods are there, my men will find them.” He glanced at her before fixing Torment with a glare. “And this is a call that Venom will make. This woman belongs to one of my men. I won’t allow another bride to be risked for one of your missions.”

  Dizzy gulped nervously but remained hidden behind Orion. She thought of the story Venom had told her about Naya and Terror. Please, not me too.

  She stiffened at the unexpected sound of Venom’s voice hissing across the sound system. Stepping away from Orion, she glued her gaze to the screen as a live feed from the SRU mission played across it. Her heart stuttered when she realized he was leading the team into the enemy ship. Leaning against the table for support, Dizzy tried to breathe as she watched Venom and his team moving deeper and deeper into the ship.

  When they started to trade fire with insurgents, Dizzy gasped. It was Thorn, her father, who put a settling hand on her shoulder. Lowering his voice, he commented, “I realize how frightening this is for you to see but this is a routine mission for Venom and his crew. He’s done this a hundred times or more.”

  That didn’t make her feel any better. By the time they finished clearing the vessel, Dizzy was on the verge of vomiting from the stress of it. How Venom could handle this type of work day after day she would never understand. Watching him utilize his skills reminded her how incredibly deadly he could be—and emphasized the tender sweetness with which he had always treated her.

  “Raze, report.” Vicious addressed the team via the communications link.

  “Zero SRU wounded or killed in action. Seven combatants confirmed kills. Four combatants critically wounded and expected to perish. Thirteen combatants taken prisoner. The package is missing. Repeat, fuel rods are not among the cargo.”

  “Where the hell are they?” Vicious wondered with frustration.

  “Admiral?” A voice from below called to the sky fleet commander. “We have Commander Zephyr on the com.”

  “Patch him through,” Orion ordered. “Commander?”

  “Admiral, we have a problem.” Some sort of radio interference made his connection scratchy. “That ship I hit that started spiraling toward Calyx? I followed it into the atmosphere to ensure the safety of the civilians on the ground. It broke up during reentry but I witnessed seven pressurized pods pop off with chutes that deployed at survivable altitude. I’m picking up a huge and very red-hot G42 trail. The fuel rods are on the planet, Admiral. They’re in the pods.”

  A flurry of activity erupted in the war room. She didn’t understand most of the lingo being bandied about but the tense tone of the conversations swirling around her told her it wasn’t good. The main screen switched from the live feed of Venom’s SRU team to an aerial view of the multiple pods Zephyr had followed onto the planet. He hovered above the smoking craters where the pods had impacted.

  “Skyhawk 06 to Valiant—I am currently detecting a life-sign sensor on the ground.” Panic edged into Zephyr’s voice. “Can you confirm?”

  “Valiant to Skyhawk 06,” a voice from down in the pit replied, “we detect the life sign. ID Number is A7131416.”

  Vicious strode to the railing. “Repeat that.”

  “ID Number is A7131416.”

  The general’s rigid stance didn’t bode well. “It’s Terror. Is he alive?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Is he moving?”

  “Negative, sir.”

  Looking absolutely stricken, Vicious spun toward Torment. “What the hell is Terror doing with those rods?”

  “His job,” Torment answered matter-of-factly. “He hitched a ride on the Night Bird in the engineering division. There was enough Splinter chatter during the last month to put us on high alert. We hoped the SRU team and extra guard ships would be enough of a deterrent but Terror was tasked with protecting those rods in the event of an attack.”

  “Did we shoot down our own man?” Thorn asked the question everyone was thinking. Now Dizzy understood the panic filling Zephyr’s voice. He had just fired upon and nearly killed one of their own.

  “Skyhawk 06 to Valiant—I have company. Request immediate assistance. Repeat immediate assistance required.”

  The aerial surveillance picked up an advancing column of heavy-duty trucks. Dizzy’s eyes widened when she noticed the surface-to-air missiles mounted in the beds of two of them. She had heard rumors about the arms dealers operating in The City but she had no idea they were bringing hardware like that to the planet.

  Suddenly Orion and Vicious were shouting orders. Dizzy smartly got out of the way and melted into the background.

  “Incoming!” Zephyr performed evasive maneuvers before firing on the convoy rushing toward the pods. He was badly outnumbered but refused to leave his position or leave Terror exposed.

  Her gut clenched as she realized the sky corps pilots rushing to his aid were too far away. Zephyr was never going to abandon Terror, even if it meant certain death. Though he managed to take out four of the trucks, two missiles fired simultaneously outmaneuvered him. His aircraft was badly clipped and began to spin.

  “Skyhawk 06 to Valiant, I’m hit. Repeat. I am hit.”

  The calmness with which he described his situation shocked Dizzy. The pilot had shown more fear upon realizing that he had fired upon Terror than he did when faced with his the very real possibility he was about to die in a fiery crash.

  “I’m going down. Skyhawk 06 is hit. I am going down.”

  Horrified, Dizzy watched the aircraft spiral toward the ground. She flinched as the ship continued to take hits. The cover of the cockpit exploded as Zephyr ejected. She didn’t know how he would survive the fall through the debris field.

  As the crippled aircraft slammed into the ground, the Splinters used the massive explosion to their advantage. The bright fireball lit up the night. Mostly hidden by the smoke and darkness, the Splinters gathered up the large pods and loaded them into trucks. Dizzy cupped a hand over her mouth at the sight of Terror’s lifeless body being dragged out of a crumpled life pod.

  By the time the rescue squad of aircraft descended, the Splinters had raced away from the scene and disappeared into the heavily wooded area near the crash site. From Torment and Vicious’ frustrated shouts, she deduced the terrorists had disabled any sort of tracking on the pods and cut Terror’s ID chip out of his arm. Knocked unconscious by his sudden ejection, Zephyr was collected by another aircraft and reported to be in good condition.

  “How could they have known to have their trucks in that vicinity?” Vicious asked the question Dizzy had been wondering. “How did they know the aircraft would go down there?”

  “Zephyr dinged the aircraft after it had already locked on to its reentry trajectory,” Orion answered. “This was probably the landing site they had picked to transfer the rods to Calyx
for safekeeping until the heat abated. They had to have realized the ships they’ve cobbled together would never outrun us. Stowing the rods on Calyx for a few weeks? That’s a better plan.”

  “Knowing Terror,” Torment said, “he probably followed the fuel rods onto that ship and waited to make his move to secure the rods and kill the Splinter pilots after they had performed the trickiest part of the reentry procedure. Once they were locked into their landing location, the onboard navigation system would have attempted to bring them down as close as possible to the original landing site after they were hit.”

  Thorn’s voice deepened to a deadly serious rasp. “I want the full might of our forces mobilized immediately. Our top priority is recovering those rods and our operative.”

  While the men around her continued to talk battle strategy, Dizzy stared at the envelope she still clutched in her hand. She used her fingernail to tear the sealed edge and slipped her finger inside to rip it open. Instead of a letter as she had expected, there was only a torn postcard tucked inside.

  “They could be taking those rods anywhere.” Vicious reached out to tap the touchscreen tabletop where the surface of Calyx was mapped out in quadrants.

  “They have to know we can follow the radioactive trail. They’ll take them to a safe location,” Orion guessed.

  “A building of some kind,” Thorn interjected. “Maybe even a warehouse that has been lined and retrofitted?”

  Dizzy rubbed her thumb across the vintage postcard. The picture on the front was so faded she could barely make out the words and the image of the subway as it had been imagined and advertised during the government’s push for public support. She flipped over the card and read the simple message scrawled in her father’s handwriting.

  I tried.

  Her eyes closed as she experienced a surge of such soul-crushing sadness. Guilt soured her belly when she thought of the way she and her father had fought the last time she had seen him. He had been trying to save her life and she had treated him so abominably.

  “They’ll take them underground.” Dizzy raised her voice to be heard over the din. “The rods are going underground.”