by Natalie Grey
Tersi anticipated the question. “If that was how he did it, we’ll still have the back end of the trace. Just a few more minutes.”
“You don’t have a few more minutes,” Nyx’s voice interjected. “They’re breaking orbit now. You have ten minutes until they’re in weapons range, twenty until they land. If we want to get you out—”
“Whose ships are they?” Talon asked.
“Unmarked. Weapons-capable, but no way to say if they can do anything while they’re landing.” Few ships could, Talon knew. But if anyone had access to that technology, it would be the man who had contacts both in Intelligence and in the Navy.
“We leave as they land,” Talon told her. “They won’t fire on us with Tera in the house.”
Nyx only sighed.
“Sir, I have something.” Tersi’s brow was furrowed.
“What is it?” Talon pushed his way through the cluster of soldiers, Tera standing on tiptoe to look over his shoulder.
“Looks like a video file. I want sort of…under his firewall, but most other people would have triggered it.” Tersi’s fingers danced across the keys. “I’ve extracted it. Should I play it?”
“Do it.”
When Soras’s face appeared onscreen, everyone took an involuntary step back.
“Hello, Rift.” His smile was cold, his eyes narrowed. “At the start, I would never have guessed you would see this—but you’ve proven trickier than I expected. So I’ll leave a warning for you: turn yourself in. You’ve made a miscalculation, and it’s something you can never hope to fix.
“The Alliance will hunt you down, and they will kill you if they need to. You’ve done what they feared since the Dragons were created: you’ve begun going after their own.” His smile broadened. “Justice … is dangerous. Every one of the senators you tried to turn on me has something to hide. Every one of them fears the chaos the Dragons will unleash if they start looking too hard at those who rule. You thought you would bring me down? You’re a fool. I’ll survive this, Rift. If you push it much farther … you won’t.”
It was only words. Talon pushed away the blinding anger and tried to focus. Soras wanted him to come in. If he were truly secure in the knowledge that Talon would die in this effort, and that his crusade would die with him, Soras would have let it be.
But he spoke a truth that had lingered, half-known, in the recesses of Talon’s mind. Soras had said out loud what lingered in the eyes of politicians on Gemini, what lay unspoken in the messages they sent to Talon and his crew. Those who led the Alliance did not look on the Dragons with worship, as citizens of the outer planets did, and neither did they speak of them as honored enemies, as the slave traders and arms dealers might. The politicians feared the Dragons. Had always feared the Dragons. If Talon were allowed to take down one of their own...
“Boss, get out of there!” The shout came through his earpiece. “All of you, move, they’re getting into formation, they’re going to fire on the house.”
“Goddammit.” They pounded down the stairs and to the launch pad. “How much time?”
“Fifteen seconds max.” Nyx’s voice was tightly controlled, but Talon heard fear there, and regret. Nyx was wishing she had insisted on him leaving sooner. It wasn’t her fault, he wanted to tell her. She did not countermand his orders in front of the others and that was right. This wasn’t her fault.
Actually, if there were only a few seconds left in his life, there were a lot of things he’d like to say, and a lot of them were to the woman running at his side. He opened his mouth to speak—
“Talon Rift.” A new voice echoed through the house. “This is Captain Dreth of the St. Krell. You are trespassing on private property in a private shipping lane, and you are accused of the abduction of Tera Soras. Use of deadly force is authorized.”
“Keep moving!” Talon hissed. Whatever bargain this man was going to offer, he wanted no part of it.
What he didn’t count on was Tera leaping one of the low couches to make her way to the nearby comm link.
“Dreth, you fool. It’s me. It’s Tera.” She shot a look at Talon and seemed to consider her options. When she turned back, her voice was low. “Just land the damned troops.”
18
“What?” Talon and Captain Dreth spoke in unison, and Tera waved a hand at Talon to shut up.
There was no way to outflank the guards now. Four ships would make quick work of the Ariane’s shuttle, and there were too many troops to fight through even if they all landed. Trying to fight now would only get all of them killed—and Tera did not particularly want to die. That meant talking her way out of this. It was, she told herself, entirely logical.
More logical than taking down seventeen Dragons and letting their cause die with them? a snide voice asked in her head, and she clamped her lips together.
I have to be sure, she told herself. She took a deep breath.
“Ms. Soras, we heard you had been captured.” Dreth’s voice was cautious.
“Well, I haven’t been.”
“Miss, we can see the Dragons on the security cameras.”
“I’m so proud of you,” Tera said, her voice as sweetly sarcastic as she could make it. “I’ll have my father give you a promotion.” She let the insult hang in the air with the veiled threat. “I’ve enlisted another Dragon crew to help track down Rift.” As the Dragons across the room tentatively relaxed, she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow up at one of the security cameras she knew was feeding directly to the guard ships.
“I … you have?”
“Yes.” A thought came to her. “And then I show up here to find out that you’ve apparently turned off the link to the Alliance databases that might have told us where he’d last been spotted. So you can come down here and explain that to me, Dreth. Explain why, while I’m wasting time because of your incompetence, you’ve decided to come shoot at me.”
“I—”
“And you can be very sure that I’ll be telling my father about it.”
“Miss…” He was terrified. Good. “Miss, I need to … verify that it’s you.”
Goddammit. She’d hoped her order to come see her would have scared him off. “Of course.” Tera made her voice as bored as she could. “You’ll bring the information so I’m not delayed any further, won’t you?”
“Yes.” He was stammering. “Of course.”
“Good. And come down here yourself.” She cut the connection and made her way across the room. “Visors down, I need them not to be able to identify any of you.” She leaned against the wall, waiting, and tried not to consider Talon’s eyes watching her—or the dreams she’d had last night after their bout of sparring.
But it seemed to be all she could think of. She felt the press of the floor under her back and the weight of Talon’s hips against hers and she knew her eyelids were drifting down, that her breath was coming deep and her lips were parted…
When the front door finally clicked open, it was a relief.
“Dreth.” She kept her voice bored.
“It is you.” He looked between her face and a photo he clutched in one trembling hand.
“There’s another one on the bedside table if you’d like to see it.” Tera crossed her arms. “Did you bring the intel?”
“May I … see the Dragons?”
Tera waved a hand behind her, looking bored. “Look away. You have one minute.”
“What?”
The best defense really was a good offense. “Listen to me.” Tera dragged him close, her hands clenching on his lapels. “Talon Rift and his team are getting away from me with every second I spend here. They are getting away from me, and they are trying to kill my father. And if he dies because I don’t find them, you can bet that your death will be very painful.”
The man was practically sobbing for breath. “We didn’t—we didn’t know—”
“Well, now you do.”
“But, Miss, we’ve been told not to trust any of the Dragons. They might be loyal to Rif
t.” His voice was a desperate whisper, as if the soldiers nearby might not be able to hear him. Tera wanted to roll her eyes.
“I’m sure his crew is. Which makes him dangerous. These Dragons, however, are not.” Tera tilted her head to the side. “Now give me the information, and I will go.”
“There’s…there’s one more thing. That Mr. Soras said to do if we found you.”
“What’s that?”
She expected many things, but not for him to hold out a comm. “He said … to call him and put you through.”
Oh, no. No. But if she refused, he would know in an instant that something was wrong. Tera forced herself to reach out, wondering if she could disconnect the call without them realizing it. But the comm was routed through the ships above. They would hear if the connection was cut.
She was not ready for this. She could not let her father hear the doubt in her voice. If he heard even the shadow of the speeches she rehearsed in the darkness, asking him to reconsider his feelings on Talon…
“Hello?” Her voice was steady as she slipped in the earpiece.
“Tera.” His voice. She closed her eyes. “Come home.”
“When I finish the mission.” That sounded like her.
“No. Now. Come back. Let them take you back.” His voice dropped. “We’ll find Rift together. Whatever he’s said to you…. It’s lies, all of it.”
“That’s why I’m here.” She needed to get off this call before anyone could trace it. She knew Nyx—the woman would be working on it right now.
“Tera, he is a persuasive man. If you don’t come back now—”
“You believe that I would…” Tera felt a surge of fury in her chest. It was one thing for Talon to doubt her, a man who had begun this as her enemy. It was quite another for her own father to doubt her. “I will be home,” she gritted out, “when this is finished.”
“Tera—”
She cut the connection and handed the earpiece back.
“Ma’am?” Dreth looked uncertain.
“Thank you, Captain. You’ve followed my father’s orders admirably.”
“But ma’am, he asked you to return.”
“He doesn’t want me in danger,” Tera said. “And I don’t want him in danger, which leaves us at an impasse. And before you tell me that he’s your boss and not me, remember that I am a great deal closer to you than he is right now. You do not want me for an enemy, and if you want to stop me from going, you are going to have to do things you won’t be able to explain to him. Are we clear?”
He fell back, as she was certain he would, and she waved the Dragons after her, jaw set. As they climbed into the shuttle, the soldiers were still staring at her. And when Tera sank back, her eyes fixed on the ceiling, she heard the mutters rise.
“Something there,” Tersi said quietly, “did not add up.”
She looked up, and saw his resolve. He knew that Talon did not want to hear that, and he was saying it anyway.
It was the sort of loyalty she didn’t need right about now. She looked down at her hands, considering. The rest of them, unfortunately, seemed to agree. Their silence carried an expectant, dangerous quality. What lie to tell? Or what portion of the truth?
“He didn’t want me to come,” she said at last.
“What?” Talon was staring at her when she looked up.
“I told you he sent me and Apollo. That was a lie. He never wanted me to come.”
“You lied to me?” His green eyes were fixed on her.
“What difference did it make? I was coming to kill you and I was one of his assassins. Whether he sent me or not was irrelevant.”
“Not true.” His voice was quiet. “Tera … you know why he didn’t send you, don’t you?”
She could still feel the fury pulsing in her blood at the thought that her father believed she would turn on him. You might, a voice whispered to her, reminding her of admiration and honor and everything she should not feel for Talon.
I won’t.
“Tera?”
“What?” She could hardly hear him.
“I said, you know why he didn’t send you, don’t you?”
“Why?” she asked him impatiently, only half paying attention.
“Because he knew you’d learn the truth.” Talon’s eyes were fixed on her. “That’s why he’s so desperate to get you back. He tried even before we left Akintola the first time. He knew that once you learned the truth, you’d turn on him.”
Oh, God, it was true.
No. It could not be. No. She clung to the truth. What was it he had said? That Talon was a persuasive man?
He thought so little of her that he thought she would turn on him if she heard the lies. But how could he believe that of her? And if it was true, why had her not told he what was going on when she was aboard the Blad? He’d had weeks to ask her to ferret out the truth, he’d had time enough by far to tell her where the lies were coming from. He either thought that she was so fickle as to turn on him before he could get the words out of his mouth to explain, or he—
No. She would not even think it. Talon was a persuasive man, that was all this was. Talon was a persuasive man. Yes. Talon was a very persuasive man. But she, Tera, was wise enough to review the evidence for herself. She bit her lip to hide a smile.
And then the realization hit her like ice water down the spine.
She had never seen the evidence. She turned to Talon and opened her mouth, and saw his brow furrow at her expression.
“Sir?” Nyx’s voice echoed in the cabin of the little shuttle.
“What is it?”
“Well, they stayed grounded for a bit after you took off, but their ships are powering up.”
“They don’t need to stay now that Tera’s gone.”
“They’re powering up weapons.” As the shuttle clanged into the docking back of the Ariane, they heard Nyx swear. “They’re powering up a lot of weapons. I need you up here.”
“I’ll be there in a second.” Talon moved to throw open the shuttle door.
“Let me help,” Tera said instantly.
He paused, the other soldiers streaming out of the shuttle around him, and she saw his eyes take in everything about her: the rapid heartbeat, the questions she still carried that she refused even to ask.
“No,” he said, finally, gently.
“Let me help. Now of all times, let me help.” She needed to talk to her father again, she could get him on the comm and force them to speak together. Her father wouldn’t have the ship shot down if she could only get him to talk to Talon.
Talon wavered. And then he shook his head again and reached behind him for the handcuffs he always carried. They clicked around her wrists, his fingers holding them so they wouldn’t be too tight. The touch burned. Then he was gone, the tiniest hitch in his breath, and Sphinx took Tera’s arm to lead her back to the brig.
19
Talon came up the stairs to the bridge with most of the crew at his heels.
“What’s going on?” He did not want to be bothered with this right now. He wanted to be in the brig with Tera, asking her just what had happened down on the surface. Why suddenly she looked as pale as if she’d been slapped. He white-knuckled the back of the pilot’s chair and stared out at the expanse.
“About what you’d expect.” Nyx threw him a glance. She was guiding the Ariane into a series of tricky curves around the set of seven tiny moons—the most direct route out, Talon noticed, and one that might well give them a gravity assist coming into a few of the bends. But not an easy path.
She moved out of the chair, now, for Jester to take her place. She was a competent pilot, they all were—but he was the best, and she wasn’t too proud to admit it.
“Have they sent any messages?”
“Yes. They want her back.”
“She talked to them about that.”
“Well, either she didn’t convince them…” Nyx’s face betrayed no emotion as she banked the Ariane smoothly over a tiny moon. “Or she led
us into a trap.”
Talon felt a surge of doubt and quelled it.
“She’s on the ship with us, they’re hardly going to shoot us down if they’re so eager to get her back.”
“You know she was lying about something,” Tersi insisted. He had come into the cockpit with them. A muscle jumped in his cheek when Talon looked over at him, but the man did not back down. “I know you don’t want to hear it, boss, but it’s true. Her story doesn’t add up.”
“Why not?” Talon asked him. He forced down his anger. He could not stop listening to his crew, not when his dreams were filled with this woman.
You don’t trust easily. What does it mean that you trust her, now, like this?
Maybe it means I’m being conned.
“If she wanted to go back and kill him for what he’d done … she could have done that.” Tersi looked at him steadily. “Why bother with us at all?”
“She didn’t know until they hit Akintola. And then she stayed to warn us. And we threw her in the brig after that.”
“She’s an assassin. She said she’s killed government officials on Akintola—she’s probably the one who killed Hoa.” He referenced the last head of Alliance Intelligence grimly. Hoa’s death had paved the way for Soras’s promotion. “That means she’s either lying, or she’s good enough to get out of that cell.” Tersi held his gaze. “And she’s stayed there. What does that tell you?”
“That she has no intention of hurting us.”
“Maybe. Or maybe she’s trying to gain our trust.”
“She’s had enough chances to take us all out,” Talon snapped. “What more would she be waiting for?”
Tersi held up his hands in surrender. “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I just know she’s still lying about something. That’s all.”
“I hate to interrupt,” Jester said, cutting Talon’s response off, “but we’ve got a problem.”
Talon leaned to look at the screen. “They’re still behind us by a ways.”
“And look what’s ahead of us.”
Nyx widened the view, and all of them drew in their breath at once. There, spread across the shipping lanes, were eighteen dots, each reading as an Alliance destroyer. Remotely piloted and fast as hell, destroyers were the most feared ship in the Alliance Navy.