Dark Matters (Class 5 Series Book 4)

by Michelle Diener

  They had come to immediate attention.

  “Do you think that's likely?” He asked after a long silence.

  “I don't know what to think.” Subre's tone was short.

  “Are there any visual comms to confirm?”

  “I've been hunting for confirmation since this thing started building up. No luck so far. Some of the people claim there was an electronic pulse that interfered with their handhelds just after the woman was seen.”

  “And do you know why this possible sighting of an Earth woman is having the effect of a near riot?” Dray looked down and decided he wasn't exaggerating.

  “Some say she's a plant. Conveniently arriving the same day you got here, to make us look even worse. Some say she escaped, looking for help from your team. One woman gave a statement that the Earth woman said she was being kept at the military facility that was destroyed yesterday.” Subre faltered a bit when he said that, and with sudden understanding, Dray realized Subre considered that at least plausible.

  “And the people in the square who talked to her today just let her walk off?” He couldn't see that happening.

  “No. According to some witnesses, two hovers came out of nowhere, shots were fired, and she ran away. That's when the pulse wave occurred, as well.”

  “And it wasn't your people on the hovers?” Dray kept the question light.

  “No. More than one person insisted they were military, but there were no insignia, so that isn't necessarily true.”

  “Why is this the first I'm hearing about this, Captain?” Dray had been in military headquarters for three hours. They'd been given an office at the rear of the building, looking down on the square rather than out across the sea, which he knew from his study of Tecran culture was an insult.

  The best offices would be at the top, looking out over the ocean.

  A mid-level office at the back was a gesture of disrespect, but it had the benefit of a good view of the growing unrest in the street below.

  “I didn't have any proof of the claims, and I would prefer to be sure before bringing something this explosive to our new administrators.” Subre's words were stiff.

  He obviously didn't like the deal that had been struck between the Tecran and the rest of the UC, and Dray knew in his place, he wouldn't, either. But tough.

  That's how it was.

  “Has the woman been seen again?”

  Subre hesitated. “No.”

  Cossi lifted her gaze from the handheld to catch his own, and he nodded. Subre was lying.

  “You're sure about that?” Dray asked softly.

  “Yes. And while I'm happy to talk to you at another time, in case you are unaware, I've got a crowd control problem on my hands, so I'll have to end this now.”

  “Wait.” Dray threw all his authority into his voice. “Who shot at that hover a few minutes ago?”

  “Good bye, Commander.”

  The comms cut off.

  “Could there really be an Earth woman here?” Chep asked, skepticism in every word. “Just running around Fa'allen?”

  Dray's instinct was no. He forced himself to lift his shoulders. “Unlikely. But obviously some people believe it.” He looked back down at the square.

  “I'm just glad it wasn't sparked by our arrival,” Cossi said.

  Dray shook his head. “Or it was, and someone made up an elaborate story to agitate those who weren't already onboard.”

  Chep made a sound. “That's a good possibility.” He looked down at the protests. “They seem to be onboard now.”

  “I need you down on the street.”

  The words in Dray's ear were so surprising, he froze.

  Bane.

  The thinking system sounded the least in control Dray had ever heard him.

  “Why?” Out of the corner of his eye, Dray saw Cossi and Chep go still as well, and turn to stare at him.

  “There's an Earth woman down there. She needs your help.”

  “Do you know this, or have you heard the rumor like everyone else?” Dray asked, but he had a sinking feeling Bane did not deal in rumor.

  “Her name is Lucy Harris, and she is currently running for her life from Tecran military officers through the tunnels under the city.”

  “Tell me where.” Dray grabbed his jacket and checked his weapon.

  Chep and Cossi watched him warily.

  “Bane knows where the Earth woman is,” he told them. Then he ran out the door.

  Chapter 16

  There was no easy way to get through.

  Dray stepped out of the back door of military headquarters right onto the square and was immediately shoved by someone in the crowd.

  He looked back at Cossi and Chep and wondered if it would be better if Cossi stayed in the building.

  Like all Bukarians she was much shorter than him and Chep.

  “I can see what you're thinking. The answer is no.” She moved to stand beside him, and stumbled as someone pushed her into his side.

  The Tecran who'd pushed her fell inexplicably to his knees, gave her a startled look, and then scrambled up and disappeared into the crowd.

  “We should have gone out the front entrance and come into the square down one of the side streets,” Chep said, looking over the chaos.

  Despite the crush, there was something so alien about him, he wasn't so much as touched by the Tecran.

  “There's a Tecran military team waiting for you outside the front entrance,” Bane said in Dray's ear. “The Fitalian is correct, it would be faster, but you'd lead them straight to Lucy.”

  “Can you transmit to Cossi and Chep's earpieces as well?” Dray asked.

  “All right.”

  From their startled looks, Dray guessed he'd included both his colleagues in his answer.

  “Now, go right, keep to the edge of the square, and then continue past the first building and take the first street to the left after that.” He paused. “Hurry. She's not . . . well.”

  “What do you mean, not well?” Cossi asked as they started pushing their way through the swaying, shouting masses.

  “I mean the few times I've had eyes on her, she keeps stopping and leaning against the wall, and she doesn't look healthy.”

  “She's injured?” Chep asked.

  “She had to fight a military officer a little while ago to get away, and she's favoring her left hip, so I think so.”

  “Can you talk to her?” Dray asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Ask her what's wrong. It will help us to know her limitations when we find her.”

  Bane was silent, probably speaking to Lucy Harris, and that was fine with Dray. He needed all his concentration to get through the crowd without being knocked off his feet.

  More than one Tecran did fall, but he was relieved to see people stop to help them up. It wasn't a stampede.

  Yet.

  “You!” The shout came from his left. “You're one of them!”

  Dray's hand closed over his shockgun as he turned to face the Tecran pointing at him.

  There was a sudden hush as the crowd around him went quiet.

  “I'm part of the UC team, if that's what you mean.” He kept his voice at a moderate level, forcing those who wanted to hear him to keep their silence.

  “We don't want you here,” the Tecran hissed at him, eyes narrowed.

  Dray shrugged. “I'm sure you don't. The alternative is war. If you don't like the decision your politicians have made, vote in a different government.” He let the impatience he was feeling shine through.

  “Why are you here, really?” Someone near the Tecran who'd challenged him called out.

  “I was assigned to come here. And you know why we're here. You know.” He looked each person in the circle around him in the eye.

  “Dray. Let's go.” Chep tapped his shoulder. He must have turned back, and worked his way through the crowd.

  The sight of the Fitalian, with his slender neck and massive eyes, so very different from the Tecran--from every other gr
oup in the UC, Dray had to admit--broke whatever mood had settled over them all, and most turned away, muttering.

  Dray sent him a quick look of thanks, and Chep's thin mouth quirked.

  “Cossi wanted to do it, but I told her she was too short to have the same impact.”

  It was hard to read the Fitali's facial expressions, but Dray had the feeling Chep knew it wasn't his height that had diffused the situation, and was amused by it.

  He grinned. “I'm surprised you're not limping like the Tecran who shoved her earlier.”

  “I only maim people I don't like,” Cossi said, suddenly on his other side. She smiled, and Dray's gaze caught on those sharp teeth again.

  Just as amused as Chep, her smile widened. “I managed to get a comm connection to Ambassador Dimitara. She's . . .” Cossi shook her head, suddenly serious. “She's incandescent that this might be true. That they've been keeping another Earth woman here all this time in secret.”

  “I assume she's happy for us to follow Bane's lead?” Chep asked as they pushed through the crowd. It seemed as dense on the outskirts of the square as in the center.

  Cossi nodded. “She's friends with Rose McKenzie. She was on the Grihan explorer the Barrist as a UC liaison when the Grih found Rose. She saw where the Tecran had kept Rose prisoner.” Cossi shrugged. “She has strong feelings about it.”

  “There are two military teams trying to intercept you.” Bane's voice was deadly calm. “One moving along the north side of the square, the other coming from the east. You'll walk straight into them if you keep going the way I directed you.”

  Dray glanced at Chep and Cossi, saw Bane had included them in the warning. They had both gripped the stocks of their shockguns, strapped, like his own, to their thigh.

  “How many in each team?”

  “Four in each. They're dressed as civilians, though. I only know who they are because I'm monitoring the chatter in the square,” Bane answered.

  “So there could be more moving in without talking?” Cossi asked.

  There was a moment of silence. “Yes,” Bane said. “I didn't think of that.”

  “We won't be able to spot the ones you've identified in this crowd, let alone those who you haven't.” Dray tapped his shockgun, and it whined as it charged to readiness.

  There were two massive screens on each side of the square, and they showed an aerial view of the crowds. Suddenly, the feed changed, and each one showed a different part of the square, with a circle around four Tecran on each screen.

  “You doing that?” Chep asked.

  “Yes.” Bane zoomed in a little more. “Now you can see them.”

  It took the Tecran standing near the covert military teams a few moments to work out they had been singled out and were on the screens, and they began to point up at the images. Then they turned to look at the people beside them who were circled.

  “Move. While they're distracted.” Dray sped up, weaving through the crowd, and when he glanced at the screen again, he caught a glimpse of himself moving toward the four officers Bane had warned him about. They were blocked from view by the milling crowds, which suited him just fine.

  “You go ahead. Draw them off.” He gripped Chep's shoulder. “Following you is all they can do, especially if you stay in the square. Lead them around the perimeter for half an hour or so, and then go back inside headquarters.”

  “And what'll you do?” Cossi had turned back, so they stood in a huddle, not unlike many others around them.

  “I'm going to steal a hooded cloak and find Lucy Harris.”

  Chep nodded. Then shared a look with Cossi.

  They both moved off, striding confidently through the crowd, which parted in their wake and then swallowed them up.

  Dray bent, as if to fiddle with his boot. “See any spare cloaks lying around?”

  “Give me a few minutes.” Bane's tone didn't convey approval for his decision to split from the other two, but Dray decided he'd have made his displeasure known if he hadn't agreed.

  Unable to keep crouching down without drawing attention, he rose up, and went still when someone tapped his shoulder.

  “You the one who wants a cloak?” The Tecran who asked was young, perhaps just into adulthood. He was holding a cloak out to Dray.

  “Yes.” Dray took it, confused.

  “Good deal.” The Tecran looked down at his handheld, grunted in appreciation, and then with a final glance at Dray, turned and disappeared into the crowd.

  “What was that?” Dray pulled the cloak on, lifted the hood, and immediately relaxed a little as he suddenly became just one more body in the square.

  “I sent him an offer through his handheld for more money than the cloak was worth.”

  Dray could hear the dismissive shrug in Bane's voice.

  He began to edge out of the crowd, making for the right-hand side of the square. There was chanting near the center, although another group was obviously trying to drown the chanting out with shouts of their own. Most, however, said nothing. Instead, they watched the massive screens, where the debate about the UC's arrival played out with various opinion leaders, and kept an uneasy eye on the more vocal and committed protesters, of all persuasions.

  They were invested, but weren't sure of the correct course, Dray realized. They knew they were in the wrong with the UC, but they didn't like having their sovereignty taken from them, even for a set period of time.

  It was a hard place to be caught in.

  So they stood watch, waiting to be persuaded over to one side or the other.

  Most of them balanced on the middle line. He could see it in the way they put some distance between themselves and those who had picked a side and waged a war of opposing views in the center of the square. They huddled together in smallish groups, jostled at times by the sheer number of citizens in the square, but their presence kept things just the right side of nonviolent.

  Dray reached the pavement and then eased into a narrow alleyway that had almost no one in it.

  “Keep going until the next intersection, then turn left.” Bane's voice in his ear was louder now he had a little distance from the shouting and noise.

  He turned when he reached the corner, and almost stopped dead when he noticed two Tecran standing close together outside the door of one of the soaring Fa'allen buildings.

  He checked his reaction, forcing himself to continue walking, head down, hands in the deep pockets of the cloak.

  There was no response from Bane, and Dray realized he couldn't see the Tecran. In this environment he wasn't all knowing, as he'd been when he'd flown side by side with the Urna.

  He hoped the Tecran didn't ask him anything, as he couldn't risk speaking, particularly as he knew his Tecran was accented. Everyone who'd been assigned to the UC team had to learn fluent Tecran in order to be able to fulfill their duties, but they sounded like the foreigners they were.

  The two Tecran were level with him now, a man and a woman, and the way they watched him walk past had alarms ringing in his head.

  Unless they were agitators planning on mayhem in the square, these two were part of the military teams running around town looking for Lucy Harris.

  Once they were behind him, the back of his neck itched at his vulnerability and when he heard the faint sound of footsteps, he reached beneath his cloak and drew his shockgun out of its holster.

  He glanced over his shoulder, saw with a frisson of shock only one of the two were following behind him, the other had disappeared.

  He didn't like not knowing where they were.

  “You should be coming up to another alley to the right soon. Take it,” Bane said.

  His voice gave Dray a shock in the tense silence. He was moving fast, and the alleyway came up almost immediately.

  He turned down it, his stride confident, and then pressed himself against the wall when he reached the deepest shadows, waiting, shockgun ready.

  The Tecran stepped in after him, and after a few steps, came to a stop.


  He was listening, Dray realized. Listening for Dray's footsteps.

  And couldn't hear them.

  Dray heard the whine of a shockgun charging, and found the calm he always reached for before a confrontation.

  He should shoot first, ask questions later, but he wasn't running a Grihan incursion. He was as much a diplomat as a fighter here, and he knew the repercussions of shooting a Tecran would be significant. Especially if this Tecran wasn't a member of one of the covert military teams.

  “What do you want?” he asked into the dark, and then crouched down silently and took a careful step to the side.

  There was a startled silence, and then the flash of shockgun fire above his head.

  He returned fire from his crouch, saw in the snap of light that the Tecran was flung backward, landing hard.

  He was up and running immediately, but he heard the shout from beyond the alley entrance, and the thunder of boots.

  “Ran into a little trouble,” he managed to whisper to Bane as he reached the end of the street. It intersected with another lane, running right to left.

  “What kind of trouble?” Bane asked.

  “Got shot at. Some Tecran are following me.”

  There was a flash as someone behind him tried to shoot him again.

  “I don't know where you are. I need you safe to help Lucy.”

  Dray turned left, keeping close to the wall and slowing down to make as little noise as possible. His lips quirked. Good to know where he stood with Bane.

  He was only useful insofar as he could help Lucy Harris.

  He didn't comment on it, though. Someone had turned down the lane after him and silence was essential.

  “What's happening?” Bane asked in his ear.

  He didn't reply, he needed Bane to be quiet so he could judge where the Tecran stalking him was.

  A light suddenly flared, just for a moment, as the Tecran scanned the alley, and Dray flung himself into a roll and came up on the other side of the lane. He crouched low and shot in the direction the light had come from.

  His opponent sucked in a breath, but more in surprise than pain, and he heard a whisper--the Tecran talking to his team.