“It’s not an option I care for,” Bronse said firmly. “Scrambling is more temporary and less harmful. Right, Vivi?”
“Right.”
“You know there’s a good chance that the IM will throw your ass in jail if you take the Chosen Ones off the station,” Masin reminded his friend as he saw the inevitable washing up on the group.
Bronse thought about it for a long serious moment.
“Only if we fail,” he said.
“Bronse, they’re trusting us to take care of these people. If you break that trust, you risk everything for all of us. Aren’t you at least going to ask us what we want to do?”
“Fine. You all can stay behind and I’ll go alone with Ravenna. Clearly she can kick ass all over the place just fine by herself.”
“Enough! Get your head out of your ass, Chapel!” Lasher barked at his commander. “Can’t you see that she’s not right?” He gestured to Ravenna and her dispassionate demeanor. “Don’t let this get out of control when you can still do it the right way!”
“It’s the telekinesis,” Kith spoke up at last. “It takes a huge part of her to use it, and it leaves behind a residual chemical in her brain. Almost like a drug. It cuts away at her ability to feel emotions and make moral choices.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m not standing right here!” Ravenna lashed out at her brother.
“Is it true?” Bronse demanded of her. “Is that what’s happening to you?”
“I want JuJuren! I want this threat to your life over with! Isn’t that moral enough for you?” she demanded.
Bronse walked up to her, never even hesitating in spite of what he had seen her do. He didn’t know much about her powers, but he did know Ravenna. He knew that this flat affect laced liberally with bursts of rage was nothing like her.
He reached to touch her, ignoring her when she tried to shake him off. Slowly he pulled her into his embrace, hugging her resistant body close as he looked around the room at the others and tried to think more calmly.
“Let’s just think a minute,” he told himself as well as the others.
“There’s always Chaser,” Lasher suggested.
Chaser. He was with the justice department and he was someone Bronse could trust. He could call him and have him sit on the assassin without letting Spec Ops know there had been an intruder. But then what? JuJuren would just send someone else, and right now he had information that could let him catch Bronse once and for all.
“Chaser can connect with tactical and Spec Ops,” Bronse said suddenly. “They can create a mission together. We can get them to assign us a real mission.” He found himself talking to Ravenna, looking down into her immobile face. “We can get them to officially send us and the Chosen Ones out after JuJuren.”
“No. They won’t let us go when we’re so new,” she said. “I won’t let you take this chance away from me. I want him gone.”
“It’s the perfect test run,” Bronse argued. “We don’t even need any special powers or abilities to get him at this point. This team could take down JuJuren doing what it has always done long before you all came into the picture. If we get Chaser to create this mission and design it specifically for us, then we won’t be burning any bridges here and we’ll still get what we want.”
“No. They’ll just take you away. They’ll separate us.” Finally emotion crept into her voice, her despair creasing across her face as she reached out to touch his bare chest with shaking fingertips. The tremors were like something he would expect to see on someone withdrawing from a drug. Now he could see why she hadn’t wanted to use her powers to save herself. With such a strong chemical flooding her brain, interfering with her judgment of right and wrong, she could spiral into committing any number of acts that went against everything she believed in.
“We won’t let that happen. Even if it takes using Devan to charm them into thinking our way, that’s what we’ll do,” Bronse said softly. “But let’s get Chaser to try first. He’s much more convincing and much better placed than you might think. But we have to do this quickly. The minute JuJuren realizes he failed, he’s going to bolt. We have to call Chaser now.”
“And they’d put together an operation that fast?” she asked doubtfully. “They won’t let JuJuren get away?”
“Have faith,” Bronse told her, leaning in to kiss her cheek. “There’s a reason why I’ve thought that the IM was the best of the best. Let me prove it to you.”
“And if you can’t? If it doesn’t work?” she said doubtfully.
“It will work,” Lasher spoke up. “Instead of letting this incident tear us all apart, we’ll make it work in our favor and prove how cohesive we can really be. Granted, I’d rather you all went through all of your training before taking you out on a mission, but we’ve already proven we can work together. We’ll go in and do our thing, and you guys can come along as a sort of safety net. We’ll have you there to track and catch JuJuren if he somehow manages to get away from the initial action.”
“The only thing is, the kids will have to stay home,” said Bronse.
“I know that,” Ravenna said quietly, searching his face, then Lasher’s. “Okay,” she said at last. “I’ll trust you.”
“It’s irresponsible to send them out on a mission when they haven’t even been trained,” Greays was saying, his aged face creased with disapproval. “What are you thinking, Abingdon?”
“I’m thinking we have one of our own out there turned against us. This new source that dropped in my lap last night is as fresh as they get. Last night he infiltrated this station with orders to kill one of us.” Chase very smoothly omitted saying who the target had been. “If JuJuren can still get that close inside of this outfit, then he’s even more of a danger than we first thought. He has a lot of top-secret information in his head, and he’s going to start using it if we give him half a chance. With my new intel I know exactly where he is. All I need is the best of the best to extract and bring him back here, where he won’t do any more harm. That means involving Bronse and his crew.”
“There are other ETF teams,” Greays argued. “I need Bronse’s crew here protecting our assets.”
“Chapel’s crew is the best, as I said. But if we let them take Kith, Ravenna, and Vivienne with them, it will be the first practical application of the Chosen Ones in the field. It will go a long way to proving just how powerful an asset they’ll be.”
“And if we put them out there too soon, they could fail and prove just the opposite,” the other admiral balked.
“Are you saying you’re afraid the Chosen Ones won’t succeed in the field?” Chaser asked archly, leading the other man into a well-laid trap.
“Ridiculous! You’ve seen the testing. These people will be unstoppable one day.”
“There’s no such thing,” Abingdon argued. “They all have enough weaknesses in one way or another to make defeat possible. Hell, Fallon gets a migraine just about every time he uses his ability. Ophelia grows frail and weak if she overextends herself. Ravenna is strong, but her visions can be just vague enough at times to cause confusion and trouble.”
“If you think they’re so inferior, then why are you trying to send them out on a mission?”
“Because they’ll be going with ETF. They’ll be out there with Chapel. And they’ll be there just as backup. It’s not like I want them front and center doing infiltration and capture. I just need Kith and Fallon to monitor the thoughts and emotions of the target, and I need Vivienne to short out any security that JuJuren might have rigged up around himself. Ravenna obviously is self-explanatory.”
“Fallon is only seventeen years old. Kith’s not much older. Are you sure you want kids out there?”
Chaser smiled. It was the break in total resistance that he had been waiting for from Greays. Once the other man got that contemplative tone in his voice, Chaser knew he’d gone from full against the idea to starting to work the logistics. Bronse, Chaser thought with a small smile, was going to owe him big-tim
e for this. Not that he was putting his neck on the line or anything. Liaising and helping to create missions like this one was part of his job, part of how he brought criminals in the IM and elsewhere to justice. And to be frank, he wanted to get his hands on the corrupting influence of JuJuren just as much as Bronse did. The former admiral was like a poison in what was, at heart, a good outfit. They had to stop him before it went any further. They had to stop him before Chapel’s luck ran out and one of the bastard’s assassination attempts finally hit the mark.
Chaser for one was really damn curious about why JuJuren had a hard-on for his friend, and he knew that Bronse wanted to know the same thing. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to send in someone who had such a personal stake in seeing the admiral brought in, but, on the other hand, no one would work harder toward the goal than Bronse. If he didn’t come home with JuJuren or JuJuren’s body, he’d send in his resignation.
“Time’s a wasting, Admiral,” Chaser coaxed Greays. “I need a decision.”
“You can have Ravenna, Fallon, and Vivienne,” Greays relented at last. “Kith isn’t to be trusted yet. He’s too volatile and temperamental. I’ll reconsider after he has some discipline under his belt.”
Like any good negotiator, Abingdon knew when to back off.
“Deal.”
“This is bullshit!” Kith exploded, his face mottling with his outrage. “What the hell am I doing in this place if they won’t let me do things like this?”
“You’re going to train and earn some trust, so the next time they will let you do it,” Bronse shot back, not letting Ravenna have the chance to soft-touch the spoiled young man. “You’ve done nothing but fight and gripe and act like a sullen son of a bitch in the three weeks you’ve been here. The only thing you’ve proven to the brass is just how immature you are and how much you can’t be trusted to listen and follow instructions. They’re taking a huge risk sending us after JuJuren; they aren’t going to compound that risk by sending you with us.”
Kith’s hands fisted, the muscles in his jaws jumping as he fought the urge to tell off Bronse, or yell and scream or whatever it was he was feeling. But he did none of it. For the first time since the commander had known the kid, he managed to control himself and back down. Bronse actually saw a glimmer of hope for the young man with whom he faced off.
He could feel Ravenna’s absolute shock as she watched her brother wordlessly back away from the argument, watched him accept the consequences of his actions. Kith’s feelings about Bronse had always been clear, but now he was listening to the other man and feeling the impact of his words. Ravenna tasted a dose of the same hope that Bronse was experiencing.
“I just wanted to help,” Kith said. But all the punch had left his words, if not the whole of his body language.
“And you will. I think that, one day, with a lot of hard work and training, you’ll be a hell of a soldier, Kith. You’re proficient in martial arts already, and your ability to read intention from emotion is truly invaluable. If you keep working in the right direction, you’ll be the best damn thing the Interplanetary Militia has seen in a long time. Better even than me.”
Kith was utterly shocked by the admission, and the expression on his face was just shy of comical. Despite all of the younger man’s bluster and unfocused temper, he’d come to appreciate just how skilled and impressive Bronse Chapel really was. To be told that he could be even better than that made a significant impact.
It was all Ravenna could do to keep from kissing Bronse right there in the open where everyone could see. But it certainly would be counterproductive to their goal if she were to expose her and Bronse’s relationship right then, so she controlled herself with a silent, steady exhale of breath.
“I’ll need you to keep a close eye on the others,” Ravenna told her brother. “They’ll be vulnerable without the team to watch over them. And I’m not talking about guarding their lives, either.” She stepped up to him and made certain that he was meeting her eyes. “You need to keep Ophelia from using her abilities in the open, and you need to make certain that Devan isn’t scared without us. Also, you can’t let Spec Ops overwork them. There’s no telling how long this will take, and someone needs to keep watch.”
“But Domino is older,” Kith said with confusion, the suspicion in his voice telling her that he thought she was humoring him.
“Domino is focused on Domino. He’s more fixated on looking out for himself than he would be looking out for others. Ophelia is your sister, and I know you care about Devan, so I trust you to do right by them.”
Ravenna made a mental apology to Domino for selling him short, but giving Kith this kind of responsibility in reward for controlling himself was essential to conditioning out the selfish streak that had been so prevalent in his makeup of late.
“All right,” Kith said carefully. Then he squared his shoulders and nodded. “All right. I’ll look out for them. You can count on me.”
“Are you sure?” Ravenna pressed, knowing she had to add just a touch of doubt if she wanted him to believe her.
“Yes, of course. I’ll show you that you can trust me.”
Ravenna smiled at him and reached out to squeeze his hand. “I know I can.” Then she turned her attention back to Bronse. “So how will we do this?”
First, we’ll approach through the back of the building. Minimal exposure. Trick will hack in from the kitchens and get the room number from the guest book.
“Guys, we have a problem,” Trick said softly as he sat crouched in a dark corner of the kitchen prep area, his handheld VidPad plugged into the interface port around the corner.
“You couldn’t hack in?” The surprise in Lasher’s voice was more than evident.
“No, that’s not it.” Trick double-checked his data. “JuJuren has bought out every room on his floor with his cover name’s accounts. What does one man need with a whole floor of rooms?”
“Privacy?” Ender suggested.
“More like troops,” Bronse realized.
Lasher, Ravenna, and I will enter the hotel straight on, as if we were guests.
“This sucks,” Lasher murmured through his microphone as he sat himself down across from the elevators and crossed his legs, as if he wasn’t keeping his eyes trained on the lifts and the lobby entrances all at the same time. His coat hid the laser pistol on his hip as well as the collapsible rifle slung against his spine.
He glanced over at Ravenna and Bronse just as she wound her arms around his neck and whispered to him as if they were sharing a lover’s secret.
“How are we going to approach if he has a whole floor cordoned off?” she asked softly.
“Ender?”
“Yeah, Boss?”
“Position?”
Ender and Justice will be in full gear, landing a light craft on the roof as soon as the pad is clear. We’ll come up from the ground and they’ll drop down from above.
“Approaching the southwest corner of the roof. No sign of any guards or lookouts. Either he’s really cocky or we’re missing something.” Ender reached the southern rail of the roof and looked down the long distance to the ground. The wind was high at that height, buffeting both soldiers strongly. “We’re going to get knocked around up here,” he warned Bronse. Rappelling down the side of the building would be tricky at best. With a high wind, it would be a fight.
“Copy that,” Bronse said. He looked at Ravenna. “I want to have Fallon come in and ride the elevator past the twenty-third floor. I don’t want him to stop on that floor, though, because they are bound to have lookouts and will see him as a threat. I just want him to ride past the floor and get as much of a read as he can from whoever is just outside the elevator door.”
“How are you going to search a whole floor?” Rave asked.
If JuJuren is half the soldier he used to be, he has a corner room. They tend to have exits into two separate corridors, and the emergency stairs are located the shortest distance away.
“We need to search only fo
ur rooms,” Trick said.
“That’s three too many,” Bronse retorted. “We have to figure out which one he’s in. That’s why I need Fallon.”
“I won’t send him alone,” Rave warned him.
“I’ll ride the elevator with him,” Lasher spoke up.
“No. It should be me,” Ravenna argued. “JuJuren knows your faces. He doesn’t know mine. If something happens and we run into someone accidentally, we’re not the ones they’ll be looking for. And you know I can protect Fallon if need be.”
Bronse knew it was the truth, but he didn’t like the idea of the price she had to pay for using her telekinesis. This was too volatile a situation for her to start losing judgment. But he knew she was right. If JuJuren was wise, he’d have shown Bronse’s face to every single man working for him. With so many people milling in and out of the hotel, the longer the crew stayed there, even in the lobby, the higher the risk of them getting made. Bronse had to be satisfied, for the moment, that with teams above and below the former admiral, he would run into trouble either way if he tried to escape.
Fallon and Vivienne will wait in the van in the street. We won’t use them unless absolutely necessary.
“Fallon, are you copying all of this?” Bronse asked.
“He’s already on his way in,” Vivi’s voice came in over their earpieces.
Fallon walked through the front doors of the hotel, spying Ravenna and Bronse instantly and walking right over to them. They greeted each other at normal volume, Ravenna reaching to kiss his cheek as she might do for any friend who suddenly appeared before her. Then she and Fallon left Bronse behind and walked directly to the elevators. There was no time for any instructions other than the ones that were spoken into their ears as they crossed the expansive floor.
“Go in the lift and press the button for the twenty-fourth and the twenty-second floors. That will slow you down enough so Fallon should be able to grab something. If the elevator stops on the twenty-third floor for any reason, you just remember to act like any other passenger and then get off on the twenty-fourth floor. Otherwise, just ride the lift back down to the lobby.”
Seduce Me in Dreams Page 28