Mindlink (35 page)

“I ask the questions.”
UBA
grabbed
Sam by the upper arm. A futile show of authority when the power had already
shifted to Sam. “Unless you give us the location of Kir Dashamun, you will be
recycled. Begin talking, now.”

“As you wish.” Sam lowered his voice to speak only to
UBA
. “You failed in the interrogation of Ramlah and
killed him to hide it. You believe you’re superior to the Telhada due to your
engineered genes. The Telhada is weak. Inbred. Genetically substandard and ripe
for a coup. Ironic, isn’t it?” Since they were already linked, Sam didn’t
hesitate to meet
UBA’s
gaze dead-on. “Release me.
Then we will discuss what I demand in exchange for keeping silent about your
plans.”

UBA’s
thoughts confirmed Sam spoke
the truth, even as the High Priest scrambled mentally to cover. In the process,
he leaked more information through the link.

UBA’s
hatred toward Sam stemmed
from the discord he’d caused between the king and the High Priest during Sam’s
sentencing.
UBA
did not want the king to think for
himself and eliminated anything which might elicit it. At the perimeter,
UBA
had intended to secure the two scientists from
Earth so he could secretly solve the Telhada’s fuel crisis and use it as
leverage against the king.

The High Priest was deluded enough to believe Sam’s team had
missed harvesting vital scientific knowledge from Dr. Glasson and Sid.

“You saw nothing. You’ve manufactured a dishonorable scheme to
save your own life.” Then louder, the High Priest said, “Your Majesty, he is too
strong-willed. We must increase the stakes for him.”

Sam almost laughed. The High Priest had vastly underestimated
him and neither did he possess the interrogation skill level the king believed.
To compensate,
UBA
would offer additional
distasteful promises. Both the king and the High Priest failed to grasp Sam’s
drastic change in values. The Telhada had nothing he wanted.

The king snapped his fingers and it echoed in the still room.
ORU
exited and returned quickly. Two security
workers marched into the throne room.

Dragging Ashley.

* * *

Sam was alive. They had captured him too, but he was
alive.

Relief burned Ashley’s throat and she stopped thrashing against
the alien hands touching her. Sam was the only human in this room in her
opinion. Though the people in charge obviously descended from Egyptians. She’d
seen the king and queen in Sam’s images but in black and white. In person, there
was no question.

Sam looked away from her and zeroed in on the wizard guy who’d
almost caught them at the perimeter. The Director of the Dead or something like
that.

“What is this?” Sam asked. “You surely do not believe this
human means something to me. You waste your effort with such a ploy.”

“I see her in your thoughts.” The heavily robed man narrowed
his eyes and swept Sam from head to toe with a knowing glance. “Perhaps we shall
learn what she does mean to you. What would you do to prevent me from snapping
one of her finger bones, for example?”

Oh, no. Sam and the creepy wizard guy were linked. Ashley
straightened her spine to ward off the shudder, and yanked her arms free from
the two workers holding her. “Would you like to know what I’d do to prevent it?”
she snarled.

“Ah. You speak Hahlan. How unexpected.” Creepy Wizard Guy
rubbed his hands together and she had the distinct feeling she should have kept
her mouth shut as his gaze slid back and forth between her and Sam. “So. Now we
know all your unpleasant secrets. You have linked more than once.”

Titillation and slimy innuendo slithered through his tone.
Pervert.

Creepy Guy motioned at the workers. Hands closed around her
arms again and she lashed out. Ineffectively. She caught sight of Sam being held
back by other uniforms, his expression lethal as he struggled to break free.

Workers hauled her across the room to dump her on the ground in
front of Creepy Guy and he stared down at her as she climbed to her feet. She
couldn’t meet his eyes. They were almost the same color as Sam’s but flat and
reptilian.

“Tell me where Kir Dashamun is,” he said. “And I will give you
an honored place at court. Look around you. Nothing but the finest food.
Servants. Luxury greater than your wildest imaginings.” He spread his hands wide
to encompass the gilded throne room.

A grin spread before she could stop it. Creepy
and
delusional. He should come to Earth and check out
her house in Beverly Hills before making idiotic statements about her ability to
imagine luxury. Then he should ask her how much she cared about it. She’d given
up every last silk sheet and a whole lot of Versace to make sure Sam was
okay.

He smiled back, killing hers. “If you do not tell me, I will
submit your citizen here to excruciating interrogation. I have been patient and
kind with him thus far, but that is at an end. I am well trained. Do you
understand how the implant truly operates?”

“The thing you stole from the real aliens. Yeah, I know all
about it.” She crossed her arms and stared down her nose at El Creepo. “What if
I take the deal? What happens to Sam?”

“I suppose he may go free as well. That wasn’t so hard, now was
it?” He held out a hand, palm up, like she’d actually take it. “Come with me and
we shall work with a reader to create a holographic map.”

“I haven’t agreed yet. You. King Tut.” Ashley lifted her chin
at the king and the other guy dropped his hand. “This guy runs everything? You
don’t have a say?”

Another guy burst out of his place beside the king. “Mora Tuwa
may not address His Highness King Kufu,” he snapped and got right in her face.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam take an angry step toward the king’s
flunky, but Security hauled him back and not gently. He was going to get killed
if he didn’t back off and let her handle this.

Her sacrifice was
not
going to be
for nothing.

“Stand down,
ORU
.” The king flicked
a hand, the equivalent of a royal brush-off. “This Mora Tuwa is of interest to
me.”

“Don’t you think it’s way past time to stop using that stupid
name? You make up these fancy words, but why can’t you call a human a human?
We’re all the same here,” Ashley said, and noted the flicker across His Royal
Pain’s face. “Yeah, that’s right. We know your big secret. Lots of people
know.”

The king’s lips tightened as he stroked his chin and evaluated
her. “You exhibit no fear yet you are not in a position of control. I could give
an order this instant to have you struck dead. You realize this, yes?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, but you’re not going to. You want me alive
or you would have already given the order. Voldemort over here must be the worst
interrogator ever or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’m your
last-ditch resort, so I’d say
I
have all the
control.”

The king lifted the corners of his mouth in appreciation and
tilted his head toward Creepy Guy. “
ZXQ
was indeed
correct. The Mora Tuwa are craftier than we have supposed.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t call myself crafty. I don’t even know how to
hold a crochet hook.” Ashley jammed her hands on her hips. “So let’s negotiate
here. Sam and I have knowledge of an alien relic which may help your fuel
crisis. Let us go and we’ll find it for you. I have no problem selling the relic
to the highest bidder. In exchange, you agree to forget about Kir Dashamun.
Those people aren’t going to bother you.”

“The stone you speak of was located a long time ago. It is a
useless piece of arcane lore. You have nothing I want but the location of Kir
Dashamun. Those who reside there are traitors and will be eliminated.” The king
stood, his robes flapping. The queen stepped forward to take his arm but he
shook her off, ignoring her obvious hurt. “You know far too much. How did this
occur?”

Ashley glanced at the queen. She kept her head down but her
rigid shoulders said she didn’t care for the king’s bad attitude. Neither did
Ashley. Wearing the biggest crown didn’t give him a license to bully. “I pay
attention, that’s how. So do a lot of people. It won’t take much to get everyone
clued in to what’s going on here, and then you’ll have a really big problem on
your hands.”

“Enough!” The king cut her off with a slash of his hand. “High
Priest
UBA
, if you cannot discern the location of
Kir Dashamun from
ZXQ
, interrogate this one. Ensure
she dies when you are finished. She is entirely too knowledgeable and has no
respect.”

Before she could blink or scream or do anything to stop it, a
uniformed worker rushed Sam and put a device to his head, like they’d used on
her at Kir Dashamun to disrupt the link. Instantly, Sam slumped to the ground
and lay motionless on the marble floor.

“What did you do to him?” she cried and started to dash to his
side.

Two workers snagged her shoulders and heaved her back. They
held her in place as Creepy Guy, also apparently known as High Priest
UBA
, crowded up against her. She kicked him in the
shin and got a cuff across the face for her trouble. Hot sparklers erupted along
her cheek. The High Priest clamped her chin tight and guided her face in close
to his with bruising insistence.

He was trying to link with her.

Dear God, no. She slammed her eyes closed, but it was too late.
The pain in her cheek was dwarfed by the tsunami crashing through her skull. El
Creepo earned his nickname, sliding through her memories and unlocking every
secret corner of her mind. Orange stained her vision, laced with shame.

It was like the machine, the probe thing, but much worse. Her
breath caught in her lungs, rattling and wheezing with terror. Every last
disgrace would be exposed in a matter of seconds.

He crawled, spiderlike, through her brain and the sensation
launched bile into her esophagus. This was an assault, not an intimate
connection like when linking with Sam. Or even the impersonal machine.

But neither was she still an actress who wasn’t on the list,
with plenty to hide and lots of defense mechanisms to hide behind. She didn’t
have to allow the connection she shared with Sam to be defiled by force. This
director had no control over her, and she wasn’t about to give up this one
chance to direct herself.

She called up a reserve of strength she’d never find again and
almost dropped to her knees as the torture ratcheted higher. She stayed upright
through some miracle of will.

Weakly, she pushed on the encroaching telepathic fingers. They
gave, bit by bit. She pushed harder.

“Stop,” he hissed and pushed back, filling the link with his
presence. Overpowering her. “I require but a moment more and then you may sleep.
Forever.”

“I don’t know what you’re smoking, but you’re the one who’s
going to stop.” Her promise hung solid in the air. She reversed direction on him
and went around his roadblock, clamping her teeth together against the searing
agony hacking her head in two.

She burst into his mind and read his thoughts, sifted through
his memories. His shock made her giddy. “Buddy, you want to know who taught Sam
how to use the link? Guess.”

The filth in this guy’s head was unbelievable. So he and the
queen were getting it on behind the king’s back. Ick. That was one image she’d
have rather not seen, though it did tell her the king needed to buy a clue. He
had no idea
UBA
planned to slide right into his
place with a ready-made royal wife who already knew the ropes.

One of the High Priest’s thoughts glimmered through the link,
but he must not realize she could see it. She turned it over, examining it,
unable to believe what it was...

The process for snuffing brain activity.

And she could follow it like a map.

The link snapped hard, but she’d steeled for it this time. When
the High Priest smacked the ground, legs and arms akimbo under his wizard robes,
she didn’t have to wonder if he knew what had hit him. He hadn’t.

As if someone had yelled “Action!” quiet spread through the
throne room and everyone stared at her, stunned. Now was her chance.

The Security workers’ grip on her arms had gone slack, but when
she tried to snatch away, all four hands squeezed tight. “Let me go or I’ll drop
you where you stand.” A useless threat because the goons had her sandwiched
between them and they probably wouldn’t cooperate if she said “Look into my
eyes.” Even if she used a spooky voice.

Another guard loomed and then planted his feet in front of her.
Unbelievable. These guys topped her by a head and hundred pounds easy, yet she
earned three guards. The new one pulled out his tappy thing and pointed it at
her. On the plus side, all the workers had moved away from Sam.

“Please.” She pleaded directly with the king. “I have to check
on Sam.” He was still motionless on the floor.

“The citizen is unharmed. Merely unconscious as a result of
disrupting his link with the High Priest. He will awaken soon, unless you choose
to remain uncooperative,” the king said. “We have underestimated you yet
again.”

He motioned to a couple of uniforms, who scurried to the High
Priest and clicked on their tappy things a few times. A worker glanced up. “He
is alive.”

Dang it. She must have messed up the procedure somehow, but it
wasn’t a complete loss. The uniforms dragged the High Priest out of the room,
which left three guards, the patsy assistant, the king, queen and prince. And
her and Sam.

As soon as he woke up. For now, she was on her own.

The king eyed her. “You are fortunate you did not kill my
trusted advisor or you would already be dead. Now, if you will not disclose the
location of Kir Dashamun, you are of no use to me. I shall give you one last
opportunity. If you do not, the worker before you is poised to end your life at
my command.”