Ronan: Ziva Payvan Book 3 (22 page)

“You can’t dwell in the past,” he replied with a shrug, though he sounded hesitant.

“Exactly. But I have to deal with you on a daily basis. You’re a constant reminder of Soren. I don’t need any more.”

When he turned to look at her again, she couldn’t tell if it was sorrow or apathy she was seeing in his eyes. “We need to find those kids,” he said bluntly.

Ziva crossed her arms. If he thought she’d let her feelings get in the way of her work, he was dead wrong. “So let’s go find them.”

They continued the journey in silence. Once they passed through the mountains, the Salex valley opened up ahead of them. Acres upon acres of govino trees stretched as far as the eye could see, their branches heavy with ripe pods. Ziva tried to keep her mind occupied counting the symmetrical rows as they flew by, but it was of little use. The closer they drew to the town, the clammier her hands got. It was disgusting; she could stroll into a place like Dakiti with a totally clear head but here she was getting worked up over a meeting with civilian strangers. At least she tried to convince herself that’s all they were.

Calm down. What the hell is your problem?

“My parents took a shipment of govinolin to some convention on Gehiri,” Aroska said as he maneuvered the car into the heart of the little town. “They’re on their way back, but they’re probably still a couple of days out. My brother Maston and his family are the only ones here. His son Chyler is the one who was taken. He said we could use his house as a base of operations as long as we’re here.”

“Why don’t we just use the HSP office?”

He shot her a look that told her it had been a stupid question.

“I’m serious,” she said. “I get that you’re personally invested in this, but there’s more at stake here than just your family.” That didn’t necessarily mean staying at the Tarbics’ house was a bad thing – it didn’t really matter where they did their work as long as it got done. That was just the last place she wanted to go.

“These are real people with feelings and fears, Ziva. Maybe that’s just too difficult for you to understand. Yes, it’s my duty as a brother and uncle to be there for them, but it’s also
our
duty as protectors of this planet.” He pulled the car off the main road and steered it down a narrower lane that led to private residences, most of which were separated by more sprawling orchards.

Ziva’s hands curled into fists as they turned onto the front drive of the third house. She had to admit the property was impressive; everything from the exterior décor to the architectural design was elegant yet simple. In truth, it reminded her of the area of Noro she lived in. For a split second, the aesthetic and familiarity allowed her to forget all her concerns, but they all came rushing back like a raincloud over her head as the car came to a stop.

Aroska went to open his door but stopped when Ziva grabbed his arm. “Just remember, we’re here strictly for business,” she said.

The look on his face caught her off guard. He shrugged his arm away and looked her straight in the eye. “No, we’re not.”

She sat there speechless for a moment as Aroska climbed out of the car. Up ahead, she saw a face peering at them from a window and knew their arrival was known. Appalled, she jumped out and cut him off as he reached the front of the vehicle, hoping nobody would come outside just yet.

“What did you just say to me?” she hissed.

“You heard me,” he muttered, pushing past her and continuing toward the house.

Ziva stood motionless and watched as he walked up the front steps and greeted the man, woman, and two small children who met him at the front door. Heart racing, she spun on her heel and stormed back to the car, retrieving her pack and slipping on a pair of shades as she did so. If the eyes really were the window to the soul, she had no intention of letting these people see them.

Sighing, she took a couple more precious seconds to gather herself before slamming the car door and striding after Aroska. Judging by the uncanny resemblance to his younger brother –
both
of his younger brothers – the man at the door was Maston Tarbic. He broke away from Aroska and descended the steps when he saw her coming, extending a hand.

“Captain Payvan, thank you so much for being here,” he said. “Aroska says you’re the best.”

Don’t feel,
she thought as she firmly grasped his hand and shook. “He’s not wrong,” she replied.

“Please make yourself at home here. I’m Maston, this is my wife Sedna, and these are two of our three kids, Sam and Kasey.” He indicated the children, a boy and a girl – neither could have been more than five years old.

If they’d been expecting her, it could only mean Aroska had told them she was coming before he’d even asked her to. The idea made her want to strangle him, and she shot him a vicious glare from behind the shades.

Aroska picked the little girl up as Maston led them inside. Both children appeared frightened, though Ziva doubted either of them really understood what was happening. Sedna’s eyes were swollen and red but dry for the moment. The communications console in the living room sat in standby mode as the entire family waited for news from the agency. There were no doubt ten other families doing the same elsewhere in town.

“Sorry about the mess,” Maston said, looking around at what Ziva considered a fairly tidy room. “As you can imagine, it’s been kind of a rough day.”

“Feel free to use the back parlor,” Sedna said. “There’s a comm console and viewscreen, and I cleared off the table. I thought it would be easier for you to—” her chin wobbled “—do your work more efficiently in a quiet place.”

For just a moment, Ziva could relate. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to find the kids, too – she was just looking at the bigger picture. Finding them was a means to an end. It meant they’d be one step closer to stopping Ronan. But the desperation these people were feeling…it was the same thing she’d felt when she’d first heard of Zinni’s capture, what she’d felt as she pursued the Durutians across the Aubin desert. In both of those cases, she’d had the power to take matters into her own hands. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for the family to just sit by, helplessly waiting for HSP to find something.

You were desperate because you cared about your friends.

But desperation makes you sloppy.

“Appreciated,” she replied, putting on the most sincere face she could muster, “but I want to go take a look at ground zero as soon as possible.”

She heard Aroska sigh behind her.

“Right,” Maston said. “I can take you there, show you exactly what happened.”

Ziva turned without another word and went back out the door, leaving the Tarbic family to stand in stunned silence. Aroska could make faces and berate her for being brusque all he wanted, but he’d asked her to come because he wanted her to produce results, so she was going to do exactly that.

-32-

HSP Headquarters

Noro, Haphez

The only thing different about the current scene was that they’d removed the Resistance agent’s muzzle. Skeet wasn’t sure if he’d actually talk, but at least they were giving him the opportunity. He’d been moved from the exam table to a sturdy chair but was no less restrained. Even his head was fixed in place by a brace; the only things he could move were his eyes and mouth.

They’d brought in Adin Woro and his team due to their prior familiarity with the Ronan case, hoping to throw the agent off by starting the interrogation process with an unfamiliar face. The three of them had been briefed about the nostium and Resistance connection but, like the rest of the agency, were still unaware of Ziva’s involvement in the whole matter. Skeet hoped it would remain that way for a while longer, though if anyone had to find out, he was fine with it being the Alpha field ops team. Adin, Mari, and Colin were all trustworthy, and he imagined Ziva would approve of their presence.

He stood with Emeri in the dark room, watching through the one-way window as Adin calmly directed questions at the agent. They’d hoped his cool demeanor would soften the man up and get him comfortable before Skeet stepped in and employed more forceful tactics, but so far the strategy didn’t seem to be working. The agent hadn’t said a single word since they’d brought him to Headquarters, and according to Luko Zona, he hadn’t spoken while in custody in Haphor. The only person who had gotten him to talk so far was Ziva, and in that case he’d addressed her willingly, which was rather unnerving.

“You’ve known about Ziva since Dakiti?” he said quietly, eyes still fixed on the view through the window.

Emeri grunted an affirmative. “I was ready to have her executed like any other Nosti, but Sergeant Tarbic presented a compelling argument.” He sighed and shook his head. “I used to wonder if I’d done the right thing by pardoning her, but now I know I did. She’s on our side here. If we’d killed her, she wouldn’t be here to point us in the right direction now. She’s the key to all of this.”

Skeet couldn’t even imagine how Ziva must feel about that. As a spec ops agent – and one of the assassins, at that – it was her professional obligation to keep herself out of the spotlight, and he knew her well enough to know that she hated being the center of attention from a personal standpoint as well. Despite the fact that only a handful of people knew she was the source of all the information they were getting, she was still carrying the entire Haphezian population on her shoulders, whether they realized it or not.

“How do you think this guy knows who she is?” he asked.

“If I had to guess, it all goes back to that Nosti she killed ten years ago,” Emeri answered. “She told me the only thing she lied about was whether she knew him. If that’s accurate, she was telling the truth when she told us he wanted to take her to the new Resistance base on Forus. Someone was no doubt expecting them to arrive. Hell, they could have had an entire dossier compiled on her. I’m betting the majority of the Resistance knows she exists, but they might not know exactly who or where she is.”

Skeet wanted to be angry – half the galaxy had secretly known Ziva was a Nosti but he hadn’t – but any anger he felt was trumped by the realization of how much danger that put her in. He still didn’t know why the Resistance was trying to expose the Haphezian population to nostium, but he was beginning to wonder if Ziva was somehow a target. Had Ronan known she was on Na and purposely crashed that fighter near her? Had the attack on her family been a manipulation tactic? That didn’t explain the abduction of the Salex children though. Perhaps the Resistance was attempting to create a legitimate nostium formula that would turn the people of Haphez into successful Nosti. If that were the case, he feared they might make a point of seeking Ziva out when they realized she was the only person the formula had worked on. But was it the gas on Na that had worked, or was it whatever she’d been exposed to as a child?

It was time for some answers. Turning on his heel, Skeet stormed out of the dark room and was granted access to the holding room by the guard waiting outside. Adin looked up when he entered and gave him a single nod. Even he knew the time for calm negotiation techniques was over.

“My turn,” Skeet said, more for the Resistance agent’s benefit than Adin’s. He waited for the field ops agents to vacate the room before taking a seat in the chair Adin had been using.

The prisoner watched him from across the room. They were separated only by empty space; any excess furniture had been removed, mostly to make room for all the mobile medical equipment but also to prevent the man from using his Nostia to manipulate his surroundings. He may have been physically immobile, but that wouldn’t stop him from hurling a table at the interrogator or window.

He kept his steely gaze locked with Skeet’s, a clear indicator that he had no interest in telling them anything and was, in fact, daring them to even ask. If he’d been so willing to kill himself after the attack in Haphor, he likely had nothing to lose. According to Emeri, Ziva had already suggested that threatening him with death or even bodily harm would be ineffective. If he wanted to die, the worst thing they could do to him was keep him alive. Still, there was no guarantee he’d actually talk.

Perhaps bluffing would be the best way to proceed. Reveal some of the key things they knew. Maybe make him think they knew more than they did.

Might as well get to the point
, Skeet thought. “You want to tell me why the Resistance is exposing all of us to bad nostium?”

With all of the restraints, it was impossible to pick up on many of the non-verbal cues the agent might have shown had he been free to move about. To compensate, they’d attached a series of electrodes to his arms and neck in hopes of seeing some sort of internal reaction instead. His heart rate had remained steady while Adin questioned him, and it was still relatively constant now, but the monitor on the wall registered a slight spike in his pulse at the mention of the nostium.

“I haven’t quite figured out if you’re actually trying to kill us or if you’re trying to make it work.” Skeet stood up – somehow it felt better to address the man while towering over him. He was strong but small, and there in the large chair engulfed in security apparatus, he looked even smaller. But there was something disconcerting about the way he looked at everyone. He was studying them, looking for weaknesses to exploit, looking for a target. The last thing Skeet wanted was to sit at eye level with him.

“Now, the way I see it, if you people really wanted to kill us, you’d use something that was guaranteed to be lethal. Easy to disperse planetwide. Maybe even contagious. The fact that that you’ve been testing varied formulas on individuals and small groups leads me to believe you actually want to turn us all into Nosti, though I cannot for the life of me imagine why.”

He feigned a grimace that turned genuine after a moment as he pondered what he’d just said. Regardless of Ronan’s reason for targeting Haphezians, the presence of Nosti on the planet would immediately attract the Federation, which in turn meant a war not even the full force of the Grand Army could win. Skeet had no idea if that was the point – and he wasn’t sure why it would be – but it was certainly a concern. Despite the loss of life, he was suddenly very glad none of the nostium formulas had worked so far, but it was only a matter of time before the Resistance created the correct one. If the frequency of their attacks continued to increase, that time would be sooner than later.

“
Huhren shouka souhn
,” Skeet shouted, pleased by the look of anguish on the prisoner’s face as he pressed the heel of his hand down against his wounded leg. “What does Ronan want with us?”

“You’re wasting your time,” the agent muttered through clenched teeth, breaking eye contact for the first time. His nostrils flared as he took deep, hissing breaths through his nose. “You can’t stop what’s coming.”

“And what exactly is that,
pesch a sheyssa?
” Skeet leaned down until their faces were mere centimeters apart. The bullet wound was already beginning to fester and it made a disturbing moist sound as he pressed down harder. “Tell me what you people want with those helpless little kids.”

“They know exactly where I am, and they’ll kill me if you don’t do it first. They’ll level this whole building if they have to.”

Skeet waited several seconds before giving the wound one last hard push and rising back into an upright position. He hated to treat the agent to any sort of reaction, but if what the man had just said was accurate, he wasn’t going to waste time holding a staring contest.

He exited the room and made his way back into the dark room next door, where Emeri was still standing at the window. “You think he’s bluffing?”

“He could be,” the director answered, gray eyebrows furrowed, “but it’s also plausible. If the Resistance keeps coming back, it means they have some way of knowing whether or not their experiments are working. They could be monitoring our news networks or, galaxy forbid, they could have some sort of inside source. Either way, it’s a safe bet they
do
know we have him in custody, and if he was willing to take his own life, it’s also a safe bet that they’re prepared to finish the job to keep him from talking.”

“Would they risk launching a full-scale attack like that? It would be the end of the stealth tactics they’ve been employing.”

“The likelihood is low,” Emeri said, “but it’s a very real possibility and we need to be prepared for it.”

Skeet sighed and raked a hand through his hair, then gave the director a quick rundown of his thoughts about the Federation getting involved. “That’s a very real possibility, too.”

“
Sheyss
,” Emeri muttered. “What have we gotten ourselves into?” He stared through the window at the agent for a moment. “First step: leak a story to the press. This man is dead. He killed himself, his injuries proved to be fatal, I don’t care. If we get it out in the news feeds, it should be enough to keep Ronan from coming down here and wiping us out. In the meantime, I don’t want Ziva anywhere near this place. She may be the only person on this planet who has a clue how to stop all of this, and I’m not going to risk her being here at Headquarters or even in the city if there’s an attack. Tell her to wait twelve hours until we’ve had a chance to clear the system. Sergeant Tarbic is officially on protection detail.”

Skeet already had his communicator to his ear. “Oh, she’ll love that.”