Shades of Treason (30 page)

The response was good enough to appease Kalver for now. He ducked his head in a short, rigid nod, then led the way out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

ASH DIDN’T GO directly to the cargo bay. She risked a short detour to a server closet to make a small, almost insignificant tweak to one of the capsule’s minor settings. It wasn’t a well-protected area of coding, and it didn’t take too much finesse to make it in and out without raising an alarm. They’d see her digital footprints later if they looked, but she couldn’t worry about that. She didn’t have time to tiptoe through the sequences.

The capsule’s med bays were located near the VIP suites, which happened to be located two levels above the luxury cargo bay. If Ash had been thinking clearly, she would have guessed that’s where Jevan would choose to meet. He was VIP enough to gain access to the area, and it would be deserted this close to the time-bend.

Half an hour passed between the time she left Kal and Rykus and the time she reached the lift marked Capsule Personnel Only. The doors closed behind her, sealing her inside alone.

Ash stared at her blurred reflection. She should never have gotten involved with a politician’s aide. She hadn’t wanted to, but she’d needed a favor once. One of Glory’s precinct bosses had threatened someone Ash cared about, and Jevan had been able to get that person to safety. Ash had met him often after that, and she’d liked him enough to keep her word when he’d called her bluff during a game of Vortex Six. She’d been all in, and he’d raised the stakes, betting her a marriage contract. The six cards on the table all pointed to her having the best hand. Any sane person would have backed out, especially considering the hand Jevan had been dealt. The odds had been blatantly against him, but he’d won with one of the weakest hands ever played in the game.

Playfully, she’d accused him of cheating. He’d denied it with a laugh.

That laugh had been a lie. He’d been in her head even then. She just hadn’t realized it.

The lift doors slid open. Ash started to exit, but froze.

Jevan was there, leaning against a data-desk in the center of the reception room, his arms folded over his muscular chest, his legs crossed at his ankles.

A cold sweat swooped over her body. She almost let the lift door slide shut. She was there to kill him. She was prepared to see him again, but the bored expression on his face reminded her of the bored expression he’d worn when he’d murdered Trevast and the others. The same horror she’d felt then seeped through her veins, but this time her brain wasn’t rattled by a stun grenade. This time he wouldn’t slip inside her mind. This time she wouldn’t be the one left in a pool of blood.

Meeting the bastard’s gaze, she stepped off the lift.

The corner of his mouth quirked. His posture didn’t change. It didn’t need to. Two men had Grath pistols trained on her from the right. Another two had them trained on her from the left. Graths contained ship-safe-caliber bullets—they’d put a hole in a person but not in a hull. The men on the left stood in a way that said they knew the capabilities and limitations of the weapons, but the other two were faking their bravado. They were political aides or personal assistants most likely. Or maybe cheap hired thugs.

“I underestimated you,” Jevan said.

She took a few slow steps forward. Yes, he’d underestimated her, but not enough. He’d known she was coming early. “Where’s Dr. Monick?”

The men on her left moved enough to make sure the lackeys on her right wouldn’t get caught in the cross fire if they had to shoot. The former definitely had military experience. She’d have to be careful with them, take them out first.

“Stay where you are,” Jevan said.

She obeyed, stopping a couple of paces away from him.

“Where’s your fail-safe?”

“He’s unconscious and restrained in a maintenance closet.” Her voice was stronger now that she’d been awake for almost an hour. Her body felt stronger too.

Jevan sniffed. “You didn’t knock out your fail-safe.”

“Better than letting him travel down here and get killed.”

Uncrossing his ankles, he pushed away from the desk. “Which maintenance closet?”

“You want me to answer your questions then you answer mine.” She let her gaze inventory the room. Six dingy plastic chairs lined the left and right walls. A door lay behind the reception desk. That would be the cargo-bay office, and the room’s other two doors led to opposite ends of the bay itself. With less than fifteen minutes to go before they capsuled out, all the cargo was checked in and stowed and personnel would be taking a break. Jevan must have taken care of the check-in crew. There was little chance of somebody stumbling across them, and an even smaller chance of her taking down Jevan and his four henchmen.

A small chance here at least. If she could get into the cargo area, she could stage something. There would be plenty of obstacles and shadows to get lost in there.

Her gaze found Jevan again. He was quietly studying her. There was a deep intelligence in his eyes. She’d always recognized it, respected it. He might have made a colossal error in his underestimation of her, but she couldn’t count on him doing the same thing twice. Jevan was smart and cunning, and she didn’t really know a damn thing about him or his capabilities.

She’d learn though. Right after she saved Katie and took out Jevan’s backup.

“I want proof Dr. Monick is here,” Ash said.

“I want proof that Rykus won’t come rushing to your rescue.”

“I don’t need rescuing.”

Jevan laughed. It was a laugh that pulled people in, open and, on the surface, honest. “You did on that shuttle.”

She sent the clammy cold that covered her skin to her heart, numbing herself on the inside. She couldn’t let him provoke her. Anger and fear would lead to mistakes. She had to feel nothing if she wanted to accomplish her mission.

“What do you want?” she asked.

He gave her a thin smile. “Disarm.”

She held her arms out to the sides. “We’re on a civilian capsule, and I’ve been unconscious in med bay.”

“Apparently not unconscious enough,” he said. “And I know you. You wouldn’t come here unarmed. So you can either drop your weapons, or I can very thoroughly search you for them.”

“You’ll search me anyway.”

“You could let me in your head instead.”

She almost fell for the trap. Her mouth opened to say he’d never again touch her mind, but the pressure at the base of her skull made her snap her teeth together.

Jevan gave her an unapologetic smile. “I had to try.”

And she had to be careful. No blackouts. No mistakes.

“Put your hands on your head, Ramie. Dr. Monick is nearby. If you try anything, my men will put a bullet in her.”

She could kill him. She could snap his neck before his henchmen fired. Most of the bullets from their Graths wouldn’t penetrate all the way through Jevan’s body. She could use it to block their attack, maybe even take one or two of them down with Kal’s gun. Still, the probability of making it out of the room alive would be slim.

Good thing she’d often worked with slim.

“Hands on your head,” Jevan repeated.

She complied. She needed him closer, and it was almost time to act.

He kept his eyes on hers as he approached. His were gray with a confident rim of blue. They’d always seemed to see too much, and now she knew why. Despite her brush-offs and vague responses to personal questions he’d asked, he’d learned more about her than she’d ever intended. She’d never let him in while they were dating, never fully shared her thoughts and feelings. He’d complained about it, told her she was keeping their relationship superficial, and she’d just given him her I-am-what-I-am smile and shrugged. She should have given him that smile and slugged him.

It took an effort not to throw her fist in his face when he placed his hands on her shoulders. Two more minutes, her mental clock told her.

“Relax, Ramie.” He slid his hands down her arms, then stepped closer to pat down her back. At the small of her back, he found Kal’s gun.

He raised an eyebrow. “Not armed?”

“Oops,” she said.

He hemmed, then tucked the weapon into his waistband. If she stayed close, it was within her reach.

“This isn’t the way I wanted things to play out,” he said, continuing his search. “I wanted us to be allies, but you never let me in enough to see if you were open to the idea, and I ran out of time. It’s a shame, really. You could have been such a valuable asset. We would have made a great team. But circumstances forced me to make you a sacrifice.”

He paused his search. She held his gaze, making sure her expression said nothing except
Your time is limited
.

One more minute.

“I was upset when I learned what you went through on the
Obsidian
,” he continued, glancing down at her right hand. “Stratham told me what they did to you. Torture. To one of their own. They’ve added more scars to your body.”

He ran his hands under her arms, then pushed against her mind as if he was seeking a response to his words. It wasn’t going to happen. She wouldn’t rise to the bait.

Twenty seconds.

“If you let me into your mind,” he said, leaning close to her ear, “I’ll take off the muzzle. You’ll be able to say anything you want.”

She allowed herself one tiny weakness, a slight rise of her shoulders and a cringe away from his mouth. He pressed closer, and that little half inch put him between her and the experienced guards to her left.

“I’ve missed you,” Jevan said.

So little room to work with, but she’d always vowed she would die fighting. If this was it, she was ready. No fear. No failure.

Lowering her voice to an icy whisper, she said, “You’ll miss me more in hell.”

The capsule entered the time-bend. There was no alarm—Ash’s tweak had disabled it in the bay—and without the warning, only she was prepared for the spiraling darkness that erased their vision. Stomach steeled against the deep nausea in her gut, she forced her body to move, blindly grabbing for Jevan’s throat.

She missed.

If she could have talked during the time-bend, she would have cursed. Instead, she switched to plan B and sprinted to her left.

Hell if she knew where she was going. Moving during a bend was like trying to run after you had spun in a thousand little circles. It was impossible to move in a straight line—she was lucky to stay on her feet—and when reality finally straightened out, she stood between the idiots on the right side of the room.

She grabbed a pistol out of the nearest man’s hand when he doubled over and vomited. There were curses behind her. She started to turn, her raised pistol leading the way.

A bullet slammed into the wall near her head. She returned fire. Missed. Shot three more rounds.

Two of those hit, killing the target, but the other experienced lackey recovered his equilibrium and centered his gun on her.

She grabbed the man she’d disarmed, used his body as a shield as she backed away. One round passed through his body and struck her collarbone.

She squeezed off a dozen more rounds, causing the gunmen to dive behind the check-in desk. That had to be where Jevan was hiding. It would be suicide to rush the target now. She’d have to kill him later, after she located Katie and took out the rest of his men.

Shoving her human shield away, she disappeared through the cargo-bay door.

If Rykus had eaten anything in the past twelve hours, it would have ended up on the deck.

On his knees, he gripped the metal shelf hard enough to dent its edge, willing the nausea to pass.

Beside him, Kalver chuckled. “Clever girl.”

Those weren’t the words Rykus was thinking. A long, blasphemous string of profanities raced through his mind. Ash could have told them she was planning to disable the capsule’s siren. Moving while entering or exiting the time-bend sent most people to the infirmary. That was the point of the alarm. It gave folks a chance to find a seat and brace themselves.

“You going to keep it down, sir?” Kalver asked.

“Yes.” He grated the word out and forced himself to inch to the edge of the shelving unit. Ash had told them she was entering through the front door, so he and Kalver had come in through the metaphorical back, a crate elevator that had been locked down for the time-bend. Kalver had made quick work of splicing into the system, and he’d also disabled the trip wire someone had left just outside the door.

That trip wire, and the fact that no one had greeted them with bullets, was a good sign. Valt didn’t have enough manpower to cover both entrances.

Rykus moved forward in a low crouch, keeping his head below the crates on the shelves to his left and right. Kalver stayed behind, covering him with one of the pistols they’d stolen from the weapons locker. Rykus had a new, unmodified Covar in his hand and another one strapped to his left leg. It wasn’t the normal gear he packed on an op, but it was a hell of a lot better than nothing.

And it was a hell of a lot better than what Ash had.

Clamping down on his worry, he continued on, footsteps silent on the dura-steel floor. The bay wasn’t one of the capsule’s largest, but it was still massive. Valt could be hiding anywhere. If he and his men remained still and silent, it would take hours to find them.