SHIAM Conspiracy- Book 1 (13 page)

“Yeah, and it should be in a museum, not a
parking lot,” Megan laughed as she gazed over at the vehicle. “It
would not even get ten meters off the ground! We can take
mine.”

She pointed to a brand new bright red CM
Grand Turbo Pegasus.

“Holy crap!” Zak couldn’t believe she was
driving a brand new Pegasus Runabout. “That’s
your
car?”

Megan smiled and shrugged. “Daddy is
rich.”

“Damn,” Zak muttered as he followed her to
the Pegasus. He had given in again, first to Raghnall about working
with her and now to Megan. He was not normally that easily swayed,
but this time he was willing to make an exception in order to ride
in the Pegasus. “This vehicle is probably worth more than
everything I own!”

“Yes, it probably is,” Megan said, unlocking
the doors. She slid behind the wheel and waited with a satisfied
grin for Zak to get in.

Drop dead gorgeous and rich, too!

Zak climbed into the passenger seat. It was
plush, comfortable beyond any car seat he’d ever sat in. The
vehicle was all luxury, with a stylish padded dash that housed an
entire bank of sophisticated computer readouts. When Megan started
the Pegasus, he could barely hear the purr of the anti-grav
engine.

“Better buckle up,” she warned.

He didn’t have time to question her. She put
the machine in gear and they were off so quickly that he was
certain he’d just gotten whiplash. She pulled out of the parking
lot already going above the posted speed limit. Once on Slough
Street, she climbed to two hundred meters so abruptly that Zak’s
stomach was left somewhere on the ground behind them.

“You should probably drive a bit slower,” he
commented.

“Do not worry.” She actually sped up a bit.
“Cops will not be out on a day like this.”

“It isn’t the cops that I’m worried about,”
Zak mumbled.

Megan turned south on River View Drive and
headed for the nearest bridge to Sol Kappur West. For the most part
they had the driving lanes to themselves, as the threatening
weather limited the amount of traffic in the skyways.

“You really don’t look very professional in
those delinquent clothes,” Zak said as he watched the distant
buildings across the river.

“You should talk...you are wearing jeans and
a t-shirt!” she shot back at him. After a long moment, she asked,
“Is this better?”

She was again the professional business woman
that she’d transformed into during their argument in his loft. Zak
couldn’t decide which was more distracting, the degenerate
delinquent or the business Elf. Both personas were quite attractive
in their own unique way and the contrast between the two was
fascinating.

“Stop staring at me!”

“I wasn’t staring.”

He found it difficult to keep his eyes off
her. Beside the fact that he found her irresistibly attractive in
spite of himself, there was something...familiar...about her. What
that meant exactly, he had no idea. He could neither shake the
feeling nor put his finger on it. When he felt a stir of desire
from the more obvious aspects of her appearance, he reminded
himself again that she was Elf. That realization in itself should
have soured his attraction to her, but it didn’t. He intended to
look away, but he didn’t.

“What!” she said, now sounding embarrassed.
“It is an illusion, okay?”

They drove on in silence for a time. Zak was
the first to finally break it. “What do you make of this
foretelling? I mean, you and me being the
chosen ones
and
all?”

“I do not pretend to understand the meaning
any more than you do.”

“You telling me that Raghnall didn’t say
anything to you before he sent you?”

“Dr. Raghnall is a very wise man and I trust
his judgment.” Megan looked straight ahead as she concentrated on
her driving. “He did not tell me anything beforehand. What he told
us over the comm was the first I heard anything about it. And trust
me; I am no happier about it than you.”

“Yeah, okay...but what the hell does it all
mean?”

“
The false man will be taken,”
Megan
repeated the first line of the fortelling thoughtfully. “Perhaps
the SHIAM you said was stolen, but what does the
false path
symbolize?”

“You got me.” Zak gazed out the passenger
window at a city that was as gloomy and depressed as he was. “And
what about the phrase
‘one will rise in a false body’
?”

No answer.

“
The world will be thrice at
risk?”

“What about
‘while evil ripens’
?”
Megan countered in frustration, glancing over at him. “Look, I do
not know what any of it means any more than you do!”

“Yeah well, I deal in facts, not a bunch of
mumbo jumbo.” He felt himself becoming drawn to her again and
looked out the passenger window at the skyway as an aversion. He
cursed himself for finding her so...damn distracting. “Raghnall is
trying to manipulate us for some reason.”

“If you believe that, then why did you agree
to work with me?”

There was a long pause as he considered her
question. The easy answer would be to say that he needed a
sorcerer. But was that really the extent of it? Or had he bought
into all the doom and gloom and mystical nonsense about the vision?
He wasn’t prepared to admit that. Was it the attraction he felt
toward this Elf that had prevented him from sending her away? Or
was that attraction simply another illusion, much like her current
business-like appearance? Before he realized what he intended to
say, he suddenly blurted out, “I am not a racist...really, I’m
not!”

The statement seemed to catch Megan by
surprise as much as it had Zak. She gave him a puzzling glance and
then smiled as she turned her attention back to her driving.

“We will see,” she said.

. . .

“What did you say your name was?” Vennhim
cocked his head with exaggerated interest as he leaned back in his
chair.

“Melanthrianis Teranika, but please call me
Megan,” she said from the other side of the desk. She gave Zak, who
sat next to her, an unfavorable look. He had stumbled over the
introductions. Not remembering her name, he had simply referred to
her as his paranormal consultant. In truth, he hadn’t paid her name
any attention at all when they met. He had been, at first, too
preoccupied anticipating her feminine charms and later there had
been simply too many surprises being hurled at him for him to even
care about her name.

“Teranika...” Vennhim repeated thoughtfully.
“Not the Teranika, as in Duke Michavelli Teranika, member of the
Council of Seven Nations?”

“Yes, he is my father.”

“Well, now...isn’t that interesting,” Vennhim
said, looking over at Zak, a vicious grin slowly spreading across
his face.

The name hit Zak like incoming mortar. What
more could go wrong on this day? Now, more than ever, he wanted
this Elf girl gone.

“You know Duke Teranika, don’t you Zak?”
Vennhim was obviously enjoying himself. “Didn’t you have some
dealings with the Duke...about nineteen years ago, if I remember
right?”

“You know my father?” Megan asked, turning
toward Zak in surprise.

“No, I never had the pleasure.” Zak shook his
head emphatically, unable to look at her. He felt distinctly
uncomfortable under her questioning gaze. He did manage to look at
Vennhim, however, and the glare he gave him was meant as a warning
for him to end the game. “Shall we get on with the business at
hand?”

Vennhim’s office was comfortable enough, but
not nearly as luxurious or as spacious as Tobias Grimrok’s office.
A bank of security monitors spanning the length of one wall
provided the head of security with the same viewpoints within the
building and around the immediate vicinity outside as the various
security monitoring stations. There was nothing in the room that
suggested Vennhim had a personal life. No photos on the desk or on
the walls and nothing but security logs on the wall-mounted
shelves. There wasn’t a single piece of artwork or plant life in
the room.

“You do know that Grimrok is not going to be
happy that you brought someone in on this.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Zak said. “The
Institute’s people are all bonded. She is subject to the same
confidentiality restrictions as I am.”

“If you say so,” Vennhim shrugged. He then
changed the subject. “I’m glad you stopped by. I might have
something for you.”

“I just bet you do.” Zak felt uneasy. Megan
had been a distraction ever since she’d stepped into his loft. But
now that he realized who she was, that distraction had taken on new
dimensions. She had now become even more taboo than when he’d
thought of her simply as an Elf. And worse yet, she had suddenly
become leverage for Vennhim to use against him.

He wasn’t about to let Vennhim gain the
advantage here. He slumped casually back in the leather chair, his
legs outstretched, using his body language to convey his
indifference concerning Vennhim’s games. Zak had always been good
at bluffing. But he quickly decided that if Vennhim did play his
trump card, he would have to hurt the man very badly.

“I reconnected with some old assets from when
I was with the Department.” Vennhim laced his hands behind his
head, countering Zak’s projected attitude with one of pronounced
cockiness. “These people have indicated that EAST Group was
involved with the break-in.”

“EAST Group,” Zak said flatly, relieved that
Vennhim seemed to be taking the conversation in another
direction...for the moment, anyway.

“That’s the word on the street.”

Zak chose not to let Vennhim know he’d
already heard the rumor. “How would EAST Group even know about the
SHIAM prototype?”

“That’s your job to find out. You expect me
to have it all wrapped up in a neat little package for you?”

“That would be nice.” Zak remained partially
distracted, unable to take his mind completely off the fact that
Megan sat to his left. Or from the knowledge of who she was, now
that he knew.

“Bullshit!” Vennhim said. “You wouldn’t
accept it if I did give it to you on a platter.”

“This was a top secret project according to
Grimrok,” Zak pointed out. “Only his metal heads even knew about
the project according to what he said. Now, I doubt very much that
there are many SHIAM that would be willing to feed top secret
information to a group who is dead set on turning them into so much
scrap metal. So how did East Group manage to gain knowledge about
the project, get the layout of the building and pull off the
theft...all without leaving a trace?”

“Maybe they didn’t,” Vennhim said. “Maybe
EAST Group broke in here to see what they could get their hands on
and just got lucky.”

“What, while stumbling around all this
security, one of them just accidentally tripped and fell a hundred
meters down a secret elevator shaft?” Zak snickered. “Just getting
into the building undetected would take some pretty intimate
knowledge of the facilities and the security system, not to mention
some major resources!”

Vennhim sneered. “What can I tell you? You
said it yourself, there are very few employees other than SHIAM
working here. None of those Humans have sufficient access to the
premises or to the high security projects to pull this off.”

“You do.”

“Frag you!”

“If the Humans didn’t have access and the
SHIAM aren’t about to help an organization hell bent on turning
them into high tech scrap, you’re the only logical choice.”

“What the frag is your problem, Harris!”
Vennhim leaned forward in his chair as he shouted, his face
twisting into a hostile sneer. “I’m trying to help you with this
thing. You always did think you were such a hot-shot, better than
the rest of us. At least I completed my missions!”

“Yea, at any cost.”

“You want to bust my balls over something
that happened six years ago, fine. But don’t do it while you’re on
the clock!”

“It’s not what you did that I object to, it’s
what you are!” Zak said in an oddly normal tone. He allowed a
patronizing smile to form as he deliberately relaxed his body
posture in a hope to further aggravate Vennhim with his
coolness.

“What I am is a patriot!” Vennhim’s voice
grew even louder as he jumped up from his chair and began pacing.
“And what I did is what I had to do. I served my country!”

He knew he was playing with fire. Vennhim was
the kind of guy who wouldn’t think twice about laying out the dirt
on him in front of Megan, even if it was classified. Zak could
sense her eyes on him as she tried to figure out what the two of
them were talking about. The demon of guilt he kept caged within
him reared its ugly head. He decided to cut back on the hostility
before things moved beyond what he was prepared to deal with at the
moment.

“Forget I said anything.” It was the best Zak
could in the way of appeasing Vennhim. He wanted to tell the man
that he had served his country with a little too much zeal, but he
remained quiet.

“You really need to put away this thing
between us and get with the program!” Vennhim stopped his pacing
and glared at Zak for a long moment.

Zak decided it was time to change the
subject. “Do you believe the androids are tamper proof, that they
can’t be reprogrammed?”

“That’s what they tell me.” Vennhim sat back
down, apparently willing to set aside their differences for the
time being, if Zak was. “They are supposed to be hack proof and
impossible to reverse engineer. The way I understand it, they have
some sort of redundant fail-safe system and their skeletal
structure is impossible to penetrate.”

“You telling me there’s nothing that can hurt
these things?”

“A head shot with an electro-magnetic weapon
would wipe its programming clean if the charge was powerful
enough.” Vennhim shrugged. “And a thirty metric ton press might
crunch it enough to put an end to it. But to my knowledge, there’s
no way to get at the technology that wouldn’t destroy it in the
process.”