Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 (18 page)

Aroska shrugged again and added a wag of his head. “Well, I honestly can’t give you one. Give me some time and I might be able to come up with something. How does that sound?”

She wasn’t sure whether that meant he was hiding something or that he truly had no genuine motivation for helping her. Either way, she was less than thrilled with his response. “So what is this, some sort of creepy Elsara life-debt thing?”

“Maybe.”

“Did I ever mention how much I utterly detest the Elsara?”

For several seconds, the entire house fell completely silent as Aroska stared at the floor and Ziva stared at him. The man clearly had something on his mind that he was refusing to share, but to be fair she didn’t press the matter. There were things he would discover about her in due time, and she had no doubt the learning experience would go both ways.

“Can I ask you something?” Aroska finally asked, eyes narrowed as if he were deep in thought even as he spoke. “How do you know you can really trust someone?”

Perhaps she was letting on too much. Still, if she wasn’t going to put her confidence in him, she wanted him to be well aware of it. “You don’t,” she replied, “but that’s the whole point of trust, isn’t it.”

Aroska smiled again, impressed by such a philosophical answer. He grew quiet again for a moment and glanced away. “Do you trust me?” he asked. “You asked me why I’m helping you but I could just as easily ask why you chose to come to me.”

“We’ve been through this, Aroska.”

“Yes, but
do
you trust me
?”

If there was one thing that pleased Ziva about the conversation, it was that he was cutting to the chase and asking direct questions rather than stumbling around the issues and irritating her even more. “I haven’t decided yet,” she replied. “I’m not sure if I can, given what happened last time I chose to trust you and risk my own skin for you. At this point it would be impossible for me to shut you out completely, but I’m being cautious. I’ll admit I’m watching my back.”

Aroska said nothing, though the look in his eyes spoke of utter shock and disappointment. The fact that he had taken offense to her words confused her. For a brief moment she wondered if he had ever been betrayed by someone close to him, but when she remembered Saun Zaid, she knew part of him had to understand how she felt. She wouldn’t have blamed him at all if he’d severed all relational ties and refused to open up to anyone ever again after what had happened with his former partner.

“Ziva, I wouldn’t do that to you again.”

“I would certainly hope not,” she said. “I would hope you had learned your lesson last time. I never believed you would turn me in for saving your life, regardless of how I did it. But you did, and then you came groveling back asking for a second chance. Luckily, Emeri gave you one. If you were to try something like that again, I can guarantee you won’t get another second chance and neither will I. Dasaro will eat me alive the first opportunity he gets. I just hope you realize that.”

Aroska nodded. “You seem ungrateful that I even bothered
asking
for a second chance.”

“Don’t get me wrong – I’m happy to be alive. I’m just taking everything with a grain of salt right now.”

The house was again filled with the same odd silence, but this time Aroska kept his eyes locked with Ziva’s. She could tell he was disappointed, though it seemed he understood. That made the two of them even – she still possessed a certain measure of disappointment with him, despite the fact that he had risked his reputation and probably his career to get her off the hook. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d willingly given someone another shot. They were both starting over on so many levels.

“I understand,” he finally said. “So do you have any initial ideas for transportation off the planet?”

“I’m thinking public transport,” Ziva replied. “The
Intrepid
would attract too much attention even if the plan is executed flawlessly, and it’s probably been impounded by the agency anyway. The hard part will be getting aboard, but once we do we can travel as refugees and head to the other side of Fringe space.”

“Do you have anywhere specific in mind?”

“Where would you go if you wanted to blend in, where nobody would care that you’re a wanted criminal?”

Aroska shrugged. “Niio, Chaiavis. I have a contact on Chaiavis who might be able to help us.”

“Chaiavis it is, then. We’ll just have to steer clear of the embassy. I’m not sure how much of a threat they would be anyway; they’re usually a couple of steps behind the government here. We’ll see how things go tomorrow and play this all by ear.”

“That’s all the planning you’re going to do?” Aroska said. “Don’t you think—?”

Ziva cut him off. “I think on the move – you should remember that. We went into Dakiti with less information and still came out successful.”

Aroska scoffed. “Only after we were both captured – you multiple times – and had enough brushes with death to last a lifetime.”

“If you think that mission was a brush with death, then you haven’t seen anything yet,” Ziva said. “Just follow my lead and I’ll get us through this.” She had to admit Dakiti had been a close call, but she wasn’t about to confess any such thing, not now. Besides, it hadn’t been
much
worse than countless other situations she’d managed to fight her way out of.

“Here then,” Aroska said, removing a small memory stick from his pocket. Ziva recognized it as one that belonged to Zinni. “This has all the information Dasaro gave me regarding your case. If I’m going to be ‘following your lead,’ I would prefer you at least knew what was going on.”

She took it from him and placed it in her own pocket. “Thank you,” she said indignantly, still not pleased with his attitude. “Maybe we can use this to plan some counter moves. How much do they know?”

“Not a lot,” Aroska replied. “The evidence found in Tachi’s palace is solid; the whole case revolves around the fact that nobody’s going to question it. That memory stick contains a copy of the personnel file they gave me on you. The information doesn’t go very deep, but I’ll warn you now – there’s some stuff on there that I think I need to understand if I’m going to be helping you.”

“And you should know you’re not going to get any answers until we get out of here.”

He nodded. “Like you said, we should stay focused on the task at hand. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted – I haven’t had this much excitement in one day since Dakiti. If tomorrow is going to be as crazy as you make it out to be, I suggest you get some rest as well – you look like
sheyss.”

Although Ziva certainly felt like it, she didn’t appreciate the comment. She remained silent however and watched as Aroska stood up and made it only half a stride before stopping. He hesitated there for a long time with one hand on his hip as he thoughtfully rubbed the other over his goatee. Ziva could tell something was ripping him apart inside, and she wished he would just spit it out for both their sakes. Still, they did need to stay focused now and she imagined they would have plenty of time for catching up and filling each other in once their journey got underway.

Finally, he turned around and looked down on her with a sigh and another shrug. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You know, I can sleep out here if you want to take the bed. You’ll be more comfortable.”

“Offer appreciated but not accepted,” Ziva said. “I doubt I could sleep if I wanted to.”

“Suit yourself. Good night.”

Not in an overly friendly mood, Ziva refrained from replying and watched him wander away down the hall. The frustration was rolling off him like energy from a powerblade. It was clear that it had been building for some time and wasn’t strictly the result of the preceding conversation, though that had certainly been a contributing factor. She would let him sleep it off – or, if he was anything like her, lay awake and dwell on it until there was nothing left to think about – and wait to bring it up again until they were well on their way to Chaiavis.

Exhausted but far from sleep, she went to her pack at the dining table and retrieved her small toolkit. Settling back into the meditative state she’d grown accustomed to over the past couple of days, she set about fixing Aroska’s viewscreen.

-41-

Shevin Residence

Haphor, Haphez

Despite the fact that he heard the floor creak when she entered the room, Kade was still startled when Veya placed her hands on his aching shoulders and began to massage them gently. He jerked his head up from where it had been resting on his desk and rubbed his itching eyes, letting out a tired sigh. He hadn’t realized he’d been dozing, and now his head hurt worse than it had when he’d first sat down at the computer.

“Didn’t mean to startle you,” Veya said quietly, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder.

Kade sat there for a moment and let her hold him, placing a hand over hers. Her ebony hair was damp from a recent shower and tickled his face. Fragrant lotion had softened her already-flawless skin, and for a moment Kade forgot all about his headache and the stress of the past several days. He was sure Veya had no idea how much comfort she was capable of bringing him. His wife was the strongest woman he had ever known – he’d always thought she would have made a fine HSP agent.

“Being startled by
you
is a refreshing change,” he said, rubbing his face with his free hand. “Actually, I should thank you for waking me. I have a lot to do.”

“Are you doing okay? You’ve been running yourself into the ground lately and it’s not good for you.”

“I’ve got a lot on my mind.” Kade knew trying to avoid the question was useless. They were both young, but they knew each other like they had been best friends since birth. He’d met her one day in the spaceport, he a security guard fresh out of the academy and she a student traveling from Cual to Haphor for higher education. What had started as a simple request for directions had blossomed into an incredible friendship that had resulted in romance and finally marriage.

“Kade Shevin, answer my question.”

“These last few days have been crazy for all of us, you know that,” he replied. He didn’t dare tell her he had nearly lost his job that very afternoon, not yet. It would only cause her to worry more than she already did, and he didn’t feel much like talking about it anyway. Telling her he was afraid he was losing his mind wouldn’t do any good either, so the only solution was to say nothing. At any rate, it wasn’t like there was much to tell about the case unless he actually
wanted
to lose his job.

Veya pulled away but left her hands resting on his shoulders. “All right,” she said, “you win, but you do need your rest. You’re taking this whole case way too personally.”

“What’s not to take personally?” Kade said. “I’m the one Payvan attacked.”

“She would have done the same thing to anyone else.”

He had to restrain himself from complaining further about the incidents regarding Spence and the coroner’s report. He knew Veya would find out something wasn’t right as early as the next morning when he failed to leave for work. There was always the option of spending the day hiding out in the city as he had done after Zona had dismissed him that afternoon, but he wasn’t sure how long a charade like that would last. The best option was to knuckle down and get to the bottom of matters, but that would be difficult without access to his computer at the RG headquarters.

His train of thought ignited a tiny spark in his mind and he turned his head to meet Veya’s eyes. “By the way, Zona says hello,” he said.

She tilted her head, confused by the abrupt change of subject. “That’s nice of him,” she said, resuming her massage. “You know, we should have him over for dinner one of these days.”

At the moment the thought of such a thing made Kade shudder, but he forced a short nod of agreement nonetheless. It wasn’t that Zona was a bad man by any means – Kade respected him more than anyone else in the galaxy – but with his job, his reputation, and possibly even his life hanging in the balance, he thought it best to steer clear of his boss altogether. He had a family to care for, and losing his job or getting himself killed wouldn’t do anyone any good.

A wave of relief washed over him when the sound of the baby crying reached his ears. Veya pulled away with a sigh and brushed a lock of hair away from her face. She excused herself with a gentle smile, stopping one last time before disappearing down the hall. “You sir, get some sleep. That’s an order.”

Kade watched her go then turned back to the computer, which had shut itself down as he’d dozed. He rebooted and brought up Eason Fromm’s report again, the farthest his short access leash would allow him to go while working from home. It remained the same as it had been when he’d showed it to Zona, containing the information he knew to be false. There were times when he’d wondered if what he’d read initially was merely the result of wishful thinking based on what he’d seen at the med center. It was certainly possible that he could have been hallucinating, especially after the mild head trauma he’d suffered. That combined with lack of sleep made it nearly impossible to focus on anything. After a time however, he’d forced himself to stop second-guessing – he knew what had happened to Spence and that was that.

For the time being, the best method Kade saw of uncovering the truth was to hear the story from the doctor himself. Perhaps he could be convinced to share his observations with Zona as well. Taking a quick look at the contact information listed in the report, Kade opened a direct transmission to Fromm’s private comm.