Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 (22 page)
Read Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 Online
Authors: EJ Fisch
Kade knew something wasn’t right the instant he rounded the corner. He paused for a moment mid-stride, studying the scene before him with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Half a city block had been cordoned off by HSP, with his destination in the midst of the madness. Due to the numerous police vehicles and the mob of people congregated outside the barricade, he was unable to tell what all the commotion was about. The fact that it was all happening in front of the place he was going unnerved him.
His attempt to reach Eason Fromm the night before had been unsuccessful, but the good doctor had kindly returned his call early that morning and had offered to meet him at a place of his choosing. The idea of speaking with Fromm over the comm made Kade nervous – after everything that had already happened, it would be far too easy for someone to intercept the transmission, resulting in him being either fired or killed depending on who it was. He hadn’t taken the time to share his suspicions with Fromm in great detail, but he had emphasized the need for some measure of secrecy, and the coroner had agreed. They were scheduled to meet at lunch hour at the small café where Kade had spent the previous afternoon killing time before heading home for the day. Toting his portable computer and all the information he had on Spence’s death, he’d been walking with a spring in his step on his way to the meeting. Now he was frozen stiff, unable to help but fear that his plans had been foiled.
As he stood there observing what he could, Kade felt the familiar surge of adrenaline rushing into his veins, the same rush he had experienced on the bridge at Tachi’s palace and in the med center as he’d pursued Spence’s murderers. He was beginning to recognize a pattern; if the other occasions had been prompted by unfortunate events, this one probably wasn’t any different. He dreaded to think of what else could possibly go wrong. The fact that anything else
could
go wrong was inconceivable.
Kade began to venture forward step by step, straining to see anything he could while remaining as subtle as possible. He could make out the flashing lights of a medical transport over the heads of the crowd, telling him that someone had either been killed or seriously injured. Judging by the amount of time it seemed the emergency personnel had been at the scene, the former was more likely.
A middle-aged man in an HSP street patrol uniform emerged from behind the barricade and began directing people back onto the walkway. He looked exhausted, as did every other agent Kade had seen in the past few days. “I’m going to need everyone to step back,” he said, waving his hands. “Thank you folks, just keep moving.”
The majority of the crowd began to reluctantly comply, but when Kade didn’t move, the officer veered toward him. Standing there in street clothes with his satchel over his shoulder, he looked and felt like any other curious onlooker.
“That goes for you too, kid,” the Blue called, grabbing his attention. “We need everyone to move out of this area.”
Snapping out of the mild daze he’d been in, Kade drew out his HSP credentials and offered them to the man. “I’m RG,” he said. “What happened here?”
Unless it was his imagination, the older officer actually looked relieved. Without bothering to study the badge, he nodded and shook Kade’s hand. “Head-on collision between two groundcars,” he replied. “I don’t know what the hell happened.”
“Initial premise?”
The man shrugged and looked back toward the crash site, lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. “As near as I can tell, one of the cars crossed into the oncoming lane, traveling well above the speed limit. The pilot was an old bot – thing must have been malfunctioning. We’ve got techs working on what’s left of it and we’ll try to locate its owner or programmer. The pilot of the other vehicle was DOA. He was actually employed by HSP, a medical examiner named Eason Fromm.”
Kade wasn’t sure whether he should break down in tears or laugh at this almost comical string of bad luck. No, now with the death of Fromm, he was convinced that this went far beyond bad luck. He was being targeted, being toyed with. He was on the trail of someone somewhere and that person was doing everything in their power to throw him off. Maybe it was Payvan, or maybe she really was innocent and it was the people who had set her up. Whoever it was, Kade saw that the further he dug, the more trouble he was getting himself into.
He tried to swallow as he stared ahead at the scene, unable to formulate any words other than “thank you.” The officer watched him quizzically for several seconds before turning his attention back to the loitering bystanders. With trembling fingers, Kade adjusted the strap on his satchel and turned back the way he had come.
The first thing she was aware of was the hard surface pressing against her head, and then came the throbbing pain. The only sounds she could hear were a muffled crackling and her own pulse, but as she gained consciousness she realized she was, in fact, listening to running water. One side of her face and the entire front of her body were wet – maybe there was a connection.
Ziva’s heavy eyelids wouldn’t budge from their closed positions, but she was content to leave them be. She smelled blood somewhere nearby, but whether it was hers or someone else’s, she wasn’t sure. She was alive, that much was clear. Whether she would stay that way in the next few minutes remained in question.
As she grew more and more cognizant, she became aware of a new pain: a dull pang in her chest that came and went with her heartbeat. From what she could tell, it was some sort of internal bruising, and she lay there for several more moments to give her brain a chance to catch up.
Her right eye was the first to open, the lid lifting itself involuntarily while she was still focused on her chest pain. The image was blurry and her eye began to sting immediately, and she realized it was partially submerged in water. Startled, she raised her head and closed the eye again, wincing against the fire that shot through her neck and down her spine. She realized she was lying flat on her stomach; the ground felt like it was tilting beneath her as her mind attempted to re-orient itself and take in the rush of new information her senses were suddenly picking up. Little by little, the events of the previous hours crept back into her memory, and she recalled being shot by Aroska before falling over the edge of the riverbank.
She was in Haphor, at the relay station outside of Haphor to be exact. The water in which she was lying was the little river she had scoped out as a potential escape route, and in the end it had served that exact purpose – just not quite in the way she had imagined. The pain she felt was from the impact of the two plasma shots which, to Aroska’s credit, had been flawlessly placed. She wondered for the first time where he was, what had become of the other agents, and whether it was safe for her to get up.
Ziva realized she was shivering, having spent the galaxy knew how long lying in the cool water, but she did her best to remain still and listen. Other than the trickling water, some forest birds, and distant traffic, there wasn’t a sound to be heard in the immediate vicinity. Groaning, she managed to roll onto her side and stretch out her arm, which had cramped up from being pinned under her body. The place where she’d been lying was slick with mud and she had a thin layer of the stuff plastered over her face. Heaving herself as best she could into a sitting position, she scraped away some of the muck, and when she withdrew her hand, she found it coated in tacky, half-dried blood. She scrubbed it away with a handful of water and found its source to be a gash just below her hairline, also the epicenter of the pain that continued to stab through her head.
Not wishing to remain cold and wet any longer, Ziva drew her legs in and rose stiffly to her feet, teetering there for a moment as her surroundings spun in a slow circle. The bank where she had fallen was steep and void of any solid handholds, so she craned her sore neck and looked up and down the riverbed in search of an alternate means of climbing out. The solution was found in the form of a tree growing sideways out of the bank several meters downstream.
Head still spinning, she struggled for balance as she made her way over the rocks. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so disoriented, other than when she’d been drugged by the Cobian pirates. At least that time it hadn’t felt like someone was bashing a hammer repeatedly against her skull. With a little caura treatment and some pain killers she would be feeling better soon enough, though she imagined she would be sore for the next couple of days.
She found the little tree to be wobbly but firmly grounded in the side of the bank. Establishing a solid grip on its narrow trunk, Ziva began to walk up the steep incline, reaching for protruding tree roots as she went. As she neared the top, a new scent reached her nostrils: wood smoke. Taking hold of one last root, she lifted her head above the edge of the bank and took a cautious look around. She saw no signs of life, but the remains of what appeared to be a funeral pyre were smoldering in the clearing below the relay station. For a moment, Ziva wondered if she was really awake or if it was all a dream. Nothing made any sense at all, but then again nothing that had happened in the past four days had made much sense either.
Her whole body complaining, Ziva scrambled up over the edge and rolled, hesitating for a moment before standing up. Everything remained still so she began to cautiously approach the shack, stopping every few meters to listen further. She used the trees for cover until she reached the clearing, where she then darted out and ducked behind the remnants of the pyre. It was a curious thing – she could see the embers and smell the accelerant, but there was no sign of a body or anything else that had been burned. Judging by what was left of the pyre though, she guessed she had been unconscious for at least a couple of hours. If all had gone according to plan, she was now free to seek passage to Chaiavis.
All the cars were gone and there was no sign of her stolen bike. Satisfied there was no one around and hoping the infrared probes had dispersed by now, Ziva stood up and began taking small strides toward the little building, eyes focused on the door and ears devoted to the sounds around her. Her boots were wet and sloshed as she walked, but other than the soft squishing she was barely able to hear her own footsteps. If anyone was watching from inside the shack, the stealthy approach was worthless, but she imagined if anyone was around they would have been hovering around the bank or trying to pull her out.
As she came within a few meters of the structure, Ziva watched her own shadow rise up against the front door. She stopped upon reaching it and placed her ear to it, still unable to hear any sounds coming from within. Taking one last look at the scene behind her, she hit the door controls and ducked inside.
She paused and blinked several times in an attempt to adjust to the shadows then turned toward the cabinet where her things were stashed. The sight of Aroska sitting there on the floor startled her out of her skin. “
Sheyss
, Tarbic,” she muttered, relieved that it was him and not one of the other agents.
He had one knee up and was leaning up against the wall, looking quite relaxed. He even raised his head as if he’d been napping. “Glad to see you’re still in one piece,” he said with a lazy smile as he got to his feet. “After a fall like that, I’m surprised you can even walk.”
Ziva scraped a handful of mud from her shoulder and flung it to the floor. “No kidding,” she muttered. “I appreciate you coming back to see if I was okay.”
Aroska raised his hands in defense. “Hey, I checked every so often, and you should be grateful that I moved your head so you wouldn’t
drown.
”
“Fine, I’m grateful,” Ziva said. “Can we assume they bought it?”
“Oh, they bought it. I think Dasaro was too caught up in himself to bother looking too closely, but it was convincing nonetheless. I tracked you down, shot you, then I burned your body out there on that pyre.”
Ziva noticed her backpack waiting on the floor beside the place he’d been sitting. She remembered her change of clothes and was overcome with so much relief that she shivered. “What became of the agents with you?” she asked, rummaging through the bag and picking out the clean shirt and pants.
“Dasaro himself called them off,” Aroska answered with a shrug. “He said he’d leave the disposal of your body up to someone ‘more trustworthy’.”
Ziva laid the garments out over the cabinet shelves and turned her back to him. “What I really want to know is – turn around – how you shot me.”
Aroska chuckled. “I pulled the trigger,” he said, more of a question than a statement.
“You know what I mean,” Ziva scoffed, slipping out of her boots and exchanging her soaked pants for the new ones. “You did a hell of a job making it realistic, and I feel like there was more to it than the simple fact that I told you to.” She peeled out of the shirt, opting to remove the soaked underlay as well, and tugged the other on. When she turned around, she was pleasantly surprised to find that Aroska had respectfully obeyed and looked away. Maybe there was hope for him yet.
“If you really want to know, I thought about Soren.”
Ziva hesitated, glad he still had his back to her and couldn’t see the shadow she felt pass over her face. She shook it away and busied herself with tying her hair up into a new ponytail.
He stole a peek back at her. When he saw she was finished changing, he turned around and cleared his throat, his face a bit red. “I know we agreed to try to leave it in the past, but—”
“Well under the circumstances, I thank you for it.” Ziva stuffed the soiled clothing into her pack and lifted it to her shoulder. “But next time I think it’s
my
turn to shoot
you
.”
Aroska nodded. “Fair enough. Just make sure I’ve got an underlay though – I have to admit you really had me going there for a minute.”
“As was expected. Now where’s the riding suit and the rest of my stuff? I want to get out of here in a timely manner, and the fact that I’m dead doesn’t mean I can afford to be any less cautious.”
“I already put it in the car around back,” Aroska replied. “Unfortunately we have to go back to Headquarters before we can leave – Dasaro is expecting me back for a debriefing this afternoon, and believe it or not, I’ve got a payment coming.”
Ziva raised an eyebrow. “Well I guess you’re just a regular old bounty hunter now, aren’t you.”
“You said it yourself; maybe I’m developing a taste for blood,” Aroska said, smiling. “So what’s the deal with your family? They’re a…lively bunch.”
“Do not even go there.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He gestured toward the door. “Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to blow out of here and dig up some dirt.”