Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 (38 page)
Read Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 Online
Authors: EJ Fisch
The woman behind the desk looked as though she’d spent a few too many hours there and acted as though she’d dealt with a few too many incompetent visitors. She kept a distasteful eye on the three HSP captains, and for a moment she looked like she was considering turning them away.
“I’ll need to see some identification, then,” she said with a sigh.
Dasaro reluctantly pulled out his credentials, as did Nejdra and Kyron. “HSP, special operations,” he said.
The woman swiveled to face the computer at her workstation. “What’s the name?” she asked, rolling her eyes down to the screen.
“Kat Reilly,” Dasaro replied. “She lived here at the embassy dorms since birth, left about seven years ago. Hometown is thought to be Argall.”
For a moment, the only sound that could be heard was a gentle tapping as the woman’s fingers flew over the keyboard. Her search queries produced the appropriate results and she projected them via hologram so the three agents could see.
Dasaro’s eyes went straight to the address listed under CURRENT RESIDENCE. “
Sheyss
,” he muttered. It was the same address their search at HSP had produced, the little abandoned apartment not far from where they stood now. “This is the only residence you have listed?”
The woman nodded. “What you see there is everything we’ve got.”
“We’ve already been there. It’s empty.”
“Captain, I don’t know what to tell you,” the woman said with an exasperated sigh. “This is the last known address we have, and if she’s not there I don’t know where she is.”
Nejdra stepped forward. “Is there anyone we could talk to who would know?”
“Honey, let me explain something to you. The majority of our Residentials who leave never come back. The ones who do are free to come and go as they please – quite frankly, no one really pays attention to who’s hanging around because once they’re of age, they’re not the embassy’s problem anymore. It’s doubtful anyone knows where she is because they probably don’t care.” She deactivated the hologram and stared up at them for a moment, letting her words sink in. “Now, if there’s nothing else, I’ve got work to do.”
Dasaro sent her a hot glare, though she didn’t notice with her gaze directed toward the computer. He turned and waved Nejdra and Kyron toward the door. “Thank you for your time,” he muttered.
The Haphezian embassy was dwarfed by the other buildings around it, any of which would have made decent snipers’ nests. Ziva settled down behind her scope, lying on her stomach with the rifle’s bipod resting on the lid of a locked control panel. Aroska had assumed a similar position to her right, surveying the area through a high-powered spotting scope. The airspace around the embassy had less traffic than they’d expected, reducing the risk of accidentally hitting a vessel and therefore making the shot much easier.
Kade had successfully traced the location of Dasaro’s communicator and had transferred the tracking data to a small viewscreen that was now positioned between them on the roof. They’d followed Dasaro and his crew there to the embassy and had performed a brief flyover – the little HSP ship hadn’t been hard to spot. Then it had just been a matter of finding a vantage point with a decent line of sight. Now they waited, concealed in the shadows under a massive holoprojector that displayed a glowing advertisement.
“Wind is ten kilometers per hour, north-northeast,” Aroska said. “The area is clear for now.”
Ziva made a slight adjustment to account for the breeze and swept her gaze over the landing area and the embassy doors. The knowledge that Dasaro was in the building brought her a twisted sense of comfort that almost made her forget about killing Foda and arguing with Aroska. The Cobian’s communicator was connected to a portable comm system that sat between them.
“I know you need to do this,” Aroska said, “but I just don’t want you to end up regretting it. I mean, do we know for sure if Dasaro knows you’re alive? Are you sure you want to risk revealing yourself?”
“Hush,” Ziva hissed. A tingle of excitement surged through her at the sight of the three figures exiting the embassy. She took a deep breath and let it out through her nose, eyes unblinking as she stared through the rifle’s scope. She’d been anticipating a faceoff with Dasaro for the past six days, and now that she had reached one, she was feeling almost giddy. She drew another deep breath to steady herself.
The three captains had paused on the steps outside the door and appeared to be caught up in heated conversation. Dasaro had his back to her and seemed to be yelling at Nejdra and Kyron. Judging by their faces and his antics, it was as if their day had just been ruined by whatever news they’d received within the embassy. Ziva smirked and let the crosshairs fall into place against the back of Dasaro’s head – they had yet to find out what a ruined day was really like.
“Call him,” she instructed.
Aroska put the scope down and set up the transmission, which connected through the earpiece Ziva wore. Dasaro paused his ranting long enough to look down and check his communicator. He rolled his eyes when he saw the incoming code and answered immediately. “Yes,” he said.
The look on his face when he heard her voice nearly made Ziva shudder. “By the time you’re able to trace this transmission, this conversation will be over,” she said. “Don’t bother.”
For a moment it looked as though he was going to drop the communicator. “Ziva, how nice to hear your voice,” he said, shooting a glare at each of the other captains. “What am I going to do with you? You just won’t die.”
“You should have thought of that before you set me up,” Ziva replied. “Tell me, did you really think it would be so easy to bring me down? Just ship me off to prison, maybe get me killed. Didn’t matter as long as I stayed quiet, right?”
Dasaro chuckled and turned, facing in her general direction. “Oh Ziva, I give you more credit than you might think. I knew you could never be fully contained, though I have to admit I had hoped things would turn out more favorably for me.”
Somehow Ziva didn’t believe him. Her finger itched to just pull the trigger, but there was information to be gained yet, and there was something just as satisfying about getting inside Dasaro’s head as there was about killing him. “What do you want with Kat Reilly?” she asked.
“Curious, aren’t we? I’m not sure if I see how that concerns you.”
“It sure as hell concerns me,” Ziva snapped. “I’m not stupid, Diago. You’re after her for the same reason you’re after me and Kade Shevin.” She paused, wondering how he’d react at the mention of Argall. At this point, his involvement was really only an educated hunch based on Zona’s findings, and bringing it up was a bit of a gamble on her part. She wasn’t even sure what was going on there, other than the murder of innocent people. It was, however, a risk she was willing to take. “It’s because we know about Argall.”
The look on Dasaro’s face was just as good as it had been when he’d answered the call. He stood there with a gaping mouth, obviously unaware he was being watched, and whirled around to face Nejdra and Kyron. They each approached, and Ziva heard a faint
click
as Dasaro switched the call to an open transmission so the two of them could listen in.
“You’re running quite the little club, aren’t you,” Dasaro said. “Can I assume Lieutenant Tarbic is with you as well?”
Ziva said nothing and brought the pad of her index finger to rest against the trigger.
“Let me tell you something, Ziva. You’re talking like you’ve already won, but I can assure you that if the four of you think you can put an end to what I’m doing, you are sorely mistaken. It’s far too late – you’d only be wasting your time.”
She had to admit he had a point. Now that he knew that
they
knew, there was no telling what he might do to speed up his operation or erase evidence of his involvement. Still, she didn’t regret contacting him.
“Maybe so,” she replied, “but you’re not going to stop me from trying. Just like you didn’t stop me the other night. Just like you didn’t stop me three years ago.”
Once again, there was a short hesitation on Dasaro’s end. Yes, now both of his precious secrets had been uncovered. “It was worth a try, wasn’t it?” he said. “You were the only person who ever gave a guhr hound’s ass what I was doing. If it makes you feel any better, you had to be eliminated because you were the only real threat.”
Ziva smirked. “You flatter me, Diago.”
Through the scope, she saw Nejdra step forward to get Dasaro’s attention. “We can still salvage this, Diago!” she hissed. “We can get eliminate her before she has a chance to expose anything. There are ways.”
“You’re wrong, Captain Venn,” Ziva said. “You may have noticed that I’m pretty good at disappearing. And if you send anyone else after us, any more of your Cobian dogs, I’ll kill them – pretty good at that, too.”
Dasaro merely chuckled, and the sight of his content smile made her sick. “Stand down, Ziva. You can do whatever you want – run, hide, fight – but you can’t win, not at this point.”
“Well see about that,” Ziva said. She paused, adjusting her sights ever so slightly as a new thought came to mind. “Do you know how long it takes a bariine round to travel eight hundred meters?”
It struck Dasaro as a rather odd question. The words were barely out of Ziva’s mouth when he heard a moist
thump
and his face was spattered with warm blood. Nejdra crumpled into a deformed heap at his feet, a jagged exit wound marring what little remained of her face.
“That’s how long.” Ziva’s voice carried through the comm.
The transmission ended abruptly.
Ziva had the rifle up and was shrinking back onto the roof before the transmission was even cut. She scrambled to her feet and slung the weapon’s strap over her shoulder, sprinting for the car. Aroska was hot on her heels, clutching the comm equipment and the viewscreen. He leapt into the pilot’s seat and had the car moving before he had even settled in.
“What the hell was that?” he exclaimed. It wasn’t quite a demand – his voice was filled with surprise and confusion, maybe even relief.
Ziva remained silent, unable to decide for herself what had prompted the sudden change of plans. “Just get us out of range,” she said, massaging her forehead.
Aroska scoffed. “Oh don’t worry, I think it will take Dasaro a while to figure out we were beyond eight hundred meters. And that’ll only be after he cleans the
sheyss
out of his pants!”
The corners of Ziva’s lips twitched upward for a brief moment. Perhaps that was exactly what she’d been thinking. Her quest for revenge, however, had been a mistake. Getting inside people’s heads had always been her specialty, and after allowing Dasaro to beat her at her own game, all she’d wanted was to take the reins back from him, show him that he was no longer in control. To her credit, it had worked – the fact that she’d done it all under the influence of her emotions was where she’d gone wrong.
There was no time to waste now that Dasaro knew she was on the planet, knew she was on to him. Things could always be worse, but thanks to her, they were now more complicated than they needed to be. If she’d just killed Dasaro, they might never have had the opportunity to find out what he was planning. Alerting him to her presence, however, could wind up costing hundreds of people their lives. She felt her face flush and slammed her hands against the car’s dash, allowing her stinging palms to command her attention for a few moments.
Aroska pushed the vehicle to its top speed, weaving in and out of the busy afternoon traffic. “I hope you’re happy.” His voice possessed the same accusatory tone as it had during their confrontation in the garage.
“I screwed up,” she growled, clenching her hand into a fist to keep from tearing her hair out.
I blew it. I was wrong. I hope
you’re
happy.
“I won’t disagree with that,” Aroska said. “Let’s make up for it by catching up to Dasaro before he has a chance to finish what he started.” When she didn’t respond, he turned toward her and nudged her shoulder. “We’ll fix this, okay?”
Ziva shook her head and turned to look behind them, keeping her eyes peeled for any signs of HSP or Dasaro’s ship. “This has never happened before,” she muttered. “I’ve never lost control like this.”
Aroska remained silent, knuckles white as he gripped the controls, no doubt kicking himself for his actions in the garage earlier. At least Ziva hoped that was the case. It was tempting to blame him for her lack of focus, and in a way she had every right to do so. But at the same time, she
had
lost control and she knew it. She was better than that – that was why she was in this position, why she had been targeted by Dasaro in the first place. This was exactly what he wanted, and it angered her to no end that she had faltered.
Ziva turned back to face the front of the car and wiped the sheen of sweat from her forehead. They continued the trip back to the garage in silence. There was still much that needed to be said, but now it was time for a break. And now that Dasaro knew they were coming for him, there was a lot of thinking and planning to do.
They pulled the vehicle into the shop alongside Kat’s. She and Kade appeared on the stairs momentarily, watching from a cautious distance as Ziva and Aroska unloaded their equipment from the car. Ziva took the rifle to the workbench and leaned over it, feeling hot under their expectant gazes as they waited for an update. It was Kat who spoke first. “What happened?”
Ziva ignored her, unsure what to say. She knew good and well that Kat was unhappy with the way she was handling things, especially in Foda’s case. Telling her Dasaro was still alive and no doubt headed back to Argall to kill her brother wouldn’t go over well.
“In short, Nejdra Venn is dead and Dasaro isn’t,” Aroska responded.
Ziva finally lifted her head to make eye contact. Kat’s hands had curled into fists but she remained in her place, her face set in stone.
“That’s interesting,” she said, slowly descending the remaining steps. She walked right past Aroska and angled toward Ziva, crossing her arms but continuing to keep her distance. “Do you think that was the best idea?”
“No,” Ziva snapped, growing weary of the constant reminders of her mistake. She approached Kat and took up a similar stance. “But I can’t very well change that now, can I?”
Kat drew in a breath and opened her mouth to speak, but she was silenced when Ziva lifted her hand and took another step forward. “Listen. I don’t imagine you’re happy with the approach I’ve taken on this, and believe it or not, neither am I. But whether we like it or not, I sent Dasaro a message and he read it loud and clear. He knows I’m not going to quit until one of us is dead. He’s going to be moving fast, but so will we. I promise you I won’t let him touch your brother. Nobody else is going to die.”
It struck her strange that Kat’s face didn’t soften at all after hearing those words. In fact, that same flicker of sadness Ziva had noticed before appeared briefly in her eyes, and she glanced down to the floor before nodding.
Ziva brought her hands down to rest on her hips and gave Kat a bit of space. “Screw everything. Screw Dasaro and this damn conspiracy, and screw the exile law. It’s time for us to fight back.” She paused and looked around, briefly locking eyes with Kade, then Aroska, and finally Kat. “We’re going home.”