Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 (46 page)

-96-

City Center

Argall, Haphez

Waiting was Ziva’s job, whether she was behind the scope of her rifle or sitting in a parked car watching for a drop. But today in Argall, waiting felt different. It had been a long time since she’d felt this antsy. Perhaps it was because Kat had turned into such a wildcard in this game. Ziva was more accustomed to waiting for something
specific
to happen or appear, and right now there was no predicting what exactly Kat had up her sleeve. Just to be on the safe side, she ejected the half-spent mag from her weapon and shoved her spare one in, chambering a round before lowering her arm back to her side.

She crouched behind the barricade they’d set up, accompanied by Skeet, Zinni, Aroska, and several Tekele agents. Remis had taken Zona and the remainder of his men around to the other side of the station just as Kat had instructed. The streets had once again fallen completely silent as every pair of eyes watched for the slightest movement and every pair of ears listened for the slightest sound.

Mag Reilly crouched beside her, continuously fidgeting and contributing to her anxiety. She’d never expected him to still be alive, much less present here. It had been difficult to tell what exactly Kat thought of meeting him. At first she’d seemed worried about him getting in the way of her plans, but then she’d gone ahead and volunteered herself for something that would practically have to be a suicide mission in order to work.

A suicide mission. Ziva’s hand went to her belt, carefully probing the area where she’d attached that old thermal grenade as she continued to watch the station. It was nowhere to be found. She searched her mind, conjuring up a memory of the slight tugging she’d felt as she’d shaken Kat’s hand and wished her luck. She suddenly realized this was the young woman’s way of going out on her own terms. She was doing whatever it took to help her people, just like she’d said.

“Damn it,” Ziva muttered.

The building went up with such force that they were all knocked backwards, even with the barrier there. Ziva threw her arms up, shielding her head from the burning debris that rained down around them. With the roar of the blast combined with the crashing chunks of building and mercenary, the only things Ziva could hear for close to a minute were her own heartbeat and Mag screaming. A pair of hands, either Skeet’s or Aroska’s, grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. “She took my grenade!” she sputtered, barely able to hear her own voice over the ringing in her ears.

Distant shouts could be heard as the other team made their way back through the massive cloud of dust and smoke. A couple of them sported cuts and bruises, but they were all accounted for and no one seemed to be severely injured. After a brief look around, it appeared her group had fared the same.

Everyone watched as Mag took several steps into the street and fell to his knees, staring through teary eyes into the burning rubble that contained his sister. Ziva couldn’t comprehend how such a strong bond could have formed in the mere twenty minutes they’d known each other, but then it struck her that they’d known each other for a long time. Mag had, of course, known of Kat’s existence since her birth, and Kat had devoted the remainder of her life to making sure her brother and birthplace were saved. Finally getting a chance to meet had sealed the deal.

Ziva followed him out into the street and stooped down beside him, taking a moment to survey the damage herself. “Look at me,” she said, moving around to interrupt his view of the building. “Do you think she’d want you to do this?”

He looked at her, his tears mixing with the sweat that already coated his face. “
Shouka
. How can you talk like that right now?”

She took him by the shoulders and pulled him into a standing position. “
This
is what she wanted.”

“I doubt she wanted to die!”

“She was already dead!”

Ziva honestly hadn’t planned on sharing Kat’s secret, and she’d never been one to blurt out information, but in this case she felt the need to make everyone understand why the young woman had done what she’d done. She responded to the shocked looks around her with a brief rundown of what Kat had told her about the disease, not the specifics about Ronan and the syringe, but of how she’d never planned on leaving Argall, how she’d requested she be left to her own devices.

“I didn’t realize what she meant when she said she wasn’t going back to Chaiavis,” Ziva said, not just to Mag. “I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting this. But don’t you realize what she did? We may have had these guys cornered, but we were still outnumbered and we would have lost people if we tried to go in. By going in there on her own, Kat saved the rest of us from getting hurt or killed. And by taking out the mercenaries at the source, she saved this whole town!” She turned directly to Mag. “So be happy about that, and be proud of your sister.”

For a long time they just stared at her, with Skeet and Zinni looking bewildered and Aroska looking disappointed. “She’s right,” he finally said to the others. “Kat put an end to this bloodshed. But why didn’t you say anything?”

“She told me not to tell anyone because she didn’t want to be treated differently,” Ziva replied. “I know as well as you do that someone in her condition shouldn’t have even been allowed to come here, but I wasn’t going to tell her no. She’d spent the past three years of her life waiting for this, and if I were in her position, I would hope someone would respect my final wishes, too.”

Skeet slowly approached Mag and gave him an understanding pat on the shoulder. “What your sister did was very brave. I’m not sure if I could have done the same.”

That seemed to coax a bit of life into him. He gazed at the flames and caught a piece of ash on his hand. “I didn’t even know her,” he said.

“Well I did,” Ziva said, “and she wouldn’t want you to stand around moping over her. She gave this town a second chance, and someone’s got to take charge and start down that trail she blazed.”

“You told me earlier that you wanted to save this place,” Skeet said. “Here’s your chance.”

Mag shrugged as if he didn’t know what they could possibly expect from him. “They destroyed all of our equipment and the crystals along with it. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“Aren’t there more crystals you can harvest?” Zinni asked.

“They take time to mature. If you harvest them too early, they’re not worth anything and you’ve just wasted an entire crop. Besides, there are people here who are starving, dying. We can’t afford to wait for another harvest.” Mag muttered something that sounded like a curse and wiped his hand over his eyes, mixing his tears with the soot and ash on his face. “What we need is that bloody map.”

“You mentioned a map earlier,” Skeet said. “What is it?”

“My father created a map that leads to a hidden vein of crystals,” Mag explained. “He hid it before he died, and all the mercs thought I had it – that’s why they targeted me. It’s just a plain old data pad, but I’ve looked everywhere and haven’t found it. The only thing I can think of is that my father sent it off-planet.”

The pieces fell together in Ziva’s mind as he spoke and she turned to Aroska, who was already looking her way with a grin on his face.

“I think we have it,” he said.

That caught Mag’s attention. “What?”

“Technically Kat had it,” Aroska went on, repeating the story she had told them about receiving the data pad from an unknown sender on Haphez. “She didn’t know what it was, but she kept it anyway and still had it after all these years.”

“Would your father have sent that map to her?” Ziva asked.

“I guess that makes sense,” Mag replied, squinting as if he were deep in thought. “Knowing him, if he didn’t leave it here, he would have entrusted it to someone elsewhere, someone nobody else would have suspected.”

Ziva nodded. “And someone who didn’t know what she was getting into. What Kat didn’t know couldn’t hurt her.”

“Exactly!”

“That’s got to be it, then,” Aroska said, a twinkle of excitement in his amber eyes.

“It’s in the ship,” Ziva said. “I’ll get it.”

“Need a hand?” Skeet asked.

Ziva turned and began to backpedal in the direction of the loading docks. “No. Get this fire put out and take any survivors into custody. Then we need to spread out throughout the city and bring everyone out of hiding. Now that the station is destroyed, comms should be back up. Keep your channels open and we’ll rendezvous in the square in half an hour.”

She took off at a steady jog, shielding her eyes against the late afternoon sun as a variety of HSP response ships came roaring into view. They angled toward the smoke rising up out of the ruins of the police station and began to circle the area, following a familiar landing procedure. “Thank you, Shevin,” she murmured.

Presently she came to the square and turned down the street that would lead her straight to the landing pad. The shop where the twins and old man were hiding was still dark, but other faces were beginning to cautiously emerge from the shadows and some were even risking a few steps into the street to tend to the wounded. They watched, emotionless, as she passed. Apparently they didn’t perceive her as a threat so long as she wasn’t shooting at them.

She wasn’t quite sure what to think of how everything had transpired. She couldn’t help but be angry with Kat for not sharing her intentions, but at the same time she completely understood her reasoning. Their goals had all been accomplished with minimal casualties – the mercs and their leaders were dead and Argall was saved. Ziva would have preferred that there be no casualties at all, but sometimes they were a necessary evil.
Sacrifice one to save many
. After a number of years at HSP, she was no stranger to the concept.

The road gave way to the field containing the storage bunkers and landing platforms. Bosco’s old ship waited ahead, boarding ramp still down. On top of preventing the execution of hundreds, they’d found the map and provided Mag Reilly with a means of rehabilitating the city without even meaning to. So rarely in this line of work did she actually get a chance to experience a happy ending. There were successful missions, sure, but their outcomes weren’t always pleasant, per se. Dakiti was a prime example. They’d thwarted an attack on Haphez that could have potentially wiped out thousands, but in the process they’d started a miniature war with the Sardons and good agents had been lost to the facility’s sick experiments. This time, it seemed that everything had truly worked out for good.
Well, Tarbic, we’ve survived so far
, she thought as she hauled herself up onto the landing pad.

The map was right where they’d left it, tucked into her backpack and wrapped in a rag for protection. She picked it up and examined it again, still unsure what the yellow lines represented. Even when she was back outside, a quick glance around the valley yielded nothing. Perhaps it was only meaningful to someone who knew Argall well. Mag would no doubt know how to interpret it, and she suddenly found herself looking forward to joining him on the expedition into the caves.

Preoccupied by the datapad, she made it halfway back across the landing pad before she noticed the figure standing in the field a short distance away. She looked up, startled to find herself staring down the barrel of a pistol…and even more surprised to see that the face on the other end belonged to Diago Dasaro.

Ziva froze. There wasn’t time to wonder what he was doing there. The only thing that really mattered was that he hadn’t been killed in the police station after all. She could see the muscles in his hands and forearm tighten just as Aroska’s had at the relay station – he clearly wasn’t in the mood for chit chat.
Shoot me, see what happens
, she thought. At this angle and distance, aiming for body mass was his best option, in which case any shots he fired would be absorbed by Jada’s underlay. In turn, it would buy her enough time to move forward and squeeze off a couple shots of her own, enabling her to either put him down or find cover, whichever came first.

Time seemed to stop entirely as she let the data pad fall to the ground and brought her hand around to her own gun. It had barely cleared the holster, however, when a sudden, sickening realization seized control of her mind. An image of the interrogation room flashed through her memory, and she could almost hear Dasaro himself speaking the words: “
You use a projectile pistol these days, don’t you? …Right, I carry one myself
.”

She had just enough time to draw a breath and begin to pivot.
Sheyss
.

No amount of anticipation could have prepared her for the sensation of his round ripping through the worthless underlay and into her abdomen. At first, it felt like someone had taken a war hammer to her gut, leaving her breathless and numb. Then came the centralized stabbing pain and the grotesque warm dampness as she began to bleed. The impact sent the gun flying from her hand and it clattered to the ground several meters away. Stunned, she took a step backward to steady herself, locking her knees to ensure that she maintained some shred of balance.

“Going somewhere?” Dasaro called, quickly ascending the short flight of steps up to the platform.

I’ve been shot
was the only response Ziva could muster up, and even then, she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud. She’d made the mistake of not taking note of her surroundings before crossing the landing pad. The nearby outbuildings offered plenty of cover where Dasaro could lie in wait. She ran her tongue over her lips, which had become extremely dry. “What exactly do you think you’re accomplishing here?” she got out.
Breathe. Need to breathe
. “Look around you, Diago. It’s all over.”