The Mandala Maneuver (17 page)

Luckily, the man had been alone. Violence was not the answer, or so he had been taught, but Lirzhan reflected, as he more or less set the squirming man in a more comfortable position with his back up against one wall and neatly plucked the identification card from his pocket, that every once in a while it did come in rather handy.

But which of the doors to check first? He decided that the one the man had come through seemed the safest, as there was a chance he had been alone, and so the room he had just exited had a greater chance of being empty. Lirzhan swiped the card and the door opened, revealing a laboratory of some sort. He could not identify all the equipment contained therein, but he did see a sheet of what looked like pale glimmering blue glass with thin leads attached to it.

So they are using the sand to make some sort of crystalline sheet. But to what end?

A heads-up display was located just off to the right of the blue glass or crystal. He was not a scientist, and so Lirzhan could not make much sense of the diagram shown there, or the complex equations set off to one side. But on the tabletop directly below the display was a tablet, with what looked like notes written in Galactic Standard.

There is still notable instability in the field, which will not hold for more than ten standard seconds. This may be due to residual impurities in the matrix. However, the results are promising enough that tests at greater distances and with larger vessels are indicated. With a large enough sheet and better refining methods, it may be possible to reach out and disrupt ships passing several systems away. If —

Lirzhan stopped reading there, his stomach tightening. So this was what they were trying to hide. Somehow the crystals native to this planet possessed a quality that allowed them to reach through the very fabric of space and time to disrupt a ship’s subspace passage. And the Gaians were doing everything they could to exploit that quality.

No wonder they did not want Alexa or him alive. They could leave no witnesses who weren’t complicit in the cover-up going on here. For if the other powers in the galaxy — the Eridani Hegemony, the Zhore Alliance, the Stacian Federation — ever learned of what the Gaians were up to, it would surely lead to war. No one could allow the Consortium to wield such power.

He had lingered here too long. Yes, this information was valuable, and he must do whatever he could to get it back to his people, or to the members of the Council. But first he must find Alexa. He had felt no more waves of worry or fear from her, so he guessed she must be safe for now, but he could not count on that to continue for much longer.

After opening the door, he glanced out into the corridor. It still seemed empty, although the man he had bound and gagged was moaning loudly. He seemed so far unable to free himself, but that didn’t mean someone else might not come along and discover him. As soon as that happened, Lirzhan knew they would sound the alarm. No time to waste.

From his inspection of the facility, it seemed clear enough that this smaller research building was connected to the taller structure that must house administrative and security offices — and apparently the commissary as well. He could only hope that this hallway would lead him there, and that the other scientists and technicians were either safely holed up in their laboratories, or off getting something to eat. The chances of that seemed exceedingly slim, but then again, the chances of his and Alexa surviving the crash had not been all that good, either, and yet they had, and had also lived through the often treacherous trek across Mandala’s surface…and below it. He refused to believe that they could negotiate all those hazards, only to be killed by a group of unscrupulous Gaian operatives.

Since there was nowhere to hide here, all he could do was run down the corridor, hoping that if he were spotted by whatever hidden surveillance they had here, he would be gone before they could catch up to him. Surely they wouldn’t believe him mad enough to keep burrowing deeper into the complex rather than seeking a way out.

At the end of the corridor was a set of double doors. He swiped the card, and they opened. Good. At least they hadn’t yet realized he had access to as many sections of the facility as the scientist whose card he’d stolen. As soon as they realized that, he would be trapped, but with any luck he would have located Alexa before that happened.

He pounded down this new hallway, intent on the set of lifts he’d spotted as soon as the double doors opened. That pulse of fear he’d felt had told him Alexa wasn’t on the ground floor, was being kept higher up in the building.

But it was here that his luck ran out, for as soon as the doors to the lift opened, he found himself staring down the muzzles of two pulse pistols held by stony-faced men wearing plain, unadorned black uniforms. He wondered if those particular pistols were set on “paralyze.”

“Going somewhere?” one of the men sneered, as the other raised his pistol and shot him point-blank in the chest.

Blackness, black as his robes, enveloped him.

A
lexa didn’t know
how long they were going to keep her cooling her heels in this room, but she guessed no one was going to drop by to tell her. For all she knew, Marquand and Ono were in the hallway outside, arguing over whether to put a pulse bolt through her forehead and finish the job they’d started with the attack on the shuttle.

Waiting and wondering when her fate would be determined wasn’t particularly appealing, so Alexa instead stared down at the chronometer on her wrist, watching as the interminable minutes ticked by. Now there were only two and a half hours until the earliest a team from Targus could arrive. If they’d even seen through Melinda Ono’s lies and had actually sent a ship to Mandala. Alexa knew she shouldn’t be counting on that, but it was the only hope she had to cling to. She was caught, and she didn’t know where Lirzhan was, and if the look in that Captain Marquand’s eyes was any indication, he would be all too happy to kill them both and throw their bodies down a mine shaft.

Honestly, she wasn’t altogether sure why they hadn’t done that already, unless they still thought they could use her to capture Lirzhan. And maybe Ms. Ono was finding cold-blooded murder a little more difficult when she had to look her victims in the eyes. Either way, Alexa figured it was a pretty tenuous thread holding her to life at the moment.

The door opened, and two black-clad mercs dumped a wad of black fabric on the floor — a wad that she realized a few seconds later was Lirzhan. She was kneeling down next to him so quickly she didn’t even remember getting up off her chair. Neither of the mercenaries said anything; having delivered their bundle, they went back out the door and closed it behind them.

Not that Alexa was paying much attention.
Oh, God, they’ve killed him….

She didn’t want to think of that. She
couldn’t
think of that. Until now she hadn’t wanted to think of what he’d become to her, how he’d somehow found a way past the armor she’d worn on her heart for too many years. Four days with him, and now she didn’t know how she could go on if he were dead.

Hand shaking, she put her fingers to his throat, praying his anatomy was similar enough to a human’s that she’d find a pulse there. And she did, although she had to press down a little harder than she normally would. But yes, there it was — strong and slow. So they’d only stunned him.

Relief turned to anger. Hadn’t she told him not to come in after her, no matter what? She’d been right. Here was the knight locked up in the dungeon right next to his princess.

His eyes opened, lashes heavy and thick as his sooty hair revealing pools of deep green. “Alexa.”

“You just had to play hero, didn’t you?” she demanded. “Now we’re both trapped in here, and they’re probably going to come in at any moment and shoot us both, and if you’d just
stayed
— ”

“Alexa.” He blinked, and to her astonishment, he smiled. “I am happy to see you, too.”

Since any answer she made probably would have involved swearing, instead she bent down and kissed him. And even though they were locked up in this little room, awaiting a quite possible death, that kiss still set every nerve ending tingling, made her glad that even though she might be dead soon, at least she now knew what it felt like to be alive.

Lirzhan’s arms went around her and he pulled her to him, holding her close. “Oh, Alexa,” he breathed. “I could not have simply left you here in their hands.”

For some reason it was a lot more difficult to be angry with him when she was cradled in his arms. “No, I guess you couldn’t. But I’m not sure what you plan to do next. They know I contacted Targus Station, and immediately messaged them back, saying it was a garbled transmission and to ignore it.”

He only smiled. “Perhaps that would worry me…except that I was able to reprogram the beacon and therefore got a separate message off to Targus as well. They might have dismissed the transmission from you, but I somehow doubt they will ignore the beacon message, especially coming so quickly on the heels of your own contact.”

“You got a message off? Lirzhan, I could just kiss you.”

“I would like that very much, actually.”

Their lips met again, and she found herself once more reveling in the feel and the taste of him, the silken brush of those fine scales against her skin. But she also realized they were lying entwined on the floor, his hood pushed back, and although those mercs hadn’t shown any sign of returning soon, that didn’t mean Ono and Marquand might not decide to drop in.

“We should probably get off the floor,” she said, and pushed herself to her knees, then offered Lirzhan a hand. He seemed well enough, but she’d heard that people were generally shaky after being hit with a stun bolt.

He let her pull him upright, and then sat, rather heavily, in one of the chairs, after reaching up to pull the hood low over his face once more. “Thank you. It’s true — we probably would not want to be discovered like that.”

The unwelcome thought crossed her mind that the room was probably under surveillance, in which case whoever was watching had already seen the whole thing. Well, she couldn’t do anything about that now, and maybe since they’d been on the floor and partially blocked by the table and chairs, those unseen watchers hadn’t gotten too much of an eyeful.

She could hope, anyway.

“How did they catch you?” she asked. “Did you come in the same way I did?”

“No. I thought it better to enter the base by going past the refinery.” He lowered his voice, so much so that she could barely catch his next words. “Alexa, I think I have discovered what they’re doing here.”

Despite their current predicament, she couldn’t help but feel a flare of excitement. “You have? What?”

A shake of the hood, as if to indicate he didn’t think it was safe to speak of it now. “I will tell you when I can. But believe me when I say that it is vitally important we survive this. What they are hiding here — ”

She damned his reticence at the same time she understood it. A quick glance at her chronometer told her that they still had two hours until help could arrive. Would Melinda Ono and Captain Marquand allow them to live that long?

The door opened, and both she and Lirzhan pushed back in their seats, wanting to make sure they revealed as few signs of intimacy as possible. Captain Marquand entered, alone. Alexa had a feeling that was not a very good sign.

“Get up,” he said. “We’re going to take a walk.”

An even worse sign. She scowled up at him and said, “Ambassador Lirzhan is still recovering from a stun bolt. I don’t think he’s in any shape to be walking anywhere.”

A corner of Marquand’s lip turned up in what could have been a smirk, or a leer. “That true? I would’ve said he looked lively enough from the way you two were wrestling around on the floor a few minutes ago.”

Goddamn surveillance. You couldn’t get away from it anywhere. Even though she knew she should probably keep her mouth shut, Alexa replied coldly, “I was attempting to perform CPR. The ambassador did not appear to be breathing.”

Marquand only shook his head. “Call it what you want. Frankly, I don’t care if that’s what gets you off. It won’t matter soon enough anyway.”

She didn’t like the sound of that. No, not at all.

Lirzhan stood. His robes made him look taller, although he was of a height with the captain. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll find out. Go.”

A quick glance at Lirzhan, and he nodded, just the slightest dip of the hood. All right, so she wouldn’t make a stand here. But she didn’t feel very good about calmly marching to what was probably going to be her own death.

Marquand opened the door. Outside were four armed guards — or mercenaries, or whatever they were calling themselves. They stepped aside as Alexa and Lirzhan exited the room, then fell in around them. Obviously Marquand wasn’t taking any chances, although she had to wonder what he thought a couple of diplomats could do against five armed men.

“To the lifts,” he said, and the company moved silently down the corridor to a bank of elevators. Another guard waited there, holding the door open.