The Mandala Maneuver (18 page)

Alexa didn’t have much choice but to step inside, Lirzhan following. The guards surrounded them once more, with Marquand coming in last and working the controls to send them to the ground floor. As the elevator descended, she could feel her stomach sinking with it. Was this how everything was going to end? What, was Marquand going to execute them by firing squad?

She knew that asking questions wouldn’t get her anywhere, so she clenched her icy hands at her side and tried to take some comfort from Lirzhan’s presence beside her. Surely he wouldn’t let them go out like this. Perhaps he had a plan.

Maybe she should have been thinking up one herself, but her thoughts seemed to skitter this way and that, as if they didn’t dare focus on any one thing for too long, or the reality of what was about to happen would hit too hard. The lift doors opened on yet another gray corridor, and they were marched down it to an exit that led them outside.

It had clearly rained during the last hour; the ground still gleamed wet, and water dripped off the eaves of the building onto her head as she passed beneath them and out into the open. The wind was colder, too, sending chills all through her. Or maybe that was simply because she was cold with fear.

They were heading toward a skimmer sitting on the landing pad near the transport ship. The elegant Sirocco-class ship was gone. Alexa guessed that had been Melinda Ono’s ship, and that she’d departed the scene of the crime, leaving Marquand to do her dirty work. Well, that was a typical executive for you.

“If you’d stayed in the woods, you might have made it,” Marquand said. “We just don’t have the manpower to look for two people in all that forest. But since you had to come snooping around….” He trailed off eloquently, and gave them a mocking little smile. Alexa had seen more warmth in a shark’s expression, and just as much humanity. “So we’re going to take you back to the woods, and we’re going to make sure you disappear there permanently. No hard feelings. Just business.”

“Business,” Alexa repeated bitterly. “That’s a handy excuse, isn’t it?”

Beside her, Larzhin stirred, as if he were about to say something, but then one of the guards pointed up at the sky and called out, “Captain! Incoming!”

Everyone looked up, and Alexa did as well, her gaze fastening on the shape of a dark, sleek ship descending through the low clouds, moisture steaming off its sides. An Eridani Vector-class, from the look of it. Fast. Very fast. Maybe not quite as fast as Ms. Ono’s Sirocco, but certainly much faster than the poky shuttle that had carried Alexa and Lirzhan here.

Of course. It would’ve taken the shuttle or a vessel with a similar rating six hours to get here — but not a Vector.

It appeared the cavalry had arrived after all.

L
irzhan watched
Captain Marquand bark at his men, and immediately they scattered, disappearing into the barracks. Sensible, Lirzhan supposed, as at least now he and Alexa didn’t have an armed escort with them, but only one man. The situation looked far more innocuous that way.

The Vector-class transport settled on the landing pad some ten meters away. A minute or so later, the gangplank descended, and a short time after that a mixed group of Eridanis, Gaians, and even a fellow Zhore walked down it, and approached Lirzhan, Alexa, and Captain Marquand.

“Good day,” the captain said in guarded tones. “We tracked your arrival and so made sure the ambassadors would be ready and waiting for you.”

“Too kind,” said the Eridani man in the lead. The words were innocuous, but Lirzhan could see the way his dark violet eyes narrowed. Half-buried in his thick purple hair, the Eridani’s antennae twitched slightly, as if indicating his skepticism. Then he turned toward Lirzhan and Alexa, and bowed. “Ambassadors, I hope you are not too worse the wear for your ordeal here on Mandala.”

“No, we’re fine,” Alexa said quickly, moving toward their rescuers, as if she were worried that Marquand might call in more troops at any moment and capture them all.

Lirzhan did not think that was much of a possibility, but he understood her eagerness to be gone from this place as soon as possible. “We have been very well taken care of, but of course we are ready to move on to Targus and begin our new assignments.”

“Of course,” said the Eridani. His gaze shifted to Marquand. “Thank you for keeping them safe until we got here. Your kindness will not be forgotten.”

As with all his people, the Eridani was being the soul of politeness. However, Lirzhan heard the implicit threat in those last words, and apparently Marquand was not so imperceptive that he did not notice it as well. His jaw tensed, but he said only, “It was nothing.”

“Then, ambassadors.” The Eridani spread his hand toward the Vector, and Alexa hurried over to the gangplank, Lirzhan following only a pace behind her. He was just as eager as she to get away from this planet — away from Marquand and the secrets he’d been keeping.

Lirzhan had a feeling those secrets wouldn’t be a secret for much longer.

The Vector was larger than the shuttle he and Alexa had traveled in previously, with room for everyone in the Targus delegation and their new passengers, and still with several seats left empty.

“If you will,” the Eridani said, indicating two seats in one of the middle rows. “We would like to take off as soon as possible.”

“No arguments here,” Alexa replied, and dropped into the seat next to the window.

Lirzhan settled in beside her. How he wished he could rest his hand on top of hers as she gripped the armrest, but he knew such a public display would not be wise. He had to settle for taking a quick, reassuring glance at her clean profile outlined by the gray skies beyond the window, knowing they were safe now.

The atmospheric engines kicked in, the ship vibrating ever so slightly beneath him. And then they were lifting straight up from the landing pad, the gray buildings of the facility shrinking to tiny specks almost at once, clouds enveloping the ship until it broke free into the blue-white light of Mandala’s sun. The ship angled away from the planet, the black of space surrounding them on all sides, until a minute or so later that black streaked into the ever-shifting colors of subspace, and he knew they were away.

Or were they? For he now knew that the scientists and technicians down on Mandala had the ability to tear a ship from subspace, to leave it stranded where it could be fired upon by an enemy vessel. But as the seconds and then minutes ticked past, he let out a small sigh of relief. It would have brought too much scrutiny upon that system, for two ships to be wrecked so close to it…never mind the very real possibility of a diplomatic incident arising from the destruction of a vessel carrying one of the Council’s peacekeeping groups.

Besides, Marquand’s security forces had captured him in a corridor that connected some of their laboratories, but they didn’t know for sure precisely what he had seen. No doubt they were hoping that he hadn’t found anything incriminating at all, that he and Alexa might complain of rough treatment, but with no evidence to back up their claims….

“You’re quiet,” she murmured, and although she did not precisely reach out to touch his hand, he could see her fingers twitch a little on the armrest, as if she had begun to and realized others were watching.

“I have much to think about,” he replied in an undertone. “We will talk, once we reach Targus — ”

“ — and once we’ve been debriefed.”

“Yes.” He wished he could tell her what he had seen back on the base, but he somehow doubted he would be allowed any time alone with her before being asked to make his report. “But then…I will find some way for us to be together.”

So much more meaning in those words than simply seeking a chance to speak in private. Alexa’s gaze slid toward him for a second, and then her head tilted ever so slightly, as if she’d understood what he was trying to tell her.

How precisely he would accomplish such a thing, when they were both assigned to Targus Station as representatives of two governments which, if not at war, were no more than coldly neutral toward one another, he had no idea. That, he supposed, was a matter for another day. For now it was enough to know they were safe, and that Alexa was here next to him, and that they had a shared destination.

It was enough of a miracle that they were alive at all.

A
lexa remained
quiet through the voyage, accepting water and a snack of some dried fruit from the Eridani. What she wanted more than anything else was to talk with Lirzhan, but that wasn’t going to happen for some time yet. So she watched the odd ribbons of light streak by outside the window, and told herself to relax, and waited for the next few hours to pass.

Which they did soon enough, until the ship dropped into realspace in the Targus system. The station itself orbited one of the four gas giants there, offering jaw-dropping views of the ringed planet below, although she only gave the huge windows a passing glance as she stepped out of the ship. She was acutely aware of Lirzhan behind her. However, she knew she couldn’t turn back to look at him, couldn’t treat him as anything besides her accidental travel companion of the past few days.

The Gaian ambassador, Alessandro Castillo, was waiting for her in the reception area, flanked by two women who Alexa guessed were his assistant and the junior ambassador she had been sent to Targus to replace. They were both polished and very smartly dressed, making her all too aware of her disheveled hair and the crumpled, oversized coveralls she was wearing. And Castillo himself looked even more proper in his high-collared dark suit, his gray-streaked black hair brushed straight back from his high, aristocratic forehead.

Oh, well…I doubt any of them would be faring much better if they’d just gone through the ordeal I have.

Summoning a smile, she stepped forward. “Ambassador Castillo, it’s an honor — ”

“Time enough for that later,” he cut in, lifting a hand. “Ms. Amadi here is my assistant and will take you to your quarters. If perhaps you would be available to see me in my office in an hour?”

“Of course, Ambassador,” Alexa said at once. Arguing with her new supervisor the second she got off the ship was not exactly a good idea. At the same time, she couldn’t help wondering what exactly she was going to change into. All her luggage had been lost when the shuttle was destroyed.

The other woman, who was perhaps a few years younger than Alexa, stepped forward and addressed her in a pretty West African accent. “I’ll show you the way — when we learned of your situation, we sent up to the PX for some changes of clothing for you. They are perhaps not the most fashionable, but they will do until we can have a new wardrobe sent to you from Gaia.”

And deducted from my first month’s salary, no doubt
, Alexa thought. But the Consortium’s policies certainly weren’t Ms. Amadi’s fault, so Alexa smiled and thanked her, then nodded at Ambassador Castillo and his companion — belatedly, she remembered the woman’s name was Mia Nguyen — and then followed Ms. Amadi out of the reception area and down a short hallway to a bank of elevators.

Just as they left the reception chamber, Alexa caught a swirl of black robes out of the corner of her eye and realized that the Zhore delegation had come to collect Lirzhan. It took a good deal of willpower not to look back, not to see where he was going, but she forced herself to keep her gaze forward, to smile as Ms. Amadi exclaimed over what an adventure she must have had, and how fortunate she was to have survived in one piece.

“Yes, very fortunate,” Alexa murmured as they stepped into the elevator. She was relieved to see that the Consortium hadn’t taken the upper hand in the decor of the station; institutional gray had never been her favorite. But the walls and floors in the Targus facility were soft, soothing shades of sand and blue, and the lighting designed to be gentle as well. She thought she might be comfortable here…depending, of course, on how things worked out between her and Lirzhan.

…and whether her superiors were willing to hear the truth of what had happened to the two of them.

“Here we are,” said Ms. Amadi, running a card through the pad next to a door on one of the upper levels of the station. The door opened, revealing a small but comfortable apartment decorated in more shades of sand and blue, with deep copper colors for accents. One wall showed a window with a glittering star field in it, and the others had abstract light sculptures hanging on them. “Living room, kitchenette, bathroom, bedroom, office. Not large, but we hope you will find it comfortable here.”

“It’s lovely,” Alexa replied truthfully. Her apartment on Eridani had been quite nice, but she hadn’t been expecting to have this much room on a space station. “Thank you, Ms. Amadi.”

“Chima,” the other woman said at once. “Since we are going to be working together, after all. Do you mind if I call you Alexa?”

“Not at all.”

“Excellent. Well, Alexa, I’ll leave you to get settled in. Here is a new tablet for you.” She set the device, smaller and sleeker than the one Alexa had lost on Mandala, on the kitchenette’s faux-travertine counter. “You’ll find a schematic of the station on there, so you should be able to find Ambassador Castillo’s office without any problem. It is on Deck Five. I’ll let him know that you’ll be down to see him in an hour.”

“Thank you, Chima,” Alexa replied, and hoped she would be able to get herself presentable in just an hour. At the moment she felt as if she wanted to spend at least a day scrubbing the last vestiges of Mandala from her hair and skin. Since she knew she didn’t have that luxury, she only added, “I’ll be there.”

Chima smiled and let herself out, and Alexa locked the door behind her. For a second she stood in the middle of the small, luxurious apartment, looking around, trying to get used to the trappings of civilization after spending days tramping through the woods of an alien planet. Then she took a deep breath, shook her head, and went to the bathroom. She didn’t have a day, but twenty minutes was better than nothing.

All right, half an hour.

L
irzhan sat directly
across from Ambassador Trazhar in her elegant office decorated in the blue and green shades his people so loved. Her gloved hands knotted on top of the desk of polished pale wood. “You are certain? This woman, this human, is
sayara
?”

“Yes, Ambassador.” The disapproval emanating from her was palpable, and he made sure his tone was neutral as he replied, “It is not without precedent.”

“The barest precedent,” she replied. Then she sighed. “But if you have felt it, then it is true, and we must do what we can to work with the situation. This Alexa Craig — have you told her of it?”

“I have.”
More than told her — kissed her, tasted her lips, knew then that she was the missing half of my soul.

Ambassador Trazhar leaned back in her chair. “And how did she react?”