Aurora Rising: The Complete Collection (48 page)

The woman may be difficult to provoke, but it seemed Alex had located her breaking point. She searched around for a more sympathetic audience. “Richard, how did you know?”

A puzzled expression came over his face. “A copy of his internal Senecan Intelligence Division personnel file arrived in my comms a few minutes ago. Anonymous source.”

“Seriously? Isn’t that a little odd?” Who knew Caleb was here? His boss Volosk, perhaps? She wasn’t sure how much Caleb had revealed to him. And how did anyone know to send the information to Richard? Also,
why
?

He shrugged. “Sure, but does it matter where it came from?”

“Yes it matters, because there are a lot of suspicious things going on around this ‘war.’” She pinched the bridge of her nose in a futile attempt to stave off the encroaching headache. “Listen, we were planning to tell you. I wanted to get a few items regarding the aliens covered first is all.” Her gaze flitted to one then the other. “I’m sorry we deceived you, but it was necessary to get in the door.”

Richard gave her a small smile. Miriam did not, but her glare did soften from somewhere around absolute zero to a mere icy chill. “I believe you thought you were doing the right thing. You’re not a professional. You were taken in by a handsome, manipulative man—you always did have a weakness for the roguish ones—and made a mista—”

“Don’t you
dare
.”

“I’m merely—”

“If you use that condescending tone with me one more time, I swear I will walk out of here right now and you will never see me again.”

Cast-iron bitch mode faltered. Miriam’s eyes darted to Richard, then the window. Finally she nodded almost imperceptibly. Almost.

Alex smiled thinly, her voice tight under the strain of forcing it to remain even. “Putting aside Caleb’s status for a moment, let’s get back to the alien army. We can at least do something about
it
, I hope. Do I need to review my report with the Board? With someone else?”

“The science advisors to the Board are still studying the report—” her mother held up a hand to forestall the interruption “—but they should be finished by this evening. I’m certain they will sign off on its veracity, at which point it will be forwarded to the Board members. General Alamatto would like you to present your findings tomorrow afternoon.”

“Tomorrow.
Afternoon
.”

“Yes. A meeting is scheduled for 1500. Its primary business will be the war of course, but you’re tentatively scheduled to present as well.”

“You do understand I raced here at practically reckless speed, not getting any sleep working on the damn report, all so I could get this information in front of people who mattered immediately?”

“Yes I understand it. If it were up to me, we would be meeting now. Difficult decisions lie ahead and the sooner we get started on them the better.”

“Fine. Tomorrow. What can I do now? Can I talk to these ‘advisors’? I imagine they’re quite educated and whatnot, but forgive me if I’m skeptical of their sense. Who is—”

“There’s nothing you need to do. The matter is well in hand.”

She thought about Caleb, locked up overnight in…she had to find out where the MPs took him. “Then if the Board has ‘science advisors’ and everyone’s getting the report, do I need to present at all? I made sure the summary could be understood by laymen, and hell, even bureaucrats. I’m not certain what my presence really adds.”

“It transforms a sterile data file into something real. Your passion can convince them when visuals cannot—but not too much passion, please? It will be counterproductive for you to cause a scene. And don’t even think about bringing up your wild ideas concerning the war or you are likely to find yourself forcibly removed from the meeting.”

“I’ll take it under advisement.” She tried to pulse Caleb to warn him she might be a little while, but it bounced. She sent a message…which bounced. Terrific.

“Well if there’s nothing for me to do, I should get out of your way. I imagine you have a nonsensical, moronic war to run or some such. Richard, walk me out?”

He nodded, though he seemed distracted. “Sure.”

“Alexis?”

She looked back at her mother, an eyebrow raised in question.

“I
am
glad you made it back safe.”

You have no idea.
She left without responding and waited for Richard on the other side of the door.

He was grimacing as the door closed behind him. “Alex, I’m sor—”

“Let’s wait until we get outside.” He frowned but complied. He probably hadn’t been intending on joining her the entire way to her vehicle, but she indicated for him to enter the lift ahead of her. Once it was underway she stepped closer to him, her voice low.

“You’re an intelligent, rational, reasonable man. I need you to hear me out with an open mind, okay?” He didn’t protest, so she continued. “You know I feel no particular love for Seneca, and why. But we—I—believe they did not intend to assassinate the Trade Minister, and they absolutely did not intend to start a war. Now—” she motioned his interruption silent as the lift came to a stop at the parking lot “—we didn’t order the attack on Palluda, did we?”

The flicker in his eyes was all the answer she required. “I didn’t think so. Richard, this war is a
setup
. Now maybe it’s because someone wants to finish what was started over two decades ago, or maybe it’s…maybe it’s something worse. Regardless of the reason for it, the result will be to divide and weaken all our forces, leaving us exposed and vulnerable when these aliens attack. We need to see past the trickery and work together.”

They reached her skycar and he turned to her. He wore a troubled expression, one she had rarely seen from him. “Do you realize what you’re asking? This isn’t some little side conflict. This is the real thing. We can’t simply hold hands and kiss and make up. And how would we even begin to prove any sort of trickery or deception?”

“That’s what we were going to tell you. Caleb’s superiors think if they could examine the details of the Trade Minister’s assassination they may be able to prove it wasn’t committed by the man who’s been accused.”

“Senecan Intelligence knows as much about the assassination as we do. If they haven’t found a way to prove it by now….”

“They don’t have his body. They don’t have the medical details on how he died.”

He rolled his eyes at the heavens and paced in a tight circle. “Alex, you can’t expect us to give the Senecans Santiagar’s
corpse
.”

“And I don’t. But your medical people performed an autopsy and analyzed the cybernetics dump, didn’t they? It’s possible there’s information in those findings you wouldn’t recognize as important but which might be a clue for them, right?”

He dragged a hand down his face. A heavy sigh escaped beneath it…then he gazed back at her, and she knew she had lost. “I’m sorry, but I
can’t
. I may possess a moderate amount of power, but nothing near the power necessary to do what you’re suggesting.”

Dammit. “Well, can you at least release Caleb? He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“He gained admittance to Strategic Command Headquarters using a false name and false pretenses. He’s an enemy combatant under any definition.”

“He did so only at my request—my insistence.”

“Which doesn’t help him and hurts you. I try to assert that argument and you get arrested, no matter who your mother is.”

Dammit
. She quickly schooled her expression. If he wasn’t going to help, she shouldn’t reveal anything further to him. She smiled with as much warmth as she could muster and clasped his hands in hers. “Okay. Thank you for listening. What will they do with him?”

“He’s in a holding cell over in the security building for now. A judge will determine his status in a few days, but I imagine he’ll be deemed a prisoner of war and transferred to the military prison down in San Francisco.”

“I understand. Now I’m afraid I must go home and prepare for this presentation tomorrow. Take care of yourself, will you?”

“Look, I’m not unsympathetic to your position. I wish I could help.”

“I know. Just…well, it doesn’t matter.” She climbed in the car before she gave any more away.

She felt his gaze following her as the car rose and banked away from the lot, but her focus had already shifted inward.

She had a lot of work to do.

42

EARTH

S
EATTLE

“
I
T’S A GOOD THING
you let me know you were on Earth when you did. I was half an hour from catching the transport back to Erisen.”

Alex embraced Kennedy warmly then slid into the chair opposite her. The table by the window, high above downtown Seattle, revealed a sea of glittering lights against the night sky, but for once she was almost too distracted to notice. “You didn’t have to come all the way up here just for a quick dinner. I wish I had more time.”

Kennedy scoffed and poured a glass from the already-opened bottle of wine. “Don’t be ridiculous. I hardly ever get to see you as it is.” She peered at Alex and frowned. “And you look stressed, so get to drinking.”

Alex took a long sip of the wine. “I’ve had one hell of a week.”

“Do tell.”

She sighed and relaxed a bit in the chair. “Let’s see. I got into a space firefight, blew up the other ship, semi-crashed onto an uninhabitable planet in the middle of nowhere, rescued the pilot, held him prisoner—”

“Ooh,
him
? This sounds exciting.”

“Yeah, well. So we repaired my ship and—”

“Wait, ‘we’? I thought he was your prisoner?”

“He was. Then he wasn’t. Then he sort of….”

Her eyes brightened in delight. “How was he?”

“Ken, I haven’t slept with him.”

“Why not?”

“Because
I
don’t sleep with every handsome stranger who crosses my path.”

“So he’s handsome?”

She bit her lower lip and took another sip to hide the extent of her grin. “Oh yes. Now would you let me finish my story? It’s important.”

Kennedy waved a hand in her direction and leaned back as the waiter brought their appetizer.

She waited until the waiter departed before continuing. “So we repaired my ship and went to investigate some strange readings coming from the center of the Metis Nebula—and found an alien army amassing for an invasion.”

Her best friend stared at her, flat-faced. “That’s not funny. You were never any good at telling jokes, you know this.”

“It’s not a joke.”

Perhaps recognizing the deadly serious expression on Alex’s face, a frown grew on her lips. “Aliens?
Truly
?”

“Truly.”

“Well, are you sure they’re invading? I mean, maybe they’re simply dropping by to say ‘hi’?”

She couldn’t risk displaying an aural where others might see; she sent one of the visuals instead. “What do you think?”

Across the table, Kennedy’s eyes widened precipitously in growing horror. The blood drained from her face, blanching her tanned skin pale. “My god…Alex, this….” She swallowed hard. “What are we doing about it?”

“That remains to be seen. The Prime Minister’s Science Advisor is ‘reviewing’ the material. The EASC Board is ‘reviewing’ the material. I’m shouting at them tomorrow.”

“Shit, if they don’t take action you should leak this to the media.”

“And cause a galactic panic? I’m not sure it’s a great idea. The average person can’t do anything against this kind of threat. The military is the only one who
can
act.”

She frowned again, more deeply than before. “You said they’re in the Metis Nebula? The Senecans are much closer than we are. Shouldn’t they maybe be warned? I realize apparently we’re at war with them again for some reason, but….”

“It’s okay. They already know.”

“You managed to get this information to the Senecan government? Impressive, even for you.”

“Not exactly. My, um…the guy…is Senecan…” her voice trailed off “…Intelligence.”

Kennedy’s mouth fell open. “Oh my god this is better than one of those intrigue romance novels.”

“Ken, it’s not a romance novel.”

“Mmhmm. So where is he now? Is he here? Can I meet him?”

She cringed and stuffed a bite of escargot in her mouth. “He’s in lockup over at EASC Security Detention….”

“You turned him
in
?”

“No, I didn’t turn him in. His cover got blown.”

“Damn. What are you going to do? Are you going to leave him there?”

“No—well for the moment, yes, because making sure the military gets off their asses and gets ready for these aliens is more important. But that brings me to the actual point of the story. I mean other than warning you there was an impending alien invasion no one knows about.”

“Which would be?”

“Is Claire still in San Francisco?”

Kennedy sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “What makes you think I know where she is?”

Alex rolled her eyes and leveled a
look
across the table. “
Is
Claire still in San Francisco?”

She blew out a breath through tight lips. “She is.”

“Do you know how to get in touch with her?”

“I…do. But not to use her or procure…whatever she might offer. I only, well, it never hurts to keep in touch with former acquaintances and potential future resources. Can I ask why you need to contact her?”

“Because I need a damn good spoofing routine and I don’t have time to write one myself.”

Kennedy’s brow furrowed a moment—then realization dawned. “Oh…I see. He must really be something.”

“It’s not that. It’s my fault he was arrested. I’m the one who asked him to come with me here, and I dragged him right into EASC Headquarters. He may work for
whatever
they are—it sounds absurd to call the Senecans the ‘enemy’ when there’s a real enemy looming in the wings—but he didn’t do anything wrong. I can’t leave him in a prison cell to rot.”

“Because you’re a decent person, even if you don’t like to admit it. Still…he must really be something.”