Captivated (31 page)

No one took notes; they wouldn’t have been allowed to leave the room with them anyway. So they nodded and if they had questions, Wil knew they’d ask.

“Up until recently this was the biggest threat Ciro Fardelle posed to us. We’re a superior fighting force. We have more soldiers with better equipment and training. We’ve finally achieved the upper
hand in Silesia. So much that we’re able to declare it ours. The other edge ’Verses will go the same.”

“What of casualties?” Vicktor Pela, the leader of House Pela asked. The man had been through the last battles at Varhana. Had lost an arm leading his column to victory there. He understood the costs of war better than most.

“Ours are minor. Theirs are not.” They would of course continue to keep their aim locked on military targets to keep the counts as low as possible for civilians, but that was a fact of war and not one he liked to ignore. But they would continue and there was no way around it.

Pela nodded and indicated Wil should continue.

“As I said, up until recently we’d thought Fardelle’s portal-collapsing device was our biggest worry. New data has come to light that this is not so. Fardelle has been testing a bio-weapon. A virus containing the most virulent and hearty elements of several of the most deadly viruses we’ve seen in the history of humanity. We don’t know where he got the stock originally, but we know he’s tested it on civilians, including his young son, who died after exposure.”

The room roiled with angry outbursts and Ellis understood it. But they needed to get focused again so he rapped on the table with his knuckles. Roman smirked behind the hands he had steepled in front of his mouth, knowing Ellis could handle this but clearly amused by it.

“Hold your questions to the end, if you will, please. We’ve got our teams working on this at the highest priority. We’ve got specialists in virology consulting with us on not only identifying this virus but finding it and destroying it properly and removing any data there may be concerning this virus. This is not something we’re taking public at this time. The panic would be devastating. We’ve got enough on our plates at this point that to add this would be foolish. And dangerous. There is
no
reason to believe this virus has made it into our territory.
But we do know there are links between a cross-border initiative, some of whose members were kidnapped and held against their will, subjected to mental and physical torture to obtain information. This information was not given by the Federated Universes’ citizen who we freed. I’ve viewed her debrief, both a physical one on multiple occasions and just recently she submitted to a mental debrief. You should understand this woman was subjected to forms of torture designed to break her mind so submitting to our mental debrief process was a great sacrifice on her part.”

He took a deep breath. Hannah Black was an unlikely savior, but saviors were rarely likely in his experience anyway.

“We are working with public health agencies on each Federated Universe under the guise of general preparedness. We have key personnel on our teams who can guide these agencies in having plans in place should a virus of this nature be released here in our territory, while keeping the specifics on a need-to-know basis.”

They asked him questions for some time after he’d completed his presentation. He’d assured them the best he could, given the reality of the situation. He knew there was a team heading to Caelinus right as he spoke bent on destroying not only the lab and the virus stocks but Fardelle himself. They didn’t need to know that information at this point and if things went as planned, no one ever needed to.

He hoped they went as planned.

He hurried out, late as usual for the next meeting. Such was his life since all this nonsense with the Imperium started.

His secretary gave him a narrow-eyed glance. “Have you eaten at all today?”

“I think so.” Wil shuffled through the pile of papers he was sure were all important but found nothing so pressing the world would blow up if he didn’t deal with right then.

“You could delegate some of this work to Daniel, you know.”

A shiver went through him at the voice as he turned slowly to face Katrine Rooney. Today she wore one of those skirts, form hugging, tight at the knee so she’d walk just right. Along with a crisp white shirt. Her hair pulled back into a bun at the back of her head. Her eyes were so blue they reminded him of the sky back on Kwen Lun where he’d spent his first years. Before his parents had …

He shook his head to get rid of that memory.

“I’m sorry I’m late for our meeting. The last one went long.”

She laughed and walked closer in those heels.
Click, click, click.
He wondered if underneath that skirt she wore garters. Something he frequently wondered about where Katrine was concerned. She’d taken over from her predecessor a standard year before and had done a far more competent job than he had. This had surprised Wilhelm because he was sure no one would take a woman who looked the way she did seriously.

But she was no ordinary woman. Bold. Sharp. Smart. She brooked nothing but the finest performance from everyone in her department. Since she’d come on, the relationship between the military corps and other branches of Federated governance had improved. Streamlined.

“Reuss contacted me to let me know. I always have other work and I know this is a busy time for you.” She put a hand on her hip. “Come with me. I’m starving and you certainly need to eat as well.” She winked at Reuss and he blushed. Wilhelm was fairly sure he’d never seen the man blush except when Abbie visited him. But she made everyone blush.

Just business, he told himself. He could have lunch with her and do his job. They had an appointment anyway.

V
incenz checked his kit bag one last time. Julian had gone into mission headspace and so Vincenz left him alone.

Hannah was doing an inventory of her bag across from him at the small, rough-hewn table. They’d made it to Monteh and had holed up in a safe house his connections had procured for them.

They’d head from here to a private portal, one of the last remaining in the Imperium, and straight to Caelinus. Full circle, he supposed. It felt odd, being back in the Imperium this far. Silesia was close enough to what the Edge felt like in Federated Territory. But Monteh was close to Caelinus; the culture was strikingly similar.

The carts at the edge of the town’s main street had been selling seeded tea cakes. His grandmother, YaYa they’d called her, would serve cakes just like it when Vincenz and his sister Carina would spend their afternoons with her.

He’d spent a lot of time pretending not to miss this place that wasn’t only his home, but all the ’Verses he’d been raised and trained to lead when he was old enough to take over from his father.

Before they’d left Mirage, Wilhelm had spoken with him privately. Asked him if he’d be willing to lead the Imperium after the war was over. He’d been taken aback, not even knowing how to answer.

It had always been his assumption that he’d do just that. Until his father had clamped down harder and harder on the people. Vincenz had opposed such brutality, had pushed his father to see reason. To open up their society and award his people the freedoms they deserved.

But from the start, his father—and more notably, his father’s new advisors—had put into his mind that Vincenz was out to steal the leadership from Ciro. That Vincenz had been working on an assassination plot.

And then they’d created their own assassination plot to take Vincenz out. His grandmother had heard it and passed it to him and his mother. They’d wanted to hide it from Carina, keep her safe, but Vincenz had tried to find support to stay and deal with his father, but he’d been young and without the base he needed. He could have
taken the Skorpios if he’d tried, but he hadn’t been sure if they’d have held in the long run. Most of them were addicted to the drugs his father’s people put in their food bars and were dependent on his father for their very survival. He couldn’t promise them anything until he was in power enough to find a way to end their addiction.

In the end he’d had to get out with a great deal of information in his head and enough credits to get him to the Waystation.

And then of course they hadn’t trusted him. Not for years. And he understood it on one level. His father wouldn’t have been above sending his oldest son to infiltrate the enemy. And now he was a different person than he’d been when he first arrived. Stronger in most ways. Certainly buoyed by his connection to Julian and Hannah. He’d return a different man than he’d left.

That appealed to him in ways he couldn’t quite put into words. He’d come back not having abandoned them, as had been whispered for years. But as the man who wanted to free them from the tyranny of the elder Fardelle.

He wanted to prove to his people that he hadn’t forgotten.

But did that mean he wanted to stay? To run a government that would be in tatters by the time Roman Lyons was done?

He’d told Ellis that he had to think. That he wanted to do what was best for the people of the Imperium and for those in Federated Territories too.

Whatever he did in the end, his father had to be eradicated. He knew that. Knew certainly that Ellis felt the same. There could be no peace with the man who’d so ruthlessly attacked civilians—his own and those of the Federated Universes. For the man who considered using biological weapons agents on his enemy, who’d let his own son die from those same viruses.

He was a Fardelle. It was his job to deal with his father. And so he would.

“I know this is hard.”

Hannah said this as she wrapped her things up, piece by piece, and put them into her pack. She didn’t look up, probably knowing he couldn’t handle her gaze just then.

“It is what it is.”

“That’s what people say when they don’t know how to say the difficult stuff.”

He snorted. Leave it to Hannah to just say it out loud. “Probably.” He paused. “It’s hard, yes.”

“I like it here. I like the way people dress. It’s like a bouquet of flowers.”

He cocked his head and realized she was right. Greens, reds, yellows and blues dominated the clothing so close to the religious holiday season. “At home they’ll also be dressed this way. I like that part. I’ve missed things. People.”

She nodded. “I imagine so.”

She didn’t push. Didn’t need to really. She understood Vincenz so well he often was humbled by it.

“I should very much like to see my mother again.” That had been very hard. Esta Fardelle had been a fierce protector of her children. She’d risked her life over and over for both Carina and Vincenz. He wanted to hug her, hear her soft voice, see her eyes, which were so very like his sister’s.

“I wager she’ll be delighted.” She swallowed, hard, and Vincenz knew she thought of her own mother, now dead, beyond one last hug.

“Whatever you need, you have.” Julian stood, strapping a knife to his upper arm and pulling his sleeve to cover it. His gaze locked with Vincenz’s.

He knew that too. Which is what made this part a little more bearable.

He stood. “Do you feel comfortable with the plans?” he asked Hannah.

She nodded. “I’ve got the map pretty well memorized. Yes, I’m wearing the dreadful vest.” She sent Julian a glance and he laughed as he sent the clip into place in his weapon.

“Good. They will kill you, Hannah. They’re trained to show no mercy.”

“I remember.”

He sighed, bending to kiss her quickly. “I know. It makes me feel better to remind you.”

“I know.”

“Let’s get moving. The sun has set and we’ve got a very short window to get to the portal before moonrise.”

He checked her pack and she let him without complaint. He checked Julian, who in turned checked them both and she held still for all their poking and prodding.

They headed out the back door of the house and into the field just beyond. It was growing season so the crops, a grain of some sort, were higher than their heads, giving the three of them great cover as they moved away from the town and toward the hinterlands where the private portal was.

Hannah liked it out in the middle of that field. Just the three of them; the sky burned overhead, heavy with stars. Vincenz had seemed to soften when they’d arrived. He’d taken in the stalls and Julian had stolen away to grab some of the tea cakes they knew he loved. She knew Julian would give them to Vincenz when he needed them most.

She remained quiet, humming in her head as she went over the plans over and over in her head. The last thing she wanted to do was to have pushed so hard to be allowed to come on this mission and then fail them in any way. So she kept her mouth shut and followed
Vincenz. Julian was right behind her; the two of them would die to keep her safe, which terrified and exhilarated her all at once.

They loved her.

They’d both told her back in that cave on Asphodel. She’d held the knowledge close to her heart as they’d planned and moved ever closer to Caelinus. When this was over, they’d have to regroup to figure out their future when there was no more war. But she knew they would and that was what counted so much.

After what seemed like an eternity, the moon had begun to rise, so large in the sky above. It sent silvery gold light everywhere. Vincenz had told her they didn’t have night the same way she’d be used to, that the moon was so large and reflective it kept Monteh bathed in some kind of light most every part of the day. People had black-out curtains on their homes, he’d explained, so they could sleep. Businesses also used the same sort of curtains, she’d noted when she and Julian had gone to get a meal while Vincenz had met with his contacts the evening before.

They climbed into a small cleft in some rocks and up a rise only to climb down again and head toward a clearing off in the distance. Or so she thought; she couldn’t see much with all the trees around. But she believed Vincenz and so she continued to walk, grateful to Julian who’d taken on her physical training when they’d retuned from Parron. Her legs would have fallen off with all the hiking, jogging and full-out running they’d done since they left Asphodel.