Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 (10 page)

-23-

Tarbic Residence

Noro, Haphez

Aroska listened patiently to Ziva’s story in its entirety, though he struggled to keep his mind from wandering. He forced himself to pay attention by watching her mouth move as she spoke. It was amazing that so much had happened in the past forty hours. He’d been telling the truth when he said his viewscreen wasn’t working – Tachi’s death, Ziva’s escape, it was all news to him. When he got to thinking about it, he wasn’t sure how much he would have cared about any of it if Ziva herself wasn’t sitting there in front of him now.

He studied her intently as she continued regaling him with the events of the past two days. He had to laugh to himself – the borrowed clothes fit her rather awkwardly, but she seemed comfortable enough and she certainly smelled better than she had when she’d first come in. He would see to it that, if anything, the rest of her belongings received a proper cleansing before she left.

“She gave me a few credits to get by on until I can make it off the planet,” she was saying, speaking of Jada and her experience in her step-father’s palace the night before. “I came straight here after leaving there early this morning.”

There had always been something fascinating about Ziva’s face that Aroska couldn’t put his finger on. It wasn’t just her eyes, the feature that had so effectively captured his attention the first time he’d caught sight of her. Despite the fact that her countenance often appeared to be carved out of stone, she was still one of the most striking women he knew. She had a rather narrow jaw and high, sharp cheekbones, but the wisdom and experience spoken by her eyes counteracted the severity of her other features. Her hair had taken on a wavy form while damp, and it hung loose like a black frame around her pale face, giving her a very innocent air that was totally foreign to him. He realized he hardly noticed her scar anymore.

He was suddenly aware she had stopped talking, and he looked up find her staring him down through slightly narrowed eyes. Her jaw was set and she looked altogether unhappy, but at the same time Aroska could tell her mind was elsewhere. Judging by her appearance and body language, the woman was exhausted and trying hard not to show it. Despite the fact that he’d only known her for a short time, the way she shut others out and tried to do everything herself still drove him mad. The behavior posed too many unnecessary risks for his taste.

“Are you going to do this or not?” she demanded.

“That depends.”

Ziva scowled. “On what?”

“On whether or not you killed Tachi,” he replied. “So, did you do it?”

She shook her head in disgust and made no move to respond. For a moment Aroska couldn’t tell if she was looking at him, but he concluded that she was looking past him at nothing in particular while the wheels inside her head spun. Ziva gnawed at the inside of her bottom lip, her eyes once again narrowed slightly.

Her hesitation made Aroska’s stomach flop over and he suddenly felt very wary. “Ziva?”

“No,” she snapped, her eyes shifting back over to meet his. “The galaxy knows I would have liked to.” She shook her head again.

Aroska lifted an eyebrow. “Sounds like there’s an interesting story there.”

“
Later
.”

He sighed and placed a hand on the little ashtray, wishing desperately for his govino stick as he spun it in a slow circle and listened to it scrape against the surface of the table. “I’m still not sure I understand what exactly you want me to do.”

Ziva let her leg down and scooted her chair in, leaning forward a bit with her hands folded. “I have a plan,” she said, “and I doubt you’re going to like it.”

Aroska wanted to laugh out loud, but he resorted to a short snicker and nodded slowly. As much as he was tempted to refuse, there was something in her eyes that went to work on him, just as it had when his hand had been the only thing keeping her from plunging over a cliff to her death. He wondered briefly if she always got people to do her bidding just by looking at them.

“Let’s hear it, then,” he said with a shrug.

“You want to know why I came to you. It’s because you’re my only resource. Trying to contact anyone on the inside – Skeet, Zinni, even Adin and his team – would be suicide on my part, not to mention the other party would probably be imprisoned or fired at the least. What I need is someone I can send inside, someone who can get close enough to Dasaro to monitor the progress of the investigation. It has to be someone they wouldn’t suspect.”

Now Aroska did laugh. “You want me to be your mole inside HSP.”

Ziva nodded but said nothing, keeping her hands folded in front of her mouth as her crimson gaze continued to bore into him.

“You’re crazy,” he said. “That’s insane. I don’t work for HSP anymore.”

“You were still on the payroll last time I checked. What do they have you out on? Medical leave?
Psych
leave?”

Aroska sat up straight and leaned toward her. “I told you before, that’s none of your business.”

Ziva glared at him for a moment before sitting back in her chair with one leg crossed over the other. She folded her arms and any shred of innocence vanished from her face. “Fine,” she muttered, “whatever helps you sleep at night. But you can’t deny that you have a problem.”

“I’m not denying anything!” Aroska exclaimed, fighting away a sudden wave of nausea that coursed through his stomach. A good portion of the bottles he had just cleaned up were from the previous night, and some were even from early that morning.

Ziva stood up and approached him, perching on the edge of the table just to his right. Her arms were still crossed as she bent down closer to him, eyes ablaze. “You’re
going
to help me,” she growled. “The fact that
I’m
the one asking should be reason enough.”

Aroska was too focused on the churning in his stomach to pay much attention to what she was saying, let alone come up with a snappy response. He felt his intestines cramp violently and managed to lean away from Ziva just as he spewed vomit all over himself and the table.

Ziva sighed and stared forward, unfazed. Neither of them said anything for several awkward moments, and the only sound to be heard was the soft gurgling in Aroska’s belly. Finally Ziva rose to her feet, leaning down to whisper in his ear before walking away. “I once put someone through a thirty-hour detox,” she said. “It almost killed him. I hope you can handle it better.”

Queasy and thoroughly embarrassed, Aroska moaned and let his pounding head come to rest on the table.

-24-

Capital Medical Center

Haphor, Haphez

When Kade stepped out of the med center elevator, he immediately directed his attention to a nearby workstation where a cluster of nurses were going over some files on a large holographic screen. Feeling rather self-conscious with his face still bruised, he made his way toward them, dodging a medical bot that zipped past him carrying a tray of surgical tools.

One of them, a heavier-set woman wearing brightly colored eye makeup, looked up as he approached. The shock was apparent in her face as she assessed his injuries.

“Can I help you, son?” she asked, eyes wide and eyebrows arched.

Kade flashed his HSP identification halfheartedly. “Agent Shevin, Royal Guard,” he introduced himself. “I’m looking for an HSP agent who was brought in yesterday.”

The woman shrugged and placed her hands on her hips. “Honey, you’ll have to be more specific than that. Thanks to some ‘domestic disputes’ that got out of hand last night, we’ve got twelve of your friends in here.”

“The name is Spence. He was the survivor of a crash involving a prisoner transport.”

“Oh yes,” one of the other younger nurses piped up, shooting an irritated glance at her associate. “Follow me, please.”

She gave him a flirtatious once-over as she slipped around the counter and began moving down the hall. Kade strode along behind her, wondering what he was going to say to Spence. The reports said the man had suffered some mild brain trauma in the crash. By now, they’d all heard about the ludicrous claim he was making, but so far nobody seemed to believe him. Questioning him again seemed futile, and for a moment Kade wondered what he was even doing there. The thought occurred to him that Zona had given him this assignment for no other reason than to get him out of the agency’s hair.

After a minute of walking and weaving back and forth around busy bots and medical personnel, the young nurse stopped in front of a room with an open door.

“He’s in here, Agent Shevin,” she said, leaning up against the door frame with an appreciative smirk. She looked like she couldn’t have been more than a year his elder, if not his age. “You know, maybe you should let me take a look at that eye of yours.” She reached out to touch his bruised face.

Appalled, Kade gently brushed her hand away and took a slight step back. “Thanks, but they cleared me yesterday,” he said. “And…” he held up his left hand, displaying the fragile silver band – hardly more than a wire – that adorned his middle finger. It was identical to the one he had given Veya when they were married two years before.

“Oh,” the nurse muttered, sounding more annoyed than apologetic. “It never fails.” She pivoted and stormed back in the direction from which they had come.

More than relieved, Kade stepped into the room and let his eyes adjust to the dim yellowish light cast by the panels surrounding the base of the bed. Agent Spence was lying there, dressed in a comfortable hospital tunic and pants. His chest was thick as if it was heavily bandaged under the clothing, and he had a sturdy brace around his neck. An IV line ran into his left arm, but other than the oxygen mask over his face, he seemed to be in incredibly good shape considering what he’d been through. He turned his head to look when Kade entered.

“Damn,” he muttered. Kade could barely hear him through the mask. “How many more of you are they going to send?”

Again, Kade displayed his HSP credentials. “Royal Guard,” he said. “My name is Kade Shevin. I understand it’s been a long couple of days, but would you mind answering a few questions?”

Spence mumbled what sounded like another curse and pulled himself into a more upright position. According to the report he was in his late thirties, having worked in HSP’s field ops division for the past sixteen years. His dirty blonde hair was streaked with vivid yellow stripes that matched his eyes and were accentuated by the lighting in the room. He gasped a bit and placed a hand on his wounded chest before sighing and easing back against the pillows.

“Sorry kid, that was a little harsh,” he said after pulling his mask down. “You can’t blame a man though, not after the day I’ve had. It’s hard to feel up to being debriefed by everyone on the Fringe when all you want to do is overdose on painkillers and catch some much needed shut-eye.”

It suddenly struck Kade how much the two of them had in common. “I couldn’t agree with you more,” he said, pulling up a chair a comfortable distance from the bed.

Spence nodded up at him, eyeing his purple face and his crushed nose. “So what’s your story?”

“I had my own run-in with Payvan,” he responded as he took a seat and examined the data pad of notes Zona had sent with him.

“That’s right,” Spence said. “You were the guy who got flattened outside Tachi’s palace. I saw you on the news – looked like you wanted to be anywhere but that press conference.”

After two nights and a full day of listening to such statements, Kade was growing weary of the conversation. “Agent Spence, if you don’t mind, I’m here to talk about
you.
”

“Right,” Spence sighed, placing the mask back over his mouth for a few seconds. “We were fine until we cleared the final checkpoint, then all hell broke loose. One second I’m staring out the window, just wishing the trip was over, and suddenly the car is going down and I’m trying to wrestle Payvan off of me.”

Kade reviewed the information on the data pad. “First responders reportedly found the force field control switch in the ‘off’ position. Same can be said for the switch that released Payvan’s cuffs. Even if she
wasn’t
cuffed, she obviously couldn’t have reached through that field to mess with the switches. Any idea what happened?”

“Don’t tell me you think I had something to do with her escape!” Spence exclaimed. “I swear I didn’t touch anything! Everything was working fine; the energy shield was activated, the switches were on, but…maybe they got moved when Gerrit’s gun came loose from his holster.”

“The gun ‘came loose’ from the holster? This was before the car started to go down?”

“I…I think…that doesn’t make any sense. Everything happened so fast, I can’t be sure. There was some turbulence – we were dealing with wind gusts the whole way to Haphor. Maybe that knocked it loose.”

Kade sighed, beginning to wonder himself if the man was delusional or not. “Okay,” he said, jotting down some notes with the data pad’s stylus. “Let’s move on.”

“I remember hitting my head,” Spence continued, “but I must have blacked out after that because the next thing I knew we were on the ground. I could hear Payvan moving around in the back, and once she broke out I figured she was long gone. When I saw her come around to the front of the car, I thought for sure she was going to kill me. Instead, she took the time when she could have been making a run for it to pull me out of there.” Spence shook his head, and unless it was Kade’s imagination, his chin wobbled a bit. “The doctors say I probably wouldn’t have made it if she’d just left me.”

Intrigued, Kade wrote faster. What business did Payvan have saving the life of a man who was transporting her to prison after she’d assassinated the Royal Officer? The story excited him, but at the same time it contradicted everything he’d been made to believe about the woman.

“Did she ever say anything to you?”

Steam clouded the inside of Spence’s mask as he took another breath from it. “She said something right before she pulled me out, but I was having trouble focusing. I think she told me to hang on. All I wanted was to get out of there so I let her drag me out. I figured if I was going to die I might as well let her put me out of my misery instead of drowning in my own blood. She sat me up against a tree and took my weapon and my comm. She told me to hold on again, help was coming.”

Spence paused and placed a hand on his chest, staring vacantly ahead. “I know there was something else,” he murmured. “My ears were ringing and I could barely understand her.” He closed his eyes. “They say I suffered some head trauma, and I…I’m sorry, Shevin. I honestly can’t remember.”

For a while, Kade said nothing. His gaze was fixed on the data pad, though he realized he was neither reading nor retaining any of the information it displayed. He let his mind race, lost in the rhythmic beeping of the machine pumping oxygen through Spence’s mask. So many questions had yet to be answered.

“I know it sounds crazy. Everyone seems to think I’ve lost my mind, but I know what happened. Please tell me you believe me, Shevin.”

Kade sat forward in the chair, rubbing his tired eyes before bringing his elbows down to rest on his knees. “Let’s put it this way: I don’t
not
believe you. There’s too much going on and too many different stories floating around for me to figure out exactly what I
do
believe.”

Spence nodded in agreement. “Before that crash yesterday, I felt pretty sure of things. All of the evidence seemed solid, and your witness statement seemed to back it up. But it doesn’t make any sense. What would have compelled Payvan to stick around and risk being captured again just so she could rescue me?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Kade said. “And why wouldn’t she have just finished me off before breaking into the palace? What good did it do to keep me – a witness – alive? I suppose the obvious answer is that she wasn’t planning on getting caught, but something isn’t right there either. What special ops veteran would leave evidence of their presence even if it would theoretically be destroyed? I know I wouldn’t.”

Spence scoffed. “Do they really expect everyone to believe all of this?”

“I don’t know,” Kade replied, “but people
do
believe it, and anyone who dares to ask a question gets shot down. If I didn’t know any better I’d think someone is covering something up. Personally I can’t wait to get to the bottom of this.” He stood up and pocketed the stylus. “Thank you for your time, Spence. Is there anything I can do for you while I’m here?”

The agent thought a moment then nodded toward an empty water container on the bedside table. “I’ll take another round.” He managed a weak smile.

Kade smiled as well at the attempted humor and set the data pad down in the chair, taking up the bottle. A small lavatory was situated across the room, the door standing halfway open. He angled toward it.

“I didn’t do what they said I did.”

Kade spun around, puzzled. “Come again?”

“That’s the other thing she said. Payvan.” He replaced the mask once again.

Feeling rather overwhelmed, Kade gestured approvingly with his free hand. “Thank you Spence. Even if it does nothing to further the investigation, it will still help
me
.”

He continued into the little lavatory, lost in thought. After a moment of fiddling with the bottle’s lid, he set the faucet to cold and stood there waiting for the container to fill.

Ziva Payvan had now spared his life as well as someone else’s. Zona’s argument had been that perhaps Payvan
thought
she’d killed Kade out on the bridge. Out of respect the young agent had agreed, though it didn’t stop him from reflecting on how he truly felt. No HSP agent in their right mind, whatever rank, would ever walk away assuming an enemy was dead, especially if that enemy was a potential witness to a capital crime. There was the theory that Payvan had been emotionally compromised by her quest to kill Tachi, resulting in her carelessness, but again Kade refused to believe it. This was a spec ops agent who killed for a living, and her very survival hinged on her ability to remain level-headed. Even if the assassination had been emotionally-driven, he doubted she would have allowed herself to get sloppy.

On the other hand, perhaps the others were right. Maybe Payvan had indeed left him for dead and would now come back to finish him off after discovering he had survived. Someone had suggested that she’d only pulled Spence out of the car in a futile attempt at atonement. The thought made Kade shudder; in the back of his mind he’d been giving Payvan the benefit of the doubt, and he dreaded to think of all the time and energy he’d wasted should he turn out to be wrong.

He was suddenly drawn back to the present by the realization that the bottle had overflowed and water was running out over his hand. Startled, Kade transferred it to his other hand and snatched a folded cloth from the shelf above the sink, wiping away the excess water. Fumbling for the controls, he shut the faucet off and returned to the room, where he found the hefty nurse from the workstation waiting in the doorway.

“Agent Shevin, would you mind answering a few procedural questions regarding the care of the other agents we have here? Since you’re here now, I thought it would be more efficient than having to call in to the agency.”

Kade nodded and handed the water bottle to Spence before following the woman out the door. “I’ll see what I can do.”

She led him down the long hallway to a larger room that housed multiple beds, each occupied by one of the HSP Blues involved in the – how had she put it –
domestic disputes
from the previous evening. Their vitals were all displayed on a large viewscreen on the wall outside, saving the medical staff a trip into the room to check them. She began to give him a quick rundown of what some of the readings meant, but he was too preoccupied by the sight down the hall to pay much attention.