Ronan: Ziva Payvan Book 3 (33 page)

-46-

HSP Medical Center

Noro, Haphez

The sight of the overturned medical transport and plasma scarring on one of the med center’s landing pads made Ziva’s stomach flop. Never mind the massive frigate lying in the middle of HSP’s campus; the crash had no doubt claimed the lives of multiple agents, but
her
agents – her dearest friends – had been aboard those emergency ships. At the moment, they were a priority.

“Set us down there!” she ordered, gesturing toward the landing pad.

The pilot directed the shuttle toward the place she had indicated. Ziva had the door open and leaped out before the landing gear had even touched the ground. She sprinted toward the wrecked transport, opening a transmission to Skeet as she went. Relief overtook her when she found the overturned ship to be empty, even more so when Skeet’s calm voice answered her call.

“Where the hell are you?” she demanded. Just because he, Zinni, and Aroska weren’t aboard the ship didn’t mean they weren’t still in trouble.

“Right here, Z.”

The voice hadn’t come from the communicator. Ziva looked up and found him walking toward her from the building entrance with the all-too-familiar crease still visible on his forehead.

She waved her arms toward what remained of HSP Headquarters. “Did you see that—?”

“I saw,” he assured her. “Glad you made it safely.”

“I could say the same to you.”

He nodded toward the emergency transport. “It was a close call. If we’d been aboard for an extra sixty seconds….” His voice trailed off and he shifted his attention to the sky. The military ships had resumed their descent into the city, and more were appearing higher up. The smaller vessels – the gunships and fighters – were already upon them, flying low over the HSP campus and circling the
Vigilance
like birds of prey.

“We should move inside,” he said, hustling her back toward the door.

Ziva was eager to get inside as well, though she wasn’t sure if she liked the way Skeet was herding her around. It was one thing to be concerned for her safety, but trying to shelter her was pointless. She’d already been forced to spend the night in Salex for her own protection, and a lot of good that had done.

They entered the building and she followed him down a secondary hallway while the rest of the agents from her shuttle continued down the main corridor. Emeri and Aura waited off to the side, trying to keep themselves in the loop without being in the way of the frantic medical personnel. Both approached upon seeing her and the director muttered a curse, though his tone spoke of nothing but relief.

Ziva realized he was on comm when he began talking but didn’t make eye contact. Based on the nature of the conversation, he was speaking with whoever was in charge of the military’s operations outside. Aura watched her silently, and unless Ziva was mistaken, there may have been a hint of gratitude in her eyes. It was always so hard to tell.

“What are we going to do?” she demanded, not caring whether it was Emeri or Aura who gave her an answer.

“‘We’ aren’t going to do anything,” the director replied, removing his earpiece as he ended his transmission. “The GA is sending troops in to deal with this situation. After the attack on the base, this is technically their jurisdiction. The Royal House has already declared a planet-wide state of emergency and may impose martial law on the city until this mess is cleaned up.”

A pang of some emotion Ziva couldn’t pinpoint coursed through her stomach. As Royal General, Njo would have been responsible for any declarations of emergency or martial law, but she doubted the planet’s other rulers would have allowed him to continue serving in a normal capacity after the nostium exposure. The thought drew her attention to her family, and for just a split second, she felt legitimate concern. “The Royal House?” she asked.

“Your mother and stepfather have been deemed incapacitated,” Emeri replied, picking up on her apprehension. “They’re both still functional following their seizures, but scans aren’t looking good. The countermeasure Na’s scientists developed may help them, but since their symptoms have already manifested, chances are it’s too late. Meanwhile, Royal Officer Ganten is representing the Royal House in both a law enforcement and military capacity, just as General Jaroon did after Officer Tachi’s death.”

Ziva began to nod but then shook her head, shoving the thoughts of her family to the back of her mind. “We need to get down there! This is our agency!”

“I know,” Emeri said, “and we will. The Royal House is coordinating with our Haphor field office to send more support. For now, all we can do is wait until we have a green light from Ganten and the GA. I don’t want you anywhere near that wreck until we know exactly what we’re dealing with here.”

Ziva paused. The way he’d said
you
– he didn’t mean HSP, he didn’t even mean her team. He meant
her
specifically.

“You can’t be serious!” she exclaimed. “You can’t just keep me cooped up in here!”

Emeri dipped his head and sent her a look that compelled her to stand down. “Believe me, I’d love to have my best agent out there in the thick of things, but right now your mind is your best asset. We have plenty of manpower; what we don’t have is firsthand knowledge of how these people operate. You’ve seen that agent we brought in from Haphor. We’re not going to get any information out of our prisoners, at least not soon enough. You’re our best shot.”

In that instant, Ziva felt the entire weight of the planet settle on her shoulders. As much as she didn’t like it, she understood why Emeri wanted to protect her. But never before had she stopped to ponder exactly how much everyone seemed to be relying on her. They may not have known about the nostium or even who she was, but the entire population of Haphez was watching, waiting for someone to do something that would fix all of this. And that someone was her.

“What do you expect me to do?” she demanded, allowing her gaze to flit over to Aura for a fraction of a second. Trying to exclude her from the loop at this point was futile; Emeri may have already explained everything to her by now anyway. She at least knew about the nostium and knew Ziva was involved, and that was enough.

“Help us coordinate our attack,” the probation officer replied in a soft, calm voice that made her sound like a completely different person. “You know how to fight these people.”

So she did know. “You’re all severely overestimating me. I’m
not
one of them.” Ziva wasn’t sure if it was the newfound realization of her burden, lack of sleep, or some combination of the two, but she suddenly felt as though her legs were going to give out underneath her. She hated being the center of attention in the first place, hated having to live up to other people’s smallest expectations. What they were asking of her now was nonsense – surely they had to realize that.

“It has been
ten
years,” she continued, speaking through clenched teeth to keep her jaw from trembling. She hesitated, silently commanding herself to pull it together, and lowered her voice. “This is a new formula. These are new Nosti. They’ve had an entire decade to build and organize their forces. I fought one man.”

“That’s one more than any of the rest of us have fought,” Emeri said.

She looked into his eyes and saw he wasn’t joking. They really wanted her at the forefront of this battle, despite the fact that she’d spent her entire career working from the shadows behind the scenes. That was where she thrived, where she could do her work with minimal interruption and outside influence. She was accountable to no one, had no one watching her, waiting for results.

They were looking at her like they expected her to be able to win this fight for them. She was their secret weapon, albeit unbeknownst to her. Hadn’t providing her brain scans been enough? They had a countermeasure, so she’d already made a valuable defensive contribution, and a risky one at that. Anything more and the entire planet would know she was a Nosti.

The alcove where they all stood had fallen silent as she tried to wrap her head around everything they were asking of her. That silence was broken by the whimpering of children and Ziva turned to find a teary-eyed Sedna Tarbic approaching with Sam and Kasey in tow. The two HSP officers who had escorted her away from the distribution center trailed behind her.

“Where’s my son?” the woman asked, voice steady once again. “My husband?”

“Come with me,” Aura said, leading Sedna and the children away. One of the officers followed.

The other, the one Ziva had addressed in Salex, stepped forward and gave her another quick salute. “Agency materials were recovered from the Tarbic residence,” he said. “A couple of gear packs and research on the abduction. We packed it up and brought it all back with us for you to claim.”

The thought of this man being able to keep his head despite the chaos in Salex brought Ziva a measure of comfort that, for a moment, allowed her to forget her own problems. “Good work.”

“How does it look out there, officer?” Emeri asked.

For the first time, the man seemed to comprehend that he was addressing the Prime Director of HSP. “Not good, sir,” he said, straightening. “We got a good look at the damage on the way in. Between the bombs and the plasma cannons, that ship obliterated everything in its path. There’s a swath of damage along the river and then it cuts across the city to Headquarters.”

Ziva’s eyes widened at the mention of the Tranyi. “Are the homes on the river okay?”

“Hard to tell, Captain. There wasn’t much left of anything out there.”

She turned to Skeet and found that he’d already taken out his communicator. He entered a code and held the device to his ear for several long, uncomfortable seconds before shaking his head. “Transmission’s not even going through,” he said. The crease across his forehead grew deeper than ever.

It felt a little morbid, but the idea of having something important to focus on made Ziva feel better. Anything to keep her mind off the
Vigilance
and the real reasons Emeri didn’t want her anywhere near it.

“Go,” the director said before she even had a chance to turn and ask permission to leave. No, inform him she
was
leaving. “Go check on your house. We’ll handle things here.”

“I’ll come with you,” Skeet said.

“You have a car?” Ziva said, taking the Salex agent by the arm and dragging him along as they turned and began rushing down the corridor. It had been more of a statement than an actual question.

“Yes ma’am, this way.” He led them back out to the landing pad from which they had just come. Another small shuttle from the Salex office sat idling next to the one Ziva had arrived in, and they angled for it.

The past two days had consisted of one blow after another. Just when it seemed like things couldn’t get any worse – or, galaxy forbid, things were actually getting
better
– something else went wrong. Ziva felt the guilt hit her like a punch to the gut when she realized she hadn’t even thought of Marshay and Ryon as she’d watched the bombs fall. As usual, she’d been focused almost exclusively on stopping the enemy rather than who all the victims were. Too often, victims were nameless; she by no means wanted people to die, but there was always a disconnect when they were mere strangers. She wouldn’t go so far as to say she didn’t care about them, but when there was no connection, she preferred to stay in combat mode, not slip into rescue mode.

But these events had been different. All the attacks had involved her, someone she was close to, or someone one of those people was close to. The same feelings that had propelled her out of the med center and to Haphor two nights ago propelled her again now as the shuttle lifted from the landing pad and passed over the ruined city.

Skeet had his communicator out again and was attempting to connect to her home comm. He didn’t even need to say anything; a subtle wag of his head was all it took for her to know it still wasn’t working. Marshay and Ryon carried personal mobile comms but only when they were out of the house. Ziva tried these and drew the same results. She tried to convince herself that a comm tower had simply been taken out in the attack, scrambling communications, but a voice in the back of her mind quietly reminded her of far more gruesome scenarios that were more likely. That voice was rarely wrong.

Skeet once again repeated the process of initiating a transmission, waiting, and disconnecting. The look on his face told Ziva he thought it was a lost cause but that he continued trying for her benefit.

“Everyone made it back safely,” he said quietly.

Ziva watched him quizzically for a moment but caught herself when she realized she hadn’t asked about Zinni, Aroska, the children, even Maston. She’d been happy to see Skeet and Emeri because they could answer her immediate questions, and that had been enough. She spent a moment silently berating herself before giving Skeet a nod of thanks and returning her communicator to her belt. If nobody had answered by now, she doubted they were going to. Turning back to face the front of the shuttle, she directed all her focus toward what she could see through the viewport.

With the faster vehicle and the air free of traffic, the journey to the homes along the Tranyi River took just under ten minutes. Columns of black smoke billowed into the morning sky at intervals, marking the path of destruction into the city. Some of the larger estates further to the east appeared to have escaped the carnage, but her own home was located at the apex of the curve the
Vigilance
had followed as it moved toward downtown. She pointed the Salex agent in the right direction and clenched her jaw as the house came into view.