Ronan: Ziva Payvan Book 3 (36 page)

When he stopped and thought about it for a moment, he realized the room smelled faintly like Ziva. The idea perplexed him, but then he wondered if it was in fact the other way around – Ziva smelled like the room. Maybe, for all these years, he’d somehow been smelling traces of the nostium in her body. The prisoner from Haphor had smelled so strongly of blood thanks to the wound on his leg, but now that Skeet thought about it, there’d been something strangely familiar about his scent as well. Taking all that into consideration, the occupant of this room was most definitely a Nosti.

He voiced his thoughts to Fay, who was poking at a piece of clothing on the bunk with the barrel of his rifle. The man grunted in response and beckoned for him to approach. “Take a look at this.”

The jacket was black and reinforced with flexible armor like what the rest of the crew had been wearing, but the shields on the shoulders were what caught Skeet’s eye. “Commander,” he said, lifting an eyebrow.

Fay set his rifle down and picked up the jacket to get a better look. “The question is, where is he?” He studied the garment through narrowed eyes for a moment. “
She
,” he corrected himself. “The data from the
Titania
mentioned a Commander Payne. This must be her.”

“No sign of one of those swords,” Skeet pointed out. “If she has one, she must have it with her.”

It was as if they both had the same thought simultaneously. On cue, they each moved back to the door and peered down another narrow corridor that hadn’t been visible from the stairwell. At the end, one of the escape pod hatches stood open, revealing another empty bay. Beyond that, the smoky sky and structures of the city.

Skeet sighed as his mind drifted back to what he’d been pondering outside. That twenty, twenty-five minutes of blindness immediately following the attack…the chaos that had ensued…. If anyone had left the ship during that time, they’d have no idea. And those people would be long gone by now.

Fay vocalized Skeet’s thoughts perfectly as he spoke to his superiors over the comm. “Yes, sir. There’s a Nosti commander loose in Noro.”

-49-

River District Medical Center

Noro, Haphez

By the time Ziva exited the small med center in the residential sector of the city, night had fallen. After an entire day of bright lights, raised voices, gunfire, and constant movement, the dark and stillness felt heavenly. She paused on the steps, shutting out all thoughts of the two charred corpses she’d just identified inside, and allowed herself a brief respite.

It was tempting to just sit down then and there and not get up. Aside from the time she’d spent behind the scope of a rifle and behind the controls of a vehicle, it felt like she’d been on her feet all day. One of those raised voices had been Emeri’s as he’d finally ordered her to go get some rest. She hadn’t wanted to leave Headquarters or the HSP med center; there was still way too much happening. Commander Payne was still at large. The
Vigilance
still lay in the middle of the HSP campus. There were still Resistance bodies that needed to be dealt with. Wounded were still pouring in from around the city. Half of Salex had been destroyed. These things kept her fueled, bolstered her desire to keep working, but she’d also done the math and realized she had nowhere to go if she left. Her home was in shambles, and the two people who had made it anything more than just a house were gone. She needed to keep herself moving.

There was no possible way Ziva could fix all of these problems herself, and when she reminded herself of that, she was almost okay with taking a break. But taking a break also meant unplugging herself from the energy source – the mental outlet – she’d been relying on to carry her through the day. Things had slowed down to the point that she could once again hear herself think. Under any other circumstances, she would have been fine with that, but considering the situation and everything that had happened in the past day, it was the last thing she wanted.

She forced her feet to descend the remaining steps, angling for the unmarked HSP groundcar she’d borrowed. She slid into the pilot’s seat, sitting in silence for a long time before pulling the vehicle out into the street.  The Royal House had gone ahead and placed certain sectors of the city under martial law while the GA and HSP searched for Payne and the
Vigilance’s
other ranking officers, so traffic was minimal. According to the crew manifest someone had pulled from the ship’s logs, there were at least twenty people missing, all of them likely Nosti. Any humans unfortunate enough to be passing through the city were immediately searched, and some even arrested and tested. Only one lieutenant had been found so far, and he’d been thrown into an empty cell in the depths of HSP’s detention wing like the crew of the
Titania
. 

So far none of them had been willing to talk, despite being hounded by Adin, Skeet, several of the GA’s favorite interrogators, and even Emeri himself all afternoon. Ziva had to give them credit; short of HSP’s best ops agents, she’d never seen any soldiers so adept at withstanding questioning. But it was also terrifying, because it meant whatever Ronan was planning was big enough that they were willing to take their own lives to keep it secret.

They’d find out what that secret was soon enough. Despite the detour planetside to deal with the
Vigilance
, the GA had spent most of the day mobilizing a good portion of their fleet and were scheduled to depart for Forus sometime the next day. At this point they were merely waiting to hear back from their scout ships, which had taken off for stealth recon immediately following the crash of the
Titania
. Ziva planned on taking part in any assault on the Resistance base whether Emeri liked it or not, so she imagined it wouldn’t hurt to get a little rest now after all. The
Intrepid
was still docked somewhere at HSP, and the
Zenith
remained in her private landing bay. One of them would serve as a fine temporary home. She only hoped sleep – or, if not sleep, thoughts of the upcoming battle – would be enough to block everything else out of her mind.

She’d been flying for close to fifteen minutes before she stopped and realized she didn’t know where she was going. It wasn’t that she was lost; the scenery, despite being dark, was perfectly familiar. She just wasn’t sure what she was doing there. Ahead on the left, she saw the abandoned house, still empty, where she’d hidden while on the run from Dasaro. Directly across from it sat another house that had turned into a sanctuary for her, a place for recuperating and building a trust that had eventually saved her life. Aroska’s house.

A quiet growl escaped her throat as she pulled over and shut the engine off, giving herself a moment to clear her head. Part of her was still furious with Aroska for dragging her to Salex in the first place and tricking her into coming up to the hill with him, but then she’d been so short with him at the warehouse and the med center. As much as she hated apologies, she probably owed him one. He was hurting, and now that she had no work to throw herself into, she was starting to hurt as well. There was still an hour left until the curfew the GA had established, so perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to go check in on him. And perhaps she’d ended up here because she’d subconsciously been thinking it wouldn’t hurt to have someone to talk to.

She sat and observed his house for a moment, puzzled by the number of vehicles parked outside and the people coming and going. None of them looked familiar, and somehow she doubted Aroska would want much company after the day he’d had. A thought struck her and she reached over to log into the car’s mobile computer. She’d spent plenty of time pondering the way he was trying to get a fresh start, but she hadn’t considered the possibility that that might have included moving.
Leave the old behind
, she thought, entering her spec ops credentials and bringing up her unit’s personnel files.
Leave behind the lingering stench of govino and alcohol and the memory of his near suicide
.

As she’d suspected, a new address appeared on his profile: an apartment building in a nice area closer to downtown. She started the car back up and pulled out into the street. There’d be plenty of time to get there, see how he was holding up, and make it back to one of her ships before the curfew was enforced. She was technically exempt from it thanks to her high-ranking position at HSP, but it wouldn’t keep any overzealous GA officers from stopping her and bombarding her with questions. After everything that had happened that day, that was the last thing she wanted to deal with. 

It took a mere ten minutes to reach the apartment building. It was a newer structure, at least thirty stories tall, with an exterior that appeared to be made primarily of glass. She imagined all the tenants had a great view of the city, regardless of what floor they lived on. It was also only a couple of blocks from the nearly-identical building Skeet lived in. Perhaps that had been part of its appeal. Maston may have been Aroska’s primary source of support, but she had no doubt that Skeet and Zinni had had a hand in his recovery as well.

Ziva checked the apartment number on the display one more time before logging out of the computer and shutting the car off again. She left the vehicle in one of the complex’s lower-level parking bays and made her way to the elevator, riding it up to the twenty-sixth floor. Aroska’s apartment was located halfway down the long hallway. She paused at the door for a moment before knocking, able to hear muted voices within. It seemed Tarbic already had a visitor.

The door slid open in response to her knock and she found Adin Woro standing there. He perked up a bit upon seeing her and opened the door wider to allow her entry. “Ziva. Glad to see you’re safe. When we heard about Salex this morning, we feared the worst.”

It was the same thing he’d said to her upon her arrival home from Na. “Thanks,” she muttered, wondering how much time he and his team actually spent worried about her safety.

“What brings you here?”

She peered past him to where Aroska was standing across the room, gazing out the window. He’d glanced her way when she’d come in, but he turned away when he saw she was looking.

“Just need to do a quick debrief about everything that went down in Salex,” she said, unsure why exactly she felt compelled to lie.

Adin looked at her as if he thought the idea was ludicrous, but he heaved a sigh and made no comment.

“How is he?” she asked quietly.

“I think he’ll be okay,” he said, lowering his voice and throwing a quick glance in Aroska’s direction. “Docs were only able to administer caura treatment a couple of hours ago. He sat in that med center waiting all day. Finally started doing what he could to help out, and someone took notice of him. He seemed to be fine with it, but it pissed me off. They ended up having to put him through a second round of treatment to make sure there was no permanent muscle damage.”

That’s life
, Ziva thought, though she said nothing. There were hundreds of people who had been crushed by rubble or hit by one of the bombs and needed immediate, thorough attention. A graze from a plasma bolt – even a deep one – was low-priority relative to everything else. Still, she was glad Adin was so concerned about his friend; the galaxy only knew how much Aroska needed the support.

“I checked all the cupboards,” Adin continued, nearly whispering this time. “Didn’t find anything. With all the
sheyss
he’s seen today I was afraid he’d want to start up again.”

It took her a split second to realize what he was talking about, and she nodded her approval. “Good idea. He’s lucky to have you looking out for him.”

“I only wish I could have been here for him before,” he sighed. “I had no idea things were so bad.” He watched Aroska for a few seconds then shrugged. “Well, I was just heading out anyway. I’ll leave you to your
debrief
.”

The way he emphasized the word told Ziva he didn’t approve of her timing. Part of her didn’t want to care what he thought, and part of her was glad she wasn’t actually there to dredge up memories of that morning. But despite the sting in his words, he offered her a sympathetic dip of his head and a pat on the shoulder before exiting.

The door slid shut behind him, throwing the little apartment into silence. Ziva sat down in a chair facing the massive window; the nighttime view of the Noro skyline was truly spectacular, though it made her uncomfortable to be so exposed to anyone looking in. Aroska remained in his place across the room, staring out at the city lights with his right arm against the glass. She couldn’t see his face, but his sagging shoulders spoke volumes. His left elbow rested in a sling, immobilizing his injured arm until the caura treatment had run its course.

“Considering you already gave me the debrief paperwork, you’ve either lost your mind or that’s not really why you’re here.” It was the first time he’d spoken since she’d arrived.

She looked up, surprised to find that he still wasn’t looking at her.
I’ve got nowhere else to go
, she thought. That wasn’t exactly accurate – she could have just stuck to her plan and returned to her house to settle into the
Zenith
. But somehow being there and knowing nothing would ever be the same seemed unappealing. She thought of the way she’d arrived at his old home without even meaning to. She hated to admit it, but she was running away. That’s what she was doing here.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, not prepared to admit how lost she felt.

It was several seconds before Aroska made any move to respond. “I guess I can take this thing off now,” he sighed, sliding the sling’s strap off his shoulder. A thick white bandage protruded from under his shirt sleeve.

He reminded Ziva a lot of herself when he was angry. “That doesn’t answer my question,” she said.

“How do you
think
I feel?” he snapped, choking on his words.

“You should be with your family.”

“Yeah, well, they’re not exactly my biggest fans right now. Not now that I’ve gotten another brother killed.”

His words took Ziva by surprise. She hated to say “I told you so” in this situation, but she
had
warned him not to involve Maston. But this was the first time she’d ever heard him try to take credit for Soren’s death. He was talking nonsense, of course – Ziva alone was responsible for killing Soren. These were his emotions talking.

“What do you mean?” she asked, certain he knew which brother she was talking about.

“It was my fault he was even out that day. I should have known better than to bring him out in the open before I knew for sure whether he’d been cleared. I was overconfident, too proud of the fact that I’d managed to find that evidence.”

Ziva had to admit they were valid points, though they were things she’d never expected him to say. In the end, she’d been the one to pull the trigger, but if anyone were truly at fault, it was the agent who had asked her to fill in.

“I’m going to ask you one more time, Ziva,” Aroska said. “What are you doing here?”

She folded her hands in front of her mouth, fixing her eyes on the blinking light on the top of a distant building. “I don’t know,” she said.

That caught his attention. Without even looking up, she could see him turn and face her for the first time. She continued to sit in silence, kicking herself for even mentioning such a thing.