SHIAM Conspiracy- Book 1 (16 page)

“So, you’re friends... Have you known them
long?”

“Samarah and I grew up together in Port of
Velsalador.”

“You grew up in a fishing village?” He knew
that she hadn’t, but he had no intention of letting her find out
just how much he knew about the daughter of Duke Teranika. Besides,
he found himself curious about the more personal things about her,
things that were not necessarily included in an intelligence
dossier.

“Not entirely,” Megan said. “When I was
younger, we lived part of the year in Port of Velsalador and part
of the year in Telendera, because of my father’s work. How do you
know my father?”

“I told you, I don’t.” He was certain that
his answer sounded as awkward as it felt. He quickly changed the
subject. “So, which home did you prefer?”

Megan remained silent, as though she was
considering why he avoided the subject of her father. He could
almost see the question in her expression, but finally she let it
go. “Daddy had to sit on the Council in Telendera six months of the
year. I really didn’t like it there.”

When he did not comment she said, “Is
something wrong?”

“What?” His distraction had been spawned by
the recurring guilt that had been dogging him ever since he learned
of her identity. He had once come very close to irrevocably
destroying this woman’s life. “No. No, nothing’s wrong.”

The silence that followed felt awkward until
Megan decided to end it with her never-ending questions. “So, why
do you hate the Orkensha so?”

He considered not answering her, but found
himself saying, “When I was thirteen, my mother and I went on
holiday to Nanticoke, in the northern part of the Ghan Je'n
Province. Right across the street from the hotel where we were
staying was a bakery that had the best elrolls I had ever tasted.
We were there for two weeks. On the day we were to leave I wanted
my mother to buy some elrolls for our trip home. She kept saying
that there was no time. We’d gotten up late that morning and had to
hurry to catch our flight. I begged and pleaded with her until she
finally gave in. I wanted to go with her, but she insisted that I
stay and finish packing. A few minutes after she left, there was an
explosion. It shook the hotel, shattering every window in the
place.

“The blast knocked me clean off my feet. When
I got up and looked out the window to see what had happened...
There was nothing left of the bakery across the street. The Dhoraz
claimed responsibility.”

“I am so sorry,” Megan said.

“It was a long time ago.” Zak fought back his
bitterness. “I have not eaten an elroll since that day.”

After another long pause, Megan asked, “What
about your father?”

“Oh, you’ve probably heard of the great
legend,” Zak said with sarcastic admiration. “Commander Gabriale
Milliandur of the Te’n Kha.”

“No way!” She looked over at him, unable to
contain her excitement. “Your father was Commander Milliandur of
Faolan?”

“Yeah, the one and only,” he muttered. “I
really think you should slow down.”

“That is incredible!” she said, ignoring his
request.

“Yeah, I’ve always thought so.” His voice was
flat and emotionless.

Megan studied him long enough for him to
become uncomfortable under the scrutiny.

“Watch the road, will you?”

She turned her attention back to the road,
but said, “I take it that you did not get along with your
father?”

“That’s probably the world’s biggest
understatement.”

“Why?”

“Listen, I really would rather not talk about
it, if it’s all the same to you.”

“Yeah, sure. No problem. We are almost at
Samarah’s anyway.”

She made a left onto Braquemar Road, pulled
up in front of an empty storefront just beyond the corner and
parked the car. The drizzle had once again turned into a downpour.
Zak was pleasantly surprised when he got out of the car and found
Megan had included him in a weather protection spell she had cast.
He was grateful to be out of the vehicle and to have the question
and answer session over. The discomfort from Megan’s questions
lingered, but at least now that they were out of the close confines
of the vehicle he could regain a professional distance from
her.

A cracked and broken sidewalk ran parallel to
a street covered in grime in spite of the rain that had fallen over
the past several days. Rows of dilapidated two-story buildings ran
as far as the eye could see in both directions. Even with this
degree of neglect the neighborhood seemed upscale compared to the
Zone.

Megan quickly led him to an entrance located
beside the deserted store. The door opened into a dingy stairway
leading up to a second floor apartment. The stairs were worn and
creaked with age. The white painted walls were dirty and peeling,
as was the lime green door to the apartment at the top of the
stairs.

“Your friends live here?”

“Gavril walked away from his inheritance when
he decided to come to the Aragne Commonwealth,” Megan said. “And
Samarah’s father disowned her for marrying Gavril against his
wishes. They have had a rough time of it ever since.”

She knocked once and waited.

The Elf woman who opened the door was
slightly taller than Megan and sickly thin. She looked as though
she had aged unnaturally beyond her years. Her face was lined with
worry, her skin ghostly pale even for an Elf, and her dark hair was
unkempt with streaks of white running through it. She wasn’t
wearing make-up and her eyes were red and swollen from crying.

“Oh Megan, I am so glad you came!” Samarah
threw her arms around her friend, her body convulsing with
sobs.

“Sshhh... Honey, it is going to be okay.”
Megan returned the hug in an attempt to comfort the woman. They
held their embrace for some time before Megan pulled herself away
and led Samarah back into the apartment. Zak followed along,
feeling fairly forgotten and useless for the moment.

The apartment was small and grungy. A coat of
paint would have helped, but it would take more than some color to
get the place up to any acceptable standard. Samarah could have
been too worried to keep up with the housework since her
boyfriend’s disappearance, but Zak suspected otherwise. The clothes
and other clutter lying around simply looked too settled to have
been recent occurrences, as did the dust and grime.

Megan was obviously familiar with the layout
of the apartment. She led the way into a small kitchen and planted
Samarah on a chair at a cluttered table. She then made herself busy
making a pot of herbal tea. She introduced Zak to Samarah while she
put the kettle of water on the stove. No automated food processor
here. Zak nodded silently to the woman and sat down at the table
across from her. He felt awkward and out of place. Emotional women
were not something Zak was particularly good at dealing with.

“So, tell us what happened,” Megan said. She
leaned back against the counter top to wait for the water to boil,
ignoring what was obviously several days of dirty dishes piled
along the length of the countertop. “Did you two have a fight?”

“No,” Samarah sniffed. “Everything is good
between us. At least, as far as I know, everything is good.”

“Did you notice anything unusual?” Zak asked
her. When she looked at him blankly he added, “About his behavior
before he left?”

“I do not know what you mean,” she
sniffed.

“Was he acting different than he normally
acted. Like, going out more than usual, staying out later, acting
more secretive or nervous, that kind of thing?” Megan said.

“Well, he did start going to EAST meetings an
awfully lot,” she said thoughtfully. “Almost every night. He told
me that he was part of some committee.”

“What sort of committee?” Zak asked.

“I do not know. He did not say.”

The water on the stove began to boil and
Megan went back to making the tea. When she was finished she joined
Zak and Samarah at the table. Megan chatted with Samarah while they
drank their tea, doing her best to reassure her friend that
everything would be alright. But Samarah’s worry remained constant.
She told them that Gavril had been neglecting his business lately.
Megan interrupted her friend long enough to explain to Zak that
Gavril worked as a handyman, doing odd jobs for the residents of
the neighborhood.

“He became so preoccupied with EAST Group
over the past several weeks that he started to skip job
appointments,” Samarah said. “He was never like that before. Sure,
he tended to take off at times, but never like this. If he agreed
to do something for someone, he would do it. He would never
just
not show up
.”

Zak met Megan’s gaze. He could tell she was
thinking the same thing he was; Gavril was definitely involved in
something. The question was; what exactly was he involved in and
what had happened to him?

“Honey, can we go through Gavril’s things,
see if we can find a clue to where he might be?” Megan asked
Samarah.

“Yes, of course.”

Samarah led them to a spare bedroom that
served as Gavril’s office and then left them alone. This room was
even more cluttered than the rest of the apartment. Old furniture
and boxes of broken lamps, comm units, food processors and the like
were piled and stacked everywhere. Megan explained that Gavril
stored the stuff until he could fix them up and then he would sell
the items at various on-line auctions. As he looked around, it all
looked like junk to Zak.

There was a small desk against one wall with
a file cabinet next to it. The area seemed to be Gavril’s primary
work area, so they concentrated their attention there, Zak
searching through the desk while Megan looked through the file
cabinet next to it. After finding nothing, they expanded their
search to the rest of the room. At the end of their efforts, they
still had nothing.

“I can’t believe it,” Zak said. “There isn’t
a hint of what this guy has been up to!”

He caught himself staring at Megan as she
stood across the room with her hands on her hips. She was beautiful
to the point of distraction. He smiled to himself as he watched her
pucker her lips in thought, her brow furrowing with the same
frustration he felt. He was becoming so used to her unorthodox
appearance that he now found it almost appealing somehow. It
certainly suited her defiant personality. As he became aware of his
thoughts, he forced them away. She was an Elf, damn it. And not
just any Elf. And that fact added a whole mountain of complication
to things.

Megan began looking around the room again in
a desperate attempt to find something they might have missed.
Suddenly she noticed that
something
. It was laying on the
floor between the desk and the file cabinet, the leg of the cabinet
nearly blocking it from view. Reaching down she retrieved a folded
slip of paper.

“What do you make of this?” she asked Zak
after unfolding the paper and reading it.

There was only an address: 78 Venmuroo
Road.

“Venmuroo Road,” Zak said. “That’s near the
river, down in the Zone.”

“Do you think it means something?”

“Could be nothing more than a client’s
address,” Zak shrugged.

“Yeah, except nothing else that I have found
here was so cryptic,” she said looking up at him. “Any notes
concerning jobs included the client’s name and a description of the
job, as well as the address. It is odd that he would change the way
he made notations on only one job.”

“You’re right,” Zak agreed. “I found the same
consistency with the papers I went through. In fact, everything he
wrote was overflowing with detail. He doesn’t seem to be a cryptic
type of guy. Besides, it’s all we have right now. Let’s go check it
out.”

Samarah was waiting for them in the cramped
living room. She thanked them both for their help and Megan
promised her that she would let her know the minute she knew
anything. They left the building to find a full-blown storm in
progress. The rain was falling in torrents and the wind gusts were
powerful enough to nearly blow them over. Zak was at least thankful
that the storm forced Megan to drive a bit slower, although she
still drove too fast in his opinion.

“I think your friend is on the verge of
losing it big time,” Zak observed as they headed for the Zone. “Is
she always that emotional?”

“Yeah, she can be,” Megan answered as she
hunched forward, concentrating on trying to see the road through
the downpour. “She has not had a very happy life. Even when she was
back home. And I really do not think Gavril is a good match for
her. She needs someone who is willing to settle down and give her
stability. Someone who will be there for her.”

“I take it that Gavril isn’t the settling
down type?”

“No, not at all,” she said. “Gavril gets
bored easily. He is always looking for something new and exciting.
He talked Samarah into moving here in the first place. She wanted
to stay in Mythnol Forest. But Gavril would have none of that. He
wanted to come live among the Humans, to become somebody.” She
shook her head as she slowed the vehicle and made a right at the
corner. “They were both better off back home.”

“What about you?” Zak asked, catching himself
staring at her again. “Dr. Raghnall said something about the
sister’s sent you to the Institute. Is that why you came to Sol
Kappur?”

Megan blushed. “I was not really very popular
among the Sisters. They felt that I was a little too...
free
spirited
...for the Circle. I seemed always to be getting into
trouble for one thing or another. The Reverend Mother asked Daddy
to speak with me, to see if he could get me to fall into line. I
think he knew, even before he came to see me, that it was a lost
cause. I was just being me. It is how I have been all my life, ever
since I was a little girl.”