The Army Of Light (Kestrel Saga) (29 page)

    
In unison, both women turned their heads in opposite directions towards the
captain. It was then that Shawn realized that the elevator controls were just
low enough to be in-line with certain portions of the women’s anatomy that they
might not think
to
kindly about him staring at. Then
he realized that he was indeed looking at the things he wasn’t actually looking
at in the first place, and knew instantly he’d entered a no-win situation.
Desperately hoping to feign ignorance, he darted his wide eyes from one woman
to the other.

    
“What?”

    
Roslyn cracked an almost imperceptible smile,
then
turned her head back to the closed elevator doors. Melissa, on the other hand,
vaporized a hole through the captain with her eyes. Shawn tried once again to
shrug off the incident as a simple misunderstanding, but she didn’t seem to
want any of it. Her eyes rolled up as she shook her head in disgust before
slowly turning away from the captain. Thankfully the lift came to a halt
seconds later and deposited them onto deck twenty three, the blue-trimmed flag
deck, the area of the ship dedicated to the upper echelon of the carriers
officer compliment. 

    
Before them was a long, gleaming white hallway, framed with partitions made of
a silvery brushed alloy. With Brunel in the lead, they walked quickly down the
corridor, passing closed doors on each side of them.  After about fifty
yards they came to the end of the corridor, and Roslyn turned into the entryway
of the final set of brushed metal doors. Shawn noted that the highly polished
plaque beside the door read ‘Briefing Room One’. Roslyn held a palm to the door
control panel and the hatch hissed opened, with an audible greeting.

    
“Permission to enter granted, Lieutenant Commander Brunel.” Roslyn motioned
Shawn and Melissa into the room and followed closely behind.

    
As they entered, Shawn heard a voice call out from the far side of a long
conference table. “You’re late. I was beginning to wonder when you’d show
up.” It sounded discernibly annoyed, but something about it also sounded
strangely familiar, but Shawn was having difficulties placing it.

    
Lieutenant Commander Brunel straightened and came to attention. “Sorry, sir,”
then she stepped forward to introduce the civilians to the carriers commanding
officer. As the high backed chair at the far side of a long, silver table
pivoted in their direction, Shawn looked into the ice-cold eyes of a man he’d
have been happy to have never seen again in this life.

    
“
Krif
,” Shawn said with obvious disgust, all but
spitting the name out like bad roast beef. “What the hell are you doing here?”

    
The
well built
, blond haired, blue eyed man stared
intently back at Shawn. “It’s nice to see you, too, Kestrel.”

    
First hiding his surprise, then burying a flare of animosity, Shawn attempted
to remain unmoved. “I don’t recall saying anything was nice about it.”

    
Captain
Krif
leveled his eyes at Shawn. “I’m in
command here, that’s what I’m doing here… not that something like that would
matter to you.” His words were measured. Even.

    
Nonetheless, Shawn looked at him dubiously. “You’re the Captain of this ship?”

    
Krif
gave him a single, slow nod. “That’s right,” he
said with even aloofness. “Best you remember it from here on out. I won’t
tolerate any of your crap while you’re on my ship.
Period
.”

    
Melissa was surprised that Shawn stood their silently. In truth, Shawn was at a
loss for words.

    
Krif
leaned forward, the leather of his chair
creaking slowly as he did so. “Aren’t you going to say how glad you are to see
me?”

    
Shawn took a step closer to
Krif’s
position.
“Somehow, ‘glad’ just doesn’t do this experience justice.”

    
Melissa didn’t budge from where she stood, but neither could she be silent any
longer. No one was getting anywhere. “You know this man, Mister Kestrel?”

    
“Sure do,” Shawn said with his eyes still locked into
Krif’s
.
“This is Richard
Krif
. If he had any friends they’d
call him Richard but, since he doesn’t, everyone just calls him Dick.”

    
Krif
glared at Shawn. “That’s Captain to you, ace.”

    
“Fine,” Shawn replied, shrugged his shoulders and turned to Melissa. “This is
Captain Dick.”

    
Krif
snapped up from his chair like a bolt of
lighting
. He slammed his palms down on his desktop,
rattling a pen free of its resting place and spiraling to the deck. “Watch your
mouth, Kestrel, or I’ll have your ass tossed in the brig.”

    
Shawn smirked. “If it gets me out of your presence then I’d say it’d be a
pretty good deal.”

    
Melissa put a soft hand to Shawn’s shoulder to try and diffuse the quickly
deteriorating situation. “Mister Kestrel, please.”

    
Shawn quickly jerked away from her touch, his eyes never leaving
Krif’s
.

    
Krif
nodded his head in Melissa’s direction. “You
better listen to your girlfriend there, hot-shot. It might save you a lot of
headache.”

    
“Cut the crap,
Krif
. What are you really doing here
and what do you want?”

    
Richard pulled his hands free from the desk, and Melissa fully expected to see
to impressions where he’d slammed them a moment before. All at once
Krif’s
countenance seemed to change as a razor sharp smile
crept across his face. “What I’m doing here is classified. And, as for what I
want, I wouldn’t concern
yourself
with it. I have what
I came for.”

    
Melissa watched as perplexity washed over Shawn’s face. “You came all the way
here to get your hands on me?” he asked. “If you wanted to have a reunion, you
could have just sent me an invitation. I’d have gladly declined.”

    
“Please,”
Krif
scoffed. “Your role in all of this is
secondary, at best.”

    
“Meaning what, exactly?”

    
Krif
slid out from behind his desk and made his way
to within a few feet of Shawn. He kept his voice low and calm, which instantly
put Melissa on alert.
Krif
, already the size of a
small bear, was like a hungry predator inching ever closer to a wounded animal.
She fought the urge to step closer to Shawn, although she had no idea what
she’d have done once she got there. “It means that you were a secondary
objective on this mission, and it’s one that I strenuously disagreed with right
from the start. The fact that I had to send two of my pilots out to save your
ass should be proof enough of that.”

    
“There were four Temkorian’s!” Melissa countered.

    
“He’s handled worse,”
Krif
sneered. “In fact, I was
half tempted to just sit back and see how long you’d last in that old bucket of
yours.”

    
Just like old times
. Shawn knew
Krif
was
looking for any way to get under his skin and, just like the last time they’d
met, he wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. He sidestepped Captain
Krif’s
remark and continued. “That still doesn’t answer my
question,
Krif
.”

    
“At this point I could give a rats rear about your questions, Kestrel. In case
you haven’t noticed, we’re not exactly on a pleasure cruise here. I have more
important things to do than chase you and our little lost lamb over there all
across the goddamn sector!”

    
Shawn was preloaded with a retort when suddenly it faltered at the edge of his
lips. He shook his head, trying to figure out if he’d just heard
Krif
correctly. “Did you just say… lamb? I’m sorry, did I miss
something here?”

    
Krif
rolled his icy eyes in frustration,
then
looked to Shawn dumbfounded. With a veil of confusion
fully obscuring Shawn’s face,
Krif
had no alternative
than to get to the point.
“Our agent, Mister Kestrel.
Our undercover intelligence operative right behind you, who just so happens to
have caused me more of a pain in my rear than my last five physicals combined.”

    
“
Your
what?” Shawn asked in bewilderment, still trying
to wrap his head around
Krif’s
words. As his brain
slowly interpreted what he’d heard, he turned to face Melissa. “Oh, right.
She’s an OSI agent, just like I’m the Prince of Persia,” he was almost
laughing, but no one else seemed to sense the joke. “You’ve been off the mark
before,
Krif
, but this time you’ve really taken the
cake. I mean, there’s just no way
she could
—” but his
words faltered once he saw the look on her face. She wore a curious mix of
remorse and exhaustion. The feeling in the pit of Shawn’s stomach—the one that
usually told him he’d made a huge mistake—came back with a wallop when Melissa
mouthed the words ‘I’m so sorry’ across the otherwise silent briefing room.

    
His shoulders slumped as the weight of it all fell over him like a lead
blanket. “No. No. Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me?”

    
From behind him Shawn could overhear
Krif
chuckling
in delight. “Wait…
wait
just a second. Let me get this
straight. You’re telling me that you didn’t know? I mean, you honestly didn’t
have a clue
who
she really was?”

    
“She never really said,” Shawn replied stoically in Melissa’s direction,
kicking
himself
for having never asked the question.
Not that she would have told him the truth, anyway.

    
“Well maybe you should’ve asked her, hot-shot,”
Krif
chortled, “because she’s gotten you into a whole heap of trouble. I’ve got to
tell you, though, that the look on your face right now has made everything thus
far worth it.”
Krif
stopped just short of putting a
hand on Shawn’s shoulder. “You should see the look on your face, Kestrel. You
look like a fish gaping for its last few breaths of air.”

    
Shawn, ignoring
Krif’s
words, stepped a half pace
closer to Melissa. “You… you’re and intelligence agent?”

    
She cast her eyes to the deck,
then
nodded silently.

    
“You’re in the OSI?”

    
Another slow nod as she brought her eyes up to meet Shawn’s

    
“The OSI?
As in, the Office of
Special Intelligence?”

    
To this she rolled her eyes. “Yes, Captain.
The OSI.”

    
She looked at him, and saw that there was no way to interpret his expression as
anything but what it was. He was hurt. While the thought of full disclosure had
crossed her mind while they were on Persephone, Melissa had no idea that the
revelation would affect the captain so profoundly—much less how she now felt
about it. “I never lied to—”

    
“You knew!” Shawn all but shouted. “You knew this whole time who I was, didn’t
you?

    
“No, I didn’t know about—”

    
“Yes! Yes you did! You intelligence spooks know everything,” his hand fluttered
around as he spoke. “And I fell for it… hook, line, and sinker.”

    
“Mister Kestrel, please. If you’d only let me—”

    
“You’ve manipulated me at every turn to help you find your father, didn’t you?
I’ll bet the Admiral isn’t even your father, is he? Maybe he’s just another
agent… or… or your husband or something. Or someone who owes you a great deal
of money?
Or both.
Am I right? Was that a lie, too?”

    
“Mister Kestrel!” she said in astonishment.

    
“I can’t believe it. You lied to
me,
and to Trent… and
then you lied to Toyo.”

    
“No,” she said flatly. “I’m pretty sure Toyo knows.”

    
“Oh, great,” Shawn threw his arms up in defeat. “So now I have two people
holding back on me.”

    
“If I could just explain—”

    
“And what was that song and dance about wanting to know some old war stories
about your father, and all the tears in your eyes? I mean, you really had me
going there for a few minutes. You’re some kind of world class actress, let me
tell you.”

    
Krif
spoke up from behind Shawn. “I’m just glad we
finally caught up with her for an official debriefing before it was too late.”

    
If it were possible, Shawn’s eyes went even wider. “You… you’re in cahoots with
this piece of space garbage?” he asked as he pointed a thumb back in
Krif’s
direction. “It’s all been one big lie after another,
hasn’t it, lady?”

    
“If you’d only stop talking for a moment—”

    
“And now I’m in the thick of it… whatever it is. I’m sandwiched between Sector
Command, the OSI, Jacques De Lorme, and God knows who else. I can’t believe
this. And I can’t believe I wanted to kiss you.”

    
She was about to reply when the words in her mind impacted squarely with the
words that had just entered her ears. It was like a hover car accident, with
consonants and vowels flying in a dozen different directions, all of them
trying to get out of her mouth at the same time. “Wait, what did you just say?”

    
“You know what? Forget it,” he
said,
his voice
dropping down to a semblance of normalcy as he stepped to within a foot of
Melissa. “I thought you were trouble the moment I laid my eyes on those legs of
yours in my hangar. I just
knew
you’d be nothing but trouble. And I was
right. You’re nothing but a lying, manipulative piece of—”