The Far Bank of the Rubicon (The Pax Imperium Wars: Volume 1) (37 page)

Jonas noted that several of the officers in the Fleet Command Center noticed the change in protocol and stopped to watch. I guess I’m no longer the mascot.

Not wanting to screw this up, Jonas turned smartly to Brennen and said. “Go ahead, Admiral. Take us in.”

Brennen switched her com to the fleet-wide channel. “Seventh Fleet, we are go for transit into the Pontus system. Gate control, please dial up Pontus.”

Jonas smiled, hands behind his back. He stood outside the entrance to a pillbox on Mt. Gauss, the place where, hundreds of years prior, the Sadarian guard held out against the House of Athena for over fifty years. Mt. Gauss was a potent symbol of rebellion.

Behind a rope, the press jostled for pictures while cameras whirred overhead. It felt a little too familiar for Jonas’ comfort.

He was dressed again in his Captain’s uniform. He was wearing a small security earpiece which gave him access to the channels from the guards nearby. If anything suspicious happened, he would know instantly, and he would be in a place to do something about it.

Next to him, Malek overfilled his Sadarian guard uniform.

On the far side of her father, Jonas’ lover was dressed in a simple dress, which in some way reminded Jonas of the first time he had seen her.

He was grateful he didn’t have time for his emotions.

“For centuries, the House of Athena has avoided visiting Mt. Gauss. Why are you here today, Prince Athena?”

This was a softball which Jonas answered easily. “Mt. Gauss is a place where hundreds of years ago, rebels held out against an invading army. It shows what we can do when we work together to resist those who oppose us.”

“Prince Athena, do you think the kingdom can stand?”

Jonas scowled. “The kingdom? Is the Empire lost? The Empire cannot fall as long as all free peoples refuse to accept the tyranny of the few. If Mt. Gauss teaches us anything, it should be that.”

“Sir, now that the Empress has died in her sleep, there are rumors that Timothy Randall is going to appoint himself Emperor. Will the House of Athena recognize him?”

This question made Jonas angry. It got under his skin. “Listen, let’s not spend our time speaking the lies of the enemy. We all know that the Empress didn’t die in her sleep. She was murdered by Timothy Randall and his associates. As far as Timothy Randall becoming Emperor, he can do anything he wants, but that doesn’t make it so. I can say that I am the President of the Unity and wear a CEO’s tie, but I am not. Becoming Emperor takes the ascent of the people, and the people will not assent to seeing this monster take the throne.”

“What do you think, Duke Malek?”

Malek hesitated for a moment and then said, “I think whatever my liege lord thinks.”

The press laughed.

Jonas did not.

The evening of their arrival, after Prince Athena’s visit to Mt. Gauss, Anna stood in the formal ballroom of Malek’s palace on Pontus. She felt vulnerable and exposed. It made her nervous.

Supposedly, she and Jack had been brought by Jonas Athena as symbols of those who had defied Timothy Randall and lived. In reality, they were there as the intelligence analysts behind the attempt to flush out the spy.

Anna hated their cover story. It felt like inviting someone to kill them. Part of her wondered if that was the point, if they were being used as bait to expose the treachery of Malek.

When they had first arrived on Athena, years before, she had courted danger. The assassination attempt on her and Jack, along with her simultaneous push away from him, had created a kind of fatalism that gave her a freedom to act, which she hadn’t felt before.

At the time, whisking around the galaxy doing the secret bidding of the Empress had been an adventure—a dare to Timothy Randall to stop her. Back then, she felt as if she had already died, so if Randall had killed her, it would have only made evident what was already real.

Now things were different. She and Jack finally saw each other eye-to-eye—broken, flawed, and healing. Now, she didn’t want to die.

It wasn’t just her role which made her uncomfortable. Everything about this party had a sense of desperate frenzy.

On Athena, anything involving the royal house felt majestic—dignified, perhaps a little too dignified for Anna’s Unity-bred sensibilities. If the House of Athena fell, she had no doubt it would do so with a firm grasp on its sense of honor.

In contrast, the privileged classes on Pontus seemed determined to spend their last days carrying out one long bacchanal. Few, if any, of the attendees had any desire for sobriety. Many arrived at the party already stimulated in some way. Various corners of the room had been arranged to offer privacy. Some of the more adventurous guests didn’t bother to hide themselves. Anna had no doubt that if you wanted it, it was sure to be found in the room somewhere.

She found her own discomfort somewhat surprising. There was a day in which she would have been eager to partake, but that was long ago. Looking back, it had been a lonely time.

Right on cue, Jack stepped closer to her and took her hand. He looked down at her and caught her eye. She could tell that he had read some of her thoughts. It was good to be with someone who understood that it was good to be with someone.

Anna forced herself to relax, focused on her mission, and wondered for the fiftieth time whether the operative was even in the room. If Elijah Summers were there somewhere, she and Jack guessed that he would be part of the security services.

For the last few weeks, they had worked together to create a profile. It wasn’t comforting. Efficient and quiet, Summers shunned the limelight. He wasn’t likely to put himself in a vulnerable position through his behavior. Based on information from the interview with the gate command officer, Audra Taylor, they also surmised that Summers was a true believer, not someone who could be turned by money or some other form of blackmail.

How they were supposed to find him, Anna didn’t know, and then how they were supposed to prove that Malek had known of his presence, she had no idea. With the collapse of the Allied fleet, there really hadn’t been time to plan this well. This might have been their operation, but she and Jack were flying by the seat of their pants.

While not the primary field agents in the room, she and Jack had both been fitted with undercover hardware which allowed them to gather intelligence. Besides the communications equipment in her ear canal, she also had a small device which had been inserted into her eye. Located on the retina’s blind spot, the new and highly classified device broadcast an image onto the back of her lens which was then returned to the retina, allowing her to see information about the occupants of the room without having any disruption to her field of vision. It reminded her of wearing a heads-up. The device was also bio-responsive, so she could turn it off.

Because it relied on a connection to intraspace to gather its data, Anna also judged it to be highly dangerous. It felt like just another means by which the agent could enter her mind and that only added to her sense of vulnerability.

Across the room, one of the multitude of vapid social climbers dropped his glass of champagne. Heavily drunk, he laughed loudly at his mistake. Many of those around laughed with him.

The noise of breaking glass almost sent Anna through the ceiling. Helpless against her fight-or-flight instincts, she jumped.

Jack put a warm hand in the middle of her bare back, just above the low scoop of her dress. In an act of rebellion, she had worn an old one, a heavily brocaded and felted dress from Apollos. It would have been tacky enough on Athena, but here on Pontus, among the frivolity of Duke Malek’s court, it felt tasteless and cheap. Anna didn’t care. She wore it as a sign of her resistance and in honor of a woman now dead.

Anna took a breath, calming her nerves after the false alarm. She tried to feel each of Jack’s five fingers.

He turned and looked at her, smiling, pointedly taking a long, slow drink from his champagne flute. The smile and the drink let her know that he had been startled by the noise, as well.

In her ear, Anna could hear the background chatter of the rest of the Athenian security detail spread throughout the room, the device only intruding when she paid attention to it with her thoughts.

Anna looked again at the man who had dropped the champagne flute. Even as she watched, her intraspace activity sensor lit up. It appeared that the social climber had a passive contact with intraspace. At least two other agents in the room saw it, as well.

The socialite excused himself from the group with which he chatted and started to make his way on unsteady feet out of the ballroom. As she watched him walk, Anna got a hunch that his intoxication might only be a ruse. Something about the way he maneuvered expertly through the crowd while his upper body swayed gave him away.

Predictably, one of security team bought the ruse. “Marked. I have a mark. Male. Blonde hair. Gray tuxedo. The one who dropped the glass. I have a height match and an active intraspace connection. High levels of intoxication.”

This isn’t right
, thought Anna.
It’s too obvious. He’s bait. They’re marking us!

As Anna turned to say something to Jack, someone in the corner of the room piqued her attention, but it took a moment to register. Jack’s eyes were also following the socialite, scrutinizing him. It was only then that Anna noticed the member of Malek’s body guard watching her. He showed no obvious signs of intraspace connection. For a split second, they made eye contact and she knew.

Her feet went cold.

She squeezed Jack’s hand, hard.

He followed her gaze and leaned down so she could whisper in his ear.

Instead of speaking to Jack alone, Anna broadcast her whisper to the whole team using the transmitter in her cheek. “Negative on the mark! Negative. It’s not him. It’s one of the guards across the room. Shut down. Shut down now. Hand signals only. They’ve got us marked. Watch out for a mind-jack!”

With her thoughts, she gave the command safety kill to her electronic devices. Instantly, the heads-up disappeared, and the chatter in her ear went dead.

Anna had no idea whether or not the rest of the team would listen to her. She really wasn’t supposed to be in charge of the operation, but Anna felt sure that she was right about this. It made the most sense.

When she looked across the room, back where the guard had stood, he was no longer there. There wasn’t much room for him to hide, so Anna guessed he must have ducked out the door behind him.

Jack started walking at a measured pace, bringing Anna with him. Without taking his eyes off the far side of the room, he set the glass of champagne down on a passing tray, signaling to her as he did that he agreed with her.

He turned and said, “This room is a little stuffy. Would you like to take a walk?”

“Yes, I would like that. I think I could use a restroom.”

Jack took Anna by the arm and walked pointedly toward where Anna had noted the guard. As they walked, she noticed that at least two other members of the security team signaled that they had shut down their electronics as well, so maybe the team had followed her lead.

The room seemed to electrify. Anna had the sense that they were being watched very closely, but she couldn’t tell from where.

Two other agents signaled their exit from the room, as well.

Even as Jack appeared to guide them, Anna led them to a different door which appeared to be along the same corridor near where the guard had been standing. As Anna and Jack slipped out of the ballroom, Jack put his hand in his coat, fingering his weapon.

They stepped into a nearly empty corridor, interrupting a couple already heavily involved in some extracurricular activities. Anna guided them to the left toward where she thought the agent would have been. Her heart was pounding. She saw two other field agents exit the ballroom, as well.

Anna smiled at the two women. “Penny, do you know where the restrooms are?” With a hand gesture, she signaled to them the direction she believed the agent had gone.

“Aren’t they down this direction?” Penny pointed the direction Anna wanted to head, and the four of them turned the corner into a long, empty hallway with few exits. There was nothing to see.

Frustrated, Anna said, “Well, we must be mistaken. It must be back the other direction.”

She turned around and headed the opposite way, but by that time, there was no sign of the agent. After an unnecessary stop at the restroom, the four returned the ballroom.

How are we ever going to find that agent now? Anna wondered.

As they entered, Anna noticed Duke Malek talking to Sophia.

Jack noticed the conversation as well, and holding Anna’s hand, steered them directly into the middle of it. As he did so, he leaned down and whispered in Anna’s ear, “Turn your electronics back on for just a minute, and set them all to record and broadcast it to Fleet Intelligence.”

Anna smiled at Jack, and did what he asked. She dug her fingernails in a little, telling him she was unhappy but ready to go.

He leaned down again. “I know, but it’s only for a minute. Shut down as soon as I speak with Malek.”

Scared out of her mind to be exposed to a mind-jack, Anna answered with little warmth. “Lead the way.”

As they approached, it was apparent that Malek wasn’t comfortable. While he spoke quietly, he seemed worried about something.

Sophia looked nervous, but seeing Jack and Anna approaching, she smiled broadly instead. “Father, let me introduce you to two of the heroes of our war. I am sure you are aware that without them, we would have been caught completely off guard and defeated long ago.”

Duke Malek smiled. There was no warmth in the smile. In fact, the smile felt more like a threat than a greeting. Anna half expected him to dismiss them without speaking.

“ A pleasure,” he said, meaning nothing of the sort.

Jack bowed as protocol dictated, and Anna followed his lead, curtsying carefully.

Anna felt the Duke’s eyes appraising her. Apparently, she didn’t suit him, because he didn’t acknowledge her presence but instead turned back to Jack.