Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (55 page)

             
Kimi's eyebrow went up as she replied. "I thought a planet running smoothly was a good thing?"

             
"It is," he paused, considering his next words. "It's just, I can't explain it. I feel like we're about to get waylaid with some earth shattering news. My gut has been tight for a few days and I just don't like it."

             
"I think it's been too long since you were in battle and you are starting to get twitchy." She smiled as she led him over to the kitchen. He shot her a quizzical look and she smiled. "It is your turn to cook dinner, Mister Prime Minister."

             
"That means we get Carmine's tonight," Sun happily exclaimed as she ran into the room and greeted Jesse with a big hug.

             
"I believe you are correct, Sunshine." He replied to a frown from Kimi. They had been talking about becoming more domesticated since they returned from their honeymoon, but the reality was that neither of them could cook well enough to make it worthwhile, not to mention that each of their schedules seemed prohibitive to putting much effort into preparing meals. As much as it pained him to admit, he wasn't really willing to try either.

             
"Alright, fine," Kimi replied in mock disappointment. "I guess I'll just have to find somewhere else to order from tomorrow night."

             
"I'll clean up when we're finished," Jesse diplomatically offered.

             
"And I'll help." Sun added with a smile as Jesse rustled her hair.

             
As they continued to talk and relax, several dozen armed men were approaching the Prime Minister's residence.

             
"Where's Lana?" Jesse asked.

             
"She's with Raina, Dmitri and Vinnie; It's the first night in a few weeks they all had off at the same time and they decided to go teach some of the Hyperian kids how to play soccer." Kimi replied.

             
"Then they're going to Carmine's," Sun added helpfully.

             
"Sun, why don't you order from Carmine's while I talk to your sister for a minute?" He smiled as she grabbed his communicator and left the room. “Kimi, I hate to be a dark cloud on a sunny day, but I just can't shake this feeling that something bad is coming towards us; Tovanoras is still out there."

             
"We've handled a lot of bad over the last couple years, and we're still going. Whatever it is, we'll handle it again, only this time as man and wife." She leaned in and kissed him and he took her in his arms and returned her kiss. Just then, Sun came back in the room with Commando.

             
"You sent me out of the room so you could kiss? I'm eleven now, I can handle it. Carmine says hello and our food will be here in about thirty minutes and he's sending an added surprise for Commando." She smiled as the big snow wolf's tail began to wag at the mention of his name.

             
"It is all going to work out just fine, Jesse." Kimi added as she released her embrace.

             
"I love you so much, Kimiko." he replied as he absently pet his faithful wolf.

             
As the armed soldiers reached their positions, the leader gave the signal and they burst through several doors and windows of Donara's Prime Minister's home. As they opened fire, the leader yelled out, "Tovanoras says hello, Marcos." Surprise was the last thought he ever had as dozens of armored Donaran marines began to return fire and Marcos was nowhere in sight. He knew they were coming and the op had been blown.

             
Just then, Jesse's communicator chirped and he picked it up. This was his ‘only call if you really need something’ line and he almost let it go, not wanting to ruin his time with his girls. Instead he answered with a sigh, already knowing what the call was about.

             
"Jesse, where are you right now?" Nina sounded alarmed and Jesse's gut tightened further.

             
"I'm home with Kimi and Sun, why?"

             
"Josiah's network was right about the attempt on your life by Tovanoras. It's happening tonight, right now actually."

             
"Where are they and how did they get on the planet?"

             
"They are at the Prime Minister's mansion which was still under construction. We believe some assassins have infiltrated the planet with the first round of immigrants. We've already picked up Lana and her friends and brought them to Manny's training complex for safety."

             
"Hold on, Sis," he replied as he went to the front door. "Hey guys," he called to his detail. "I need you to come into the house today, quickly. We don't want the assassins to know they're at the wrong place." They immediately began heading into the house, having already been warned about the threat. "Kimi, turn our home defenses on full, including the shield." He then returned his attention to his transmitter. "Okay, Nina, I've had a bad feeling all day, maybe this is it. Let me know if any of these would be assassins escape Josiah's trap." His words were calm, but his anger was welling up inside him. He was going to have to find a way to deal with Tovanoras soon.

             
"Will do, Jess, I'm glad you didn't insist on staying in the mansion."

             
"Me, too. To be honest with you, I find the place a bit pretentious and would rather live here."

             
"I know, and that's one of the things everyone loves about you. You'll get your wish, for a while longer anyway because it looks like the Prime Minister's residence is getting pretty shot up."

             
"I'm devastated," he deadpanned.

             
"I'll let you know when it's all over," she replied, ignoring his attempted humor.

             
"Okay, sis, talk to you later." He ended the transmission and looked at Kimi and Sun's questioning expressions. "Josiah was right, it's going down right now at the mansion. Looks like we get to stay here a while longer."

             
"Aww, I was looking forward to the big room with the balcony." Sun complained.

             
"Well, I'm looking forward to wherever my girls are." He hugged Sun tight and gave Kimi another kiss. Just then, Carmine's delivery boy arrived and they sat down to eat. By the time their meal was done, the assassination attempt at the mansion was over and the assassins had either been killed or taken into custody. Lana and her friends were brought home while Jesse left to address the nation.

             
As soon as the area was cleaned up and inspected, Nina had Jesse stand in front of the destroyed Prime Minister's mansion and take to the airwaves to reassure the planet he was fine. Jesse looked solemnly into the vid-cam and began. "Tonight, my home was attacked by a large group of assailants that identified themselves as having been hired by Tovanoras. Our intelligence network had caught wind of the plan and my family and I were nowhere near the mansion when the soldiers attacked. Once again, the pirate missed. Unfortunately, several of Donara's brave heroes died foiling their plot. My condolences go out to the families of our fallen, please remember the sacrifice they have made." His words were calm, but the anger was clear in his eyes.

             
“This is the second personal attack Tovanoras has made on me and I know he was behind the attack on my daughter a few months ago. I can only guess that he believes that there will be no repercussions and that we will not come after him. He will soon learn the error of that assumption. Up until now, I've been willing to overlook his clumsy attempts on my family and me. He has said he'll never stop trying, and I can live with that, but if I have to spend my life looking over my shoulder, then so will he. Sometime soon, I will send in a team of Donara's Special Forces to deal with this nuisance. Tovanoras will learn that you cannot come after my family and go unpunished. He will never see it coming, but my men will apprehend him and bring him before me or they will kill him in the effort. You wanted my attention, Tovanoras, now you have it. I'm just not sure you'll like it." With that, the speech ended and the galaxy was abuzz with the news. The hero, Jesse Marcos had just threatened repercussions on Tovanoras and anyone that knew him knew this was no idle threat.

             
Jesse went straight back to inspect what was left of the Prime Minister's mansion. Before he could enter, he was met by a very anxious Nina and an approving Ariel.

             
"Jess, I can't believe you just did that."

             
"What was I supposed to do, Nina? We've been here five months and this is his third attempt. Why is he blaming me? I didn't follow his fleet and continue destroying them, I didn't blow up all of the alien shipyards, yet he's targeting me, me, not the Alliance and I'm tired of it."

             
"Still, we can't just tell our enemies we're coming for them soon, Jesse. You can't have public vendettas, it looks bad for Donara."

             
"He's a criminal, this is what he deserves." Jesse replied more loudly than he intended. "And Donara's rep will be fine. It's a legal apprehension for the crimes he has committed against Donara. He's just probably not going to live through the apprehension process. This is the only way we can go after him without all-out war and the loss of a lot more of our men and women, and you know it."

             
"I'm proud of you, cousin." Ariel added, anger coloring her perpetually happy face. "You should have done this after he went after Lana."

             
"Not helpful, Ariel," Nina snapped. "And we couldn't prove it was him going after Lana. It could have been the Conglomerate."

             
"Well, we can prove it was him pulling the strings tonight, and unless you want to keep seeing these attacks, we need to remove him and I don't want to go to war to do it. Our Special Forces will get to him and if they can bring him to us alive, great, but I'm not gonna handicap them by saying he has to be alive. He's not worth that kind of consideration, but I'm not asking for an assassination, Nina." Jesse was tired and he wanted to get back home, so needed this conversation to end. He had made a decision and he knew it was the right call. He hugged his sister and cousin and then returned to the hovercade and went home.

______

              On the Jyal homeworld, Tovanoras’ good mood was shattered by the sight of Jesse Marcos on the vid feed. He had hoped that two hundred heavily armed soldiers would have been able to complete the task, but apparently the new Dark Brigade wasn't any better than the old one. His mood darkened further when the human ended his speech with a threat.
No one threatens me!
He thought as he slammed the vid feed with his fist, turning it off permanently.

             
"It looks as though Marcos has just reached his boiling point.  I told you not to make this last attempt. You went after the man's daughter and destroyed the man's house and now he wants to be rid of you." Lord Sagan smiled as his frame filled the doorway. He smiled further as Tovanoras tensed. "Do not worry; you have nothing to fear from me. I still need you, but now you will always have to watch your back."

             
"Ha, I always have to watch my back anyway. It is no big change." Tovanoras replied, but for the first time, he was worried. The unasked question hung heavy in the air and he dreaded the answer.
If Marcos could cause this much trouble playing only defense, how dangerous would he be if he went on offense?

             
"That may be true, but Jesse Marcos has always been known to keep his word. His men will come for you. You might want to lay low for a while."

             
"I will consider it, if by laying low you mean remaining on my flagship where my people can see I am unafraid of this human and his pitiful soldiers." They both knew it was more bluster, but neither one would have settled for any less.

______

              Two days later, the fervor of the attack and Jesse's response had worn down. He took Kimi and the girls to see their destroyed home. Thankfully, Lana and Sun's rooms had not been damaged much and almost all of their belongings were in the temporary house anyway. Jesse's room had been hit hard and was nearly completely destroyed. He didn't care about any of that, though, because he still had his girls. None of them except Sun cared that they wouldn't be in the mansion for a little while and they left to spend some time together as a family. Lana had just ordered from Carmine’s and they were looking forward to eating the food they loved so much. For the first time in over two days, they were alone as a family and Jesse finally had a few moments to enjoy their company along with Carmine's famous chicken tortellini alfredo. 

             
King Dominus had sent a transmission to see if he was alright as had Valinor and Enosal. He assured them he was fine and they applauded his proactive solution to ridding himself of Tovanoras’ threat. Josiah's intelligence ring had rooted out the final few assassins from among the new citizens and they were fairly certain there were no more. Jesse finally read the report on the new ships and was pleased to learn the next round of shipbuilding had been started. He asked for the full complement of thirty-six instead of a second group of twenty-eight because he had a feeling he might need them against Tovanoras sooner rather than later. Now that everything else had been taken care of, he could focus on the joy of being with his family and the responsibility of running Donara.