Nexus Point

by Jaleta Clegg

  Chapter 15

  The numbness from the stunner beam gradually wore off, leaving behind a tingling pain. The horses clattered through a gate into a courtyard. One of the men pulled me off the horse. He slapped a pair of force cuffs on my wrists before hustling me into a room at the rear of the castle.

  The battered desk and chair in the room looked very familiar, Patrol standard issue. I almost felt as if I were back in the Commander's office at the Academy. The force cuffs pinched, reminding me this wasn't school. This was serious.

  The thin, dark man behind the desk studied me coldly. His silver uniform and commander's clusters caught the light. He sat forward, pulling a hand scanner from his desk. He placed it on top, nudging it my direction. The man watched me suspiciously, his slanted eyes narrowed.

  I put my hand on the plate. It glowed red. "Dace, of the Star's Grace." The light flickered green. I lifted my hand.

  The commander frowned, tapping his fingers on his desk. "What are you doing here?"

  "Trying to get off planet," I said honestly.

  "What were you doing in this system in the first place? I know about your ship and the escape pods."

  "I had to do an emergency downshift. This is where we came out. The core redlined and wouldn't eject. We had to abandon ship." I blinked rapidly. I was not going to cry over my ship, even if it still hurt.

  The commander tucked the scanner into a drawer. He lounged in his chair, his hands folded across his flat belly.

  I shuffled my feet.

  "We'll try to verify your story," he said finally. "Lock her with the other one," he said to the guard behind me.

  The man marched me through the castle. We went down a flight of stairs that led to an uneven stone hallway and three barred cells. Tiny windows high in one wall let in faded sunlight.

  My guard unlocked one of the doors. He snapped off my cuffs, then shoved me inside. The door clanged shut. The guard left. I sighed and rubbed my wrists.

  The room was about ten feet long and maybe fifteen wide with a dirty stone floor and a pile of straw to one side. Compared to Baron Molier's dungeon, it was a luxury hotel.

  I sat on the straw and eased my boots off. I rubbed the blisters on my heels.

  The door opened. The guards shoved Dysun inside, slamming the door as they left.

  Dysun turned immediately to the lock. "Unpickable." He kicked the bars on the door.

  He prowled around the room, testing every corner, shoving at every stone. He tried jumping to hang from the bars in the windows even though the openings were too small to squeeze through. He crouched over a small drain in the floor to poke his fingers through the grill covering it.

  "You wouldn't fit even if you could get it open," I said.

  "We have to get out of here." He slammed his palm against the grate.

  "Why? Blake should be able to get you out before long. You might have to pay a few fines."

  "Are you really that stupid? They're going to upload our scans. Once they find out who we are, do you think they're just going to let us waltz out of here?"

  "So who are you, Dysun Farr? I'm exactly who I said I was."

  "They're still going to throw the book at you, Dace. What do you think they'll do to me?" He prodded the grate again. "I'm a Federation Free Trader. It's only a matter of time before they find out." Federation Free Trader was a nice way of saying Dysun was a pirate. He grinned his rakishly cocky grin. "I told them you were my pilot."

  I called him every nasty name I knew, then made up more. The Patrol would throw the entire penal code at us both.

  He grin never wavered. "I could almost admire your vocabulary." He prowled the cell, testing and retesting every possible exit.

  I used every swear word I knew then started over. Anger beat crying. I finally curled up on the dirty straw to sleep.

  I woke in the middle of the night to find Dysun snuggled next to me, his arm around my waist.

  "Tomorrow," he breathed into my ear, "you distract the guards when they bring us breakfast. I'll knock them out and we'll run for the woods. My shuttle isn't far."

  "That is the dumbest plan I've ever heard."

  "You have a better idea? I can't just wait here until the Patrol decides what to do." He pulled me closer. "You could make this much more pleasant, for both of us."

  "Dysun, go away." I elbowed him.

  He rolled over, clutching himself and muttering darkly.

  I went back to sleep.

  The door clanged open, startling me awake. One guard set down two bowls before stepping out of the cell. The other stayed outside, hand on his stunner. The door banged shut. The guards left without a word.

  The bowls held porridge, bland but still warm. I ate one bowl. I left the other for Dysun.

  Dysun finally twitched awake. He pulled a face at the porridge, then spent the rest of the morning pacing the room, testing every bar and every window.

  I did the exercises I'd neglected. The exercise routine, taught at the Academy to all cadets, was designed to be done in a very small space, such as a cabin on a ship. I worked my way through the routine and then did it again.

  I sat on the straw when I finished, catching bugs to squish between my fingers. Time passed. Dysun dumped his porridge on the floor, then retreated to a corner with both bowls. He twisted and tore at them. They were paper, useless for anything.

  I wandered over to the lock. It wasn't unpickable. It just required a number twelve sonic probe and some luck. I could have opened it in less than five minutes, with the right probe.

  Dysun gave up on the bowls, chucking them through the bars into the hall. He banged on the bars, shouting for a chance to make a deal. No one came.

  Dysun leaned against the door. "They should at least give us a deck of cards or something."

  "Where's Blake?"

  "Probably charming the base commander into giving him a ride home."

  "Not charming him into letting us out?"

  "Are you joking? Ricard Blake is the most self serving, impossible man I've ever met."

  "But he pays well. Or so you said." I unfastened the catches on my boots then redid them. "Maybe he's locked up, too."

  "You can bet he isn't in a dump like this. He's probably sleeping in a real bed and eating real food." Dysun sat on the straw next to me. "I should never have taken this job."

  "Then why did you?"

  "Same reason anyone does. I needed the money. Dadilan isn't far from the border. I wasn't supposed to get caught."

  "But you were."

  "And so were you, pilot."

  "I'm not your pilot."

  He gave me a nasty grin.

  "The Patrol won't believe you. I've got records."

  "Really? And what else, Dace? Why should they believe you? You've got membership in the Guild of Independent Traders?"

  "Yes."

  His face froze, his mouth half open. His sneer faded. "You aren't lying. That changes things a bit, doesn't it?"

  "Not that I can see."

  Dysun picked at straw and didn't talk for a long time.

  I went back to sleep.

  He shook my shoulder, a shadow in the dim room. The window behind him showed dull gray.

  "They'll be here soon. You distract them. I'll jump them. We'll get clear of here and then we can negotiate."

  I yawned, still half asleep. He crouched near the door.

  The guards came. The one set two bowls inside the cell. Dysun sprang. He jumped on the guard's back, wrapping his arms around the man's neck. The other guard shot him with a stunner. Dysun sprawled on the floor, twitching. The guard kicked him once before leaving.

  I picked over the chunks floating in my bowl of stew.

  Dysun groaned as he woke. "Stupid woman."

  "I'm not the one who got shot. We don't have a chance of getting out. Not your way."

  He crawled to a corner to sulk.

  I finished my dinner and most of his. He didn't seem to want it. I eased into my exercise routine again
.

  I'd worked up quite a sweat when the guards returned. Dysun flicked a sideways glance at them, his eyes glittering like a rat's in the shadows.

  "Dace." The guard jerked his head as he unlocked the door. "You're wanted upstairs."

  I walked out of the cell. The guard with the stunner slammed the door. The other guard slapped a pair of force cuffs around my wrists. He took my arm, leading me up the stairs to the office.

  The commander wasn't at his desk. Tayvis leaned on it, one hip cocked against the edge. The guard shoved me into the room before shutting the door.

  "You're alive," I breathed.

  Tayvis didn't answer. He leaned on the desk, not moving.

  I shuffled my feet, glancing away from Tayvis' cold, measuring stare.

  He folded his arms across his chest. Silence stretched between us, tense and hostile.

  "You want to explain yourself?" Tayvis finally asked.

  "Will you believe me if I do?"

  "That depends on your story." He shifted his weight. The desk creaked. "Why did you run?"

  "You told me to go for help. So I did."

  "The wrong direction. Tell me something I can believe."

  I hated the angry twist to his words. "I thought I was headed for Robin's camp. I tried to turn back when I realized it was the wrong way. I got lost. How did you get away?"

  He ignored my question. "How did you get mixed up with Ricard Blake?"

  "I ran into him. Dysun jumped me and tried to kill me. Blake stopped him. He thought I could read maps." I shuffled my feet again; acutely aware I wore Blake's boots. "I didn't know Dysun was a pirate until after we got here."

  "What did you think he was?"

  "Lost. Like me. They gave me food and were mostly nice to me. What was I supposed to do? Keep running until Ky caught me? I hoped to find Robin's camp. Or that his men would find me."

  Tayvis drummed his fingers, once, twice, and then stopped. He opened a drawer, pulling out a small package. My heart sank as he unwrapped it. It contained the lockpicks from my pod.

  "Commander Nuto said one of Leran's men left these with a warning about you. He claims you work for Shomies Pardui. Commander Nuto had no reason to doubt his story. Do you want to explain?" He fanned the lockpicks on the desk.

  "I found them in my pod."

  His look told me he didn't believe a word.

  "The pods were original to the ship. I hadn't got around to refitting them. I didn't have time or money to do the pods when I did the engine."

  "Dace, at least tell me lies I can believe."

  "I thought you wanted the truth."

  "You're telling me these lockpicks aren't yours. We'll let the bit about your ship slide."

  "It's the truth, Tayvis."

  "Next you'll be telling me you got a scholarship to the Academy."

  "I did."

  "Do you really want to end up on a prison planet?"

  "Why won't you believe me?"

  "Would you believe it if you heard it?"

  "No," I reluctantly admitted.

  He stroked one of the picks, spinning it through his fingers. "Do you know how to use these?"

  I didn't want to answer that question. It would definitely get me prison time. The cuffs sizzled on my wrists.

  "Dace?" Tayvis waited, just like the Academy Commander. I'd almost lost my scholarship that first year, until I figured out how to fight without getting caught. I only did it to stop the bullies.

  "Yes, I know how to use them. It doesn't mean I've ever done it."

  His angry scowl melted into a satisfied smirk. He put the lockpick down. "That wasn't in your file."

  "You read my file?" I'd given too much away.

  "Very entertaining. And verified." He reached across the desk to unlock the cuffs. He tossed them next to the lockpicks. "Although I'm curious why someone so intelligent would make so many stupid mistakes. You should have smelled trouble a lightyear away when you interviewed your crew. Jerith has ties to the Federation. I suspect he meant to disable your ship and leave it for the pirates to collect."

  I cursed under my breath.

  "That isn't all, Dace. Flago belongs to one of the crime syndicates. No one has quite figured out how they're involved here, not yet. You hired a terrible crew."

  "So I made a mistake." I rubbed my wrists.

  "It wasn't the only one."

  "I know. You believe me now?"

  His lip twitched. "Are the lockpicks really yours?"

  "They were on my ship, even though I didn't know about them."

  "We can always say Leran planted them. It will make things easier." He slid them into their case. "Any tool that might come in handy." He tossed them to me.

  I caught the bundle by reflex. "I'm in enough trouble without these."

  "Special rules. You have my permission to use them any way you see necessary." He lifted a handcomp from the desk. "I need your signature on this. Even irregular agreements have to follow protocol." He held out the handcomp.

  I read through the document. My hands shook. He'd formalized my enlistment in the Patrol. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He'd even included the terms of our agreement. He'd made my presence on Dadilan legal.

  "Why?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

  His eyes were the color of warm chocolate. He leaned on the desk, his hands planted on either side. "Because of what I didn't find in your file, and because of what I did."

  "Thank you."

  He handed me a stylus. I signed the agreement.

  "A copy will be sent on the next shuttle." Tayvis put the handcomp away in the desk. "You'll be on the shuttle with it if everything goes as planned."

  "What about Blake and Dysun?"

  "What about them? Blake is being held until his family can collect him. He's a swindler and a cheat, but he's well connected. This isn't the first time he's shown up where he doesn't belong. He's got a lot more money than sense. You're better off not worrying about Dysun. He'll get exactly what he deserves."

  "He was only helping Blake for the money."

  "And you believed him? You haven't learned your lesson yet, Dace. Dysun Farr is wanted for smuggling, piracy, extortion; you name it and he's done it."

  "He isn't a murderer."

  "Not yet. I can't believe you're defending him."

  "He isn't that bad."

  "You want back in the cell with him?"

  I shook my head. "He didn't kill me when he had the chance."

  "I'll make a note of that for his trial. Is there anything else you want to confess?"

  "I think you know all my secrets." I rolled the lockpicks in my hands.

  "Then, Special Agent Dace, I suggest you get cleaned up and get what sleep you can. You're leaving early in the morning."

  "To do what?"

  He sat down behind the desk. "I'm sending you and Will Scarlet to the monastery. Robin's agreed to lend him to me for the investigation. I need a list of everyone who's bought shara in the last year. I'm headed south to dig deeper into Leran's activities." He tapped busily on the handcomp. He glanced up. "What are you waiting for, Dace?"

  "I don't know where to go, sir." I snapped a salute at him. "I've only been in the cells here."

  "Will!"

  The door opened. Will Scarlet sauntered in. "Definitely not a Marian." He picked a bit of straw from my hair.

  "She's going with you in the morning," Tayvis said. "Make sure you don't lose her."

  "Like you did?" Will teased.

  "You've got your orders, Will."

  "You want me to salute and snap my heels?"

  Tayvis shook his head.

  "Come on," Will said to me. "Commander Nuto's got an extra room. I see you found a pair of boots."

  I glanced at Tayvis as we left the office. His dark head was bent over the handcomp.

  Will took me on a twisting route through the castle.

  "He likes you," Will confided as we crossed the mess hall.

  "Tayvis? No, he
doesn't."

  "Don't fool yourself, Dace."

  "I heard the two of you talking about me at Robin's camp. He doesn't trust me."

  "Yes, he does. If he didn't, you'd be in the cell with Dysun Farr." He pushed open a door. "And he does like you. I can tell. Welcome to the showers. I'm sure the others will understand if you lock the door. Women aren't usually posted to Dadilan."

  "What happened to him, when Ky attacked?"

  "Robin's men heard the fight and went back. They were in time to finish off the last one. Ky got away."

  I swallowed hard. Tayvis was a paid killer, he just fought for the Patrol not the criminals.

  "He isn't bad, Dace. He only does what he has to."

  Will's comment didn't help, much.

  "You're Patrol, aren't you?" I asked.

  "As much as you are. I'll go stoke the fire so you can actually have warm water."

  He pushed me into the room.

  Will left a pile of clean clothes for me while I showered. I wasn't surprised the skirt and blouse matched.