Mesmerized

by Lauren Dane

  “I think it might be wise to be sure to speak within the right hearing, about these Imperium types sniffing around. We don’t need to tattle, but a little whisper on the wind ought to get word where it needs to be.” Piper wasn’t fond of the law. They had never done much for her and hers. But some things were simply wrong. Unacceptable. And treason was one of them.

  “I’ll be at the public house in town later. I’ll make it happen.” Kenner lit a candle. “May as well be prepared in case we lose power.”

  “How do the supplies look?” Piper asked Taryn quietly.

  He sat back in his chair as the noise went on all around them. “There’s plenty of food and ale. I was thinking of going out tomorrow to set the moisture traps. The one out back needs fixing.”

  “There’s always the tunnels.” Some of the other groups out their way—okay mercenary groups—were building a series of tunnels to connect with town and also to the water station just on the other side of Bristina Canyon. Since they’d begun to raise some livestock and the greenhouses were finally pumping out fruit and vegetables to feed everyone, having enough water was imperative.

  But it was a sore spot, because Taryn and Kenner both opposed opening up a back door into the compound by strangers.

  “I trust you. I trust Kenner and our people. I don’t know who these other mercs are involved with, and I don’t like them having access to us via that tunnel.” Taryn glowered.

  “Well, given the general desperation of our friends, I take it the others aren’t going near this deal of theirs either. That puts my mind to rest a little.” They weren’t all bad. Most of the merc groups were like her own.

  But not all.

  “I remain opposed. If we increased our cistern capacity and got working water traps, we wouldn’t need a tunnel. Just because they’re not working with them now, doesn’t mean they won’t. And anyway, there are plenty of bad people to worry about other than the Imperialists.” Taryn narrowed his gaze, uncomfortable as always with the way she straddled the lines between lawful and not so very much.

  “I think that’s a very good idea.” If she let him have his way, he’d feel better. And he was right that total trust of the others would be stupid.

  He sighed heavily. “You know things are very bad, right? I really think we all need to watch our backs very carefully. War is coming, Piper; I can feel it.”

  He’d seen the wars on Earth, had felt the results so severely he brought them all to Asphodel as refugees, hoping for a better life.

  And he was right. War was coming.

  Chapter 3

  The tug in his belly, followed by the arrival chimes, signaled the transport’s arrival at the Portal. Andrei stood and stretched. Thank the Gods he’d be stopping off in Mirage with Julian for a time. Too much portal travel didn’t sit well with him. He hated the confinement of it.

  He nudged his traveling companion, who started awake and nodded up at him sleepily. Julian had been down, adrift after the loss of their friend and an old flame of Andrei’s, Marame, not too very long ago in an attack at the Portal Station on Ravena. Andrei had agreed with Daniel, his boss of sorts and the leader of the Phantom Corps teams, that Julian needed the work to keep his mind off the loss. To give him something to do.

  After Marame’s murder, they’d ordered Julian on leave, but he’d only wallowed, drinking too much, and he’d ended up in lockup, so Daniel hauled him from the cell and handed him to Andrei as he’d come back from a trip to Borran to check the munitions depot.

  As it happened, they all had plenty to do, so it wasn’t difficult. Julian most likely knew it was about getting him away from Ravena to get his mind elsewhere, but he went where he was told because it was his job, and grieving or not, he believed in it. Just as Andrei did.

  Julian was good at his job. A good man to have at your back. Agile. Intelligent. The best hand-to-hand fighter he’d ever seen. And he had a fire inside to avenge the death of his friend. Truth be told, they needed people like him out in the field just then.

  That didn’t mean Andrei was taking him along to Asphodel, though.

  Asphodel was full of ghosts, and Andrei didn’t want to share that with anyone else. Aside from assignments with Daniel, he preferred to work alone anyway.

  “Let’s go. We’re meeting Vincenz shortly.” He grabbed his bag, tossed Julian’s at him and unlatched the door.

  The hallways of the transport were already a hive of activity. Porters wheeling carts around, passengers leaving their rooms, some heading back to them. Safety crews were on the high walks checking the seams. Others stood near the exits with their bright yellow vests, holding signs written in standard, telling each group where to disembark.

  The noise and chaos of it rose as Andrei and Julian moved toward the disembarkation ramps. The white noise of it allowed Andrei to focus on important details. Allowed him to flick his gaze around the area, at the hidden spots, the elevated places where an attack could be launched. Allowed him to be sure everything was in the place it should be. Even chaos had its rules, and a crowd always worked in a few, certain ways.

  This one seemed to be fine. Worry was in the air, which was normal, given the way things had been going lately between the Federation and the Imperialists. And it was close to the Edge, where tensions had been heightened for far longer than those deeper in the Federation had experienced it.

  Julian stood at his side, Andrei knew, calculating everything. Julian’s brain was like a machine. He was always making computations, always extrapolating data, working best- and worst-case scenarios.

  “Documents,” the bored ticket taker barked as they approached.

  Phantom Corps operatives always traveled with civilian documents, though they could, and did, pull in clout when it was necessary. Andrei preferred to slip unnoticed through the public berths.

  Most people hated crowds, but as they were waved through, Andrei again thanked all the reasons crowds were so annoying. All the noise and bustle tended to interfere with people’s ability to really concentrate. Not so him, but most others. And while they stumbled around, he could get his job done.

  Julian tipped his chin toward the line of public conveyances for hire. “Let’s catch one to Vincent’s.” Vincent was Vincenz Fardelle, son of the leader of the Imperialist Universes. He’d left some standard years before, seeking asylum in the Federated Universes, and had been integral to their information gathering here on the Edge.

  Andrei followed him toward the conveyances. Shadows lived in Julian’s gaze. Andrei knew them well enough; he supposed he had some of his own. It did no good to give in to the gulf of grief simply waiting patiently to swallow a man alive.

  Julian was alive. Andrei had known Marame. Intimately for nearly a standard year. He knew she’d agree that being alive was a good, solid thing. It was all a man had at the end of the day when the lights were off and there was no one around to lie to him.

  In the meantime, there was work to be done and Marame wouldn’t have been offended one bit to know they were going to avenge her murder.

  The conveyance driver nodded as Julian gave him the address. Andrei approved of the surly, quiet man who drove expertly through the madness of the crowds.

  Settling back against the cracked, stiff material of the seat, Andrei looked through the window at the passing scene outside. The streets of the portal city teemed with travelers. With vendors and polis. Hustle and bustle, Daniel had called it. But beneath the frenzied stream of people and the hum of their activity there was also tension.

  People were stirred up, scared and feeling adrift. Andrei understood it. He had far more details than they did, and he’d thought himself beyond being stirred up. Not so, as it happens when one discovers one’s enemy capable of biological warfare and collapsing portals, cutting off millions of people.

  Vincenz’s house wasn’t very much farther, but they didn’t want to get out too close, so Julian had the driver pull over, and they walked the rest of the way, each man in his own thoughts
, not speaking, but keeping an eye on their surroundings.

  People they passed moved just slightly farther out of the way than was necessary, kept their gazes down. Their insides knew these two men were far more than two guys out for a stroll.

  Vincenz opened his door, his blond hair—nearly as pale as his sister, Carina’s—standing on end. “Come in. The connection just established, so head back.” With that, he turned and hurried back into the house, clearly on a mission. Andrei figured the connection would be Daniel Haws, the leader of Phantom Corps, right hand to Wilhelm Ellis. And their boss.

  Julian locked up, setting the alarms again before trailing Andrei back to the communications center at the heart of Vincenz’s home.

  Vincenz indicated the table with the vid screen at the head. Daniel was there, looking back, his features drawn.

  “Glad to see you’ve made it safely. I want you all on high alert. One of the special teams had two losses last week. Keep your communications to the phoenix level only. Even our contractors are under scrutiny to find these leaks. This new interface is as locked down as we can possibly make it. Please be sure to use this in the future when you communicate back with anyone on these issues unless it is absolutely necessary. The new code has been loaded into your personal comms.”

  Andrei paused, mulling over the way Daniel had just told them they had leaks at high levels within either the Federation Government or within the military corps. Gods, or both. He shivered, uncomfortable with the rising tide of distrust spreading through their world.

  “Andrei, I received your data about the munitions issue. Lyons agrees this is a priority. Julian, you’re the liaison between us and the special teams. Ash Walker will be contacting you soon about their plans.”

  Julian nodded, and Andrei noted the brief flare in his eyes. It was the most interested he’d looked in a week. He knew Daniel would have noted that as well.

  Daniel spoke again. “We know this is all about Parron, Mirage and Asphodel. So let’s find out what we don’t know, like what exactly it is each ’Verse holds for the Imperium. We can’t stop it if we’re going in blind. Vincenz, keep on the data and your analysis. Julian, I want you on the issue of just what it is we’re looking for.”

  “Yes, sir.” Julian nodded his head toward Daniel’s image on the screen.

  “Andrei, I need to speak with you privately. Julian, Vincenz, contact me with any problems or questions.”

  Andrei had realized where this was going, had for some time as each clue kept pointing to the Edge. Anger flashed through his senses, a small flick of the rage he had learned to channel. The slice of it was sweet after so long. Even so, by the time the others had left the room, he’d put it away, focused on what he knew needed to happen.

  Daniel hesitated, looking him over carefully. “Maybe I should send Vincenz.”

  “This is my job, Daniel.” Andrei knew Daniel meant to send him to Asphodel. Though it had been some time, Andrei’s contacts on Asphodel were substantial. He was the best candidate for the job.

  He sipped the mug of kava Vincenz had left near his right hand. Despite that momentary flash of rage earlier, his control had slid back into place. Easily enough that Andrei knew the time when it had been a struggle to exert control was long past. There was no small amount of peace in that feeling.

  Daniel exhaled hard and nodded once. “You’re to go on to Asphodel and make contact with the mercs there. If anyone is going to get us solid intel on the Imperialists operating on the Edge, it’ll be them.”

  Andrei nodded.

  “Keep me updated as necessary. You’re my second-in-command, Andrei. Do what you need to, to get this situation dealt with.”

  Andrei allowed himself a small smile. “Is that a battlefield commission of sorts?”

  “I put in for it when we got back from Caelinus with Carina. I managed to push to process it, hoping it would be before you left again, but you know how it goes.”

  “I’m honored. Thank you, sir.” Warmth suffused him. Not the burst of heat from anger, but pride.

  “The pay raise is modest at best. The hours are even longer. I’m not doing you much of a favor. But there’s no one I trust more.” Daniel turned his head a moment, speaking to someone out of screen range. “Get me that intel, Andrei.”

  Piper eased the zipper up, banking right to avoid an outcropping of deadly, jagged rock in the narrow canyon. Asphodel rarely felt as good as it did the first minutes she returned after making a merchandise run.

  This one had brought with it a very healthy pile of credits and no small amount of work to evade the increased Federation military presence at all portal cities. The rogue portals the mercs favored would only remain secret a while longer.

  And then prices would go even higher as the job got far more difficult.

  But for the time being, the sun was going down, the horizon looked calm and they’d be home shortly.

  It wasn’t until she’d come around the final edge of Bristina Canyon’s west edge that she took in the sight of a trail of vehicles approaching the compound. Her radar wasn’t tracking them at all, so she uttered a curse and commed in to her command center at the compound. The Imperialists were using radar dampeners, not a sign of people out for a friendly visit. If she hadn’t been flying over right then, they would have gotten closer to the compound before they’d have alerted her people.

  “Company coming. I want it all locked down. Weapons hot. I’ll be there shortly.”

  Behind her, Kenner strapped in as she got lower and headed to the landing pads.

  “I don’t like this, Piper,” he muttered, checking his weapons.

  “Like I do? Look, follow my lead, all right? Hold on to your ass.” Opting for speed over finesse, she touched down and jumped from the cockpit as soon as the engines quit.

  Eiriq met them, tossing her a las-rifle. As weapons went it wasn’t sophisticated. But it could put a hole through anyone who got in her way, which was just the sort of message she wanted to send.

  “Everyone is in place. We’ve got the kids down in the shelter with the pregnant women and the elderly.”

  Taryn ran up. “There are more than you first thought, Piper. This is going to be a possible problem.”

  She sighed at the sight of the dust plume rising from the convoy of vehicles approaching the compound. “You can tell none of the ones in front are soldiers. They may as well have voice projectors announcing their arrival.” She glanced at Taryn. “We may have to call in some help. Be ready.”

  The high, solid fencing surrounding the compound halted the vehicles’ movement.

  “Cover me,” she called out, keeping to the edges of the buildings as she moved closer.

  The lead conveyance opened, and Minister Cheney got out, sneer firmly in place.

  “I believe I did tell you we’d be back and you’d regret not taking our offer earlier,” he called out. “Why don’t you let us in so we can discuss this privately.”

  “I have no intention of inviting you into my home. I said no. I mean no. I’m not interested in what you’re peddling.”

  One of the others, this one clearly a soldier of some sort, identifiable by the way he carried himself, approached the gate, pulling a weapon free.

  Kenner stepped up, swinging the barrel of his blaster straight up, making his intentions unmistakable.

  “Supreme Leader Fardelle does not favor these sorts of games. He is busy. Far too busy for this. Now open these gates so we can broker this contract and I can quit this place.”

  Driven to anger, she spoke her mind. “I don’t give a care for your offers or your murderous boss. What your Fardelle does or doesn’t want is nothing to me and mine.” She said it loud and very clear. Her people snapped to attention all around where they stood.

  “Is that what you need? To be assured this is about goods or services that won’t hurt your precious Federation? Fine, fine, that’s what it is. A humanitarian mission, if you wish.” He bowed, mocking.

  “She t
old you to leave. Take your people and go. You’re trespassing, and trespassers get shot.” Kenner gestured with the weapon to underline that.

  “You’re playing a dangerous game, girl. The kind of game that gets people hurt. Take your profit, keep your mouth shut and deliver the goods.”

  “Profit is one thing. Betraying my government is another entirely.” She shot at the ground near his toes, satisfied when he emitted a high-pitched squeal as he jumped back. “Get the fuck outta here.”

  She turned, and if she hadn’t lost her footing when she tripped over her kit bag, she’d have taken a blast to the back.

  People scattered, shouting orders as the whoosh of auto-loading las-guns zinged through the air. Bullets cracked. The stench of black powder and laser off-gas from the blasters was enough to make her eyes water as she managed to get behind some shelter.

  “Don’t waste ammo. Shoot to kill,” Kenner ordered into his wrist mic. Shots rained down on the Imperial soldiers from the sniper posts in the courtyard towers.

  “Gas!”

  She managed to grab a mask from the kit Kenner had tossed to her, her tears already flowing.

  “There are two dozen heavily armed soldiers. I don’t know how I feel about these odds,” Taryn said, mouth set in a grim line.

  Kenner hissed. “Eleven. Yeah that’s right, Imperialist scum! I will kill each and every one of you!” he called out.

  “Gods above and below,” Taryn grumbled. “I don’t suppose I could convince you”—he paused to fire his weapon, grinning savagely as the body hit the ground—“to get down in the shelter, could I?”

  “Me? This is my fault. I’m the last person who should be running right now.” They’d managed to get to one of the outbuildings. She quickly booted the compound’s vid system. “By the west fence. It’s Stahl. They’ve got him pinned down.”

  Eiriq called out that he was on the way, and Taryn took off after him for backup.

  “We are fucked, Piper. We gotta call in for some help. We’ve got four men down. You and I are pinned here. They’re inside now. It’s only a matter of time.” Kenner continued to pepper the advancing Imperialists with fire.