by Yakov Merkin
“You have done a lot to prove to us that you are acting with our best interests at heart,” Felivas continued. “We will not abandon you.”
Nayasar nodded, then rested her head in her hand for a brief moment. Was she suffering from some malady? “We’ll—we’ll let you know if we find something useful,” she said, then terminated the transmission.
Darkclaw stared at the blank screen for several minutes afterward. What could be wrong with Nayasar? She was certainly less upset with him—and it could not be soon enough. But it was clear that it was Felivas, not she, that was driving them to actively help him. Nayasar was solely focused on this mysterious task of theirs.
Whatever it was, Darkclaw prayed, though he didn’t know to what, that they did not get themselves killed. At this point, with him essentially trapped with the High Lord at all times, they were as indispensible as he was.
Darkclaw raised his gaze to the ceiling. If you truly do exist and care about those who believe in you, Omnipresent, you had damn well better ensure that those two do not die. And provide him with a solution.
Darkclaw rose from his chair. He had to return to the bridge before the avatar—the High Lord—became suspicious. Time to continue to fight another’s war. He would be able to buy a few days while he prepared the fleet, but no more. In truth, it was really all in the claws of the Felinaris now.
CHAPTER 23
Nayasar pulled the bloody knife out of the Tehlman’s chest as alarms began to blare. Six down, two more targets to go, and not enough time. “Let’s move!” Nayasar ordered both teams as she ran for the room’s exit. As it turned out, she had been right. The remaining targets had been more prepared for attack. It made things much harder, but Nayasar welcomed the challenge.
While she had managed to have a confrontation with Brahl Carnet, the Tehlman who she had just killed, she had unfortunately had to have Tzalaf kill the other remaining target, a Nihluran named Jonev Leht, the only of her targets who had come under serious scrutiny after the massacre, for his part in recruiting volunteers. As such, he’d already become a bit reclusive, and reacted immediately once he realized the danger. Fortunately, he had still been too late.
With Carnet it had been more direct. He had chosen to remain at his job as the head of a ship manufacturing company—the one that had supplied most of the ships for the massacre. While he’d chosen to remain, he had prepared himself well, with a substantial security presence.
So Nayasar had altered the plan. She had divided her team into three groups this time; Felivas leading one attack team, Bohdan the other, while she personally led a small team of three, herself, Kiari, and Tzalaf.
Felivas and Bohdan’s teams had mounted hit and run assaults on the security forces, and succeeded in distracting them long enough for Nayasar and her team to slip inside the complex. From there it was a straight slice to Carnet himself, though she’d had to cut her talk with him short.
Now was the hard part, the escape.
“Everyone, back to the ship!” she shouted over their shared channel. “We’re done here.”
“Already on my way,” Mir announced. “Just make sure you’re ready!”
Felivas and Bohdan both acknowledged the order, and began to fall back to the designated pickup points. Hopefully the security forces would be satisfied with the retreat and not pursue, but Nayasar intended to be sure they got out safely. They’d been in enough danger already. Now it was her turn.
“Up to the roof!” she ordered her team, then began to sprint up the emergency stairwell that they had used to get into the building in the first place. So far she had heard no security forces within the office building, but it wouldn’t be long before they realized their boss was dead and that she had gotten into the building.
“Spread out,” Nayasar ordered as they walked out onto the roof, the bright sunlight beating down on the flat, almost featureless roof. Nayasar found a spot at a corner, where the wall around the roof was high enough to take cover behind, then crouched down and watched as both Kiari and Tzalaf chose positions from which they could easily fire at the enemy forces below.
This next part would be very dangerous, but Nayasar didn’t care. She’d survived worse odds, and besides, the only thing more fun than killing her bitter enemies was killing even more of them.
“Now,” she ordered, then raised herself just above the wall and opened fire on the largely Tehlman security forces below. These security forces were a corporate protection company rather than the completely private forces such as the one that had defended the ren Talbins on Hallenon, and were notably less effective. Still, they were dangerous enough.
Nayasar fired until her power cell was depleted, then tossed a grenade at a group of Tehlmans who were running toward the building, and ducked back behind the wall to replace the cell.
“Picking up Team One now,” Mir announced. “Team Two, what’s your status?”
“Unable to make it to the pickup point,” Bohdan replied over the comm channel. “We have wounded, and there are too many enemies between us and the pickup spot. Enemies are prepared for the ship.” Bohdan paused, and Nayasar heard more weapons fire followed by a growl from the high captain.
“Hold on!” Nayasar shouted. “We’re coming to you.” She rose from her position, still firing down at the enemies as she checked Team Two’s location. It wasn’t too far.
“Let’s move!” she ordered her team. Tzalaf fired off another pair of shots, then made her way over to Nayasar along with Kiari.
“The most direct path is across these rooftops,” the sniper said, most likely speaking from experience. “Can you both make the jumps?”
“We can,” Nayasar replied. “Let’s go now.”
Tzalaf led the way, leaping across empty space, landing on the next building over. Fortunately, the facility’s office buildings were clustered together in the center of the main facility and not particularly tall, as the taller structures were used for manufacturing.
Nayasar went next; the jump was farther than it had looked, but she made it easily. A slight thump behind her a moment later told her that Kiari had as well. They continued after Tzalaf, and several jumps later they found themselves on top of another building, looking down at Team Two, which was pinned down by enemy fire. They were all still fighting.
They had to draw away as much of the enemy force as possible, to give Team Two breathing room. And they had to eliminate anything that could be a threat to the Harbinger. “Tzalaf, kill anyone that might be carrying heavy weapons. Kiari, start killing everything else.”
As her teammates affirmed her orders, Nayasar began to fire down at the security forces herself. Before long, they were firing back, and Nayasar was forced to stop firing down.
“They’ve entered the building!” Tzalaf called. “We’ll be having company up here soon!”
“Keep killing anything that could damage the ship. We’ll take care of these mercenaries.”
They were all still cloaked, but the enemy knew they were there, and the fastest way to find a cloaked enemy was to simply spray weapons fire. “Status?” she demanded of Mir.
“Less than a minute out. Will get Team Two, then pick you three up.”
Nayasar didn’t reply, and positioned herself so that she would be able to fire from behind cover at the enemy as they exited out onto the roof.
Less than a minute later, as Mir announced that he was evacuating Team Two, the enemy finally made it onto the roof. Nayasar fired as soon as the door opened, and the lightly armored security forces began to drop, but there were a lot of them, and some made it out onto the open roof. Nayasar didn’t mind. Another chance to further even the score with her enemies.
This is for Tilah, Nayasar said to herself as she felled one of the mercenaries, naming one of the victims of the massacre. And this is for Felital, she said as she killed another. This was the only way to make it feel better, taking lives for those of her own that were stolen. She would have gone on, but she heard a cry of pain fro
m Tzalaf’s position. Nayasar rose from her crouch and sprinted forward, barreling over a confused mercenary as she crossed the rooftop, where she saw Tzalaf, one arm clutching her side, standing over a dead mercenary. “I’ll live,” she said, though Nayasar could tell that her breathing was ragged.
Fortunately, a moment later Mir contacted her. “Above your roof now,” he said. “Don’t want to stay long.”
“Help her to the ship,” Nayasar ordered Kiari, then walked over to the Nihluran mercenary she had knocked down, who was only then pulling himself up. Without a word, Nayasar drew one of her long knives and cut his throat open. “That’s for all my friends who were hurt today,” she said as she walked to the line hanging from the Harbinger and climbed up, ignoring the shots fired at the ship. Her shields would hold.
* * *
“We’re still going to kill Asren,” Nayasar stated. “Nothing will stop us.”
“With all due respect, Srei Felitzvah,” Davir said, “three of our number suffered serious enough wounds today that they cannot participate in another operation so soon. That is almost one third our total strength.”
He had a point. Tzalaf, Bohdan, and Tzia had all been injured badly enough that Flis had ordered them to rest for at least a day or two while the medsalve did its work. And just about everyone else had some minor injuries. But Nayasar would not allow them to stop now. Not when she was so close to avenging the dead, so close to finally silencing the crying souls.
“No, we will continue with the operation. I made a commitment to do this. If we stop now, that chance could be forever lost. We just need a different plan.” She really would need to permanently rejoin the fleet very soon, and if Darkclaw succeeded in killing his High Lord and the war ended, she would not be able to continue as she had been. The deaths would immediately be linked to her, which could start another war. And as much as she liked killing Alliance personnel, she did not want that.
“I will not run from a fight we committed ourselves to,” Kiari said at once, as Nayasar had expected. The former assassin doubtless had her own voices to silence, and she was probably the only one who truly understood what Nayasar was experiencing—most of Kiari’s unit from before her Hermav days had been killed in an operation. She had blamed herself for a long time. Plus, Kiari had grown up in Selban.
“I’m still in as well,” said Nirra. “I had friends in Selban.”
“As did I,” Kanaah added.
“I think we can still do it,” Tresken said from across the room. “We’re the best Felinar has. Surely we can work out something, even if it’s just a quick assassination from long range. I could always hack a duster and have it fly into Arsen’s building, or something like that.”
Felivas sighed, and looked at Davir, who shrugged. “Majority rules,” Davir said.
“That, and the fact that Nayasar is our commanding officer,” Felivas added.
Nayasar was sure he was looking for a reason to declare her unfit for command, to find some way to stop her. At first, she felt angry and betrayed. Why didn’t he trust her? On the other hand, she knew that Felivas always had her best interests at heart. She would make it up to him later, once she had her vengeance.
“We press on.”
* * *
“This is not going to work,” Felivas said. The team, minus the wounded and Mir, were standing on a high rooftop overlooking the slightly shorter building below where their target, Asren Sliban, another Darvian, had sought refuge. The former intelligence operative turned military commentator had clearly taken the threats to his life seriously. He had sought refuge in the Darvian embassy on Victuris, a Talvostan world deep in Alliance space in the Gretham system, as had been Hallenon, where they had killed the ren Talbins, though his expansive protection retinue was Darvian military. Fortunately, Carnet had been located elsewhere, so security should not expect her team to return to the system so soon.
“We can alter the plan,” Nayasar replied. The initial plan had been to land on this rooftop, then make their way down, while cloaked, and infiltrate the building as one unit, spending as little time on the streets as possible. That had been before they’d seen Sliban’s improved defenses. The Darvian military personnel had created a defensive perimeter around the entire building—as if they expected a full-on attack—and had groups of soldiers patrolling and protecting every entrance, save the one on the roof. They had placed additional protection around the building, likely to ensure no one tried to scale it.
“It’s too heavily defended,” Flis said. “I’ve gotten into tightly guarded places before, but this is too risky.”
“And even if we do get in,” Davir added, “how will we get out? What if someone gets captured?” Davir would never settle to leave anyone behind.
“There’s always a way,” Nayasar insisted as she looked over the edge of the roof. There had to be some hole in their defensive perimeter, or some way to get onto that roof. “If we can find a way to get down onto the roof they won’t be able to stop us.”
“I’m sorry, Nayasar,” Felivas said. “We can’t get safely down to that roof from here, and we can’t get from here to a rooftop over the target one.” This was the disadvantage of choosing one of the taller buildings to land on.
“So we’ll call the ship back,” Nayasar replied. “Mir can transfer us over there,” she continued, pointing. She was not leaving without her dead Darvian.
“Nayasar,” Kiari said, walking over and resting a hand on her shoulder. “They’re right, it’s impossible. We can’t keep bringing the ship back; it’s too likely that it’ll be spotted. Even I don’t see a way, and I’m crazier than you are. Don’t risk your life so rashly; we need you with us.”
No! There was always a way, even if her friends were abandoning her and unable to see it! She had to do this, now. She was co close… but if she continued to insist on this, they might declare her unfit for command, and she’d lose the chance anyway.
“Fine. Let’s go.” Not that she intended to actually leave. She had to do this.
Nayasar remained where she was, staring out at the target roof and another, higher and closer with a fenced-in balcony. She carefully measured the distances. Her grappling claw should be able to….
“Nayasar,” Felivas said. “The ship’s on its way.”
Nayasar nodded slowly, and began to walk with him toward the center of the roof. It would work, provided she did it perfectly. Nayasar felt a sudden joy in this victory. It would only be too bad she wouldn’t be able to see the team’s faces.
Without warning, she turned and ran for the roof’s edge, ignoring the calls over the comm channel to stop as she readied her grappling claw. When she reached the edge of the roof, she pushed off of it and leaped out into the open air, and began to fall. She’d have to time this perfectly, or the mission would be a short one.
Nayasar aimed and fired, and the claw grabbed onto the balcony’s fence. After a few more glorious seconds of freefalling, Nayasar began to swing down toward the embassy’s rooftop. She allowed the grappling line to extend as far as it could as she swung. It would almost be long enough to land, but not quite.
As she swung over the rooftop, Nayasar gritted her teeth and let go of the grappling claw. This could be a bit painful. She fell into a double roll as she hit the roof, and skidded to a stop. She’d done it! So much for impossible. She’d have plenty of aches tomorrow, but that was then.
“Follow if you dare,” she said to the team before muting them all to stop having to hear their objections, then forced open the door and stepped inside.
The others would have been able to track her motions despite the cloak; their eyes were keen enough to see the grappling line. Felivas at least, would come as well, she was certain. Kiari too. Nayasar just hoped they didn’t mess up.
She paused in the stairwell for a moment as she brought up a map of the building on her armor’s heads-up display. It wouldn’t be as detailed as it would be when projected on her multitool, but it would not be noticeable
by others. Asren was in the Darvian ambassador’s office.
Nayasar quickly mapped out a route for herself, and began to move. She passed by several guards, but there didn’t seem to be any greater presence here than there would be at any other time. The defense was focused on keeping her out. A whole lot of good that did.
As she finally reached the desired office, Nayasar stopped for a moment to figure out what her next move should be. There were a pair of Darvian soldiers at the door, and another pair down the hall. She wouldn’t need long in the room; Nayasar was prepared to give up a full confrontation with her target if it meant escape.
She took three high explosive grenades from her belt, primed two to explode on impact, and tossed them down the hall at the guards stationed there. Seconds later, they exploded, and the guards were thrown into the remains of the walls, then fell to the ground unmoving.
Come on, Nayasar silently urged the guards by the office door. Seconds later, they left the door and ran to assist their fallen comrades. Nayasar set her third grenade on a short timer, then rolled it after the Darvians and slipped into the office room. She wouldn’t have much time; the alarm had definitely been raised.
As she entered the room, Nayasar saw two Darvian soldiers standing to one side of the door. She immediately opened fire, catching them unawares, and depleted a pair of power cells firing into their skulls. “Don’t you move!” she shouted at Asren and the Darvian ambassador once the soldiers were dead. Even if they hadn’t already called for direct aid, soldiers would be in the room soon.
“Asren Sliban,” she said as she decloaked.
Both Darvians turned toward her. “So you’re the one who’s been killing people,” said Asren, who was rather short for a Darvian.
