by Nalini Singh
He knew he’d failed when Sophia touched his shoulder. “Max?”
“I’ve been trying to track down my father,” he told her, admitting his final secret. “I don’t know why. Maybe I’ll know when I find him.”
“Do you think the information is in that envelope?”
“No way to know—but each time I open a ‘mystery’ envelope,” he said, looking down at the plain brown paper, “I hope.”
Sophia shifted to snuggle by his side. It was automatic to put his arm around her, pull her tight against him. She fit perfectly. “There’s something else.” A soft statement from the Psy who owned his heart. “Your expression . . .”
He stole a kiss, needing her. “You’re starting to read me like a book. By the time we’re sitting in rockers watching our grandchildren play, you’ll know my secrets before I do.”
She smiled, and it hit him right in the heart, how fucking much she meant to him. He wasn’t letting her go, wasn’t letting the Corps drag her back down into the nightmare world of an active J—even if he had to fight Silence itself. “I know your secrets, too, Sophie,” he said. “Who were you telepathing earlier?”
“Another J.” A pause. “My shields, Max, I need to explain them, to assess if there’s a chance they’ll fail again.”
His soul repudiated the idea, but he knew she was right. “What did your friend say?”
“That Sascha Duncan is supposed to be an excellent shield technician—he recommended I talk to her, see if she can figure out what’s behind the regeneration of my shields.” Lifting herself up a little, she pressed her lips to the tiny scar on his cheek, the one she seemed to love.
It made his heart smile each time she did that. Even today, now, he felt loved, adored.
“But we can discuss all that later,” Sophia murmured. “Open the envelope.”
Removing his arm from around her, he drew in the vanilla and lavender scent of her and slit open the paper.
He’d opened so many envelopes since he began this search, become so used to disappointment that it took him almost a minute to realize what he held in his hand. Letting the other pieces of mail fall to the carpet, he ran his hand over the crisp white paper of the single piece he still held. “See that?” he said, rubbing his thumb over the emblem on the top left-hand corner.
Sophia bent her head. “It’s from the Department of Justice.”
“Bart,” he clarified. “I asked him for a favor.” It could’ve gotten the other man fired, but the prosecutor had asked only the questions he needed to get the answer.
Sophia took a long breath, let it out. “You asked him to run your DNA against the central Justice criminal database.”
He wasn’t the least surprised that she’d guessed. “It was a logical step, given our socioeconomic circumstances, the history of the other men in the area at the time.” He took a deep breath. “And it’s a step I avoided for a hell of a long time.”
“That’s understandable,” Sophia said, shifting to a kneeling position beside him on the sofa, her fingers stroking through his hair. “You’re a cop. You’ve dedicated your life to upholding the law—discovering that your father was a criminal who broke those same laws will be a blow.” Her words were calm, practical. “But Max”—her tone changed, gentled, her eyes shining—“it will alter nothing about the man you are, the man you’ve made yourself.”
He slid one arm around her waist, his throat thick. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Her forehead touching his in tender affection, her hands cupping his face. “You’re the one who taught me that life isn’t predestined. We are who we make ourselves.”
Her faith in him tore him wide open, reformed him a better man. “Open it for me.”
Sophia took the envelope, able to be strong for her cop, to give him what he needed. Sliding her finger under the flap, she slit it open to remove two pieces of paper. The first was closed around the second—which proved to be an automatically sealed printout with serrated edges which could be pulled apart to reveal what lay within. The first was a handwritten note.
“Max,” she read out, “as far as the computers are concerned, this scan was never done. I don’t know the results. Neither does the computer tech. We requested that the results be printed automatically sealed. I hope you find what you’re looking for.” It was signed with Reuben’s name. But below that was another line—“P.S. A man’s father doesn’t make the man. If it did, I’d be a self-serving SOB with three wives and an inability to be faithful to any of them.” Sophia put down the letter, her curiosity a wild thing. “I assume he means three consecutive wives?”
“Nope.” At her gasp, his lips curved. “Bart’s father founded his own religion.”
“And how many wives does Bart have?”
“He’s been married to Tasma since they were in law school. Got four brats they love like crazy.”
Sophia smiled. “So.”
“So.”
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
She broke the serrated edges but held the letter closed. “You should see it first.” Passing it over, she waited as he read it, then put it on the coffee table. Nothing happened for the next few seconds . . . until Max gave a shuddering sigh and dropped his head, thrusting his hands through his hair.
Worry tore through her . . . until he lifted his eyes. Relief shone a beacon of sunlight through his irises. “Max?”
“I always thought,” he said, his voice rough with emotion, “that there was something wrong with me that my mother couldn’t love me. She could love River, and I think she even loved some of the men she brought home. But not me, never me.”
Sophia’s eyes went to the envelope, her brain making connections out of the experiences of a lifetime spent in Justice. “Who was your father, Max?”
“His name isn’t important,” Max said, and she saw that to him, it truly wasn’t. “But what he did to her . . . He raped her, was convicted of it, died in a prison fight.” A short, brutal summary. Max shook his head. “The only thing I don’t understand is why she kept me.”
Sophia’s hand clenched on his thigh. Looking up, he saw eyes huge with concern, with empathy. “Ah, Sophie.” Pulling her into his lap, he nuzzled his face into the sweet curve of her neck as she wrapped her arms around him. “I’m not in shock.” Part of him, somewhere deep inside, had guessed the truth a long time ago. “Now that I know why she couldn’t love me, I can forgive her for it.”
“You’re a better person than I am,” Sophia said, her anger a steel flame. “You were a child.”
Max smiled, holding her tight, this woman who would fight for him. “But I’ve become a man.” Looking back, he could feel only pity and sorrow for the tormented, haunted woman who’d been his mother. “And I’m a man who is loved. Who loves to the depths of his soul.”
There was no way in hell he was ever letting anyone take Sophie away from him. She was his. The Justice Corps would have to just fucking get used to that. “Baby,” he said, turning his relentless will to how to ensure no one would ever dare come between him and his J, “we need a plan.”
Sophia’s eyes gleamed. “I have an idea.”
CHAPTER 45
Nikita entered the mental vault of the Council chambers knowing that what she was about to do would change the course of Psy history. Whether she’d come out of the change alive, time alone would tell.
Kaleb entered with her, Ming LeBon coming in just after.
“You’re well?” she asked.
The militarily inclined Councilor didn’t give much away. “Yes.”
They stopped speaking as Henry and Shoshanna Scott entered, followed by Tatiana Rika-Smythe and Anthony Kyriakus in short order.
“Nikita,” Shoshanna Scott said as soon as the psychic doors closed, “is this about the problems you’ve been having?”
“Yes,” Nikita said. “The specialists I hired were able to track the assassinations to a Pure Psy zealot.”
“I wouldn’t term the members of Pure
Psy zealots.” Henry, joining in the conversation.
“Oh?” Nikita had played enough games. “The dictionary definition of zealotry is ‘fanatical partisanship.’ I’d say Pure Psy fits the definition.”
Ming LeBon was the one who spoke next, and his words were nothing Nikita had expected. “I, too, have become concerned about the direction of Pure Psy.”
“They seek only to protect our Silence,” Henry said. “There is nothing of concern in that . . . not unless you wish to protect those who are flawed.”
Nikita ignored the pointed reference to her daughter, focusing on Ming instead.
“However,” Ming continued, “that goal is now being interlocked with a noticeably racial agenda. Pure Psy has begun to see the other races as ‘unclean’ for want of a better word. It’s indisputable that Nikita was targeted because she has strong business ties with the changelings.”
Well, Kaleb’s voice whispered in Nikita’s mind, it seems this will make strange bedfellows out of us all.
He may have an ulterior motive, Nikita replied. Let us wait and see.
“Keeping our people apart from the other races,” Henry said, “is not the worst of choices. If we could achieve isolation, our Silence would soon be pristine.”
“If you believe that”—Anthony Kyriakus’s cool, considered voice—“then you’re a fool.”
Shoshanna’s riposte was quick. “It’s only the weaker members of our populace who are prone to breaks from conditioning—”
“So now you’ll add two cardinals and a gifted scientist to that list?” Anthony’s question was measured, no less lethal for its absolute calm. “It’s time we faced up to the facts. Silence is beginning to crumble at far more than just the edges, and if we don’t make a choice on how to handle it, we risk an uncontrollable breakdown.”
“Surely,” Tatiana Rika-Smythe said, entering the conversation for the first time, “it’s not that urgent. Yes, there have been incidents, but nothing to suggest a Net-wide emergency.”
Ming’s mind swirled an icy razor. “I made note of an incident at the Sunshine mining station several months ago.”
“The mass psychotic outbreak?” Nikita clarified, not having been immediately involved with the situation. According to the data she quickly accessed, the episode had resulted in over a hundred fatalities.
“Yes. It seemed an aberration at the time, but in the past three days, we’ve had another mass incident at a remote science station on the Russian steppes.”
“How many dead?” Kaleb, speaking aloud for the first time.
“Three hundred,” was the response. “And of the fifty survivors, at least thirty are candidates for total rehabilitation. Their minds are broken.”
There was a moment’s silence as they digested that. Nikita decided to speak first, draw a line in the sand. “We can’t just keep rehabilitating people. It’s akin to putting your finger in a dyke when the dam has burst.”
“Rehabilitation is key,” Henry argued. “It will remove the unstable part of the populace—”
“How many?” Nikita asked, holding her own Silence, holding the cold that had been conditioned into her as a child—a cold so deep and true that nothing would ever thaw it. “Stopping when all our people are dead seems rather pointless.”
“A melodramatic statement,” Tatiana responded. “It’s still a minority who are experiencing problems, and you said yourself that more and more people are getting themselves voluntarily reconditioned, so the situation will correct itself.”
“As to that,” Anthony said, “it seems you haven’t been reading your reports, Councilor.”
Shoshanna spoke into the silence. “Anthony?”
“There’s been a marked decline in the number of individuals choosing to have their conditioning checked over the past two months.”
“How is that possible?” Henry asked. “I’ve been kept updated on all the numbers.”
“Either someone is lying to you,” Nikita said, “or you misinterpreted the data. The fact is, the Net is buzzing with new whispers of dissent—”
“The Ghost,” Shoshanna interrupted, referring to the most infamous insurgent in the PsyNet. “He’s been spreading his brand of rebellion.”
“No,” Nikita said, “he simply pointed out the truth—that the violence that began the reconditionings was planned, that the populace was being shepherded toward the Center. Even Psy, it seems, do not like being so openly manipulated.” In truth, that had come as an unexpected realization. Nikita had begun to see their people as the herd of sheep they’d been for so long. But the tides were shifting. And Nikita did not intend to drown.
There was a moment of silence, and she knew telepathic messages were being exchanged, data scanned as her claims were verified.
“Silence,” Henry finally said, “cannot fall.”
“It is,” Tatiana added, “the bedrock of our stability.”
“Agreed.” Shoshanna’s voice.
“That stability is failing,” Ming said. “There is no way to halt the momentum now.”
“Then it may be time,” Anthony murmured, “for Silence to fall.”
“No.” Three voices.
Ming said nothing.
“This isn’t a decision we can make in a single day,” Kaleb said, “wherever we stand. But Pure Psy is a problem that needs to be eliminated. Their actions are only muddying the issue.”
“Pure Psy is composed of those who support Silence,” Henry said. “If you’re suggesting taking them out of the equation, that’s unacceptable.”
“Are you saying they’re under your protection?” Nikita asked.
“Yes.”
“And acting under your orders?”
There was a heavy pause, as Henry realized what his answer would reveal. They all knew, of course, that he’d been the one pulling Quentin Gareth’s strings—at least for the past half year—but for him to admit it was a different matter.
Shoshanna “saved” her husband. “Pure Psy has its own set of principles. That Henry happens to agree with them is no cause to label him a conspirator in their attacks against you, Nikita.”
So wifely. The low murmur of Kaleb’s telepathic tone was filled with nothing, so empty that Nikita wondered what she was doing allying herself with him. But in a pit full of vipers, he was at least one she partially understood.
She’s tied her sail to his, Nikita responded. If he falls, so does she.
Tatiana is with them.
Nikita agreed. Ming is ambivalent.
Anthony will stand with us—he has too many business interests tied up with the other races.
Nikita didn’t mention the conversations she’d had with Anthony.
And you, she asked the most dangerous Tk in the Net. What is your true allegiance?
That, you will have to wait and see.
“It seems we are at an impasse.” Anthony’s intelligent voice. “It would be best,” he said to Henry, “if you made it clear to Pure Psy that their ambitions of a coup d’etat would be better to be swiftly surrendered.”
“And inform any members in my city,” Nikita said, “that they have until the end of this meeting to leave. Or I’ll eliminate them myself.” She’d killed. Many times. And she’d do so again. Self-interest, she told herself. It had nothing to do with the fact that Pure Psy had tried to target her daughter, her unborn grandchild.
“One more thing—Henry?” she said, focusing on the other Councilor. She had a thousand strains of viruses in her head. One of them, she thought, would penetrate his shields. And she’d find it, no matter how long it took. “The next time you decide one of my people is flawed and order a rehabilitation without my consent, I might not act in so civilized a fashion. In fact, it might be better for your . . . health if you didn’t set foot in my territory again.”
“What of your pet J?” Tatiana asked, her tone silky smooth. “There is something severely wrong with her. Her shield is nothing ordinary.”
“Is being extraordinary now a
crime?” Nikita had survived in the Council far longer than Tatiana. If the younger woman had forgotten that, she’d get a lethal surprise one quiet day, when she thought herself safe. “She is one of my people—just like every other Psy within my territorial borders.” The implication was clear.
“So.” Shoshanna. “You’re protecting the broken ones now. I suppose blood will tell.”
Nikita didn’t engage with the Councilor who’d made the fatal decision to stand by Henry. “I’ve said what I have to say.”
The meeting ended less than a minute later. Nothing seemed to have been resolved, but Nikita knew that was a thinly veiled fantasy.
The Council had split in two.
Kaleb had attended the meeting standing on the deck of his Moscow home. Now, he turned to go back inside, to consider his next move—and to return Max Shannon’s call, the message having come in just as the meeting began.
That was before he saw the package sitting in the center of his desk.
It hadn’t been there when he’d walked out onto the deck.
Only one group of people had the skill to have breached his internal security without setting off the alarms.
Picking up a silver letter opener he’d been given by a human business associate, he slit it open. It held a wooden box. That box contained a pristine patch, such as might go on a uniform. The patch bore the image of two snakes in combat—Councilor Ming LeBon’s personal emblem. But piercing the fabric was a small, perfectly formed black arrow.
The Arrow Squad, it seemed, had decided to terminate their allegiance to Ming.
Kaleb didn’t make the mistake of thinking that allegiance had now shifted to him. No, this was a warning and an invitation in one. Removing the Arrow, he placed it on his desk. Then he put the patch back in the box, and teleported with it to an extremely secure location, ’porting out almost as soon as he arrived.
Two Arrows glanced up at once at the slight sound of something settling on the table to their right, a table that existed deep within the Arrow Squad’s Central Command, and was known only to other Arrows. Neither man said a word, but they began working as one to dismantle the box and destroy the patch.
