by Unknown
A loud knock on her door startled Shanee. “That was quick,” she said as she jumped over Ailyn’s prone body, hurrying to let the medivac team in. She punched in the deactivation code for the alarm system then yanked the door open.
“You got here quick…” she started to say a second before a thick, oily mist hit her squarely in the face. She choked on the vapor and staggered back, already beginning to feel the cloying hand of unconsciousness reaching up for her.
* * * * *
Ailyn was delirious for over a week, strapped down to a table on his belly as he writhed in agony. Locked in excruciating pain as the venom attacked his nervous system and his blood boiled in his veins, the Reaper’s flesh was speckled with pockets of pustules that formed then broke open on his body. His body temperature was acutely high. His throat was parched, his gasps ragged as he tried to draw air into his superheated lungs. Though his revenant worm was striving to produce its own toxin to combat the ghoret venom, Ailyn was lost in a hellish world from which he feared he’d never escape.
He fought the double-braided titanium-hafnium shackles that kept him unable to move and cried out as fresh anguish stung his skin while burning pus ran from the enflamed areas of his body. The stinking excretions pooled under his helpless body to eat at his belly and chest.
“Please,” he begged, but though he knew he was not alone in his fiery prison, no one came to help him. Not one drop of water was given to ease his dry mouth. Not one milligram of tenerse was administered to stop the pain of withdrawal and no Sustenance was provided to hold at bay the Transition that threatened to erupt at any moment. When it came, he nearly went mad with the inability of his body to change as it should, his limbs held forcibly in place so he was forced to writhe in unrelenting torment as his sinews tried to stretch, his bones to elongate, his organs to transform. All that changed without ungodly torture was his face, hands and feet and even those hurt far more in Transition than they should.
Another four days passed in a haze of nearly unbearable pain. As slow as he’d been to Transition, he was that quick in reverting back, whimpering with the change that came so rapidly he had no time to adjust.
“It’s safe now to harvest,” he heard someone say.
He barely felt the scalpel cut into his flesh, drag down his back over his kidney but he did feel the tearing, brutal hurt that came as his parasites were pulled out of his body in clumps.
“They’re not dead,” he croaked. “Leave them be.”
The revenant worm queen buckled and ran beneath his skin under his belly to hide to keep from being extracted but She was in no danger. It was the little ones, the fledglings, that were wanted, and when She realized that, She quickly healed his wound and continued to fight the ghoret toxin while gearing up to reproduce more spores inside him.
In a fog of agony, he saw the nestlings being dropped into beakers and placed on a shelf across the room in which he lay. His wavering vision saw faceless people moving about doing things he could not fathom and began to realize they weren’t people after all but cybots that were completely without features.
How long he lay pleading for some kind of assistance he did not know. Gradually his pain began to subside, his elevated temperature to cool, his involuntary spasms ceasing. He became aware of conversation somewhere in the room and though he tried to lift his head, to turn his face toward the sound, he was too weak, too drained to do so.
All he really wanted to do was die.
* * * * *
“We know damned well who took him and why,” General Strom told Shanee. “We just don’t know where the hell they took him.”
Sitting beside her mother, Shanee’s eyes were swollen and she was far too pale but her facial expression was hard as flint. “When I get my hands on that bitch, I’ll rip her heart out!” she declared.
Arch-Counselor Sebastian Euphrates nodded from the vid-com screen. “And it would be well within your right to do so, Colonel.”
“Do we know how Jost bought it?” Strom inquired.
“According to the forensics team, Jost was poisoned,” the arch-counselor replied. “It was a slow-acting nephrotoxin that would have caused an excruciating death.”
“And still no sign of the younger son?” King Gabriel Leveche inquired from the other side of Shanee.
“It’s like they all three—Harmattan, his mother and brother—fell off the face of the planet,” Strom reported. “I’ve got all my Guardians involved—pulled them off every other case—but there hasn’t been any intel at all.”
“They were waiting for me to call the medivac team,” Shanee said. “They sprayed me with the pairilis mist then took Ailyn. If only I’d not listened to him about activating the ’bots. They would have prevented all this.”
“They’d have found another way to get to Ailyn, Shanee,” Leveche told her.
“The mere thought of them transporting a ghoret into my daughter’s quarters absolutely boggles the mind,” Polemusa said. “She could have been killed. A single bite from one of those creatures has enough venom to kill twenty men or more.”
A soft rap came on the general’s door and he cursed. “Damn it, Miriam, I asked not to be disturbed!” he yelled even as the portal opened.
“I’m sorry, Sir, but…” Miriam began then stepped aside as a man politely pushed past her.
“I told her it would be all right.” He patted Miriam on the shoulder. “Thanks, love.”
Polemusa Iphito sat straight up in her chair and drew in a quick, stunned breath. Her hand fluttered near her chest and when her daughter gave her an annoyed look, she didn’t notice.
“Can I get anyone something to drink?” Miriam asked. She too was staring at the man who had entered the general’s office.
“No, Miri. We’re fine,” Strom answered for everyone.
“Shanee, I am so sorry to hear about your husband,” the newcomer said, and he came to hunker down in front of Shanee, reaching out to take her hands in his. “Tell me what I can do.”
“Find him,” Shanee said, her eyes tearing up again much to her irritation. She swiped angrily at the telltale moisture.
“That is my intent,” came the reply.
Ryden Bakari—the man who had once been Burgon of Aduaidh—got to his feet and turned to face Strom. “I came as soon as I heard and I’ve got Quinn with me.” He gave Gabriel Leveche a grin. “How’s it going, Gabe?”
“Fair to middling. I take it you’ve found him?” Leveche asked. He reached out to grasp the other man’s wrist in the warrior way.
“Does the queen pop out fledglings?” Bakari quipped.
“Where?” Strom asked.
“Where do you think?” the former Burgon queried.
“The last place we’d think to look,” Leveche said, grinning.
“Where?” Shanee asked.
“R-9,” Bakari and Leveche said at the same time.
“Let’s go,” Shanee said, getting to her feet.
“I know you’re anxious to get him back,” Bakari said, “but he’s pretty heavily guarded.”
“Why?” Polemusa asked. “We thought it was his mother who took him.”
“It is,” Bakari stated.
“How did you find him, Burgon?” the arch-counselor asked from the vid-com.
Bakari nodded to the arch-counselor. “How are you, Sebastian?”
“Quite well, Ry.”
“Although we dismantled the Reaper labs on R-9, the facility was still being used as a medical facility up until about four months ago. I had them keep a minimum-security staff on hand via a few cybots. The monitoring system was shut down to only a few rooms where entry into the facility is made. When we received an activation alarm from rooms that were not being vid-sequenced it sent up a red flag. I was informed right away. There was no doubt in my mind who had infiltrated the facility and what they were doing.”
“Why didn’t you just let us know?” Shanee demanded.
“Because in order to get into the facility without
detection, it is going to take someone like Quinn,” Bakari told her. “With the Maze the Scaan have developed, he can get in, shut down the alarms and the Storian Web Harmattan-Jost and her son have no doubt booted up, and then we can transport Quinn and Ailyn out of there.”
“She’ll have taken what she wants by now,” Shanee said, “and have undergone Transition.”
“Doubtful,” Leveche said. “A ghoret bite leaves a Reaper pretty well incapacitated for at least a week, Shanee. They may have started taking the fledglings but they won’t be able to use them until they know for sure the parasite doesn’t have even one drop of venom in it. If it does, it would kill her the moment it is dropped into her body.”
“She’s a dead woman anyway,” Shanee vowed.
“You said fledglings as in plural,” Miriam spoke up. “I thought it was just the mother who wanted a parasite.”
“It might have started out that way,” Bakari agreed, “but I think it’s progressed beyond that now.”
“She’s figured out she can sell them on the black market,” Leveche said, his jaw flexing. “That’s a lot of money and there will be people who will line up to shell it out to live virtually forever.”
“We were afraid that would happen,” the arch-counselor put in.
“Those fledglings must be destroyed,” Bakari said. “If even one of them falls into the wrong hands, you’ll have the beginnings of disaster.”
“Do I understand that there is someone on R-9 who knows how to harvest the fledglings?” General Strom inquired. “Whoever that is, I want him.”
“Aye,” Bakari said. “Perse Cean and two of her Ceannus are once again on R-9.”
Shanee gasped. “Oh god, no!” she said.
“Don’t worry, Shanee,” the ex-Burgon said. “Cean and her assistants won’t ever leave that planet. I swear they won’t.”
“But he was so scared of her,” Shanee said.
“And with good reason,” Bakari said.
“Are you sure it’s Cean?” Leveche asked.
“Aye, I’m sure,” Bakari snapped. “I’ve seen the vid-seqs coming from there and I’d recognize that evil bitch anywhere. She is as ugly as stepped-in dog shit.” His eyes narrowed. “And by the way, she’s mine. I’ll take her out myself.”
“But you’ll leave Elspeth Jost to me,” Shanee told him.
“If she’s Transitioned, you won’t be a match for her, daughter,” Polemusa put in. Her eyes had not left Ryden Bakari.
The ex-Burgon actually blushed at the look the defense queen was sending his way. “She’s right, Shanee. Even at her advanced age, with a hellion growing inside her, she’ll be a very powerful foe.”
Shanee met Bakari’s gaze. “I’ll be ready for her, Burgon. She will pay for hurting my man.”
Bakari nodded slowly. “I see. Do you think your husband will approve of what you are intending?”
Shanee lifted her chin. “It is my right to protect him as it is his right to protect me. I love Ailyn Harmattan and I have no desire for him to ever be alone again. I have to do this.”
“Do what?” Polemusa asked. Her eyebrows were drawn together. “What is it you are thinking of doing, daughter?”
“She wants to become a Reaper,” Leveche said quietly. He’d read it in her mind an hour earlier but had not mentioned it.
“No!” Polemusa hissed. “Burgon, you cannot allow that!”
“It is my decision, Mother, not yours or his,” Shanee said. “He understands.”
“As do I, Shanee,” Leveche said. “But think carefully for once done, it cannot be undone.”
Polemusa rushed to Bakari and grabbed his arm in a fierce grip. “Please talk her out of this. Please!” she asked, shocking everyone in the room with her use of the word. “I do not want my only child to go through such a thing!”
“Milady,” Bakari said. “Shanee won’t be diminished by it. She will be enhanced. She is not the first Amazeen to embrace this way of life nor will she be the last, I imagine. As she said, it is her decision.”
“Do you fear she will be more of a warrior than you once the deed is done?” Leveche asked quietly.
“No, of course not,” Polemusa said. “I love my child and I would not see her hurt.” She turned to Shanee. “Did I not return as soon as you told me what had happened to your man? Does that not say I have great affection for you, Shanee?”
“Aye, it does, Mother,” Shanee said, “and I am grateful you came back. I needed you then and I need you now. Try to understand. I love Ailyn and I will be the one to put down the bitch who is responsible for all the evil things in his life.”
“I wish to the gods I’d known his mother had been a spy for the Alliance. I could have warned him,” Bakari said, “but I never viewed those vid-seqs. I didn’t want to know any more about what had happened at R-9 than I already knew. For that, I am sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Burgon,” Polemusa assured him. “How could anyone know a mother would setup her own son to be killed?”
“She would have been taken into custody had she not vanished before we could arrest her. Jost too since we knew it was he who contracted for Ailyn’s assassination,” Strom said. “Someone saved us the trouble with him.”
“The wife,” the arch-counselor stated.
“I’m not so sure,” Leveche said. “From all indications, the stepson had no love for Jost. He could have done it.”
“O’Shay wasn’t the only one contracting for Shanee’s demise. Someone else whose identity I haven’t been able to discover also put hits out on her,” Bakari said.
“Still no word on where O’Shay has gone to ground?” Leveche asked.
“No, but I’ll catch up with the bastard,” Bakari stated.
“So when do we leave to get my husband back?” Shanee asked. She was still standing, her hands clenched into fists at her side.
“As soon as I have my other men sealing off the corridors into and out of R-9 airspace,” Bakari said. “Neither old lady Harmattan-Jost or Cean is going to escape the noose.”
“Who are you stationing around the planet?” Strom asked.
“Gabe’s brother Raoul Breva and the Sangunar for one,” Bakari answered, “plus seven others loaned to us by Fleet Command.” He grinned. “I just may let him keep the title and I’ll retire.”
“You have the Sekkeen or did you loan it out to the new Burgon?” Polemusa asked.
“Oh I’m letting him play with it a while,” Bakari said. “I took the gargantuan, the Raptor, when Morrison kicked the bucket. Spoils of war and all that.”
“We weren’t at war, Ry,” Leveche reminded him.
“Bastard ordered the hit on my palace that killed my family,” Bakari snapped. “What was his is now mine! The Coalition didn’t seem to have a problem with it. If they did, tough shit. The Raptor is now an Alliance ship and with a full complement of weapons.” He gave Leveche a puzzled look. “By the way, when did Raoul begin captaining the Sangunar?”
“Since matters at home keep me in Vespertine,” Leveche grumbled. “I came here in my new Fiach. That is one bitchin’ machine.”
“Named?” Bakari prodded.
“Meu Brinquedo Pequeno,” the infamous Lord Savidos replied with a grin. “It means…”
“I know what it means,” Bakari stated with a roll of his eyes. “Idiot.”
“What does it mean?” Polemusa inquired.
“My little toy,” Bakari grumbled. “What can I say? The man’s an imbecile.”
“I would like to accompany you on this mission,” Polemusa said, giving Bakari a heated look.
“Ah, sure,” Bakari said, blushing again. He glanced at Strom. “May I have a few of your Riezell Guardians just in case?”
“You have the Primary,” Shanee said. “You don’t need any more Guardians.”
Bakari smiled. “All right.” He looked at Leveche. “You coming, Lord Savidos?”
Leveche snorted. “Think you can keep me out of it?”
For the
next twenty minutes the mission was discussed in detail then those gathered started leaving. The arch-counselor wished them luck and promised any assistance they might need in accomplishing their goals. Strom asked Polemusa to accompany him to Pass and ID so she could be given a temporary assignment to Command Central. Shanee asked to be given half an hour so she could get her Class 10s and bring them to the Raptor. Only Bakari and Leveche were left in the general’s office as Miriam tidied up.
“You flew close to R-9, didn’t you?” Leveche asked quietly. He glanced at Miriam to see if she’d heard him.
“Miri works for me,” Bakari said, giving the secretary a wink. “You can talk openly in front of her.”
If that news surprised Leveche, he didn’t let on. “Did you fly close to R-9?” he repeated.
“Aye,” Bakari admitted.
“Could you sense him?”
The ex-Burgon sighed. “No, Gabe, I couldn’t.”
“That could mean they are keeping him weak.”
“That’s all I’m hoping it means,” Bakari replied.
“I pray Ailyn’s still alive,” Leveche said. He headed for the door then realized Bakari wasn’t behind him. He saw his friend in quiet conversation with Miriam. “You coming, Ry?” he asked.
Bakari was staring into Miriam’s eyes. “Not yet,” he said softly.
Leveche saw the woman’s cheeks heat red before she turned away. He cocked a brow at Bakari who was striding—no, Leveche corrected himself—who was strutting toward him.
Bakari winked at the infamous Lord Savidos then continued on to the corridor.
“Your grace?” Miriam called out to Leveche.
“Aye, wench?”
“Keep him safe,” she asked.
Leveche nodded. “You have my word on it,” he replied, knowing she didn’t mean Ailyn Harmattan.
Chapter Twelve
“Hello, Ailyn.”
Though he had not seen his mother for over twenty years, he knew who the woman was who came to stand beside the table upon which he lay strapped. He would have known her by the haughty glint in her cold brown eyes but it was the triumphant glare in that chilling gaze that held him spellbound, unable to look away.
