Warden

by Natalie Grey

  “You really believe they can’t be bribed?”

  Uleq gave a wordless yell of fury. “No! They can’t!”

  Ilia raised an eyebrow. “Then they can be defeated by other means. We have a fleet.”

  “You need to get into their systems!” Uleq yelled. His voice was hoarse with rage. “You need their AI, you need what’s on the ship I was following. I wasn’t trying to destroy this, Ilia, I was trying to save it!”

  Ilia stared at him for a long moment then her lip curled. “You still don’t understand, do you?”

  She swept away for the door, and Uleq stared after her in disbelief. “I don’t understand? I don’t understand?”

  She paused in the doorway. “No,” she said sweetly. “You don’t.” She slipped out, and Uleq flung himself at the door with a roar of fury, beating at it with his fist.

  “I’ll fucking kill you!” he screamed. “You’re destroying us! I’ll make sure you die. Even if you kill me, Father will know soon enough that you—”

  The door reverberated with a hollow BOOM as if struck from the other side, and Uleq was flung away from it to slide across the rocky floor.

  He picked himself up. He did not look at Crallus. The mercenary leader was suddenly sure Uleq did not remember he was here at all.

  “You’ve destroyed us,” Uleq whispered. “You stupid bitch.”

  Out in the hallway, Ilia watched as the guard slammed a special mace against the door. The security cameras showed Uleq sliding back across the floor and carried his words to her clearly.

  She smiled coldly.

  If she wanted to defeat this human ship, she had to know his plan—but he would never have told her if she’d simply asked. So she had to use his greatest weakness against him.

  It was very simple. Uleq had to be the smartest person in the room. No matter how clever his plan was or would be if he didn’t spill it to everyone, he couldn’t resist the urge to explain it so that people could be astounded by his genius.

  “Who’s the real genius, Uleq?” Ilia narrowed her eyes. “The person who comes up with the plans and does all the research…or the person who lets other people do the work for her, and takes the credit?”

  She gave a cold smile and walked away, pleased.

  She’d been in contact with the ship thieves Uleq had hired. With their mercenaries, they were well-placed to take out a single ship, particularly if it was grounded at the base. Uleq’s plan had been a sound one, now that she understood why he’d made it the way he had. He wanted the AI core from that ship.

  Soon she would have it, and she would decide what to do with it.

  Because Ilia had her plan. When this mission was done, her father would come to congratulate her on a job well done. He would want to see the AI core in action, after all. She would bask in his approval and let everyone see how he loved her, and what a good heir she was. They would execute Uleq together so there would be no challenge from that quarter.

  Then her father would have an accident.

  Ilia’s smile grew. She had lived her life fearing that someone would find this base and attack it. Now, she welcomed it. Power would be within her grasp in only a few days, and she could hardly wait.

  The battering ram swung forward, and the big double doors to the tower shuddered.

  “Again!” Vedoon yelled. At the front of the battering ram, his hands aching and sweat running into his eyes, he reflected that he had never felt more alive. This was exhilarating. The door would be down soon, and they could take their revenge on the intruders.

  He heaved the battering ram forward and welcomed the jolt of pain that shuddered through his body as the ram hit. The soldiers behind him gave a cheer. They could sense that victory was close.

  Then the lights flickered, and a female voice came over the speakers.

  “Hello, soldiers of the Yennai Corporation.”

  The soldiers paused, and Vedoon wondered what to do. Was this a distraction? Should they keep fighting?

  “I am Shinigami,” the voice said. “You do not know me, but I have witnessed many battles in my time, and your valor today has not gone unnoticed.”

  The soldiers murmured to one another, and Vedoon felt his chest puff up in pride. Then he wondered what this Shinigami character wanted. Had she hoped they would defect?

  He would never defect. Not when everything he had dreamed of was within his grasp.

  “No doubt you will be wondering where your reinforcements are,” Shinigami told them. “The truth is, none are coming. You see, this is a decoy base. The Yennai family has never come here and never intended to do so. They left a trail to this base so that if anyone ever came for them—and they have many enemies, all well-earned, I assure you—this decoy base would be destroyed. They hoped, no doubt, that it would be destroyed by bombardment so that no one would ever realize they had escaped.”

  There was a pause.

  “As you have doubtless realized, this means that all of you were intended as nothing more than a sacrifice. Your valor, as you fought for the defense of the base, would convince many opponents that this was no decoy.”

  Vedoon felt his stomach drop. He had assumed that the Yennai family simply traveled a lot and were too busy to come back here. But the fact that they had never been here…

  Yes, it all fit.

  He looked at the other soldiers and found the same betrayal in their faces.

  “Rest assured that we have no quarrel with you,” Shinigami said. “We have an offer, in fact. Certain reserves of cash exist on this base. It was your home, and the Yennai Corporation undoubtedly owes you a debt. Therefore, we propose the following: if you tell us what you know, any fact that might lead us to the true base, the money will be split amongst all of you and the ships will be unlocked to give you safe passage to wherever you would like to go. You may discuss this offer amongst yourselves.”

  20

  “They’re ready to talk,” Shinigami reported.

  Barnabas, seated at the head of the conference table in the main Yennai offices, looked up curiously. “Any idea of their intentions?”

  “They’re all laying down their weapons, and from what I’ve been able to pick out on the voice scanners—not as much as I’d hoped, they weren’t made for a lot of voices at once—they want to take the offer. Only one or two are looking shifty.”

  “I can deal with one or two,” Barnabas said in satisfaction. He smiled at Gar and Jeltor. “This really is our best trick.”

  “I’m not sure it qualifies as a trick,” Jeltor said. “Unless you don’t actually give them the money.”

  Barnabas looked horrified. “We do give them the money! And they usually don’t deserve to die.” He gave a small shrug. “That said, should any of their thoughts show a particular need for Justice…”

  “What else are we here for, after all?” Shinigami asked prosaically. “Should I open the doors?”

  “Yes, please.” Barnabas gestured to Gar and Jeltor. It wasn’t for effect, but shelter. The chair was bulletproof, so if anyone here started shooting, they could duck while Barnabas killed the would-be assassin.

  When the doors opened, only a few aliens came into the room. Barnabas recognized them from the security tapes. One was a Leath, which surprised him.

  Shinigami, anything shady with the Leath?

  Surprisingly, not that I can tell. No suicide vest or anything. I guess you’re looking at someone like Gar—he left his home planet behind because he didn’t live that life.

  Ah. Well, keep an eye on him. Barnabas nodded courteously to the Leath. “I am Barnabas. You are?”

  “Lolori,” the Leath said. He nodded. “I think I saw some worry in your eyes. Believe me when I say that I bear no ill will for what happened between our races. I only wish more could have seen the truth so that battle could be avoided entirely.”

  “Now that they have, do you not want to go back?” Barnabas asked curiously.

  The Leath gave a thin smile. “No. It will take some time f
or the old ways to fade away completely, and I like the life I have found out here.” He looked around at the other soldiers. “We have other things to discuss, however.”

  “That, we do.” Barnabas nodded. He looked at a Shrillexian. “And you are?”

  “Vedoon.” The Shrillexian’s voice grated somewhat, but he did not seem angry. He looked conflicted. “Do you swear this is no trick?”

  “I swear,” Barnabas assured. “You have been ill-treated by the Yennai Corporation. As far as I am concerned, the funds here rightly go to you more so than to any of their leaders.”

  “And if we do not have any useful information?” Vedoon asked.

  “Ah. If I find out you have withheld information, I will be displeased. However, if you do not have it, I can hardly fault you for that. The deal is simply that what you have, I request you give to me.”

  “Why?” Lolori said now. “Why are you hunting them down?”

  Barnabas smiled slightly. “What they did to you is not enough?”

  The guards looked at one another and shrugged. Lolori answered for them all. “We are guards. We’re here to be in danger, so they don’t have to be. It was a trick, yes, and we do not like it…but it is the sort of thing we anticipated.”

  Barnabas had not considered that. His eyebrows rose as he absorbed this information.

  “It’s the way of the universe,” Vedoon said, with another shrug. “People wouldn’t hire guards otherwise, right?”

  “Mmm.” Barnabas tried to find a way to explain. “Say, rather, that this is a larger pattern of behavior. The Yennai Corporation made a great deal of money from theft and murder. They made allies of people who would steal ships or cargo, trade slaves, and sell munitions without any care for who bought them or how they would be used.”

  The guards still looked blank.

  “You knew all of this, surely,” Barnabas said.

  “Yes, but…” Lolori cleared his throat and looked at the others. “Such things happen.”

  “You willingly live in a situation where your family might be enslaved or murdered, where the goods that supply your planet might be stolen, ruining your livelihood?” Barnabas frowned.

  “Willingly?” Lolori laughed. “That is how things are. There are always those who do things like that. You kill them if you can when they come for you.”

  “What if you didn’t have to?” Barnabas asked quietly. “What if that wasn’t the way the universe worked?”

  Their faces remained blank for a long moment. None of them had considered such a thing, that much was clear. Then they began to look hopeful…and then sad.

  “We can’t have that,” Lolori insisted. “It doesn’t exist. It never will.”

  “There will always be those who try to do such things,” Barnabas agreed. “But there will also, always be those who hunt them. I am one of those people. I do it very well. And with the Federation, we have the chance to tip the balance. More people will be safe. More people will be strong enough to fight those who would hurt them.

  “The Yennai Corporation profits off everything that hurts people, and they do it on purpose, for power. That is why I am going after them. They are evil. They hurt innocents. When they are gone, the universe will be that much safer.”

  The guards looked at one another one more time and seemed to come to a conclusion. Finally, Lolori nodded.

  “I think they’re somewhere near the Votayett system,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you where apart from that, but I’d been looking at the scrambling they used for their messages when they’d communicate with us. The same places would pop up over and over again. I think they’d send it through an exchange first so you could only trace it back so far, but for us, the message came through a relay on Seres.”

  That’s the third planet in the Votayett system, Shinigami reported. There’s really nothing around there except those planets, but he’s right that they probably wouldn’t give anyone a direct link back to their base.

  We’ll see what we can make of it, Barnabas told her.

  To the soldiers, he nodded. “Thank you. Is there anything else?”

  They shook their heads, and he felt their sincerity. He dismissed them to begin preparations for leaving. This base would be shuttered, and its location sent to Bethany Anne in case she wanted to establish an outpost.

  If nothing else, she would likely want to send engineers to assess the various armaments and force field tech.

  In truth, he wasn’t upset with what they had learned. It had been unlikely in the extreme that any people as careful as the Yennai family would leave glaring clues or grant their expendable guards the location of the real base.

  But, as in many cases, there were often small details that a clever person could put together, as Lolori had.

  Barnabas led the way down the stairs to the ornamental gardens where Shinigami waited. While they were here—with the systems at their disposal, they’d try to narrow down that link to Seres.

  The Yennai Corporation could only run for so long.

  Zinqued dozed in his bunk when Paun came to get him.

  “The client wants to talk to you.” Paun’s voice was tight with frustration, and Zinqued knew why. Paun was the captain. He should be the one people spoke to.

  It filled Zinqued with glee. He agreed with Paun, after all. People should speak to the captain. To the person in charge. If he was the one they spoke to…

  He gave a small smile as he got up and made his way to the bridge.

  To his surprise, it was a Torcellan female that waited, not a male. He had thought Uleq was a male name. He frowned. “I am Zinqued.”

  “Zinqued.” The female’s voice was sweet. “I am Ilia Yennai. My brother, Uleq, assisted me in setting up this deal. As you know, the Shinigami is a dangerous ship, and he has had to take shelter from it. He was able to pass along your information, however, and we will complete this together.”

  Zinqued nodded and settled back in the chair. So that was why Uleq hadn’t responded to messages.

  “We are glad to be working with someone clever enough to have engaged with the Shinigami multiple times and yet emerge unscathed.” Ilia smiled at Zinqued. “You will have to tell me how you managed that—after this is all over, of course.”

  Zinqued thought of the message they had received the last time—that they were too pathetic to even bother killing—and hoped he could come up with a good lie by the time they spoke.

  He nodded, though. You didn’t let your clients see your worry. “Of course, Ms. Yennai.”

  She smiled. “Due to your expertise, we will be increasing your pay for this mission, and I hope I will be able to present it to you personally.”

  “Of course,” Zinqued agreed, smiling. It was well known that rich business owners sometimes liked to slum with hired hands, and he’d started to think he might receive a very warm welcome, indeed, from Ilia Yennai.

  “I’ve transferred coordinates to your ship,” Ilia shared. “You will rendezvous with our fleet there and be brought to our base.”

  Zinqued nodded.

  “I look forward to meeting you,” Ilia’s pale mouth curved in a sweet smile and she ended the call.

  Zinqued sat back in his chair, satisfied.

  “This is going too well,” Paun said from behind him.

  Zinqued jumped and spun around in his chair. “Why are you here?”

  “Because I’m the captain,” Paun said. “And as the captain, I’ve made more deals than you have. I’ve learned how to tell when someone’s about to stab me in the back. She’s about to stab you in the back.”

  “No, she’s not,” Zinqued argued.

  “Think what you want,” Paun said. “You’ve clearly got the crew on your side. I just know that when we’re at the base, I’m not going to be standing too close to you.”

  He left, shaking his head, with Zinqued staring after him.

  Ilia opened a channel to her fleet captain. A Torcellan by the name of Wirav, he had been chosen by her fat
her…who had added Ilia into the bargain as a wife. Uleq had already been married off for an alliance, leaving only one child to be sold.

  Ilia was still bitter about it. She never liked speaking to Wirav or calling him her husband.

  He knew it, too.

  “Dearest wife,” he said, as the channel opened.

  “Husband.” She gritted her teeth on the word but managed to get it out with a smile.

  He arched one eyebrow. Coming to terms with me? His smile asked.

  She ignored that. “There will be ships arriving shortly. I’ve sent the designations. They will need to have tracking disabled, and towed to the base.”

  “Are you sure that’s necessary?”

  “Yes,” Ilia said simply. She would not let a random set of contractors know the location of the base…even if she intended to kill any survivors after the engagement. She did not believe in sloppy plans, and she felt no reason to explain this to Wirav, either. She waited, staring him down.

  He shrugged as if it did not matter. “I will look forward to seeing you when I return.”

  “Indeed.” Ilia smiled again.

  “You do not hate me half so much as you claim,” he said quietly, smiling. “Admit it, Ilia—you have liked having me for your husband.”

  She pretended to waver.

  “I knew it.” His smile grew. “I will see you soon, wife.”

  He ended the call, and the smile dropped off her face. Let Wirav think he had some hold on her.

  He didn’t, and when she got rid of her father, she would get rid of Wirav as well.

  21

  The message came in near the end of Fretor’s shift, and he bobbed wearily in his tank as he opened it. When he saw who it was from, his surprise made the mechanical arms on his suit spasm. He spun in his tank, looking around for his captain.

  “You! Recruit! Find the captain.”