by Debra Jess
While she knew he meant it in jest, it set off a little alarm inside her. One look at his handsome face quieted it. The day had frazzled her nerves. Still, she reconsidered what she should tell him about their flight today. Making her decision, she filtered what she would keep to herself. "I know you well enough to know what might interest you."
"Really?" He moved toward her, hooking his foot around another chair, his intense interest drawing him closer than she’d expected. Yet in pure Yohzad fashion, he turned the chair around so he could sit facing her with his arms resting on the chair's back. "You have information?"
Swallowing, Tamarja tried not let the thrill she felt now that she had his attention show. Not because he wanted to use her, though he was, but because she could contribute to the bigger picture, whatever it was. For the first time since she’d woken up, flying hadn’t been enough to satisfy her. Why, though?
Later. She’d contemplate her feelings later. “Some of this will come out during the investigation, but the rest I'll leave up to you to analyze."
Yohzad nodded, his dark eyes serious now. "Go on."
She explained to him about the shuttles flying blind, about how one of them collided with her shuttle during her attempt to link up with the Pod.
"The interesting part is that the only people who knew I had requested the change of location were the Pod's comm officer and, presumably, the commander."
"So either these shuttles were headed to the Pod anyway and your mishap was simply an accident, or…"
"Or someone tipped off the shuttles. They were running one step ahead of me all day long. They were either delivering or evacuating something before Manitac showed up for their inspection."
"That is very interesting." Yohzad leaned back, stretching his arms while he gripped the chair's back, his face scrunched in thought. "The director is the only person who would have the authority to order so many shuttles to fly blind like that, but why?"
"Actually, Ramsey is the only one who could coordinate such an operation. Both of them had access to the original flight plan and both knew of the changes, but I can't see the director arranging the operation herself."
"But how could they signal the Pod from the shuttle without anyone knowing about it?" Yohzad pulled himself back upright and scratched his head. "And more importantly, why?"
Tamarja thought she knew and took her chance to confirm Jita's suspicions. "Ramsey was sitting behind everyone. She could have activated a privacy screen without any of the officers noticing. As for why, I think Manitac is looking to cull the Dawn's Landing population for more ‘pets. The shuttles were shifting the population around. Making it appear that we have more ‘pets working here than we do while pulling non-‘pets out of the range of Manitac's inspectors."
Yohzad's body stilled as his dark stare bored into her soul. "Where did you hear that?"
The tension of the day gave her reckless nature free flight. "Is it true? Is Manitac here to cull the population for new ‘pets?"
Yohzad still didn't move. It frightened her. His whole personality had changed. Tamarja finally got a glimpse of what terrified Jita so much. "I don't know. Answer my question. Where did you hear this?"
"I overheard a conversation. That is what you want me to do, right? Report anything unusual?" She wouldn't give up Jita, though her behavior today would probably give her away.
Yohzad sighed and started moving again, his body relaxing back into a lazy rocking back and forth in the chair. "Yes, that is exactly what I wanted you to do, though this isn't what I had hoped you would overhear."
"But is it true?"
"I don't know yet." He held his hands up at what Tamarja suspected was a look of incredulity on her face. "I really don't. I'm not so far up the chain to know exactly what the Home Office has in mind for Dawn's Landing."
"You can find out though, right?"
He nodded, but not with enthusiasm. "Yes, I could do some digging, call in a few favors. But you have to understand, Tamarja. Even if I do find out what the grand plan is, I can't change anything. Whatever their orders are, they will follow them to the letter. I can't stop them from pulling AuRaKaz employees off Dawn's Landing and transferring them to other, more needy, operations. The director has a lot more independence than the average Manitac subsidiary, but she still owes her allegiance to those who placed her here."
"So we're all at risk?" she asked.
"Well, not you, for obvious reasons."
"Really?" Tamarja couldn't help the edge in her voice. She shouldn't blame Yohzad for this situation, but he was the nearest target. "What's to stop them from terminating this experiment and mind-wiping me completely?"
"Me," Yohzad answered quickly. Too quickly. He seemed to realize that as he scrambled to cover his slip. "Manitac has too much invested in you right now. It's my job to keep reminding them of that. So far, you've performed beyond expectations."
"That doesn't make me feel any better."
"I'm sorry, but it's the best I have to offer." He closed his eyes for a moment, as if to consider his words, and then he opened them again. "If what you overhead is true, and Manitac intends to take a percentage of the population and turn them into ‘pets, would it not be better that they are partially wiped, rather than completely?"
"Not from where I sit. It would be better to not mind-wipe them at all. Let them live a free and normal life. Let the director develop a profitable colony without Manitac interference." She was on a roll now. "The colonists aren't criminals. They haven't done anything wrong. What about the dignitaries? Mind-wiping them is an act of war considering that they're independent of Unity. What's next? Breeding colonies of humans for the sole purpose of turning them into ‘pets?"
Yohzad waited patiently for her to run out of steam. "True, AuRaKaz employees are not criminals, but they still answer to Manitac. As long as Manitac holds their contracts, they must go where they are assigned or lose their employment. If they're mind-wiped somewhere in between―well, mistakes do happen. Manitac is smart enough not to leave anyone behind who will remember or care all that much.“
Smart enough? She wanted to shake him, slap him, anything to make him understand. It was just as bad that they felt they had the right to do it to their employees. And he almost sounded like he was defending them. Before she could find her voice, he went on.
"As for the dignitaries, you can't wage a war if you have no ships. Manitac controls the space lanes, and they're certainly not going to invade with ground troops. There would be threats and petitions and demands that Unity return the dignitaries, but in the end, Manitac will get what it wants. And for the Stars' sake, don't bandy about that breeding colony idea. It was discussed and buried back when Manitac had plenty of prisoners to use. Let's not reintroduce the idea, shall we?"
Stunned, Tamarja didn't know what to say. Every horror she had suspected about Manitac had just been thrown in her face. "How can you work for them? How can you be a party to any of this?"
Yohzad stood up and straightened his uniform. "It's my job. You may not like it, I may not like it, but what happened to you last night was only a taste of what could happen to a person who challenges Manitac. Remember that." He tipped an invisible hat. "Keep up the good work, and we might just survive this."
The good work? Once again, she was struck speechless. What had she done by providing him this information?
Chapter Thirty-One
He might not be home, Tamarja thought as she jabbed her finger at the annunciator for the third time. It had taken some digging, but she eventually found out which apartment complex Daeven lived in. Most security officers were unlisted, as a general rule, but on a colony this sparsely populated, it only took a few innocent questions for her to find someone who could tell her which habitat Daeven called home.
The plain three-leveled, box-within-a-box style of Six made her feel as if she were back on Jarvis Station, newly revived from cryo. This must be the habitat for security officers without family. She couldn't imagine the Te
loris living here.
She waited a few moments before backing away from the door. He wasn't home. Where could he be? She knew enough about his schedule to know his shift didn't start until the next morning. An image of his partner flitted through her mind.
He wouldn't be with her. He only brought her to the Teloris' party because he had no one else to ask, she was sure of that. They were partners on the job. That's where their relationship ended.
Maybe. Tamarja's doubts about everything on this backwater colony had bothered her since her conversation with Yohzad. How foolish she had been to think he was different from any other Manitac officer. Intellectually, she knew his position made it impossible for him to stay clean amid the dirty politics of Manitac corporate policy, but deep down, she'd hoped he would be different. Silly to think that he was above all the evil, that he would have the secret to keeping Manitac away from Dawn's Landing and letting the colony become a bastion of honesty and freedom.
How pathetic. She knew better; she just hadn’t want to believe it.
She still had to trust Yohzad, to a point. He did say he could prevent Manitac from terminating their experiment on her. She believed him on that point. She had to, or she'd go mad from fear. It also gave her the room she needed to push forward with her own plans to reverse the mind-wipe and have all her memories returned to her. If she could remember everything but pretend not to, she could have it all: a perfectly normal life here on Dawn's Landing, provided there was anyone left who knew what normal was.
Where Daeven fit into those plans, she had no idea. She liked him, a lot. But if she remembered Rory fully and discovered that she loved him more than the Stars and their Guardians, what would she do then? Kiss Daeven good-bye and spend her life helping Rory recover his memories too?
That scenario posed a different set of problems. She could only deal with her own for now: get her memories back, then deal with Rory and Daeven, and eventually, Yohzad.
"Tamarja, is that you?" Daeven's voice called from the annunciator as she started to walk away.
She turned back and stepped right up to the door. "Yes, it's me. Let me in. I need to talk to you. Now."
"I'm not home. The annunciator sent me a signal to let me know when someone showed up at my door. I assumed it would be you."
"Where are you?" Tamarja heard another voice, small and tinny, in the background. Daeven barked something back.
"I'm at the broadcast tower," he said, returning his attention to her. "If you circle around back, you'll see a set of stairs that will lead you down to the living quarters."
"You live at the broadcast tower?"
"No, a friend of mine does. He wants to meet you."
Joran. Daeven's closest friend, if Jita's information was accurate. Tamarja wasn't sure what to say about meeting him. It seemed a little out of place for one of Daeven's friends to want to meet her.
"I was hoping we could have some time alone. We need to talk about things." She kept her words general. Who knew what Daeven had already told Joran? No point in giving herself away if Daeven had, in fact, kept her secret.
"It's okay. We can talk here. You can trust Joran. Try not to let anyone follow you, though. If you think you're being followed, head somewhere else—someplace public. Comm me and I'll come get you."
Did he mean Manitac? Did he already know about Manitac's plans? Did he think they were following her specifically, or were they selecting employees at random to disappear while they traveled about?
Her paranoia had gotten out of control. She needed to get that control back. "Okay. I'm on my way."
She double- and triple-checked her sensors to make sure that no one had followed her as she eased the floater into the most hidden corner of the broadcast tower parking area. Yohzad might be able to track her via her collar, but what were the chances of Manitac targeting her right now? She had just been through an official interrogation about the shuttle accident. If they were going to grab her, they would have done it while she was in medical.
Daeven met her outside just as the first drops of rain started to fall, but he shied away when she tried to lean in for a kiss. Maybe Manitac shutting down her collar had breached their connection? Respecting his wish not to kiss her, she instead reached out to catch his arm by the elbow.
"Listen, Daeven, I know you want me to meet Joran, but I really need to talk to you alone. Manitac isn't here for an inspection…"
Daeven placed a single finger to her lips. "Later. This is important."
She brushed his finger aside. "What could be more important than Manitac kidnapping colonists and turning them into ‘pets?" she asked, but Daeven used her grip on his arm to force her to follow him.
This had better be good.
Joran greeted her with a hot cup of claffien that he forced into her unwilling hand, before motioning her to sit in a rather dilapidated chair.
"Sorry, but this is a true bachelor's paradise. I usually don't have a lot of visitors."
Tamarja just smiled as politely as she could while she tested her claffien, grimacing as the strong, sour taste blanketed her taste buds. She looked over at Daeven, who leaned against the wall farthest from her, his gaze on the ground instead of on her. There was no way she could signal him that she needed to keep this conversation short, so she turned back to study Joran.
Jita had been right about him. Something about his manner was false as he settled into another chair across from her. His light-gray eyes judged her too quickly, and his baritone voice was not quite as soothing when he wasn't reading news reports. He just couldn't quite pull off the charming routine the way Yohzad could. Maybe his age had something to do with it. A good thirty standard years separated him from Daeven, and his balding head and wrinkled face made it clear he hadn't taken advantage of re-animation therapy.
She tried to cover her impatience by sipping her claffien again while Joran stared at her.
"Daeven here tells me you're looking to acquire Black Wave," he said.
Tamarja spit out her claffien. What had Daeven been thinking? She had trusted him with that secret. Now he'd told his best friend, who also just happened to control the colony's only broadcast tower. Why didn't Daeven upload her Manitac file to the ‘cast ‘net? Let everyone know she was a partial ‘pet? Blast him to pieces, she didn't have time for this.
She met Joran's stare with one of her own. "That's correct."
"Dangerous business," Joran commented as he idly stirred his claffien. "Daeven has arrested more than one individual trying to smuggle the stuff off world."
"I have no interest in smuggling." She glanced back at Daeven, who still wouldn't look her way.
"Consumption of Black Wave in any form could kill you if not taken in small enough doses," Joran continued, as if he hadn't heard her. "It might not do what you think it's going to do."
"What exactly do you think I think it's going to do?" Tamarja's ire fired at full thrust. Two could play this game.
Joran barked a short, nasty laugh. "I've been told that you want your memory back, that you think ingesting Black Wave has returned some of your memories. You think the chemical reaction might break through the blocks Manitac has placed on your memories.“
She fought the impulse to shoot a glare at Daeven. He had told this man everything.
"You'll remember everything: who you are, how you got to this situation, your family, your lovers. All of these questions will be answered." Joran slammed down his claffien cup on the dilapidated end table nearby. "This is what you believe."
Tamarja had jumped at the burst of anger, but now she gathered her wits. One interrogation was enough for one day. She had to put up with this from Manitac, but she didn't have to from a common broadcaster. "Yes. That's what I'm hoping for. I want to remember, I need to remember."
She stood to leave.
Joran stood with her and pushed her back down into her chair. "You might be disappointed."
"So everyone keeps telling me," Tamarja answered, a little stunned at h
ow quickly this was devolving. "It doesn't change a thing. I'd rather be disappointed than not remember at all."
Joran stood right in front of her so she couldn't even try to stand again. "All right then. Let's say you remember everything. Then what will you do? You still work for AuRaKaz until Manitac tells you otherwise. One hint"—he leaned in, pointing a single finger right at her nose—"one slip of your past to the wrong person, and Manitac will mind-wipe you all over again."
Tamarja fought not to shrink away. At least she had been prepared for Manitac's aggressive questioning. Now she felt naked, stripped of her own defenses and any protection Daeven might supply. The rat still wouldn't look at her.
She bit back the first retort to cross her tongue and really thought about what Joran had said. Could she keep doing her job if she remembered? Could she be content on Dawn's Landing? Could she keep herself and the few people she had come to care for safe? "I'll never know what the possibilities are until I remember. It's as simple as that. I don't think you truly understand what I'm willing to risk to remember."
Joran sneered. "Oh, I understand. I understand better than you think. I just need to make sure you are aware that it's not just your life at stake here. Your association with Daeven"—he jerked his thumb in Daeven's direction—"with that young hostess, even with the director, could put them all in jeopardy if anyone figures out you're not the mindless drone Manitac wants you to be."
"If Manitac wanted a mindless drone, they wouldn't be experimenting with me. They wouldn't be trying to create higher-functioning ‘pets."
Joran snarled, raising his hand as if to slap her, but Tamarja was faster, jumping out of the chair to face him head on.
He lowered his hand. "You stupid, selfish girl. It all comes back to you. You want your memory. You don't care who you have to sacrifice to get it. Higher-functioning ‘pet indeed."
By the time Tamarja registered the words from Joran's verbal attack, Daeven had already crossed the room and tossed Joran against the wall.
