Dragon's Promise

by Natalie Grey

  “Lesedi got a trace,” he told her as they climbed the stairs. “Tersi’s talking to her now.”

  “I thought we already had a trace.”

  “Not this trace.”

  Nyx gave a satisfied smile. Lesedi, given enough time, could crack any encryption and follow any lead. The instincts Nyx had learned for combat, Lesedi had learned for the ebb and flow of information. Nyx wouldn’t be surprised if Lesedi had bypassed the decryption computers and gone on guesswork. She smiled as she heard the other woman’s voice bidding a farewell, the sound traveling down the central column of the ship, and Tersi swung in his chair to watch as they approached.

  “Sorry to interrupt, boss.” There was a definite gleam in his eyes. “But Lesedi’s pretty sure we’re going to want to alter our course just slightly.”

  He waited, leaning back in his chair.

  “Out with it, Reinhart.”

  “She thinks she’s found Ghost.” He smiled as he said the words.

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope. Oh—and not just anywhere, mind you.” He reached behind himself to tap a screen, and a world readout came up. Nyx whistled under her breath.

  “Ragnarok.” She shaped the word, knowing they heard the weight of memory. “Goddammit.”

  The base would be there. It was just her luck.

  “So how do we lure Ghost out?” Loki asked, his eyes fixed on the screen. “Because we can’t get in. But they have to come out sometime, right?”

  “What?” Nyx looked over at him. “We’re going down there.”

  “Have you forgotten that Ragnarok is, oh, impossible to break into?”

  “We’ve done it before.”

  “Because we had Tera!” Loki waved his hands. “And she said every house was different.”

  “We’ll find a way.” Nyx tilted her head and considered.

  “We’ll die of exposure before we get in.”

  “We won’t. We’ll find some way to get inside that landing dome and go from there. Maybe if we disguise the ship’s signature…”

  “Or,” said a voice behind them, “you could do it the easy way.”

  Nyx’s head jerked around. Mala had taken the time to braid her hair, and she looked composed once more…though there was a certain gleam in her eyes as she looked at Nyx.

  “What’s the easy way?” She tried to keep her voice steady.

  “Use me as bait,” Mala said simply.

  32

  “What?” Nyx stared at her, incredulous.

  “Use me as bait,” Mala repeated. “After all, there was Camelot.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that Grose was sure he was being watched. And what if he was? Then Ghost will know I was there, too. I show up, claiming I know about a plot. Maybe I say Grose brought me in on it and I couldn’t stomach the lies.” She shrugged.

  “Have you forgotten who this person is?” Nyx asked. She was still frowning. “Grose was terrified for his life, and he should be. Anyone who can get around the government at that level is worth being afraid of. We can’t let you in there alone, and the second we’re on their scanners, they’ll know it’s a play. You’re putting your life on the line, and it’s not going to be a quick death if you get captured.”

  “Boss.” Tersi sounded faintly reproving. “You’re scaring her.”

  “She should be scared!” Nyx retorted. “We deal with this shit all the time—with implants and really, really big guns. We’ve been training for years for this.” She looked over at Mala. “I can’t let you get involved.”

  “Look,” Mala said patiently. “This might be your only shot. Grose has been in on this plan for what, years? And he wasn’t able to figure out who was heading it up. If you think you know where Ghost is…”

  “Well, Loki’s right.” Nyx crossed her arms. “The bastard has to come out sometime. We’ll wait.”

  “Hey, just a second ago you were saying you wanted to go in.”

  “That was before you came up with this damned fool plan of yours!”

  “Oh, come on. Your gut tells you that you should go in. Don’t you think you should listen to it?”

  “No.” Nyx jabbed a finger. “I am not going to be taken in by that.”

  “You were saying that, though,” Mala said persuasively. “You need bait. And I…” She swallowed, and felt a burst of courage. “Look, can I talk to you for a moment? I need to tell you something.”

  “We don’t have time right now.” Nyx rubbed at her forehead with one hand. “Loki. What do you think?”

  “I think…” The man leaned his head back against the wall and considered. “Hell, if you’d found a way to get in there before this, I would’ve gone. We should go now, people are at their worst when they think they’re safe. Backup is going to be at its lowest here. Everything in those houses is…over the top. If we have a way in, we should go. And the fact is, the only way in for us is probably if they let us in.”

  Nyx grimaced.

  “We can get her back to the launch pad as soon as we’re into the house itself,” Loki pointed out, jerking his head at Mala.

  “You know guards can get to any place in that house,” Nyx shot back. “What if they decide to interrogate her?”

  “She doesn’t know anything,” Loki pointed out.

  “I really need to talk to you,” Mala tried again. Her courage was just starting to ebb away.

  “In a moment,” Nyx said distractedly. She was shaking her head at Loki. “It doesn’t matter what she knows or doesn’t. And what if they do the sensible thing and just shoot her on sight?”

  “Yeah, well, it’s this or nothing.” Loki raised his eyebrows. “We can keep going after the Senator. We could even go back to Seneca, get the case against her started before she can get there to build her defense. If we keep it quiet, there’s a chance we can get a lot in motion before she knows.” He gave her a look. “Or we can take this chance and go after Ghost. The Senator was only ever a side project, and she has to come back to Seneca sometime.”

  Nyx considered, her eyes distant. Her arms were folded, and her fingers drummed against her arm, one after another, over and over.

  “Fine,” she said at last. “Get everyone in armor and change the ship’s signature. Do what you can to get into their security feeds. If we can make it seem like she’s alone…” She stripped off her sweatshirt and handed it over to Mala. “Only civilian clothes I have, sorry.”

  “It’s all right.” Mala took it, grimacing. She missed her jacket; it had disappeared somewhere in the senator’s torture chambers, and was probably blown to hell by now. “Can we—”

  But Nyx was already gone, pounding down the corridor with Loki at her side, both of them making for the armory. Mala let out a breath and resisted the urge to pound her hand against the doorframe.

  “You okay?” Tersi asked her worriedly. “You know if you said the word, the Commander wouldn’t take us in. It would be entirely okay if you thought better of this.”

  “It’s not that.” Mala crossed her arms, looking down the hall to where Nyx had disappeared. “It’s….”

  All my fault.

  Except it wasn’t, she thought suddenly. Not all of it. She hadn’t known this was what she was digging up when she started into her research on the market fluctuations. She had done it because that, of all of the projects she had to work on, seemed like something that really mattered. She knew what it would mean for the outer colonies if ships didn’t have the ore to power them.

  And she was going to set this right. If she walked into danger, so be it. She was afraid, but the more she thought about it, she was also pissed as hell. What right did a senator have to abduct their constituents, torture them for information they did not have—disregarding the law and due process in the meantime? That senator knew that what she was doing was wrong, enough so that she was willing to kill a whole team of Dragons to make sure word of her activities never got out. She wasn’t going to stop, though. She was goin
g to do this to other people, going rogue because the senate hadn’t turned all of its resources to her pet project. She was just as corrupt as the people she wanted to stop.

  “Are you all right?” Tersi’s words drew Mala back to the present.

  “I’m going to take Ghost down,” Mala said.

  “Hey, that’s the spirit.” He was grinning. “I knew you were a good match for the Commander.”

  “What?”

  “I, uh … I didn’t say anything.” He had flushed bright red. “Please don’t tell her I said that, she’ll kill me. Painfully.”

  “I won’t.” Mala couldn’t resist the smile that spread across her face. “I’m going to go get ready.” At the bottom of the stairs, she stopped and turned. “You really think…” She flushed with embarrassment, feeling like a schoolgirl with a crush.

  Tersi leaned forward to look down the hallway for listeners, and grinned as he beckoned her close. “We all do,” he confided with a grin. He spun in his chair, giving a jaunty whistle, and threw one amused glance back over his shoulder. “Just don’t do anything to break her heart, mind you, or we’ll have to kill you.”

  He was already looking back as he spoke, and so he did not see Mala’s face fall.

  Don’t do anything to break her heart.

  Anything like, say, confide the truth.

  She would fix this, Mala decided. She squared her shoulders and set off down the corridor. She would do her part to lure Ghost out into the open, and when they returned to Seneca, the truth would be easier to tell—a truth she’d worked to correct. Nyx would….

  She would understand. Mala had to believe that.

  The Dragons moved fast. When Mala reached the shuttle bay, the team was already assembled, checking weapons and listening as Nyx laid out the plan.

  “—misappropriation of Intelligence,” Mala heard. Nyx’s mouth was set. “Whoever they are, they’re in our systems and they’ve probably got people all the way up through the senate.” She looked away, lost in thought. “We should look for any other industries they might be in, too,” she said finally.

  “You should run everything you find against the database of Intelligence workers,” Mala said, before she realized that she wasn’t one of the ones who should be speaking. Eleven pairs of alert eyes swiveled her way, and she swallowed.

  “How do you figure?” To her surprise, though Nyx was frowning, she seemed to think this was an entirely reasonable suggestion.

  “Well, Grose came to me, right? The more I think about it, I’m beginning to wonder if he was on to something.” Mala shook her head. “What if Ghost is part of Intelligence? What if they have someone in the department?”

  The Dragons raised their eyebrows, considering. They, of all people, would not deny that Intelligence held some bad apples. They had seen firsthand the sort of devastation that could wreak. One or two of them murmured amongst themselves, and Nyx nodded.

  “And it’s more, too. It feels like it’s all connected.” Mala tried to find the words. “Look, the guy at the warehouse said he didn’t know who Ghost was, right? But Ghost visited there. What if it’s not a coincidence that that’s the facility the subcommittee looked at? Maybe Samuels also heard Ghost had been there. She’s on this subcommittee, she’s fighting fraud—well, Intelligence might be who she’s going up against. I’m not going to agree with her methods….” Mala shrugged her shoulders as a few of the Dragons chuckled. “But maybe she knows what’s going on. Maybe when we get back, we can get her to bring her allegations into the open, go through normal channels.”

  “Interesting.” There was approval in Nyx’s eyes. “All right. Everyone in the shuttle. This is not going to be easy. Information trumps execution, but only barely—if you need to take a shot to get out alive, do it. And Mala….” She swallowed hard. “You stay close to the team at all times.”

  “Right.”

  As Mala climbed into the shuttle, she heard Loki’s murmured comfort to Nyx. “She can take care of herself, boss.”

  There was a pause, and Mala strained to listen. Then, so softly that Mala could barely hear her, Nyx spoke:

  “I have a really bad feeling about this.”

  She held on as the alarms sounded and the shuttle maneuvered into the tiny airlock. Mala knew from her dozens of questions that the airlock descended outside the Ariane’s hull, venting its air back into the shuttle bay before opening into space, and she thought wistfully that she would have liked to go over the schematics for that. Perhaps when they were back, Nyx would let her see them.

  “Should I open a channel to the surface, boss?” Tersi’s voice.

  “Do it.”

  “They’re on a closed circuit right now, so give me a few minutes.”

  Mala leaned against the copilot’s chair and watched the data scrolling across Esu’s screen. She needed something to focus on, or she would go mad. This plan was starting to seem just as idiotic as Nyx had first suggested. Somehow, Mala had managed to convince the Dragons it was a good idea, and un-convince herself.

  Great.

  “Patching you through now.” Tersi’s voice echoed, tinny, on the comm link in the shuttle. “Stand by.”

  Mala drew in her breath as the line connected. The Dragons behind her had settled into absolute silence, terrifying forms in black and red armor. So many pairs of eyes staring at her. So many, and all of them watchful, trained to spot deception.

  Mala. Who is Eve Orion?

  She wanted to confess it now, even in front of all of them. Just to have this over with. But there would be time after the mission, when she could speak to Nyx alone. When Nyx wouldn’t be shamed by having trusted Mala. Better just to tell her; Mala clung to that decision.

  “Who is this?” The voice on the other line was male, and clearly displeased at having been interrupted by a call. “And what’s your business here?”

  “I’d like to talk to Ghost,” Mala said simply. Her heart was pounding so fast that she thought it might explode, and she wrapped her hands around the back of the copilot’s chair to steady herself. “There’s…an assassination plot against them.”

  The line went quiet, and Mala looked over at Nyx worriedly. Had they known this immediately for the trap it was? It seemed as if the whole Dragon team was holding their breath, and Esu’s hands hovered over the flight controls, ready—Mala was sure—for evasive maneuvers if any of the satellites began to arm. Mala, meanwhile, squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to embarrass herself. She had never felt so vulnerable in her life.

  The line crackled, and twenty heads swiveled at once to hone in on the noise.

  “Who is this?” The voice was female, cold and businesslike, and for reasons Mala could not understand, it brought her out in cold chills. It seemed almost familiar….

  “This is Eve Orion.”

  33

  It’s as if he thinks you’re someone else.

  Nyx went still. She looked over at Mala, brows drawing together in query, and Mala shook her head. But what did that mean? Was this a gambit to protect herself, or did Mala have reason to believe that this woman thought she really was Eve Orion? And if so, why on earth had she not said so before?

  By the way, a drug cartel seems to have gotten me confused with the woman I’m subletting from. Nyx had tried to find any information she could about the woman, and never seemed to turn up anything, other than that she worked in Intelligence as well. If Mala was trying to throw them off, she was putting another woman in danger to do so—and that did not seem like her.

  None of this made sense. Nyx hated when things did not make sense. Nyx put her hand on Mala’s arm, gesturing for Esu to turn the transmitter off.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I….” Mala looked at the rest of the Dragons. “Like you said, they think I’m someone else.”

  “But why pick that name?” As Mala swallowed, Nyx felt herself go cold. “What do you know? Mala, we cannot walk into this blind—”

  “I think Eve was involved.”
The words tumbled out. “And they think I’m her.”

  She was waiting for something, something specific. Her eyes lingered on Nyx’s face, and she bit her lip. She was afraid, and she was waiting for something.

  “We should put a security detail on her when we get back, then,” Nyx said finally. “Or investigate her.” To her surprise, she saw disappointment flash in Mala’s eyes. “We have to.”

  “It’s not—oh, God, I didn’t want to say until later, but it’s not—”

  At the crackle of the speakers, she broke off.

  “How did you find me?” The voice seemed familiar somehow, and Nyx frowned, leaning forward and letting her eyes drift closed.

  “I’m in Intelligence,” Mala said, with a good attempt at sounding careless; Nyx, however, could hear the panic rising up in her voice. What had she been going to say?

  Not important. Ghost was important.

  “So you are.” From the sounds of it, this woman had just come to an important conclusion. “And what is your business, Ms. Orion?”

  “It’s about Grose.” Mala’s voice was curt.

  “What about him?”

  “Nothing much. Except, of course, I know his plan to cut you out of the loop.”

  Nyx shot Mala an amused glance, but beneath the woman’s answering smile was the same troubled look she had worn for days. What in hell was going on?

  When the speakers crackled again, it was the man once more.

  “You have clearance to land.” His voice was brusque. “You will be met at the landing pad.”

  “Mala.” Nyx kept her voice low, and noted gratefully that the other Dragons made a show of looking away and talking amongst themselves. “Did Grose say that he thought you were Eve?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “Mala.”

  Mala looked over wordlessly.

  “What is it?”

  “I’ve wanted to tell you for so long,” Mala whispered. “But—please, can we talk after this? I don’t want….”