by Natalie Grey
So she did not rage at him that someone was targeting her ship and her crew. The same was true of him, and he had lost people.
He sighed, though. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be.”
“No, I—” He looked off at the wall and seemed to be considering. “Look,” he said finally. He met her eyes again. “It’s not just me they’re after. When they find someone new to follow, it’ll be you and your crew, too. Kuznetsova. Mase.” He paused, and she felt a chill. She wanted to tell him to stop talking, but he continued the list before the could: “And the Io, Nyx. Everyone on that ship—”
“I know.” Nyx pressed her lips shut. Talon was speaking one of her worst nightmares aloud: someone targeting Mala in retribution for Nyx’s work.
Life as a Dragon was a lot easier unattached.
“I know,” she repeated, when she was sure she could control her voice. “We’ll find them. I know we have to. And I know we have to do it first,” she added. “It’s important, I get that.”
It was especially important given that, with Soras in charge of the Dragons, he’d been able to keep anything suspicious out of their official files. As much as Hugo wanted to help them now, he had scant resources to match theirs, especially with Tera on their side.
…But he might be able to help research the attack on the Conway.
Nyx held up a finger to tell Talon to pause, and typed out a quick message to Hugo, asking him to send whatever he found her way. Then, satisfied that something was being done, she smiled at Talon
“Okay, so. Tell me about Lesedi’s research. Out of the four, our target is…”
“R. Estabrook, known to Team 22 as—wait for it—R.”
Nyx lifted an eyebrow.
“The current theory over here is that his name must be really embarrassing.”
“Rudolph,” Nyx suggested.
“We have a winner, he is officially Rudolph, and this is now Operation Sleighbell.”
“Please put that in your mission report.”
“Roger. All right, that would make you…Cupid? Dancer?”
“Prancer. Mase is Cupid.”
“Nah, that’s Cade. Tera will be….”
“Tread lightly, Rift, she can actually kill you.”
“Elf #3,” Talon said, writing it down with a flourish.
Nyx snorted. “And Kuznetsova is Dasher.”
“Wise. She can also kill us. So. We have a lead on Team 22’s location, and Tera and Cade came up with the plan of spooking him while his ship is at Akintola.”
“It would be at Akintola.”
“Of course. Called in a no-questions-asked from Grunt.” Grunt, the leader of Team 22, had run quite a few missions with Talon’s former team, before he was given his own. “Anyway, while they’re there and we can hook into their communications, Lesedi is going to spook him and we’ll see if he tips off the others. There are reasons he might not, of course, but an early confirmation of who’s who, or a lead on other allies….” He raised his eyebrows suggestively.
“One question.”
“Shoot.”
“How many degrees of separation are we going for, here? Because Soras? Cool. His Dragons? Sure. But all their contacts? All their contacts’ contacts? I want to retire before I’m eighty.”
Talon laughed. “Think of it as job security.”
“Were we running out of shitty people? Because I don’t remember that ever being a problem.” Still, she was smiling.
“Duly noted, Captain.”
“Don’t you start with that, too.”
He flashed her a grin. “All right, so. We spook him. Then a member of your team finds him and says they want to defect. It won’t fly as one of my people, but one of yours might be believable when you’ve just taken over.”
“I could see that.” Nyx chewed on her thumbnail. “Okay, I think I know who I’ll send. We’ll come up with a story. Unless you’ve got one.”
“Nah, go wild.”
“Right. Meanwhile, we all lie in wait and drop out of the rafters, yes? And I assume you have a place picked out already.”
“Correct, and correct.” He tapped at his keyboard. “I’m sending you the details, along with a code packet that will keep the Conway off Estabrook’s radar when he gets to Akintola. Tersi whipped it up.”
“Good. I’ll wait for that, then.” She just barely caught herself before calling him ‘boss.’ “Oh, and how’s everyone.”
“They’re good. Jim’s started whistling all the damned time and I might kill him, though.” He leaned back in his chair, relaxed once more. “Tersi wouldn’t mind hearing from you, though I never said anything.”
“Of course not. He’s okay, though, right?”
Talon sighed. “I think so,” he said finally. “He will be, anyway. I just can’t help him through this and it’s killing me to watch it.”
Nyx nodded. She felt the same helplessness.
“And your crew?” Talon asked.
“Good. All good.”
“The kid? I’d check with him, but, well…”
Nyx grinned. Loki’s crush on Talon was something she was sure he’d grow out of in time, but she was secretly hoping he’d stay around even when he did. He had both intelligence and kindness in abundance, mixed with jaw-dropping speed in combat and a surprisingly wicked sense of humor.
And having him here made her feel a little less alone.
“He’s good,” she told Talon. “Beating the crap out of everyone in sparring right now.”
“Good. Make sure they teach him some patience.”
Nyx laughed. “See you soon?”
He nodded and she ended the call. She checked her messages for one back from Hugo and shook her head at her own stupidity—he would likely not receive it for a while. She pondered sending one to Tersi and decided not to. She’d see him soon enough. In the meantime….
Her computer beeped and she saw a new message alert. She pushed the button curiously and then froze at the words on the screen.
COME AND FIND ME. TICK TOCK, COMMANDER.
Nyx stared at the words for a long moment. Her heart was pounding. She clenched her fingers until the nails went white, and then she shook her head once, hard, to clear it.
She had Lesedi and Hugo on this, and a truly dangerous enemy to track down now.
Then she’d figure out who this was. They could taunt her all they wanted. She wasn’t going to be dragged off-course.
6
Centurion and Wraith arrived in the Conway’s war room after lunch.
Nyx had chosen the location deliberately. One of the things she had most hated in the Navy was the secretive way missions were planned and assigned. Sometimes it had been necessary, she was sure, but on the whole, it had only demonstrated a division between the people who planned the missions, and the people who were in the line of fire.
Now that she had her own command, she didn’t intend to make a habit of shutting herself away while she planned missions. Her crew could watch and listen if they wanted.
“All right, here’s the deal.” Nyx slid the picture across the table. “R. Estabrook. We’re guessing the R stands for ’Rudolph.’”
Wraith snickered.
“We’re going to set up a meeting with a fake traitor. Centurion, I’m thinking that should be you, but give me your impressions about the team if you think someone would be better. Lord knows, I’d never have guessed Loki was such a good flirt. Now—” She picked up a piece of paper and caught sight of their intrigued expressions.
“Yeah,” Wraith said. “We’re gonna need that story.”
Nyx started laughing. “I forgot you weren’t there. All right, bit convoluted, but the long and short of it was we sent Sphinx in as bait … and they went for Loki instead. And, boy, did he pick it up damned well.”
“Dragons,” Centurion said drily. “Every year, the rookies come in with new skills. My year, they didn’t test us on that. I wouldn’t pass now.”
Nyx cho
ked on a sip of tea.
“We have other skills.” Wraith patted his arm. “Like yelling at kids to get off our spaceship.”
“I am good at that.” He rested on his knuckles with a grin and caught Nyx’s eye, gesturing to Estabrook’s picture with his chin. “So what’s the deal? What do I tell him?”
“Not entirely sure. I told Talon we’d come up with a story. If you help come up with it, it’ll be more convincing.” Nyx crossed her arms and frowned at Estabrook’s picture, then looked up at them and held up two fingers. “There are two stages to the plan. Let’s start there. First, we have him get a tip-off that Talon is after him. It’ll happen while he’s on Akintola Station and we’ll monitor his communications to see if he tips anyone else off. Then you get in contact. Say you’re leaving my team and you’ve picked up on him being one of Soras’s Dragons. Or something.” Her frown deepened. “That’s not quite right.”
“I could say I was already recruited,” Centurion suggested. “No one’s gonna sign on after the ship already went down.”
“Unless they think he’ll get out,” Wraith murmured. “And there are plenty of whispers that he will.” She crossed her arms and her eyes narrowed at the picture. “He does, I’ll kill him with my bare hands. I don’t like that they didn’t execute him.”
“They were advised by someone who knew him—” Nyx didn’t want to say just who that was “—that living with his failure, in a jail cell rather than his palaces, stripped of all his medals, would be worse for him than a quick death.”
“The Romans didn’t imprison people for life,” Centurion told them. “They thought it was inhumane. Just executed them. So what I’m saying is….” He gave a small, pleased smile. “Good. If anyone ever deserved that, it’s him.”
“True,” Wraith admitted. “But he’s dangerous. I just hope they can keep him from getting to his allies.” She shook her head. “Anyway. Maybe it makes sense to have Centurion go in with the warning, then have the message come in backing him up. Gives him credibility.”
Nyx considered, then shook her head. Wraith’s suggestion made sense, but things were already in motion. For all she knew, Lesedi had the message primed.
And she still hadn’t heard back about the explosion, dammit.
“Already started,” she said to the other two. She saw them exchange a quick flick of a glance, but they said nothing. “So give me your ideas, let’s nail this down. Centurion, I like the idea of you being recruited beforehand, but then how do we explain the other agent on the team?”
Centurion leaned on the table again, frowning. “Soras never reached out to me. If he had, how would he have done it? I need details. I suppose I could say the kid was sent in when I didn’t stop Mallory from warning Talon. Backup—or he was there to kill me, too.”
“Why wouldn’t he kill you, then?”
“It’s … pathetic.” Centurion lifted his shoulders. “Me pleading for mercy puts him at the advantage, or at least he feels that way. I claim I didn’t know Mallory was planning to do that and I tried to keep you from killing the new agent, but….”
“But that would have outed you, and the team was out for blood,” Nyx finished.
“Exactly. So I figured I’d wait, see who came in next … and it was one of Talon’s crew, of all people. You said you were going after the rest of the Dragons—so now I’m backing up the message he got—and I’ve decided to run. I’ll just talk as if he should know who I am, not ask, not anything like that.”
“That seems solid,” Nyx said, after a moment.
“I think how I approach him is going to be most important,” Centurion said. “We want him to think he’s in control. Anything trying to lure him to a specific place will be suspect. I come up to him, I start talking, I’m not observing proper protocols, and let him take charge on trying to get me somewhere secluded. Then—”
Nyx shook her head. “Talon picked a place already. It’s one of the lower deck hangars.”
Wraith’s eyes met Centurion’s again, and when they looked back, it was to meet Nyx’s steady gaze.
“Centurion’s plan is good,” she said simply, “but we cannot take the chance of him spooking and killing a whole bunch of civilians. Because he won’t balk at that, and we will.”
Both of them nodded, chastened.
Nyx considered. “We combine the plans,” she said finally. “Centurion, you approach the way you said. Let him start to take you somewhere, then you claim you know that place isn’t safe. You say you know a safe spot and bring him to the loading bay. We’ll put a stash down there to make it look like you’ve been living there, so when he comes in, he won’t clue in immediately.”
Centurion nodded. “I can do that.”
Halo’s voice came over the speakers. “One hour out from Akintola.”
“Thank you,” Nyx called. She switched channels to the whole ship. “This is Nyx. We’ll be disembarking ASAP when we get to Akintola. I need everyone except Halo, Centurion, and Foxtail in full kit and ready to move. Meet Wraith at the airlock, she’ll tell you where to go.”
Wraith rolled her neck and shoulders, unconsciously starting to limber up now that there was a timeline on the mission, and Nyx smiled slightly. This smooth transition to readiness was comforting to her. A first mission with an unfamiliar team was bound to have some hiccups, but this simple moment was putting her at ease. Any two Dragon teams had more in common than they had differences.
“One last thing,” Centurion said. “His team won’t intervene, will they?”
“No,” Nyx assured him. Talon had included her on communications with Grunt, who had ensured that the rest of his team would be out of the way.
Though Talon had not said the reason for their mission, there had been a question implicit in his message: are you sure you don’t want to take care of this yourself? It would be easy enough for Grunt to connect the dots, after all—Talon had checked in with all of the team commanders once, and there was only one reason he would now be going after an individual Dragon on someone else’s team.
For most Dragon commanders, the traitors had been easy to find, and they had been angry enough to take those traitors out themselves.
For some, like Grunt, either they could not determine who the traitor was … or the betrayal ran so deeply and so close that they could not bring themselves to do what needed to be done. In this case, Nyx guessed it was the latter.
They nodded and headed out, but Wraith paused in the doorway.
“Oh, one other thing before I forget. Foxtail said she wanted to talk to you. She thinks she has some leads on how our attacker got cleared to get into the docks in the first place. Whatever she’s found, she thinks it’s important—and she’s usually right about these things.”
“Good to know.” Just as the team trusted Wraith’s instincts, Nyx would trust her judgement on whose ideas should always merit a closer look. As soon as they were through this mission, she’d give Foxtail’s report a once-over.
“Captain, call for you from Major Rift.”
“Thank you, Halo. Direct it to my personal channel.” She’d take it while she was kitting up. Giving one last look at the documents, Nyx nodded to Wraith and Centurion, and nodded for them to precede her down the hallway to the armory.
It was time to go.
7
“Docking at Akintola Station.” It was Grunt’s voice over the comms and Estabrook looked over from his book with a frown. Grunt rarely flew the ship himself.
The team leader had been cagey about why they were here as well. As far as Estabrook knew, Grunt hadn’t told anyone what was going on—both Widow and Nacht, the chief and XO, seemed to be just as mystified as the rest of the crew.
Estabrook had spent years getting close to Grunt. Though he wasn’t in a command position, he was frequently invited up to the captain’s cabin for a bullshitting session, or for Grunt to bounce ideas off him. They sparred together often. Estabrook had gotten good at giving just enough details to prime the pump.
Grunt, like most Dragon team leaders, was lonely. It wasn’t a life that was conducive to having a relationship, and Grunt seemed to suffer more than usual from that. He had desperately needed a friend.
And Estabrook had been more than happy to oblige him by being that friend. It gave him almost free reign to do everything Soras wanted.
Estabrook was also proactive in laying the groundwork. It had started with a word here or there, or a simple eye roll whenever Talon was mentioned. He was careful always to speak well of the man—just paint him as a zealot, someone whose crusade against the Warlord was doomed and useless.
Every little fact Estabrook learned about the other Dragon commanders, or members of the team, was saved to be deployed at the best possible moment. Vock, a team member who’d joined a few years back and had never liked Estabrook, had been shifted off the team quickly after Estabrook was able to pour a little poison in Grunt’s ear.
They’d taken out plenty of the Warlord’s enemies over the years. With Intelligence sending the briefings, Grunt only questioned things once or twice, and Estabrook was always there to lend his opinion.
So why wouldn’t he talk about it now?
Estabrook’s comm channel pinged and he looked down at the screen … and swallowed hard.
Talon Rift has agents set to intercept all teams that have not found agents yet. They move in two days.
Estabrook pushed himself up. His heart was beating double-time, but he had a plan in place for this. It wasn’t like he didn’t have allies.
And he knew about a great deal of Aleksandr Soras’s resources that the Alliance had never found—safe houses, shipyards, contacts.
He was at Akintola, too, one of the best places to slip away. There was a ship always waiting here for Soras’s agents, paid for by a shell corporation that couldn’t be traced. The ships rotated so as not to arouse suspicion, but a quick scan through his personal computer told Estabrook where it could be found right now.
