Paying the Price (Book 5 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  “We call them stunners,” he lied. “The police in the Old Empire used them.”

  The man looked impressed. “That’s quite a tool. When in doubt, take them all out. One would’ve been very useful in taking you down. Or the other targets.”

  That made his stomach flutter. “You have other prisoners? Who?”

  “Alas, we didn’t get the others. It’s quite embarrassing, really. We wanted to take a scientist to assist with analyzing your code, so to speak. His guards used significantly more force than you to stop us. They killed nine men.”

  “It might shock you to know, but I’m sorry about that,” Talbot said. “I’m not a fan of needless slaughter. I was only a guy out on the town. If you ran up against a dedicated protection detail, they’d use whatever force they deemed necessary to protect the subject.”

  “Or perhaps more. They blew up the top floor of an apartment building and then used a missile to shoot down our van as it fled. Without any prisoners, I might add. That feels a tad excessive.”

  That sounded excessive to him, too. His people wouldn’t just shoot down a fleeing enemy. Not outside a combat zone. And blowing up an apartment building was never a good idea.

  “Who was the target?”

  “Not one of your major players, I understand. A lab assistant named Owlet.”

  That explained a lot. The damned hammer could cause that level of damage in inexperienced hands. He’d seen the vids to prove it.

  “He’s a graduate student,” Talbot said. “Bright enough, but the lowest ranking guy on the science teams. Why would you trust what he had to say, anyway? He’d be just as compromised as the rest of us, by your standards.”

  The man shifted in his seat. “We’d hoped to have him guide us into extracting the computer code and understanding it. My employer is quite concerned that you people are time bombs waiting to explode.”

  “I don’t suppose you’d care to share a name with me.”

  The man smiled. “No. Believe it or not, Major Talbot, I intend to release you unharmed. When I do, you’re free to tell whoever you want about our concerns.”

  The man rose to his feet and straightened his jacket. He still probably thought himself safely concealed in the dark. “I’ll let you get a bit of rest and we’ll talk again. Perhaps over breakfast. Sleep well.”

  Talbot waited for the man to leave before testing the strength of his restraints. He wasn’t getting loose easily. The bed was solid, too. He wouldn’t be tipping it over. And even if he could, he’d really mess his arm up. They had him well and truly trapped.

  He sighed. He’d just have to count on Kelsey to come to his rescue. Humiliating, but something he could count on.

  * * * * *

  The duty physician was just closing up the wound on Jared’s leg when Admiral Yeats came storming into the medical center. “What a freaking mess. Your boys and girls killed all four of the attackers.”

  “Considering the circumstances, I can live with that. And I killed the two in the bedroom.”

  The senior Fleet officer’s eyes widened. “Well, that’s a surprise. You never struck me as a close combat kind of man.”

  “I’ve had to do a lot of things I’d never planned on over the last year, Admiral. Any idea how they got onto Orbital One? My implant database said they weren’t Fleet.”

  The other man’s eyes narrowed. “What have you got tucked away in there?”

  Jared shrugged. “I wanted to be sure I had at least a little information about the officers on the board of inquiry, so I loaded the public records for all active Fleet personnel. None of those people were in it. I suppose there could be some secret group that you don’t have open records for, but I’m betting they aren’t part of it.”

  “Of course we have some off the book investigators, but you’re right. Those people weren’t active duty. All four were marines in the past, though. One retired and three kicked out of the service. Someone in Orbital One security let them aboard. Their ship didn’t wait for them and you weren’t the only target.”

  Jared’s stomach sank. “Someone was killed?”

  “Someone was liberated,” Yeats corrected. “They busted Wallace Breckenridge out of holding. Killed the on duty security detail in the prison. Whoever they were, they wanted you dead and him free. Does that ring any bells for you?”

  Jared eyed the medical staff. “No one I’d mention in public.”

  Yeats jerked a thumb toward the corridor hatch. “Everyone out.”

  The staff seemed surprised, but they followed his orders. A few minutes later, the two of them were alone.

  “There,” Yeats said. “Now talk.”

  Jared considered his words carefully. One didn’t just come out and accuse the heir to the Throne of murder and conspiracy to murder.

  “You recall Kelsey’s mentor from the Department of Imperial Affairs? Carlo Vega. He died shortly after we left Imperial space. Poison. I have no proof, but I suspect the target was actually me.

  “I gave him some candies that the Palace sent to me. One of them was probably poisoned and the only person there who hates me that bad is Ethan Bandar.”

  Yeats pondered what he’d said for a moment before responding. “That’s a serious accusation. Particularly without proof.”

  Jared nodded and stood, testing his leg. It felt a lot better. He’d need some more time in the regenerator, but he could walk without help.

  “Which is why I haven’t said anything. The investigation is still officially open, but I’m certain he was behind it. The last time we met, he basically told me he’d eliminate me as a problem. Permanently.”

  Yeats rubbed his chin. “I can’t officially enter that into the record, but I’ll have a private talk with His Majesty. He needs to know how you feel.”

  “Then I’d best be the one to tell him.”

  Yeats nodded. “I suspect so. How will you do it?”

  “I think I need to meet up with Kelsey. The two of us can tell him together. If you can excuse me from the board of inquiry for the day, that is.”

  “They have enough testimony to go over without you. There are a ton of other witnesses to speak with.”

  “You need to be careful, Admiral,” Jared said. “With Breckenridge on the loose, that tells me there’s something going on that might include Fleet. I hesitate to mention this, but we saw the Pentagarans go through an attempted coup. Watch your ships and commanders.”

  The older man rubbed his face. “I hope to God we don’t have that kind of rot, but you’re right. They had someone here in their pocket. We can’t count on others being clean.

  “I’ll raise the alert level and warn the senior officers on all ships that he’s loose and that we need to be on guard. Better safe than sorry.”

  “With your permission, I’ll do the same. My people are less disposed to be allies of his after what he did.”

  “Do it,” Yeats said decisively. “If they can’t take over your ships, they can’t win.”

  “You need to get a marine detail you trust,” Jared said. “If they can’t control you, they might try to eliminate you. With you gone, Breckenridge might move to take charge of Fleet.

  “We have some unpowered armor that non-enhanced personnel can use that would make your guards tougher. Also, there’s a kind of lightweight armor that Kelsey uses under her regular clothes. It’s tough. I’ll see that you get a set.”

  “I worry we’re being too paranoid, but it won’t hurt to take some basic precautions. I’ll accept all your suggestions. Now get down there and settle this, Jared.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  He found his pants and summoned the marines waiting in the corridor after the admiral had left. “We’re going down to Avalon.”

  They formed a protective wedge around him and took him straight to the docking level. Their pinnace disengaged as soon as they were strapped in.

  He opened a channel to Invincible. “Marcus, go to alert status.”

  “Already there, Admiral. Sh
all I go to battle stations?”

  “No, but I want the fleet ready for trouble. Breckenridge has escaped and I think something big is in motion. I don’t want any of our ships falling into unfriendly hands.”

  “I’ll notify all senior officers at once. I’ve already taken the liberty of summoning the crew back from leave. With the exception of Major Talbot, everyone is accounted for.”

  Jared nodded. “Excellent. Be ready to throw up battle screens at the first sign of trouble. A supposedly friendly ship might open fire with no warning.”

  “Once again, Admiral, I’m one step ahead of you. All ships have their computers watching. At the first sign of hostile activity, every battle screen in the fleet will snap into place. No missile will have time to hit us and the New Empire vessels don’t have beam weapons to worry about.”

  That was a relief.

  “There was a ship or cutter that took Breckenridge and the attackers off Orbital One. Get the operations team to work on determining which one it was and where it went.”

  “Once the attack on you took place, I took that liberty. Very few vessels undocked between the time the attack commenced and when Orbital One locked down all outgoing traffic. One cutter in particular went to Avalon and landed at Capital Spaceport.

  “Though I have no proof that is the ship you seek, I’d wager my as yet unpaid salary that will be them.”

  Jared felt the corner of his mouth quirking up. “I’m wondering what you’d spend it on. In any case, I’ll fix that lapse as soon as possible. I’m meeting with Kelsey and we’re going to speak to the emperor. Hopefully, we can sort this mess out before it becomes a major problem.”

  “Additional processor cores, larger storage, and faster memory, of course. I hope you can solve this before the situation spins out of control, Admiral. However, I submit that seldom seems to work. Perhaps planning for the worst would be an appropriate course of action.”

  “Too true, Marcus. I’ll let you know when I find out anything. Keep me in the loop as far as major developments.”

  “Will do, Admiral. Invincible out.”

  The pinnace was already slicing into the atmosphere. It wouldn’t be long before he and Kelsey could talk. She didn’t know he suspected her brother of killing her mentor. Based on history, she wouldn’t take it very well. It might take more than a bit of convincing to bring her around to his point of view.

  Of course, he didn’t actually need her to believe it was possible. Just being open while he talked to the emperor would be helpful.

  Now all they had to do was figure this out before anyone else got killed.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Angela slowly swam back to awareness. The pain in her side was gone. Regeneration was a wonderful thing.

  The medical staff was pulling her out of the regeneration unit and a doctor she vaguely remembered was checking the readout.

  “Things look good, Major Ellis,” he said. “And in case you don’t remember our very brief meeting earlier, I’m Doctor John Yeager and you’re at Capital Hospital. You were shot, but your companion got you here in time. Obviously.”

  He looked up from the readout. “I understand his arrival caused quite a stir. A few excitable souls said he flew in like some kind of superhero from the vids. Obviously, that isn’t what happened, but it still has people chattering.”

  “Was he hurt, Doctor?” Her throat was dry.

  He handed her a bottle of water. “Drink up. Your friend wasn’t injured. He and the other men are in the waiting room. Before I let them in to see you, a detective with Planetary Security wants to speak with you.”

  It took no imagination to figure out why. They’d shot up an apartment and then basically vaporized it. And a van full of fleeing suspects. She was a little woozy by then, but she remembered the terrifying flight and crash.

  Perhaps an avenging superhero wasn’t an entirely inaccurate assumption on the witness’ part.

  “Sure,” she said. “Let me get dressed and I’ll talk to them.”

  He shook his head. “I’m afraid your clothes are very bloody and also considered evidence. With your larger than average stature, I’m afraid the hospital gown will have to do. I’m told one of your men is getting something for you.”

  Well, that wasn’t really a surprise. Not many nurses would match her two meter height.

  “Then I guess I’m ready.”

  The doctor helped her up and escorted her to a normal hospital room. “We’ll be keeping you for a short while to make certain everything is good. Lie down and let me hook up the monitors.”

  Once he finished doing that, he excused himself and a grizzled man came in. He looked like a caricature of a detective.

  “Major Ellis, I’m Detective Ronny Powers with Planetary Security. I have a few questions about what happened.”

  She gestured to the chair. “Feel free to sit, but I can’t tell you everything. Some of it’s classified.”

  “So I’m given to understand. Tell me what you can.”

  Angela walked him through the attack until the hammer put in an appearance, and then she shut him down. The damned thing was far too dangerous to put into a security report.

  He looked annoyed and tried to come at the situation from several angles, but she kept putting up walls.

  Powers sighed and put his notebook away. “I’ll contact Admiral Mertz in the morning to see what he can tell me. At least the witnesses confirm that you didn’t start the fight, even if you were a tad excessive in ending it. That will still need to be answered for, so don’t make any plans to leave Avalon.”

  “I never go anywhere unless I have orders. You might want to mention that to Admiral Mertz as well.”

  Once the man was gone, Owlet poked his head through the door. “Are you up for visitors?”

  She made sure the blanket covered the gown, though after the firefight he probably didn’t have too much left to the imagination. Hell, those damned vids the other versions of him had taken might have some really private moments. She repressed a shudder.

  “Come in and close the door behind you. You didn’t get hit, did you?”

  He sat in the chair and set the ridiculously dangerous hammer on the floor beside him “Not a scratch. I’m sorry they hurt you.”

  “That wasn’t your fault. Dammit, what were you thinking? Wasn’t that thing overkill?”

  Owlet shrugged. “It was the only weapon I could put my hands on. And, to follow the metaphor, the problems became nails after that.”

  Well, that was certainly true. The memory of the hammer blowing a human sized hole through an apartment building to fly into his hand was going to be hard to forget. He’d been the next best thing to invulnerable after that.

  “Why did you take us back?”

  “Once I saw how badly they’d hurt you, I kind of let my emotions get the better of me.”

  “That’s one way to describe it,” she said dryly. “Why destroy the van?”

  “Actually, that was an accident. I meant to disable it with a quick flyby, but they dodged right in front of me at the last moment. This thing is agile, but even it has limits. Out of everything I did, that’s the part I regret.”

  “You were in combat. Shit happens. You should’ve kept running away. Your idea to disengage was the right one. We’d have caught them later.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind if this ever happens again, Major. What now?”

  “I think you can call me Angela after what we’ve been through. We’ll let Admiral Mertz sort it out. You did nothing wrong.” She hesitated and then continued. “And thank you for protecting me. You shouldn’t have had to, but I appreciate the risk you took for me.”

  His smile turned wry. “You’re growing on me. I can see what the other versions of me saw in you. Not that I’ll let that be an excuse to be an ass.”

  Angela said nothing, but he had worn through her armor, too. Perhaps the other versions of her hadn’t been complete idiots after all. Any kind of relationship would sti
ll be totally inappropriate, but she could see her opinion of him changing.

  Not that she’d ever allow him to give Princess Kelsey such a dangerous weapon. That was just crazy. Now more than ever. God only knew what the woman would do with it.

  * * * * *

  Kelsey was monitoring the pinnace’s scanners from the marine commander’s console when she got the word Jared was coming. His pinnace dropped down and they landed together. He joined her and sent his off to keep searching for Talbot.

  He must’ve had someone get him a uniform, because she saw no sign of blood.

  She hugged him. “I’m so sorry they attacked you. Any idea who it was?”

  He nodded and sat down beside her. “You won’t like this. I think Ethan was behind it.”

  Kelsey felt herself frowning. “My…Our brother is an ass, but he’s not homicidal. That’s crazy.”

  “Is it? Someone poisoned Carlo Vega. I told you the investigation was ongoing, but I’m pretty sure it was in the candy the Palace sent. It only had to be in one piece. Poof, the evidence was gone.

  “Ethan didn’t know you were coming, or he might have tried something different. After all, I might have given you the candy. Or he might have figured our mutual antipathy would keep that from happening. I have no idea. Still, tell me it doesn’t make sense.”

  She opened her mouth to defend her twin, but closed it with her objections unspoken. Was he truly capable of doing something that horrible?

  I think you know the answer to that.

  Ned’s voice in her head startled her. He’d kept quiet for so long that she forgotten he was there.

  You don’t know him like I do. He’s not a monster.

  The rebellion has taught me that you don’t have to be a monster to do monstrous things. Forgive me for saying so, but your brother sounds like he has paranoid delusions or megalomania. Or both. He’s clever about hiding it, most times, but if you truly think about it, he’s sick. And sick people do terrible things.

  Kelsey wanted to reject what Ned was suggesting, but a traitorous part of her mind was considering it. No, not Ethan. Ned and Jared had to be wrong.