Azad
“The guides probably told Voyou to take out the communications system when I went offline, knowing I might be compromised,” Calred said, limping along behind Azad. “The guides have been really worried about this cure. They think you’re a threat to the great work.”
“Oh, there’s a great work,” Azad said. “Maybe you should tell us about that.” She was annoyed. She’d had this idea that once she managed to cure one of the mushroom zombies, she’d actually get answers, and be able to tell her employer those answers, and get paid – well, paid more. But so far, the only new thing they’d learned was existence of those nodes, little vegetative communications satellites hidden on ships and stations all over the galaxy.
Calred sighed. “All I know is there is a plan, and I was a small part of it. I was supposed to keep an eye on my boss, Jhuri, and neutralize him if he got suspicious about the conspiracy. Then I got sent on this mission, to capture Terrak, and my main job then was updating the guides on our progress. And…” He swallowed. “Killing or compromising you and Terrak, before you had a chance to tell anyone what you’d found out.”
“It would have been funny to see you try,” Azad said. “You don’t know anything about the bigger picture?”
“Just that the guides are eager for the Greater Union to succeed. They didn’t want anything to disrupt the treaty process. Maybe the guides really do mean well, and they just want to promote peace and harmony in the…” He trailed off. “No. I suppose not.”
“Seems unlikely,” Severyne said absently. “Wait.” She held up her fist to halt the group, then peered through tiny gaps in a stand of tall reed-like plants that formed a natural barrier. “I can see the house. So many windows, how can anyone stand it? Useful for surveillance, though… I don’t see movement. Where were the faithful when you could still sense them, Calred?”
“All three of them were in the house, but when I got disconnected, I’m sure they freaked out. The fleet captain might still be inside – I don’t think she’s very mobile. She just gave off a vague impression of blissed-out confusion. The other two were sharp, though.”
“Still, there are only two of them. We can handle that,” Severyne said.
“Only two that we know of,” Azad said. “There could be uninfected mercenaries or something, and they’ll shoot us just as dead as the faithful would.”
“The guides didn’t mention anything about outside contractors,” Calred said. “I think they wanted to keep the fleet captain’s condition a secret. An architect of the Greater Union descending into rapid dementia would be bad for the project, probably. The guides thought between Severyne and Felix, the situation was pretty well covered.”
“Then let’s take the house.” Severyne nodded to her troops, who fanned out and disappeared from view around both sides of the reed wall. Severyne took a small cylinder from her belt, twisted her wrist, and snapped the cylinder out into a pole nearly two meters long. She looked at Azad and Terrak. “I know she’s armed. Are you?”
“Only with my natural attributes.” Terrak showed his fangs.
“Can you shoot?”
Terrak shrugged. “I have been known to, at a firing range.”
Severyne tossed a sidearm, and the Hacan caught it, almost fumbling the weapon. Azad rolled her eyes. Amateurs. “Try not to let anyone take that away and use it on you,” Severyne said.
“I love this take-charge thing you’re doing, Sev,” Azad said. She hadn’t expected to ever see her again, and it was making an enjoyable mission even better. Everything was always more fun with her, and sure, Sev was looking her most strait-laced right now, but she inevitably loosened up and got more impulsive after they spent a little time together. This time they were even on the same side . “Maybe when this mission is over, you and me could find a little private time to do a thorough debrief. Not that I’m actually wearing any briefs–”
“Please focus on the task at hand.” Severyne cocked her head, listening to something on her comms. “My troops have made entry through a back and side door. They’ve located the fleet captain’s quarters and have the area secured. They’ve seen no sign of the caretakers as yet. Perhaps they’re out wandering in the garden, but just in case they’re hidden elsewhere in the house… I’ll take the side entrance there. You and the honorable ambassador can go through the front.” She walked away without waiting to see if Azad and Terrak agreed.
“Don’t you love a woman who knows what she wants?” Azad said, watching the Letnev disappear around the side of the house. “What she wants other people to do, I mean. I wonder how she’d react to a little saucy insubordination?”
“I have resisted this question, but… what exactly is the nature of your relationship with Captain Dampierre?” Terrak asked.
“What, now you’re curious, when I don’t have time to share salacious details?” Azad said. “Let’s just say ‘complicated’. That’s the best kind of relationship, don’t you think?”
“It’s certainly the word I’d use to describe ours,” Terrak said.
“We’re differently complicated.” Azad led him around the reed wall, toward the front entrance of the house. Viewed from above, the house was shaped like a star mashed together with a pentagon, but seen from the ground, the structure was low and rambling, made of thick timbers and expanses of glass, with rooms jutting out at unusual angles. The front doors were dark wood, elaborately carved with images of vines and spaceships, which Azad thought was pretty muddled, conceptually and aesthetically, but she was hardly an art critic. There were glass panels on either side of the doors, not even foggy or tinted, giving her a clear view of the vestibule beyond. There was a round table in the middle of the foyer, with a crystal vase full of drooping flowers on top, and a coat rack on one side of the door, with several pairs of shoes lined up neatly in a row beneath it.
“I don’t see any machine gun nests or land mines or caltrops, so in we go.” Azad tugged on the door handle, expecting resistance, but it opened smoothly. “I guess when you’re the only people on the planet you don’t worry too much about burglars.” She slipped in, scanning the space beyond the vestibule–
Someone landed on her head and shoulders, driving her to the ground. Azad tried to get up, but a limb clamped around her throat, pulled tight, and cut off her air. She rolled onto her side and twisted violently around, but couldn’t dislodge the attacker. She caught a glimpse of the rafters above – the caretakers must have been hiding up there, waiting to pounce.
It was definitely caretakers plural – the other one was busy trying to kill Terrak, and that one, a human man with wispy gray hair, was armed with a large carving knife. Terrak should have died right away, despite the size differential, because corrupt old trade ambassadors weren’t famed for their ability to fend off ambush knife attacks. And yet… the Hacan had somehow avoided getting stabbed in the neck in the initial assault and was even now easily dodging the man’s wild swipes. Terrak dropped and spun and swept the assailant’s legs out from under him. Terrak aimed his sidearm while rising and fired a pulse into the man’s chest, as casually as if he did it every day. The fallen man went still.
Azad watched, her vision beginning to fill with black spots, as Terrak picked up the knife, squinted, and threw it at her head. She couldn’t even squawk in terror because she had no breath–
And then the weight on her screamed and vanished, and Azad rolled over, gasping. Terrak fired his pistol again, past Azad this time. She turned her head and saw her own assailant fall – a woman, equally gray-haired, with a knife buried in her shoulder, eyes rolled back in her head.
“Sorry for the knife-play,” Terrak said. “My pistol was on the stun setting, and the charge will transfer to anyone the target is touching, so I thought it best to get her off you first–”
“You’re not a trade ambassador,” Azad gasped. “Not with moves like that. What are you really ?”