Bones of Empire (39 page)

The governor had no way to know about his daughter's death, and it was too early to tell him, so Cato forced a grin. “Well done, sire! What's the situation on the other side of the doors?”

“One of the engineers shot Decius,” Arrius said regretfully. “But I think we nailed the bastard.”

“Okay,” Cato said as he readied a police-style flash-bang grenade. “It's a narrow opening, so we'll have to go through one at a time. Let's get everyone in there before some Vord reinforcements arrive.”

The grenade flew through the opening, bounced once, and went off with a
bang
. Cato was the first one through the gap, saw two dazed engineers raising their weapons, and cut both down with one sweeping burst.

Then more people were sliding through one after the other until Captain Tracius entered, followed by Shani. “Pull the toolbox,” Cato ordered. “And lock the doors. If the Vords try to force them open, let me know. Meanwhile, we'll try to get the rest of the ship under control.”

“You,”
Cato said as he gestured to a youngster who couldn't have been a day over eighteen. “And
you
,” he added as he pointed at a middle-aged woman. “Stay here and do whatever the Section Leader tells you to do.” Both fighters nodded.

Then it was time to send teams into the various engineering spaces, kill the Vords who put up a fight, and capture those who didn't. Fortunately, most of them weren't armed and surrendered peacefully.

While that was taking place, Cato, Arrius, and Captain Tracius entered the control room, where all of the ship's various life-support systems were controlled. It was a circular space surrounded by banks of screens, some of which morphed from shot to shot while data scrolled across others.

Only one Vord was present, and he was seated in a high-backed chair that was sculpted to accommodate a Ya as well. His back was turned, and there was no sign of a response as Cato told the engineer to place his hands on top of his head.

That was when a stern-looking Vord appeared on the centermost video screen. A green Ya with black striations was wrapped around the back of his neck. “Officers Hordu and Zank committed suicide rather than allow themselves to be captured,” the officer said flatly.

Cato took hold of the chair, turned it around, and saw that both the engineer and his Ya were dead. A pistol lay in the Vord's lap. “That works for me,” Cato said coldly as he looked up at the screen. “Maybe you and your parasite should do the same.”

The Vord laughed humorlessly. “
You're
the one who's going to die, Uman. You're trapped—and there's no way out.”

Captain Tracius and his experts were seated in some of the control slots by then. They couldn't shut the intersystem engines down, or break orbit, not without codes they didn't have. But that left a whole lot of other options, which quickly became apparent. “Oxygen is no longer flowing to the bridge,” Tracius announced matter-of-factly, as one of his people took over control of the
Annihilator
's life-support system.

“You can evacuate the bridge, of course,” Tracius continued as he looked up at the Vord. “But we can cut off air to whatever part of the ship you take refuge in. So, why waste a lot of energy running from place to place? It would be much more practical to simply surrender the
Annihilator
now. As a member of the Emperor's naval reserve, I promise that you and your crew will be afforded the protections extended to prisoners of war.”

It took the
Annihilator
's commanding officer more than three hours, the last of which was spent wearing space armor, to finally come around and surrender his ship. The
only
ship in orbit that was armed with nuclear weapons—and one that was far too powerful for lesser vessels to take back. Especially once the defensive shields were up.

The smaller ships could run for home, however, and most did, as the Umans not only took full control of the
Annihilator
but its weapons systems as well. A reality that became apparent when experimental salvos from the battle cruiser's main armament scored direct hits on a military transport and a destroyer escort. Both were rendered useless.

Subsequent to that, the ship's crew was taken down to Therat while a crew of volunteers were brought up to man the battle cruiser, and Governor Arrius took theoretical control of the planet. There were still thousands of Vord troops to deal with, not to mention competing resistance groups, but the
Annihilator
gave him the literal as well as figurative high ground. So there wasn't much doubt as to how the situation was going to turn out as a courier ship was dispatched to Corin with news of the victory and an urgent request for a naval task force. A request Brunus was sure to grant.

Victory came at a price, however, as Arrius, Cato, and Shani stood before the same row of fire pits where Keen had been cremated and watched as flames consumed Olivia's body. It was a sad moment which was made even sadder by the fact that Alamy had been taken from that very spot. Something which Cato was very conscious of as the ceremony came to an end. “So,” Shani said, as she looked up at him. “Don't tell me . . . Let me guess. We're going after the shifters.”

“Yes,” Cato answered simply. “We are.”

 

 

Shani could “feel” his pain, his determination, and something more. Was it love? Yes, the empath thought it was, but not for her.

IN THE WAKE OF THE RAHATI ATTACK ON THE PALACE
complex, and the subsequent capture of the
Annihilator
, the surviving Vords had been forced to retreat into a few well-defended fortresses, where they remained under siege. Now that the Umans owned the sky, it would have been easy to bomb the aliens into paste, but Arrius wouldn't allow it. “We're better than that,” he insisted. “And the Vords aren't going anywhere.”

Still, even though Kybor was back in Uman hands, there was a good deal of civil unrest. Now that Arrius had reoccupied the palace, the competing resistance groups were starting to fall into line. But various criminal gangs continued to battle each other over territory—hoping to expand their various kingdoms before order was completely restored.

So, as the carload of resistance fighters left the graveyard and reentered the city, sporadic gunfire could be heard, and the streets were less crowded than usual. Fortunately, the clearly marked combat car was able to make its way through the maze of streets and arrive at the apartment house without being fired on. Cato thanked the driver, slid over to the other side of the vehicle, and got out. The car departed as they entered the building, made their way upstairs, and unlocked the door.

It was getting dark outside, and as Cato pushed his way inside, he noticed that the air was hot and muggy. When Shani flipped the lights on he saw something shiny dangling from a light fixture located at the center of the room, an item that hadn't been there before. “It looks like we had visitors,” Cato said tightly as he drew his weapon. “Check all of the rooms.” Shani drew her pistol, veered off to the left, and entered the hallway.

As Cato went over to grab the object, he recognized it immediately. There, in the palm of his hand, was the silver sun he had given Alamy. After conducting a quick tour of all the rooms, Shani was back. “Look!” Cato said excitedly, as the other cop came over to join him. “I gave this to Alamy back on Corin—and somebody left it here for us to find. She's alive!”

“Maybe,” Shani said cautiously, “or maybe they took it off her dead body.”

Shani's words caused Cato's suddenly high hopes to come crashing down. The other police officer was correct. The necklace
could
have been taken off Alamy's body. So who left it dangling in the middle of the room? And more importantly,
why
?

Then Cato realized that something else was attached to the necklace. And the image that had been stamped into the cheap metal disk looked very familiar. “It's the goddess Rahati,” Shani said, as he held it up for her to look at. “There must be thousands of those floating around Therat.”

“So it's a message from Verafti and Demeni,” Cato said thoughtfully. “Odds are that it was one of the Rahaties who picked the lock and left the necklace. The shifters
want
us to come after them.”

“More than that, they want us to walk into a trap so they can kill us,” Shani observed bleakly. “Now that the Vords are on the run, we're the only thing standing between them and control of the planet. One of the shifters could replace Arrius, and who would know? It might be months or even years before a Xeno cop saw the governor and realized who he was looking at. That's what happened with Emperor Emor.”

“Everything you say is true,” Cato conceded. “But it doesn't alter the fact that we have an obligation to go after them. Trap or no trap.”

Shani sighed. “Yeah . . . I know. So how are we going to find them?”

“It shouldn't be too hard,” Cato mused. “Not if they
want
to be found. Let's start with some basic police work. Umji told us that the Rahaties were targeting Vords before we arrived. Parakar said as much before the shifters killed him. So let's take a look at police reports for that period and see if there are any interesting patterns. Chances are that the shifters will want to confront us in a place where they feel safe and know every inch of the killing ground.”

“Okay,” Shani agreed. “In the meantime, let's get the hell out of here. Or would you rather wake up dead?”

Cato knew she was correct. If the Rahaties could pick the lock once—they could pick it twice. He nodded. “Let's pack.”

Cato freed the chain from the light fixture, passed it over his head, and dropped the silvery sun under his shirt. The metal felt cool and came to rest directly above his heart.

 

 

After gathering all of their belongings and transferring them to what had been one of the resistance's safe houses, Cato and Shani had been able to get a fairly good night's sleep, knowing that armed guards were on duty. That wouldn't stop Verafti and Demeni if they wanted to infiltrate the home, but it was better than nothing and a chance they had to take in order to get some rest.

Having showered and eaten a hearty breakfast prepared by the home's owner, the Xeno cops went down to police headquarters. The building had not only been occupied by the Vords but trashed by them as well. So as Cato and Shani went looking for the person in charge, it was easy to see that chaos ruled as people struggled to bring critical systems back online. Meanwhile, warring gangs were shooting at each other, and the city's murderers, rapists, and burglars were having a field day.

The harried Centurion who was in charge of all the craziness was anything but thrilled to have two off-planet Xeno freaks show up and make demands on his scarce resources. But their badges were clearly real. And a quick call to the palace confirmed that they were operating at the behest of Governor Arrius
and
the Imperial government. That left the Centurion with no way to say no. So he sent them off to see a civilian database administrator named Marci. She had long black hair worn in a braid, serious brown eyes, and chromed temple implants.

Marci's cramped domain consisted of a small cubicle in the building's basement, a computer terminal, and a beat-up chair. It was elevated as high as it could go because she was so small. Most of the interactions between Marci and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in charge of the local databases weren't accessible to Cato and Shani because they took place electronically. So Marci gave them a running narration as they looked on.

“Here's a map of the city,” Marci said, as the graphic appeared on the screen in front of her. “Now I'll add a star for each unresolved disappearance during the twelve months prior to your arrival.”

Cato watched dozens of stars appear. They were sprinkled across the city. “Okay,” he said. “But we're looking at Umans
and
Vords, correct? Can you subtract the Umans?”

“Of course,” Marci said matter-of-factly, as three-quarters of the symbols disappeared.

“Look at that!” Shani said, as she pointed at the screen. “Of the sixteen Vords who disappeared, eleven of them were in the old town area.”

Cato nodded. “Good work. Now, can you drop an overlay of Rahati temples onto the screen?”

“Of course,” Marci replied, and a series of temple icons populated the screen.

“There it is,” Cato said grimly, as one of the symbols appeared inside the area where eleven Vords had gone missing. “Ten to one that's where they will be waiting for us. Let's see what the interior layout of the building looks like.”

“Here's the file,” Marci said, “but you aren't going to like it. This isn't Corin, you know.” Once the map disappeared, the screen was blank.

 

 

The attack was slated for two in the morning. A time chosen because guards were likely to be sleepy, most of the city's citizens were home in bed, and civil authorities could provide the Xeno cops with the maximum amount of support.

The box-shaped temple had no windows and no external lights other than the one directly above the front door. So what illumination there was came from the solar reflector and nearby streetlights. They combined to form a blue-green glaze that washed the front of the building with a spooky iridescence. A force of civilian workers had erected an electrified wire-mesh fence to contain any Rahaties within. The fence stretched all around the block and had one gate.

With the barrier in place, two companies of resistance fighters moved into position and were stationed at fifteen-foot intervals, so that each one would be visible to at least two other fighters. The precaution was intended to prevent the Sagathies from impersonating any one of them—even though it was hard to imagine how Verafti or Demeni would be able to get over the fence without being electrocuted.