Broken Vision (27 page)

Task accomplished, Nimon and Makiee headed for Maegan.

"The Divide," Nimon hissed, when she saw the screen. "Maegan!"

"Morgon's there, I'm sure." Maegan said.

"So? Morgon goes freaky places," Makiee said. "Doesn't mean you have to. He'll show up
here again eventually. He always does."

Blazing starpits! Of course they didn't know. Maegan took a deep breath. "A Taragon
priestess has him."

"Taragon again?" shouted Makiee.

"Priestess?" said Nimon. "Taragon has a priestess? What does that mean?"

"We've learned it's women who control the true power in their temples, and have since
long before the Great Conflict. We haven't understood their power structure at all."

"Maegan, you're scaring me," Nimon said. "The Treaty neutralized the power of the
Taragon priests."

"Apparently not."

Nimon sucked in a noisy breath and released it. "The children. The relay network.
Tabula--The Divide!"

Goose bumps raced over Maegan's skin. "How did...?" She looked at Makiee.

He raised his chin. "Morgon recruited her. He was worried about you. Thought you were
taking on too much. She helped me sometimes with programming the routes." He gave Nimon a
quick glance. "She knows pieces, but not everything."

Morgon's method of protecting his young recruits. Each had a piece of the puzzle, but not
the whole. Including herself, it seemed. She wondered about Makiee.

"How many others?" She thought her head might explode. Too much intrigue and mystery.
Too many slieking secrets. And her uncle was the biggest mystery of all.

"Bortock and Shal-el are the decoders. A couple others help out from time to time, but
don't know what it is they're working on."

"What are they doing with the children?" Nimon demanded.

"Building an army across The Divide," Maegan said wearily.

The Soron spat out some words Maegan didn't understand, but she saw Makiee step back a
pace. "And what is our esteemed Council doing about it?"

"They've yet to be convinced." Maegan tried to shut down the persistent part of her
thoughts that kept scrolling through the list of Janas employees. Was everyone in on Morgon's
scheme? Was Janas one big covert operation with technology creation a side venture? Or was it the
other way around?

She couldn't think about that now.

Makiee grabbed her arm. "When you went into the tunnels and disappeared for a while,
what happened? That's when Morgon showed up."

"The Taragon priests took me. The Mariltar team negotiated an exchange. Me for
Morgon."

"Morgon's idea," Makiee said softly.

"Maybe." Maegan closed her eyes for a nanonan and pushed the memories back. "It doesn't
make a lot of sense."

"Whole thing's a blackhole nightmare, if you ask me," Nimon grumbled. She nodded at the
console screen. "So you get to The Divide. What then? How by flaming firestones do you think you
have any chance of locating Morgon?"

"I don't know," Maegan admitted. "I thought I'd conceal the ship at orbit and watch the
vessel activity for a while. See if I can determine any patterns and primary locations. If I can get
close enough on the planet surface, I might be able to pick up his locator signal."

"Better!" Makiee said in sudden excitement. "He's testing the new one. He had it implanted
a half rotation ago. If it's activated and working, you might be able to pick it up from orbit."

"What do you mean, "if it's working?"" Nimon demanded.

"It's...had a few problems." Makiee's excitement dimmed. "Think we got it fixed
though."

"You should have had me look at it. I didn't know he'd taken it for testing. I thought it was
still in development. I should have had the final say on releasing it."

"There wasn't time." Makiee shot a wild-eyed look at Maegan.

Nimon was working herself into an impressive rage. Her fists were clenched, her slender
legs braced apart. As desperate as Maegan was to get back to the nav program, there was a certain
fascination in watching the Soron. She felt a modicum of pity for Makiee. No one ever wanted to
be on the receiving end of Nimon's displeasure.

"Morgon called it. It wasn't my decision."

Nimon stabbed a finger into his chest. "And you can't ever say no?"

"I--"

"Pah." Nimon suddenly switched her ire from Makiee to Maegan. "You're not going
alone."

"Huh?" Maegan blinked, completely disoriented for a nanonan.

"You can't," Nimon shouted. "It's a suicide mission."

"So two people should go on this suicide mission?" The words popped out before she
could stop them.

Nimon's body lost all its rigidity. "Maegan," she whispered.

And for the first time, Maegan realized just how scared the young Soron was behind all her
bravado. She reached for her and hugged her.

"It's all right," she said. "I'm just going to observe and try to locate him. I won't try to free
him by myself. I'll call in reinforcements if he's there." And hope that the Mariltar team would
respond.

"You have to use the new locator as well." Makiee's tone was unequivocal. He wasn't
giving her a choice.

She blew out a breath and nodded. "If you have one ready to go. I can't wait."

"I'll get it."

"I'll watch them." Nimon replaced her eyeband and moved out onto the disk field. Opening
the doors would shut down the holo program momentarily, but not long enough for Drakal and
Corenna to come out of their sensory-deprived hallucinations.

While Makiee was gone, Maegan double-checked her route, then sent the program to
Morgon's vessel, Blue Zephyr. Once she was on board, she'd check it against the routes Morgon
might have left stored in his vessel's nav memory, but she didn't want to take the chance he had
erased everything as a precaution.

Makiee still wasn't back. On the disk field, Drakal and Corenna continued to play, watched
over by Nimon. She and Makiee would have to deal with the two men when they'd been released
from the effects of the holofield, and it wouldn't be pleasant. Maegan's twinge of guilt was
tempered by the fact she now knew that Nimon as well as Makiee were in on the Taragon
operation.

A blue light flashed on her console.

Maegan turned off the program and released the door.

As it opened, Makiee's slender figure appeared silhouetted against the light from the
corridor. It was the much larger figure beside him that sent chills through her body.

* * * *

"This is safe." The flatness of Alerik's statement conveyed clear skepticism.

Maegan had opened the tunnel entrance in her office. Her mate eyed the tube pad like it
was about to jump out and savage him. The tube felt claustrophobic to her with her slender body.
His bulk would be a tighter fit. She had no sympathy to spare. Her upper arm still stung where
Makiee had shot the microchip under her flesh.

"No one has bashed their brains out yet," she said. "But you could always be the first."

Alerik grunted and turned a cold sapphire gaze on her. "When this is over," he said, "you
and I are going to have a long list of things to talk about. Just out of curiosity, how long will it take
Corenna and Drakal to recover?"

"Not long." They were probably flirting with Nimon already, even as they followed the
orders Alerik had left with Makiee for them. To which she hadn't been privy.

For a split nanonan, the air between them simmered with palpable mistrust.

Alerik bared his teeth. "Let's go."

Maegan gestured politely. "You first. Just get off when it stops."

Alerik snorted. "Somewhere in the bowels of the planet? Don't think so. We go
together."

"We can't!" Maegan was genuinely shocked. "It won't--"

"It's the only way we're doing this." Alerik took her hand in an iron grip and stepped
forward. As he lay down on the tube pad, Maegan wondered wildly if she could push the control,
and how bad a dislocated shoulder would feel. But then it was too late. He was pulling her face
down on top of him.

"Let's do this." His breath warmed her ear. His body cradled hers. The comforting
familiarity of it blended crazily with her heightened apprehension.

"Maegan?" Sweet tiug leaf scented the warm space at his neck.

"Blazing starpits," she whispered. Her fingers found the control. She paused, gritted her
teeth and pushed.

The pad moved slowly, then gathered speed. With her face pressed into Alerik's neck, it
was almost a pleasant experience. She waited for the terrifying burst of speed. Nans into the ride,
she realized it wasn't going to come. The pad had adjusted to the weight it bore. She also realized
that Morgon had probably never had the crazy speed experience she had had.

Beneath her Alerik shifted and adjusted his grip on her. His hand smoothed down across
her bottom. Awareness dawned. There was burgeoning pressure on her thighs. The man was turned
on!

"Unbelievable," she spat.

He chuckled and wriggled his fingers between her clenched thighs.

"Stop that!"

"Can't," he murmured. "The possibilities are too mind-blowing. Lift up a little. Too much
in the--"

The pad slid to a halt. It took her a nanonan to realize they were already at their
destination. She rolled off him. "You're insane," she yelled, and turned to punch the outside door
control.

"Whoa." Alerik could actually be impressed by something, it seemed. It didn't soothe her
frazzled nerves at all.

She stalked out onto the smart dock. "Hope a batriel doesn't get you." It was full daylight.
Batriels hunted at night.

Alerik wasn't paying attention anyway.

"Morgon is going to have to give up this technology. We couldn't find this at all on our
sensors. Amazing."

"You can stay here and admire it as much as you want." Maegan stepped onto the lift
platform. "But I have things to do."

He was beside her before the platform started moving. For such a large man, it amazed her
how quickly he could move. He curled an arm around her waist, which just irritated her more, and
rotated his head to study everything he could as they moved up the smart dock.

On the Blue Zephyr, she half expected him to demand the pilot's chair, but he settled
without comment into the secondary seat and gave his full attention to the view.

It was a sight that never failed to awe her either. Even as she went through her pre-flight
check, she spared the time to watch as the smart dock lifted the Blue Zephyr past the jungle
canopy.

The vessel was exposed and vulnerable in pre-launch stage. She half expected to see
Mariltar scouts on her nav screen bearing down on them. She still didn't trust that Alerik had fallen
in with her plan so completely. Not only that, he had demanded to accompany her.

She opened her nav program and searched for the last routes Morgon had flown that
included The Divide. It appeared he hadn't erased anything. Two routes showed up, one from a
planet she'd never heard of. The route from Pallas Four was almost identical to hers with the
exception of the destination.

The Divide consisted of three small planets strung along the border of the Crestar System.
Intelligence had placed the Taragon activity on two. The third remained uninhabited. It had been
Morgon's destination.

"Why?" she muttered.

"Why what?"

She glanced at her passenger. He was studying the screens as well. She wasn't used to a
collaborator, but she might as well use him. In this, at least, he was on her side. "Why did he go
here..." She pointed to the third planet. "...when all the activity is on the other two?"

"Try his log."

"He always erases the vessel's log after he arrives home and transfers the data to his
vault."

"Try it anyway. Do you--?"

"I don't have access to his data vault." The log opened and, to her surprise, there was a
string of entries.

Alerik grunted. "Nothing of note." Then he voiced her growing suspicion. "Seems
fabricated."

She nodded. "But--"

Alerik's communicator released a low buzz. "What?" he barked. "We're about to launch
here."

"Corenna, sir. We're being called to Pallas Seven. More trouble."

"Acknowledged. Inform Mistress Gloriana and have her send additional security to Janas
Corporation. Get back there as soon as you can."

"Yes, sir."

"Why does Janas need additional security?"

"I don't know. Why would Janas need additional security?" Alerik impaled her with a cold
sapphire gaze. "Could have something to do with half the staff being involved in Morgon's covert
operations." He reached for his strap. "Did you know that Mistress Gloriana used to be a Taragon
temple slave?"

"What?" The news was shocking, but what did it have to do with Janas?

Alerik finished strapping himself in. He reached over and grabbed her strap. "I think I
understand now why the Taragon priests gave you up so easily for Morgon. They asked for me
initially. It didn't take long to convince them to take Morgon instead. Think about that. A Mariltar
heir or an all-but-exiled rebel, and they chose the rebel. If they wanted a bargaining chip, why give
you up at all?"

Strap in hand, he began to lean across her. She snatched it from him, anger growing,
questions spinning through her head, and secured it herself. "Why?"

"My meeting this morning was with Mistress Gloriana."

Maegan squeezed her eyes closed, gripped the arms of her chair and took a deep breath.
Nothing made sense, and Alerik was pushing her past the edge of her frayed patience by providing
answers that had no relevance to the questions.

"Who, Maegan, is the brainpower behind the Janas technology?" Alerik's breath whispered
across her face. His words hovered in the air. Time slowed. She felt like she was struggling to
emerge from a dream of nightmarish qualities. Alerik touched her arm.

"Blazing super fried starpits! They wanted Morgon all along. They want the technology,"
she gasped.