Broken Vision (4 page)

"Spies? I prefer to call them bodyguards. They're there for your protection."

"I don't need protection and I don't appreciate being spied on." She seemed to be out of
breath. Her face was flushed. Her breasts heaved under the thin skin of her clothing. He could see
the tight bump of the nipple in profile to him. His groin twitched again.

"We disagree. Until the situation on Pallas Seven is under control, every counselor is being
assigned temporary protection unless they already have a bodyguard."

"Which I do."

"No. You don't. Janas Corporation only provides security within its premises."

"I'll extend it to outside."

"Sorry, not acceptable. I'll expect your cooperation. Do let Corenna and Drakal know of
any plans outside of work and home."

Every muscle in her face was rigid. Her eyes were narrowed into slits. The flush had faded
to a paleness that alarmed him. "This is an outrageous invasion of privacy. I will not accept it."

Time to tighten the clamps. "You don't have to accept it. You just have to follow orders,
which I realize is hard for you to do. But, Maegan, know this. I will not tolerate
noncompliance."

Her eyes widened and flashed green fire. Her nostrils flared.

"And on the subject of invasion of privacy, don't ever use today's tactic to communicate
with me again or I'll paralyze Janas Corporation with a comprehensive inspection in addition to the
financial audit. Speaking of which, you are ready to turn over your records, aren't you?"

Her body swayed. She reached out to clench her hands around the edge of the console.
"You arrogant batriel! I came here to get away from--"

"You're not well," he said sharply as her sleek blonde head lowered and she bent forward
panting. "Sit! Get someone to help--"

She slid from view.

"Sliek!" He punched at the comm link.

"Governor?" Coryon's startled face appeared in a view side-by-side to the empty screen of
Maegan's office.

"See to Counselor Shale. She's collapsed in her office."

"Yes, sir."

It was only an instant before the face of Maegan's assistant filled the empty screen. He saw
the shock, saw her bend. And in the time it took for her to examine Maegan, his head filled with
questions. He didn't really think that any of the Pallas counselors, with the exception of Counselor
Forman on Pallas Seven, were in harm's way, but the threats had held some ambiguity. What if they
had misinterpreted them? What if someone had gotten to Maegan?

Coryon stood up. "I believe she just fainted, sir." She leaned over the vid console and
pressed something. "I'm calling for a med team. She doesn't nourish herself properly and she was
out exercising in the heat today."

"Thank you." Coryon seemed calm enough. His heart was still racing in his chest.
"Coryon?"

"Yes, sir?"

"I've assigned a security team to her. Corenna and Drakal. I believe she met them today.
See that she cooperates with them, will you?"

Interesting. Coryon's young face reflected of all things dismay before her professional
mask slid into place. "Y-yes, sir."

He waited with her for the med team. Maegan was coming to by the time they placed her
into the med hoverbot and, true to form, began to vocalize her objections as soon as she realized
what was happening.

"Make sure she follows orders," he instructed the med officer. "And provide me with a
report as soon as you can."

This produced more muffled, angry noises from inside the hoverbot. Alerik managed to
stop himself just in time from wishing the med team good fortune with their newest difficult
patient.

He closed off the vid link to Maegan's office and opened an audio link that had been
flashing for some time. "Yes?"

"Drakal and Corenna, sir. We made contact."

"So I understand. She's on her way to the med facility as we speak."

"Sir?"

"She collapsed in her office in the middle of voicing her objections to your services. Heat
exhaustion, I understand."

"She was out running on the beach, sir. Blasted hot, it was."

"Just make sure you have your perimeters, spics and cams set up. She's going to try every
possible trick to evade you."

"Yes, sir. Sir?"

"Yes?"

"She seemed to think we were there to spy on her because she's a candidate for your
team?"

Unseen by his subordinates, Alerik grimaced and shook his head. Trust Maegan to reveal
something he didn't necessarily want to be public knowledge. Too late for that now. "Counselor
Shale is Commander Trion's daughter. She's a hereditary candidate to serve a term on my
team."

"She's off limits then?"

Disappointment laced Drakal's voice and Alerik didn't pretend to misunderstand. He was
guilty for not offering full disclosure to begin with. "You know the rules."

"Yes, sir."

Margaine Confluence:/Sixth Rising
Pallas Four

"How many?"

"Four."

"Where?"

"Andreelin."

Not so far then. Still, she was exhausted, and there was no option to refuse. She had to go.
"I'll be there as soon as I can."

She closed off the transmission and dropped her head into her hands. Starpits, she was
tired. Earlier that day, the med team had treated her and released her with the admonishment to go
home and rest. She had gone back to Janas Corporation instead to finish her review of the report
going to Governor Mariltar the next day.

Then she had come home and gone to bed and been awakened too soon a short while later
by yet another urgent request. There were too many of them lately. Something was happening. It
also worried her that she hadn't heard from Morgon in a while.

She pushed herself off the gel mattress and, in the half-light coming through the wide
plexiwalls, dressed quickly. Pallas Four never experienced total darkness because of its moon-sun
and she didn't want to turn on the lumens. She didn't know yet what kind of surveillance she had
been placed under, but didn't doubt she was being closely monitored.

Andreelin, at least, was familiar to her, and on a little used route on the back side of the
Grogon Belt. There was no reason for it to be patrolled. Once she was off the dock, she should be
clear. But therein lay her challenge. She had to get off Pallas Four undetected.

The first part was easy. Governor Mariltar's spies couldn't possibly know about the tube
tunnels leading from Morgon's habitat to the dock, the beach and Janas Corporation. Morgon had
commissioned the tunnels rotations ago when he had first arrived on Pallas Four and the floating
island was nothing more than a beach destination for a few seasoned travelers in search of solitude.
In the heart of the tunnel network lay a complete self-contained, never-used living unit. Morgon,
eccentric, lovable Morgon, who had passed his rebel gene onto his niece, had included vanishing as
part of his master plan.

The problem was he had vanished without informing her, which wasn't part of the master
plan.

In the bathing room, she slid aside a false wall, stepped onto a tube pad and lay down. As
the wall closed behind her, the lumens in the tunnel came on automatically. She touched the control
that would send the pad and her to the dock.

She hated this part. She was a trained fighter pilot, used to zero gravity and tremendous
negative pressures, but Morgon had built the tunnel with velocity in mind. There was something
unnatural about lying on a thin pad, with no protection whatsoever, and being sped through a
narrow tube so fast that all she could do was hold on, grit her teeth and count the nans until it was
over.

The night air was cooler than usual when she stepped out of the tunnel. Not a good sign. It
meant the saturated wilding winds were moving in, which would make the return trip difficult.

The Lady Melia rode in isolated glory at the elevated smart dock built to blend in with the
surrounding jungle. The dock was another of Morgon's amazing inventions, which had yet to be
duplicated anywhere else.

She stood for a moment, instinctively cautious, but there was nothing to indicate the
camouflaged dock had been breached. She stepped forward.

A shrill scream split the night air.

Batriel!

Blazing starpits, it was close. Goose bumps skittered across her skin and the hair on her
nape stood at attention. Two steps to the lift pad, but she didn't know where the creature was. It
could even be in the docking structure. With minimal movement, she palmed the slender tube of
her laserray and tilted her head.

Nothing. She could see nothing. The batriel was unpredictable, an ambusher, a carrion
eater. It would often attack and maim, then leave its victim to suffer agonies before returning to
feed.

She made it to the lift pad, which at least protected her back, and was halfway through the
ascent when a whirring rush of air and foul smell alerted her. She fired blindly. The creature's
scream deafened her. Something large brushed against the dock, causing the lift pad to stall
momentarily. She stumbled. The stench clogged her nostrils and she gagged. Then it was gone.

She staggered into the Lady Melia, locked down the hatch and grabbed an oxygen pack
from emergency supplies. The cramp attacked her lungs and doubled her over as she shoved the
pack over her nose then, mercifully, it eased as pure, sweet air rushed to drive out the
contamination.

A warm wetness slid down her arm. Starpits! She'd been tagged. Her suit was split open
across her bicep and was already saturated. She reached into the emergency supplies again. All she
could do for now was wrap a self-sealing bandage over the wound. Proper care would have to wait.
At least she felt no pain.

While she'd been busy with the aftermath of the attack, the smart dock had elevated the
Lady Melia above the jungle canopy. Now a fast warning bleep sounded. Launch was imminent.
She hurried to strap herself in.

She made an uneventful collection on Andreelin and delivery to Lexis, but on the return
trip, little orange balls began to mess with her vision. Between the wilding winds and her impaired
vision, she would have ended up on top of the jungle canopy without the smart dock to grab the
Lady Melia as she came in. It was all she could do to navigate the lift pad and tunnel. Just before
she lost consciousness on the floor of the bathing chamber in her habitat, she tried desperately to
remember if she had sealed off the tunnel.

* * * *

She opened her eyes to Alerik Mariltar's stern features looming over her.

"Oh, no. Starpit brain hallos! My worst nightmare."

It was too much, of course, to hope for an hallucination.

The real man bared his teeth. "Believe me, a starpit is an entertainment club compared to
me. But I do agree that I could be your worst nightmare."

He seemed to be in the grip of a strong emotion. A muscle jumped in his cheek. His eyes
and temple mark were a dark, glowering sapphire.

She forced her gaze away and studied the unfamiliar room. It was windowless, stark and
small. Med monitors lined the wall on one side of the sleeping platform on which she lay. A med
facility, no doubt, but not Pallas Four's unless it had undergone some major remodeling.

She tried to lift herself up on her elbows and found she couldn't. Something held her arms
and legs immobile. She also became acutely aware that, under the thin flex sheet that covered her,
she was naked. And Alerik Mariltar stood there beside her, arms folded, and watched her with that
simmering sapphire gaze.

As far as she could see, she had two choices. She took the one that was bound to irritate
him the most, and simply closed her eyes.

"Bah! Won't work," he ground out. "I'm not leaving. If you want answers, you have to talk
to me."

"I can wait for the med specialist."

Warm breath bearing the faint scent of sweet tiug leaf fanned across her face. He must
have moved, must be leaning right over her. Her stomach flipped. She forced herself not to
look.

"Problem is, everyone has been instructed not to provide answers."

She should have seen that one coming. She slit her eyes open. His face filled her vision.
His eyes had lost their dark glower, and were a softer hypnotic blue, yet somehow infinitely more
dangerous. In the glowing sapphire depths was a message she didn't dare, even for one nanonan, try
to interpret.

"You can't do that," she forced out. Her throat was dry and achy. She needed a drink of
something.

His lips curved upward. Surprise sent alarming tingles speeding through her veins. He had
tiny dimples--two of them--in his chin when he smiled.

"Oh, but I can," he said. "I'm the governor, after all." Then as if he'd read her mind, he
reached above her to the med panel and retrieved a small gel pouch. He brought it to her mouth and
gently teased her bottom lip. His gaze flickered, moved from her mouth to her eyes, down her nose,
across her cheeks. Under the thin sheet, she was suddenly extraordinarily hot.

"Open," he commanded softly.

She didn't even realize she'd obeyed until a life-giving fluid bathed the parched tissues of
her mouth.

The dimples in Alerik's chin deepened. His eyes narrowed, shielding their expression. It
was a relief. There was something about those hypnotic depths that made her fearful she would
simply give in to whatever he wanted.

"I have an idea," he said. "Let's trade information."

"Like what?" she demanded, instantly suspicious. She wasn't in the best of shape to deal
with Alerik Mariltar.

"Trade information" was undoubtedly a euphemism for interrogation. Her mind felt sharp
enough but every time he bored that blue gaze into her, it was like a blanket smothered all her
synapses and snuffed out coherent thought. "Did you drug me?"

His eyebrows flew up. "You have such an odd opinion of me."

"You have no idea," she muttered. She shifted her bottom and found the med platform
adjusted with her. She still couldn't move her arms and legs and her helplessness was beginning to
really aggravate her.