Duty from Ashes (30 page)

Donnelly paused and swallowed. The pain of what happened was written on his face. “As we crossed over into the system, we prepared to squawk our ID. Then scanners picked up a reading that didn’t make any sense. Commander Sykes was notified. It didn’t take long to figure out what was happening. The commander ordered our course altered and we did our best to stay out of sensor range as she began collecting data to send back to FleetCom.”

“Did you have any confirmation at the time of who the invaders were?” Captain Jareau asked.

“Negative. The invader’s ships weren’t squawking IDs and the configurations didn’t match anything we had in our databases.” He paused and it looked like he was trying to remember something. “No, that’s not completely correct. CIC made a possible ID but I never heard what it was. When they relayed it to the commander, she said they had to be wrong. That there was no way they would be taking part in something like this.”

“You’re sure she didn’t say anything that could help us ID the ships?” Collins asked.

“I don’t remember, Sir. Everything was happening so fast by then. We’d been spotted and LACs as well as several cruisers were closing on us. Commander Sykes ordered all but a skeleton crew to get to the escape pods. She waited for them to launch and then altered our course again in an attempt to draw the enemy ships away from the pods. But it wasn’t enough. The LACs opened fired and picked the pods off one by one. Then they turned their attention to the
Tarrant
.

“The commander kept gathering data and preparing it for transmission home. Once she had, she ordered us to slave our consoles to hers. When we had, she ordered us to abandon ship. She knew the
Tarrant
was doomed. But she was going to do whatever it took to make sure FleetCom knew what was going on.

“Admiral, none of us wanted to leave her but she insisted. She told us we had a duty to get away and make sure FleetCom knew what had happened. It was up to us to make sure the sacrifices of our crewmates was remembered and honored. Then she told us to get the hell off her bridge.” He drew a ragged breath and Collins felt for him. He’d never had to abandon ship before and especially not do so and leave behind someone he respected and liked as much as Donnelly clearly had Sykes.

“None of us blames any of you for what happened, Lieutenant,” he assured the younger man. “You did not only what your CO ordered but what was necessary. Remember that.”

“I’ll try, Sir.”

He went on to describe his anger as he watched the
Tarrant
destroyed in a hail of missiles. He still didn’t know how his escape pod survived when so many others were destroyed. It was towed onto one of the Callusian ships and he was pulled out. Before he could react, he’d been beaten unconscious. The next thing he knew, he was in the infirmary dirtside and was one of only the too few survivors from the
Tarrant
.

“Lieutenant, did you ever see anyone who didn’t seem to belong with the invaders?” Ashlyn asked. Before anyone else could say anything, she continued. “I’m not talking one of the prisoners. I mean someone who appeared to be working with the invaders, perhaps in a consultation role or something.” Now she paused, frustration reflected in her eyes. “What you told us about the CIC report to your commander and then her response to it worries me. It also tends to lend confirmation to something I’ve been wondering about. Is it possible the Callusians have found themselves an ally, someone we don’t know about?”

Collins looked at her in surprise. Then he shook his head. She was right. If there was a third party they didn’t know about, a lot of what had happened the last few months made sense. God, could there be someone out there acting behind the scenes, possibly even directing the actions of the Callusians?

If there was, they were screwed, at least as long as they didn’t know who it was.

Damn it all to hell and back again.

“No. Once I was on-planet, I never saw anyone but the Callusians or other POWs. Sorry, Ma’am.”

“Don’t apologize, Lieutenant. You’ve helped us more than you know,” Collins told him. “Are there any other questions for the lieutenant?” He glanced around the table, waiting to make sure no one spoke. “Very well, Lieutenant. You are dismissed.”

“Thank you, Sir.” He stood and braced to attention before leaving the room.

“Thoughts?” Collins asked once the door slid shut behind Donnelly.

“We need to finish going through the data we’ve recovered, Sir,” Jareau said thoughtfully. “And we need to have another go at the senior POWs, especially the
governor
.” She almost spat the word out.

“I agree with her, Sir,” Ashlyn said and the others nodded in agreement.

“Very well. Jules, I leave that part up to you. Everyone else, get me your reports and recommendations by morning. I wish I could tell you to stand down from alert status but I can’t. Not yet and certainly not after what Donnelly had to say. You can share our concerns with your senior staff but no one else. At least not until we know more.”

He stood and waited for the others to follow suit. Once they had, he dismissed them. Watching as they left the room, he wondered how what had started out as a rather straightforward mission had gotten so complicated.

C
HAPTER
E
IGHTEEN

“W
HO
THE
HELL
do you think you are?” he demanded, slamming his bottle of beer onto the table.

The sound of glass striking the table’s surface cut through the noise of the nearby conversations. Voices hushed and heads turned in their direction to see what was going on. Even as they did, Evan Moreau cursed silently. She knew she should have chosen a more secure location for this meeting but time had been of the essence, especially since Kannady had insisted they meet somewhere public. The seedy tavern was far off the beaten path of the politically active and the media hounds that it might as well not exist. But that didn’t rule out the underbelly of society and Moreau knew it. In fact, she counted on it. That seedy element would have a role to play in the night’s agenda that her companion had no idea about and she planned to keep it that way.

“Keep your voice down!” she snapped as several heads turned in their direction continued to watch and wait for what was to come next. There were too many people around, too many ears to overhear what he might say. Did he always have to act such a fool? “You should know by now not to question me. So quit acting the fool and start thinking of how to turn the situation to our advantage.”

“Our advantage!” Outrage warred with disbelief as he looked at her. “There is no advantage to this situation.”

Sighing heavily, fighting to keep her calm, she reached out and tapped his hand with one expertly manicured fingernail. When he turned bleak eyes on her, she gave him a quelling look.

“There is always an advantage to be found if you look hard enough,” she corrected softly, willing him to believe it.

“But—“

“No buts, Kannady. Think about it. Your stocks are going to rise now that we are at war. The news that we have moved to retake the Cassius System from the Callusians will ease some of the fears investors have had recently. This is a win-win situation for you – as long as you keep your head and don’t blow it.”

She spoke firmly, doing her best to make him understand that this was certainly not the time to try to strike at their common enemy. How in the world had he lasted so long in the business world without understanding its basic working of politics? Pure, dumb luck didn’t seem to be answer enough.

“Right now, Harper’s popularity is higher that it’s been since he was elected as president.” She continued softly, leaning into him so no one beyond the table could hear her. “He responded quickly and decisively to the attack on Ahlstrom’s Landing. He sent the taskforce to the Cassius System and retook it from the Callusians. He even gave the public the hero they wanted in the form of that bitch Shaw. But his star will fall. Just give it time.

“Dammit, I know that!” he exploded. “What you don’t seem to understand is that time is the one thing neither of us has.”

“There you are wrong. We have all the time in the world, as long as we keep our heads,” she said simply and he stared at her in disbelief.  “Your constant need for reassurance, your panicked responses to news items is a threat to all of us, not just you and not just me. Our
friends
do not like the attention your actions could call to their work.”

“We have to back off for a while before the authorities figure out what’s happening!”

“I’ll tell you what. If you want to call off our arrangement, fine. Just don’t think about marching yourself down and telling the authorities what we’ve been up to. That’s the sort of thing that will sign your own warrant of imprisonment but that of the rest of your family as well.”

“You bitch!” he rasped, eyes hard with hate.

“You knew that going into all this,” she countered. “Now put your emotions behind you and do what needs to be done. And don’t contact me again. I’ll let you know when – and if – we need to meet.”

With that, she climbed to her feet and all but glided across the room and outside. If she had to stay one more minute in his presence, she would kill him. Not that she had to. That was already taken care of.

As she stepped outside, she nodded to a man all but hidden in the shadows. He nodded in return and slipped away. Grinning, relieved to know at least one problem was about to disappear, she continued down the street. She’d go home and wash off the stink of this place. Then she might just go out to celebrate.

Things were starting to look up again.

*     *     *

Kasun jerked awake as a hand closed about his throat and roughly hauled him to his feet. Gurgling as he tried to breathe, his hands clawed frantically at the fingers crushing his larynx. Despite it all, he struggled futilely against the merciless grasp. Then, as he felt himself losing consciousness, he was flying through the air. He smashed into the far wall, breath exploding from his lungs. Without realizing it, he slid down the wall to the floor as if he didn’t have a bone in his body.

Then the hand closed about his arm, hauling him upright once more. Cold, hard eyes that he knew would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life locked on his. Hatred deeper than any he had ever known stared out at him and he knew in that moment what it was like to look Death in the face.

“No!” he screamed, insides turning to water. “Please. What do you want?” Tears filled his eyes and he pulled helplessly against that implacable grip. Even with the benefit of her battle armor, how could she be so strong?

“You have one chance only to tell me what I want or you’re dead and no one here will do a thing to stop me,” the woman rasped, nodding to the half dozen Marines standing behind her.

The sight of them scared Kasun almost as much as the woman did. They looked at him with impassive eyes, cold and dead. Even as Shaw lifted him so his toes barely touched the ground, they simply stood there, for all the world as if they were simply watching her toy with an annoying pest before killing it.

“What? Tell me what you want to know,” he pleaded.

“There are other databanks. Where? And where are the backups?”

For a moment he stared at her in disbelief. Then he swallowed hard to see the way her muscles gathered once more to toss him about like so much unwanted baggage. His one moment of triumph, the one thing he knew could keep him alive once High Command learned he had lost the system, fled. Somehow she had found out about those damned data chips he had recovered from the office safe before the first wave of Marines landed. But how?

Peltier
.

That spineless weasel had told them. There was no other explanation. Damn that traitor. He’d pay. If it was the last thing Kasun did, he’d make Peltier pay.

But now he had to figure out what to do. If he gave them the data chips, he signed his death warrant with High Command. But he if didn’t, he had no doubts Shaw would kill him right there. It was a no-win situation.

But what choice did he really have? At least he bought himself some time if he gave them what they were looking for. Of course, he didn’t have to give them all the ‘chips. There was no way Peltier knew how many there were, much less what they contained. Give them something and buy some time to figure out what his next move should be.

“You have five seconds,” Shaw told him.

“All right!” he sobbed. “They’re in the anteroom of my office. There’s a safe hidden in a false bottom of the safe on the eastern wall.”

“How do we access it?”

“I’m the only one who can.”

“Don’t take me for a fool, Kasun,” she said almost conversationally as she shoved him toward the Marines. One of them caught and held him in a grasp that made hers feel like a lover’s embrace.

“Let me put it to you in a way even you can’t ignore.” She moved to stand before him, holding his face so he couldn’t look away, her fingers bruising the soft flesh of his cheeks. “Each of these Marines fought in the last war. They lost friends, family and brothers-in-arms. They would dearly love to do to you what you and your people did to our fellow Marines. So either tell me exactly how to access the contents of that safe without damaging them in any way or I’ll turn you over to them. It won’t take them long to start taking you apart, piece by very little piece.

“You can’t! The Accords!”

“Accords!” the Marine holding him bellowed, spinning him around like a rag doll so they stood face-to-face. “We’ll respect the Accords exactly as much as you did.”

Gorge rose like lava flowing over the dome of an active volcano. He had finally met someone more coldly cruel than him. No doubt these Marines would willingly, even gladly kill him if he didn’t tell them what they wanted to know. Gods above and below, protect him.

“All right!” he all but screamed and the information they wanted spewed from his mouth almost without bidding.