Final Protocol (2 page)

Chapter Two

Whatever canny insight the Ariste of Aris possessed, sometimes I think my handler possessed it too.

He hadn’t known when I’d attack, but somebody had been watching, waiting. And they knew I hadn’t acted. Maybe the old Ariste had made some sort of change in his final acts that had alerted the son.

If he’d been the one to request my…services, then that would definitely make my keeper reach out.

That would definitely make him reach out.

However it had happened, my keeper had been forewarned.

I knew it because the simple little compound where I lived was being watched.

They were good.

I was better.

My first warning was the lack of noise. I’d chosen a place where the night creatures made their own music and the silence of the night was its own alarm.

My second warning was the odd, dark little shadows that were part of the normal landscape. I knew each and every one, and tonight, they were just slightly larger than they should be.

My third warning was the one that had me tensing, the nerves in me ratcheting up, while blood thundered and crashed in my ears.

The shock of gold hair was mostly hidden under a tight black cap, but the hot, heavy night must have been getting to him. He’d just tugged it off, swiped at the sweat before settling it back into place. That movement there was what had given him away.

Garner.

They’d sent him in.

Fuck. My keeper’s brother and one of his hands. He sent Garner out when he wanted to cause pain. Garner enjoyed causing pain. He enjoyed it a little too much. He wasn’t particularly patient though, and that sometimes played in my favor.

Not getting me tonight, my friend
. Backing away, I pulled out my nightspecs and checked my surroundings.

The red blurs around me gave me their heat signatures. Garner, human like me, was the strongest. They’d brought Dahm too, a reptilian monster who could rip my arms from my body without blinking. His heat signature was harder to make out, a vague, monstrous shadow that blended with the night.

Of all the men Garner had brought with him, Dahm was the deadliest.

He was the one I’d have to be careful of. He was the farthest from me, but he could move the quickest and he’d catch my scent trail easily if the wind changed.

One wrong move and he’d hear me.

One wrong move and he’d see me.

One wrong move and it was all over.

My best bet would be to move along the path nearest me and get to the cliffs. I had some of my emergency supplies there and I could recoup, plan my next step there.

Assuming my keeper let me live through the night.

Sweat beaded at the base of my neck as I began the slow, tedious journey, watching the colorful dots in front of me, waiting to see if they moved.

It might be best if he simply annihilated that biotrace, crushing my lower brain and killing me, all over in one simple step.

It took most of the night, but I got away.

Once I reached the cliffs, I located my cache and then settled in to get some rest.

They weren’t on my trail.

If they had been, they would have followed me and I’d have already been on my way, gagged and bound, to my keeper.

I’d once wondered why he didn’t just have some sort of locator device embedded in the bioseal, but I’d figured that out quickly enough. If it could be used to trace
me
, then it could be traced back to him as well. Considering the jobs I did, he wouldn’t risk anything that would be so easily tracked back to him.

Stars forbid he dirty his hands in such a fashion.

That’s why he had us, after all.

Us.

His pets. His toys.

His personal army of trained thieves and killers.

His slaves.

I have no memory of how I came to be…this.

My earliest memories are twisted and dull, little more than flashes. I can’t even call them
mine
—they feel more like a story somebody told me long ago, one I can barely remember. The few things that do feel real, that
do
feel like mine, I can’t even call them memories, really. Just…fragments. Echoes. There are images of a world that isn’t this one—someplace green and lush, where the air was thick with flowers.

I can recall screams and shouts. Then pain.

Always pain.

That is one thing that is a constant in my life even now.

While I’m hardly a child, I can claim no true memories up until ten years ago. I was told I’d
misbehaved
. When I emerged from a fogged, pain-filled stupor, those insubstantial memories were all I had, and my keeper smiled at me as a health intern bustled around me.

“Are you going to continue to cause me trouble, pet?” he’d asked.

Apparently, I’ve never been a very good little slave.

My life has never been mine.

I belonged to my handler.

My keeper.

My owner.

My own personal demon.

He controlled the choices I made in life, even if he did let me live off on my own, pretending that I was my own person.

He chose my jobs, he provided my clothing, my shelter and my food. I could always refuse the clothing, shelter and food, but then I’d end up back on my knees while he took his time reminding me of his claim on me.

So I took the jobs, the clothing, the shelter, the food.

The one thing he couldn’t control were my thoughts. He’d tried that and it had nearly killed me. The bioseal buried in my brain matter might be keyed into my thoughts and memories and emotions, but he couldn’t change my thoughts, memories, emotions. He could just punish me when those little acts of rebellion displeased him.

I had one escape from him, and only one.

I had a decision to make—either take that escape or take a chance that this botanist could do something about the bioseal. I needed to decide. But first, I had to get some rest. I was running on nerves and adrenaline and if I didn’t recharge soon, I’d regret it.

I checked the defenses around the perimeter of the cave and then checked the sec system I’d set up high on the outer cliffs. Nobody around the perimeter. I was safe. They hadn’t followed.

I stretched out on the floor and closed my eyes.

Dreams started to tug at me almost the moment I did.

I went willingly.

Sometimes, when I slept, I almost remembered…
something
.

“—choose which you’d rather have.”

Pain licked at her and blood streamed into her eyes. She wanted to wipe it away but she couldn’t. She couldn’t do anything. Trapped. She was trapped.

“Just leave her alone!”

That voice!
I thought he’d killed you,
she thought desperately, struggling anew to free herself from the unseen bonds. Pain wracked her with every movement, no matter how small, but she couldn’t break free, couldn’t do much more than twist her wrists or arch her back. Even her head was trapped, making her unable to follow the sound of the voice. Rolling her eyes from right to left, she tried to see, but the blood streaming down from the laceration on her brow blinded her.

“I’ve already discussed the conditions under which I’ll leave her alone. Do you agree?”

No! She wanted to scream it out. Don’t agree! But her mouth was as useless as the rest of her body, and all she managed to get out past her battered throat and swollen lips was a strangled moan.

A hand smoothed down her hair. “Hush, pet.”

She cringed away—or tried to—from that touch. Him. It was him.

“Decide,” he said, either unaware of her hatred of him or unaffected. “If you don’t decide soon, I will.”

“Fine. I’ll…” The words were erratic, ragged. “You win. I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Perfect.” There was a faint, electronic whine. “Now…kill her.”

She wanted to sob. She might have been doing so already.

“No!” The furious bellow was abruptly cut off by the sound of a deep, tormented howl of pain.

“You will kill her…or I will keep her.”

Silence.
It was a noiseless summons, a tug in my brain, and it pulled me straight out of a dream that fell apart like gossamer threads. I tasted blood in my mouth.

And I could hear the echo of laughter.

Gold’s laughter. My owner. My tormentor. My nightmare.

That was all that lingered from the dream.

His familiar, mocking laughter.

What had I been dreaming about?

There was another tug within the seal in my brain and I shuddered. Curling into a tighter ball, I hugged my knees to my chest with one arm, while the other held my weapon, ready and pointed at the mouth of the cave.

So much for escaping him.

Silence.

The sound of my name had me wanting to smash my head against the stone of the cave until sweet, blissful oblivion welcomed me into her arms. First the dream…

And now this.

Silence.

I knew him, knew what he wanted, and I didn’t want to deal with him yet. I’d hoped for a few more hours of sleep.

Silence.

After the fourth whisper of the name I’d taken for myself ten years ago, I finally opened my eyes and stared up at the roof of the cave.

The son of a bitch wouldn’t be quiet.

Reaching out, I caught the comm and activated it. The scrambler would delay my response as it bounced it around, making it impossible for him to find me. He’d try, and it was entirely possible he would track me down after I’d left here—long after I’d left. But that wouldn’t do him any good, and it pleased me to think of him chasing after my shadow.

“What do you want?” I asked sourly.

“I want to know why the job wasn’t completed.”

I curled my lip.

Overhead, a fat drop of water collected. As it started to fall, I closed my eyes and then held still as it let go and came down toward me, hitting me in the middle of my brow. I welcomed the cool, wet relief, a balm against the rage I felt anytime I had to deal with this bastard.

I hated him.

I loathed him.

I needed him to survive.

“The job wasn’t completed because there were complications. I would have called you to discuss them if you hadn’t had your watchdogs outside my home. I don’t like it when you do that,” I said softly, opening my eyes as I began to weave the careful web of lies I’d crafted during my journey. Did I go through with this? Or just end it? Even if I found the botanist, Gold would still seek me. I knew him. He’d never give me up.

“Complications,” he murmured in a voice that sounded of silk and poison.

Just the sound of it was enough to make me shudder. I knew that voice, so well. It had murmured to me when I was barely clinging to life. He had put me there more than once. And more than once, he’d found me there and nursed me back to health—it was only fair, since every time I’d ended up in that precarious position, it was because of a job he’d sent me on.

And then there were the other times, times that made me hate myself even more.

Maybe I did have a soul.

If I were as empty as I liked to think I was, then I couldn’t hate myself.

“Tell me,” he continued, and the sound of his voice drew my nipples tight even as revulsion ripped through me. “Silence, tell me of these complications.”

“He knew I was coming. I told you it was problematic to accept a job on Aris. The Ariste are not an easy race to assassinate.”

“Were there guards?” He sounded curious.

As far as my body was concerned, he might as well have been in front of me, his hands, beautiful and elegant, stripping my clothes away. But my mind blistered with rage and my hands shook with the need to wrap around his throat, to throttle him, to hurt him. I could kill him two times over before he could strip me naked. I’d learned well. I knew how to kill, just as he’d planned.

Only one thing stopped me.

The bioseal he had embedded in my brain.

But one day, even that might not be enough.

“No.” I managed to keep my tone bored. “But nobody truly understands the Ariste, do they? As he knew I was coming, I didn’t know what else he knew. If he knew to plan for me, perhaps he even knew about you. I didn’t wish to bring that mess to your door.”

There was a sigh, heavy, regretful. “You say the right things, Silence. If only I could believe those words.”

“What good does it do me to lie? You hold my life in your hands.”

“Hmmm.” There was a pause and then I heard a soft crackle. “Come to me. I have another job. It’s…important, and if you do it, we will wipe this slate clean.”

Slowly, I sat up, my body protesting as the night spent on stone made itself known. “Clean?” I echoed.

What…he wasn’t going to beat me? Punish me to make it clear how very unacceptable this was?

He chuckled. “Yes. All will be forgotten. But don’t make me wait. You won’t like the consequences if I have to send Dahm to hunt you down. He’s already on your scent trail.”

Liar.
I kept that locked behind my teeth. If Dahm were on my trail, he’d be here already. But the threat was enough to have me up and moving.

I thought of the botanist, thought of the decision I’d made.

Then I thought of what Gold had promised. Would he lie? Yes. If it suited his purposes, but why would he suggest such a reward?

“Why now?” I asked softly. “Who is the target?”

“Come in and we’ll discuss it.”

There was something in his voice that made me tense.

I recognized it.

Very little got my keeper worked up. Very little. This job though, it had him on edge. Was it possible he meant it?

I turned to look at the entrance to the cave, debating.

“Silence…foolish, foolish girl. I know where you are now,” he murmured.

I closed my eyes. An amateur’s mistake. I’d just made one. He couldn’t control my thoughts, no. But if he tapped into the bioseal, he could access them—and he’d just done that, enough to see what I could see.

“I’ll come in,” I said flatly. “But pull in your dogs, Gold.”