Laura Jo Phillips (38 page)

“All right, but I hope you can drive,” Summer said.  “I have to focus on the electronic surveillance and alarm systems, as well as the camouflage and anything else they might have.”

“I can drive,” Darleen said. 

“Good, because I’m not a very good driver anyway.”

“By the way Summer, great outfit,” Darleen said seriously.  “Where did it come from?”

“Apparently the Sensei sent a package to Maxim the day we left the ranch,” she said looking down at herself.  “There was a note that said only,
battle dress
.”

Darleen frowned as she took in the long, full navy skirt, the short navy jacket and halter, the matching knee high boots and wrist guards, all decorated with a swirling design.  “Battle dress?” she asked.  “I don’t get it.”

Summer pulled the katana from its place hidden within the folds of the skirt and held one wrist guard against the blade.  When she was sure Darleen was watching, she slid the razor sharp blade along the wrist guard. 

Darleen gasped and reached out to stop her, but there was no need.  The blade did not so much as scratch the wrist guard.

Darleen ran one finger over the spot where Summer had sliced the blade and smiled her feral smile.  “Looks like cotton, wears like...steel?”

“Close enough,” Summer said with a laugh as she slid the katana back into place.

“Okay, let’s get moving here,” she said as she went back around the ground-car and ordered Lio into the back seat before climbing in the front passenger side.  Darleen took the driver’s seat and spent a moment going over the instrument panel. 

“You ladies all set?” Maxim’s voice asked in Summer’s ear.

“Yes, I think so,” she said.  “How much time do we have?”

“Just a few more minutes,” Maxim replied.  “We will set down just long enough for you to drive out, then we will take off again as soon as you’re a safe distance away.”

“Okay,” Summer said.  She hesitated a moment, glanced sideways at Darleen and decided to hell with it.  She was not ashamed of her feelings and she didn’t care who heard her.

“I love you,” she said.  “I love all three of you, Maxim, Loni and Ran.  I just wanted to be sure you know that.”

There was a brief silence, then she heard Maxim clear his throat.  “I love you too, Summer,” he said his voice sounding a little hoarse in her ear. 

“I love you too, Summer,” Ran broke in excitedly.  “And thank you so much for telling us.” 

Summer waited for Loni to say something, but there was nothing but silence.  “Um, Loni?” she asked, her stomach suddenly feeling tense.  Maybe....

Her thoughts were interrupted as the door beside her flew open and strong hands reached in and lifted her out of the ground-car.  Summer barely had a chance to gasp before Loni pulled her against his chest, lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her.  The kiss was long, hot and deep, and by the time Loni raised his head, Summer was breathing hard and feeling a bit disoriented.  She opened her eyes and gazed up at him, letting herself get a little lost in his golden eyes for a moment.

“I love you,” Loni said, “more than I can tell you.”

Summer blinked the sudden sting out of her eyes and smiled.

“Thank you,” she said.  Loni grinned, a real, honest to goodness grin that made her laugh with happiness to see.  Then he returned her to her seat in the ground-car, closed the door, gave her one last long look, and sped away. 

“Thanks guys,” Summer said once she had composed herself a little.  She risked a glance at Darleen and was surprised to see her grinning, with one eyebrow cocked. 

“Its about time,” she said archly. 

“Oh, be quiet and drive,” Summer replied with a mock scowl. 

“You better not let anything happen to you, Summer,” Maxim warned sternly.  “I mean it.  Not a single scratch.”

“Aye, Commander,” Summer said with only a tiny trace of sarcasm.

Maxim chuckled softly and closed the connection.  Summer leaned her head against the seat and went over everything in her mind.  There were a lot of ifs and maybes in this plan.  But she thought it would work.  If they were careful.

“Summer, I have a question,” Darleen said.

Summer turned to look at Darleen and saw the little frown of worry.  “What is it?”

“I know you need to reactivate my Controller, and I’m okay with that since the only one that will be able to control it is you,” she said.  “But, if something happens to you, will I be stuck like that forever?”  She shook her head.  “I know, its a terrible thing to ask, and I’m selfish for thinking of it, but I can’t help it.  I just need to know.  I won’t change my mind, I promise you that, I’m with you all the way on this.  I just need to know what will happen to me.”

Summer reached over and patted Darleen gently on the shoulder.  “It is not selfish, it is not terrible, and I am very sorry I didn’t think to explain it better to you before.  Of course you are concerned about what will happen to you Darleen, and there is no reason you shouldn’t be.  But don’t worry, I got it covered.”

Darleen looked up.  “Really?”

“Yep,” Summer replied  “I’m going to put a timer on it.  I’ll activate the Controller for a specific time frame, say, one hour.  After that, it will just shut off and you’ll be as you are now.”

“Are you sure it will work?” Darleen asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Summer said.  “But we can try it now if you like.”

Darleen nodded so Summer reached out and took hold of Darleen’s Controller, noting that it was far easier to do now than it had been before whatever Calnic had done.  She activated it to her mental commands, then ordered it to deactivate in thirty seconds. 

Darleen went very still all of a sudden and Summer shivered at the dull, blank look in her friend’s eyes.  She hated that look.  Had seen it on too many women this past year, including herself.

Suddenly Darleen blinked and her eyes lit up with life once more.

“That worked perfectly,” Summer said. 

“Yes, it sure did,” Darleen said.  “Thank you, Summer.”

“No problem,” Summer replied, noting that the shuttle, and the ground-car, began to vibrate just slightly.   “Won’t be long now,” she said.

“Nope,” Darleen replied.  “What about Lio?”

“What about him?” Summer asked.

“If something happens to you, what about him?”

“I’ll order his Controller to follow you in my absence,” Summer said.  “That should help if anything goes wrong.  I think there is still some valuable information in that head of is, so its worth saving if possible.  But Darleen, if it comes to a choice, just remember that you are more important than he is.”

“All right Summer, but do me a favor, will you?”

“If I can,” Summer replied.

“Don’t let anything happen to you.”

“I’ll do my best,” Summer promised.

Chapter
40

William sat at the desk in his office and watched the Jasani shuttle touch down in the precise area he had indicated.  A panel opened at the bottom of the shuttle and a large black ground-car exited slowly.  The car continued straight ahead, aiming directly toward the compound.  When it was a safe distance away, the shuttle lifted off the ground and shot back into the sky. 

His gaze moved to another of the many monitors set up around the room, checking to be sure that the shuttle was, in fact, going back to its ship.  He smiled when he confirmed that it was, revealing a row of sharp, pointy teeth. 

He switched his gaze to another monitor, and watched the ground-car as it continued at a steady pace toward the compound.  It would be a long, slow drive through several miles of barren wasteland between the shuttle landing site and the compound, with nothing to look at other than rocks and sand.  He didn’t think the females would mind since they certainly had Controllers, and he didn’t care what Lio thought. 

He reached over to yet another monitor and made a tiny adjustment to one dial.  A moment later he had a close-up view of the ground-car.  It wasn’t a particularly good view, but it was good enough for him to identify two females in the front seat, and at least one figure in the rear seat.  That jelled with what he knew of Lio Perry.  Always had to show off the help. 

William chuckled, a harsh, croaking sound that did not in any way resemble a laugh.  He did not understand why Lio was delivering the woman himself, or why he was using a Jasani transport ship, or why the delivery was being made two days late.  Nor did he really care about the answers to those questions.  So long as one of those females in that ground-car was his
berezi
, nothing else really mattered.  If neither of them were
berezi,
then things were going to get very ugly for Lio.

He turned to check another monitor and did some rapid calculations in his head.  At the ground-car’s current speed, it should arrive in about eleven minutes.  William reached into a drawer in his desk and removed a control panel.  He keyed in a password and, using his talons, he began typing in commands to disable outlying security rings so that the ground-car could pass through them safely as it approached.

The huge amount of security he used around the compound did cause some inconveniences, but William never considered removing or deactivating any of it.  His father had drilled into him how important security was at all times, and anything the great Stalnek had thought important, was engraved in stone as far as William was concerned. 

Which was why he did not have guards.  Every guard was a security risk because every guard was another person that he had to trust.  And William trusted no one.  Instead, he used Falasian females to look after the slaves and keep the compound clean.  Falasians were smaller than humans, with pink skin, pink eyes and white hair.  The males of that race were larger and sturdier than the females, and very war like.  The females, on the other hand, were generally passive and shy.  Which made them perfect for William’s use.  They made sure that the slaves were cleaned, fed, exercised and groomed and he never heard a word from any of them. 

William had no interest in the slaves themselves other than the money they brought in to the family coffers, which was needed to fund the Brethren back on Earth.  This was simply a processing center.  A place where new slaves were brought and injected with Controllers before being transferred elsewhere for training.  Occasionally slaves were sent here for a short time to await pick-up from a buyer.  But the females themselves held no interest for William.  He did occasionally wander through the compound and check the new slaves, just in case, by some accidental fluke, one of them might turn out to be a
berezi
.  But none of them ever had been.

William felt a strange, trilling sensation in his stomach which, after a few moments, he identified as excitement.  He had been stuck on this rock managing the slave distribution compound for several years now and he was bored.  The idea of the long awaited
berezi
finally arriving was, therefore, exciting.  He tried to imagine having a child of his own at long last, and couldn’t do it.  His duty to find a
berezi
and impregnate her in order to bring back the true blood of the Brethren had been instilled in him at a young age.  It was the sole purpose of his existence, and he had spent his entire long life striving to accomplish it.  And so far, he had failed.  Until now.

“William, this is Za-Linq, please pick up.”

William frowned toward the vid terminal.  He did not like coincidences.  Lio arriving and Za-Linq contacting him at the same time made him suspicious. 

“Pick-up, William,” Za-Linq repeated. 

William cocked his head.  Was it his imagination or did Za-Linq sound distressed?  Interesting.  He had never heard a Xanti sound anything other than calm and cool.  But, he didn’t really have an imagination either.

He set the control panel down and reached for the vid terminal.  As soon as he accepted the call, a somewhat harried looking Za-Linq filled his screen.  The skin was the usual white iridescence that irritated William’s eyes if he had to look at it too long.  But the long, flowing hair that always seemed to float gently around his face in a cloud of soft, golden curls was messy, and the Xanti’s shirt was buttoned incorrectly. 

“Za-Linq,” he said cautiously.  The changes in the Xanti’s appearance caused his spines to lift. 

“Why did it take you so long to answer my call?” Za-Linq asked irritably.

William tilted his head slightly, but did not answer.  He was in business with the Xanti, but he did not answer to them.

“Never mind,” Za-Linq said.  “According to my tracking signal, Lio Perry is on his way to you right now.”

“Yes, he is,” William replied.

“He is a traitor and cannot be trusted,” Za-Linq said.  “You must destroy him at once.  Or if you wish, I will do it.  I believe he is in that ground-car heading toward you right now, but all of that damned security you insist on using has my screens jumping around so I’m not sure.  Is that his location?”

“Yes it is, but do not destroy that ground-car,” William growled.  “It contains my
berezi
.”