Marked for Surrender (11 page)

"
We gave you a choice, and you made it. You chose the life of your son over the life of your mate. The consequences are yours
."

For a long, quiet moment, there was no response. Finally Ivanovitch spoke, resignation making his voice low and hard. “
I do not regret my decision. For the life of my mate, I betrayed my planet. For the life of my son, I will sacrifice my mate
.” Suddenly Anton inhaled a sharp intake of air audible on the recording, and then his voice came out strong and clear. “
But the Stars will avenge me
."

So the motive behind Ivanovitch's betrayal wasn't money or power. He had been blackmailed. The transmissions had been suppressed, and only the most heinous ones were available to anyone who wanted to see them.

And she'd broken him.

Memories of their sessions were sketchy. It had been many years. But Pavlik wanted her dead and Anton was the only connection. Whoever had “paid” Ivanovitch for his supposed selling of the weapons information that caused thousands of deaths had paid Christophe and Zevon as well. Same account number used. Same transaction code. Everything identical.

Except they were twenty years apart.

Zevon had been in charge of Vezera's sensitive tactical information, specifically biological weapons. Anton's mate had been murdered with a biological agent and many had believed it was just deserts for a man who had sold similar secrets to the Brotherhood.

There was a pattern.

In the year that she'd been in control of Anton Ivanovitch, he'd never admitted his guilt, never denied it, either. No matter what torture she used, he'd only admitted he was guilty of something.

She'd never questioned the council, their findings, or Ivanovitch's guilt. Now she had to face the unpleasant fact that she'd broken a man who had probably been innocent.

He had given secrets to the Brotherhood. Regardless of the why, he'd broken the law.

She shoved her chair away from the console. Bullshit. She wouldn't lie to herself. She could justify it all she wanted, but the truth was incontrovertible. Ivanovitch hadn't done what the council said he'd done. And they'd withheld evidence. Or someone had.

Who could she trust now? Not the Teran Interstellar Force, a task force put together ostensibly to stop the Brotherhood. Andia had never liked the Teran Five influence on Nyral society. Their militarism was too aggressive, and she wasn't sure they wouldn't clap the three of them in chains on Pavlik's word with the council behind him.

Xandros, the son of the supposed traitor? No. Word was he was a mercenary selling to the highest bidder.

She kept digging. Someone had to be trustworthy. She looked for a trail, something that would help her. Finally she found one name: Leo Eyler.

When Andia hacked into sensitive council files, she found Eyler's name protected by some of the most difficult security to break through. Understandable, since Leo Eyler was undercover as a Primarian officer.

The Primarians. Shit. Those brutal bastards were the scourge of the universe. They took torture and sexual sadism to a whole new level. Their favorite practice was to remove a body part—a hand, an eye, a nose, whatever—as some kind of message to the world. They had sexual appetites no one could satisfy. Their lust for blood, for women, and for death was legendary.

They were the Brotherhood's frontline troops.

When the Blueshift Brotherhood couldn't blackmail, poison, or intimidate, the Primarian Army flew in and created wreckage unimaginable.

Nylar had escaped because their military was the best of the best. No Primarian force was a match for Nylar's. And the Primarians hated Nylar for it. But they respected an enemy they couldn't beat, so contacting this Leo Eyler was risky, but possible.

She had risen from the console and headed for the door when a beep from the screen almost made her jump. A vid stream blinked. Who had found her? Ice slithered through her veins.

When she clicked the vid, her heart pounded in her chest. A woman's face appeared, her hair braided in tiny little twists that covered her whole head and curved at her neck. Her eyes were dark and unreadable.

"
I am Rina, the Brotherhood assassin. Surrender now, and the Brotherhood may spare you. Don't make me kill you
."

Rina. By the Stars. This new assassin had governments on several planets in a panic. The vid streamers screamed for her capture even though no one was sure what the woman looked like. She'd already killed hundreds and disgraced several others. She was ruthless and unstoppable.

Andia whirled away from the console, yanked a laser pistol from its hiding place in the wall, and fried the entire network.

Her enemy had found her.

She raced up the stairs and flung open the door. “Get to the shuttle. They found me."

Thank the Stars Zevon and Christophe didn't question her. Both immediately headed for the front door without a backward glance.

Andia, her heart in her throat, grabbed the gold foil box and her bag. Then she set the security system with the code word “Apocalypse.” Mya had told her about it. Her privacy paramount, Mya made Andia promise to destroy the hidden place rather than allow anyone else to violate it.

The countdown began, and Andia sprinted for the shuttle. Tears streamed down her face. It was as if Mya were dying all over again.

Her hands were shaking so much she couldn't deal with the shuttle controls. Christophe placed his hands on her shoulders, and Zevon took over the shuttle.

"Where are we going?” he asked.

"Sethos Prime."

Zevon shot her a surprised glance and then programmed the shuttle.

They careened out of the hidden landing bay and straight through the atmosphere. The mountain exploded behind them, rock and debris cascading into the valleys below.

"Mistress,” Christophe said softly. “I'm sorry."

She shrugged away his hands. “She was my friend.”
My family, really.

"We're coming up on a gate.” Zevon activated the shuttle weapons.

She glanced at the console. One ship followed them. It had to be Rina. “Merano,” she said.

Zevon grinned. “Double gates. Good idea. I'll have to outrun our tail. How fast can this thing go?"

"It's rated Tetras Ten, but I know it can go faster.” She began to reroute power.

"Hang on,” Zevon told them.

They hit the gate so fast Andia thought the ship would be tossed into black space. She hadn't done any gate travel in over three years, and these weren't the best circumstances to be reintroduced. Gates were man-made wormholes that cut through the light years of space and had various openings to different systems. Luckily Andia had kept her gate-mapping system up-to-date.

Even one millimeter off and a vessel could careen out of the wormhole into the vast expanse of distance between galaxies and planetary systems. The only way into a gate was an entrance, but there were several ugly ways out of one.

Zevon was a damn good pilot, though, and whizzed through the gate. He flew to the exit that dumped them in the Merano system, then without even slowing down, screamed through the gate to the Sethos exit.

Even then he didn't relax, maneuvering the shuttle behind one of the moons of Sethos Blue. The all-water planet had three small moons, and all of them would disrupt the tracking system of their pursuer. Hopefully they'd lost their follower and could proceed to Sethos Prime. She wondered if the person chasing them would be safer than the planet they were headed for.

Zevon shut off the engines, and the shuttle went silent. He turned in his seat, and the sheen of his dark eyes glowed in the dim light from the console. “All right. What happened?"

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The adrenaline rush from the flight from Nylar was beginning to fade, and Christophe realized they'd just come five galaxies away from his home. He knew very little about this system. Three planets, one covered with water, one a pleasure planet dedicated to every fetish known by every life-form, and one mechanized planet teaming with spy devices and a beaten-down population. Z probably knew more, but he wasn't sharing at the moment. He seemed annoyed, even angry at Mistress Andia.

There was no support here, yet she had insisted they come to Sethos Prime. Zevon wanted to know why. And so did he.

Andia had discovered something. He studied her in the subtle glow of the console lights. Her long, curly blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail. It made her seem young and vulnerable.

She faced him squarely, defiantly. “We're targeted by Rina."

"The Brotherhood assassin?” Christophe burst out. “That's crazy. Why?"

From the beginning, Andia'd had more information than they did. On the way to the Kyiaga mountains, Christophe had thought she might reveal some of it, but she'd kept her own council, sharing very little with them except her body. It frustrated him to be out of the loop with things that had a direct impact on him. He couldn't shake the feeling that she didn't trust them.

"I only have a theory,” she said slowly. Cautious to the last.

"Let's hear it,” Zevon snapped, and she narrowed her eyes into slits.

"You do not order me, Zevon,” she said in a hard voice.

"We're not in your conclave, Mistress,” he said. For a moment, their gazes clashed.

Watching them, Christophe knew it didn't matter where they were. Christophe would submit to her, do anything for her, kiss the beautiful curve of her heel. Zevon would fight at first but surrender finally and enjoy the pain she inflicted.

"It has to do with a conspiracy. One you accidentally uncovered and one I inadvertently helped foster.” She turned her head and stared out the viewscreen. “Twenty years ago, when I was a new Mistress, I broke a man named Anton Ivanovitch."

"I remember him,” Christophe interrupted. “He sold secrets to the Brotherhood. Or did he?"

She shot an amused smile at Christophe. “In this case, he did. Under the threat of his family's death, he gave important military information to the Brotherhood.” Her expression was serious and sad. “The Brotherhood wanted something else, something more that Ivanovitch wouldn't do. It seems he cooperated with the authorities to stop the leak.” She took a deep breath. “The things he'd actually given the Brotherhood were not that sensitive in nature and would have earned him a turn in rehabilitation.” Her fists curled into fists. “But when he refused to give the Brotherhood what they wanted, the bastards set him up.” Her mouth tightened. “He was convicted of a crime he didn't commit. Now, because of your discovery, Christophe, the conspiracy is unraveling."

"
My
discovery?” His mind spun. What did a twenty-year-old leak have to do with the shipping manifests he'd uncovered?

"That information about the bioweapons, the ones the Brotherhood paid you both for? It was identical to the information Ivanovitch supposedly sold twenty years ago."

"Identical?” Zevon questioned. “That's insane. How could the council not know?"

"I'm sure they did,” Andia said through tight lips. “The question is, why did Pavlik set you up, because that's what he did."

"Pavlik is in league with the Brotherhood,” Christophe said firmly. “The evidence I found—"

"Was put there to trap you,” Andia interrupted. “Why you?"

Christophe searched his past for any reason Pavlik would want him dead, but nothing came up. “I don't know. I swear, Mistress."

He glanced toward Zevon, who was lost in thought. If anyone could unravel Pavlik's motives, it was the man he loved.

"That report I submitted to the council. Remember, Christophe?” Zevon's dark eyes narrowed.

"Pavlik approved that report,” Christophe said, bewildered.

"Only after I compared the symptoms to the disease that killed—” Zevon's breath hissed as he inhaled sharply.

"Who? Killed who?” Andia insisted.

"Christophe had described his father's death to me many times. As a child, it made a huge impression on him.” Zevon spoke to Andia but kept his focus on Christophe.

Unwillingly, Christophe's mind went back to that horrible day. His father had tended the Circle Garden, a huge space station that orbited Nylar. The Blueshift Brotherhood had dusted the station, killing everyone and everything.

Melted, deformed skin, deteriorated muscles, and complete DNA breakdown meant everyone exposed were pools of liquid humanity when they reached the planet surface.

Christophe had been eight.

He closed his eyes, trying to shut out the vision of his father's telltale mate ring floating in a pile of melted flesh.

"If I didn't already believe you were innocent, that look would convince me,” Andia said softly. “And you were so young."

"He still has nightmares,” Zevon said.

Christophe opened his eyes. “Less, since you."

One side of Zevon's mouth rose in a crooked smile. “You were ready to deal with it. I only provided the motivation."

"What does this have to do with Pavlik?” Andia asked.

Zevon frowned, his dark brows drawing together. “Vezera was developing a biological defense weapon. It was supposed to be about vaccines, remedies for the bioweapons the Brotherhood used.” He pressed his lips together for a moment. “But I found out that the reactions to one of the most prominent antidotes Vezera was testing were the same as the descriptions I'd heard from Christophe."

"We believed that we'd inadvertently created the same compound.” Christophe shrugged. “It's happened before. So Zevon made his report, stating that the compound was too dangerous to use, too similar to the weapon used against the Circle Garden."

"Yes.” Andia nodded. “I found it ironic that the information sold to the Brotherhood was the same weapon you spoke against."

Zevon shook his head. “I should have known then. But Pavlik seemed genuinely shocked."

Andia snorted. “I'm sure he was. No one was supposed to know Vezera was manufacturing death."

Christophe shuddered. He knew exactly what would happen if word got out that this product that was supposed to protect his planet from Brotherhood bioattacks was as bad as the attacks themselves. Pavlik's face was so associated with Vezera that he'd be crucified in the vid streams and public opinion would vilify him.