Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 (37 page)
Read Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 Online
Authors: EJ Fisch
“I never saw any of the other agents again,” Ziva said. “When I woke up, I was alone, strung up by a chain in a dark room. I was under the influence of something – I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. Foda and some of his men showed up before long and….”
She felt her eyes start to sting and her cheeks start to burn. She cupped her hands over her nose and mouth, blinking rapidly to keep the hot tears at bay. There were times when she could still feel the sensation of the rusty chains digging into her wrists, and this was one of them.
The only sound in the garage was the little heater as it kicked on and began to hum, causing the items around it to vibrate ever so slightly. Aroska, Kat, and Kade all stood in uncomfortable silence, unwilling to make eye contact. Ziva looked over each of them in turn, glad they seemed to regret ever asking her what her problem was. She gritted her teeth and grimaced, keeping her voice steady despite the tears that finally broke free and spilled down her face. “And then I spent the next week being cut, burned, violated, and beaten by that
huhren shouka souhn.”
She thrust a finger in Foda’s direction.
It was Aroska who finally dared to look at her. His mouth formed a straight line and the familiar teasing glimmer was absent from his eyes. “So that’s what you meant when you said you couldn’t go back,” he said. “In the café on the transport, you said you couldn’t ‘go back’ to the Haphor Facility.”
Ziva heaved a sigh and wiped the back of her hand across her face. “Yeah, that’s what I meant,” she said, almost a whisper. “I think I would have shot myself before having to endure all of that again.” She returned her hands to her hips and cleared her throat, taking a moment to stare up at the ceiling. “It was Skeet who finally found me. He launched an independent rescue mission, something totally unheard of in spec ops. They say I probably wouldn’t have lasted another night if he hadn’t reached me. Everyone else was already dead.”
She was overcome with another wave of shame. “Looking back on it now, it all makes more sense!” she snarled, sweeping her hand across one of the nearby shelves and sending its contents clattering to the floor. “If Dasaro really orchestrated the whole thing like Zona thinks, that explains how the Cobians found my squad. I was conveniently out of his hair while his men were out in Argall killing the Reilly family and dozens of others. And HSP was too focused on me and the way I’d screwed everything up to notice what he was doing. I’m sure he was hoping I’d just rot in that bunker, and I almost did thanks to his Cobian puppets.”
Kade cleared his throat. “That might also explain how Foda and his crew were able to escape after that,” he put in. “If Dasaro managed to cover up the situation in Argall, he easily could have arranged for them to slip through the cracks while the rest of HSP was off chasing false leads.”
Ziva nodded in agreement, feeling emotionally spent and angry at herself for not having been able to see through Dasaro’s charade. “I tried to explain to everyone that there was never even an interrogation, that it was just mindless torture, but he would always step in and remind them that
I
was the one who defied orders, it was
my
fault we were captured. Those pirates would have found us regardless of whether we’d retreated or pressed on.” She shook her head again, gnawing on the inside of her lip. “Always shifting the blame back to me. And here I thought it was just because he hated my guts.”
“And everyone thinks you blamed Tachi for your capture because he called off the mission?” Kat asked, staring at the floor.
“In a lot of ways, I
did
blame him. The rest of the Haphezian population saw that as a motive for murdering him. Now that we know the truth though, I can see that his orders to retreat had nothing to do with anything that happened. For all I know, Dasaro could have fabricated this so-called tip that prompted Tachi to give the order in the first place.”
Ziva paused for a moment and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes, letting a quiet growl escape her throat. She walked to the green car and took out the sack with her precious chunk of bariine. She removed the little brick and ran her fingers over it, staring down at Foda’s body as she did so. His chest had been torn open by the three rounds she’d put into it, and the flesh on his forehead was crusted and charred around the hole she’d blasted through it. Perhaps it had been overkill, but it had felt good. She looked down at the metal in her hand. One shot was all it would take from now on.
“Somebody get rid of that
frouchten
body,” she muttered, addressing no one in particular.
“What are you going to do?” Aroska asked.
Ziva held the bariine up, estimating the number of rounds she could get out of it. “I’m going to make some new friends.”
The trash compactor behind the spaceport’s maintenance shop wasn’t the most discreet place to dump a body, but with any luck the machine would be activated and Foda’s corpse would be destroyed before anyone noticed it. Besides, this was Chaiavis, where species of all shapes and sizes roamed and where law enforcement jurisdiction was almost never clear. It was doubtful anyone would care too much about a dead Cobian.
Aroska stepped back to examine his handiwork. He selected another chunk of discarded metal and arranged it over the conspicuous body-sized package he and Kat had lifted into the compactor moments before. As satisfied as he thought he’d ever be, he found his footing and worked his way out of the machine.
Kat stood at the end of the alley keeping watch, and she came to meet him when she saw their task had been completed. She took a look into the compactor and sighed. “I guess that will work.”
“You sound unsure.”
Without another word, she got into the car’s pilot seat and motioned for him to get in. He did so without question and Kat brought the vehicle out of the alley and into traffic. They flew in silence for a minute or two until they were a suitable distance from the spaceport and the dump site. The car came to a stop, idling in mid air behind a tall building.
He could tell there was something on Kat’s mind – she sat still, gripping the controls, blue eyes staring off into the distance. The quiet was becoming uncomfortable. “What’s wrong?”
She turned toward him. “Here’s the thing. You said it yourself – we’re all in this together. I’ve chosen to put my trust in you people; I’ve welcomed you into my home. I need to know that what just happened won’t happen again. I need to know that the choices one of us makes aren’t going to wind up hurting everyone else.”
Aroska sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, at a total loss for words. He didn’t blame Ziva the least bit for her actions, but at the same time he knew Kat was right.
“I’ll talk to her,” he said.
“Will she listen to you?”
“Probably not.”
“She’s lost her mind, Tarbic,” Kat said. “I sought her out because I needed her help, and I’ll be damned if all my hard work goes down the drain because she can’t control her temper.”
“Is that what it is, a temper?” Aroska asked, bristling a bit. “You heard her story. How did you expect her to react when the man responsible for all of that showed up?”
“I probably would have done the same thing,” Kat admitted, “but not when he could have given us information. Not if it could wind up hurting my only allies.”
“Look,” Aroska said. “If you’re looking for an apology, you’re probably out of luck. She’s on a mission right now, and the best thing we can do is stay out of her way.”
“Do you always bow down to her like this?” Kat asked with a scoff. “Ever wonder what it would be like if the galaxy didn’t revolve around her?”
The sharp response caught in Aroska’s throat before he could say it, and he realized he understood exactly how Kat felt. In his mind he saw himself sitting in Ziva’s living room two months earlier, asking Skeet and Zinni the very same question Kat had just asked. She had a lot of learning to do…they both did. He by no means wanted to “bow down” and always let Ziva have her way, but neither did he want to hold her back from something toward which she was so driven. Still, if that drive resulted in her getting hurt, captured, or killed because her head wasn’t in the right place, something needed to be done about it.
“Like I said, I’ll talk to her.”
It was nearly an hour later that Kat and Aroska arrived back at the garage. Ziva heard the car approaching even before the overhead door began to rise – she’d left the man door open to get some air and the familiar whine of the engine carried through.
She looked up from her work long enough to acknowledge them. The rifle itself was complete and the last batch of ammunition had just finished cooling. All that remained was to load the thing.
As her hands worked, her ears registered Kat’s footsteps hurrying up the stairs and Aroska’s pausing a few steps from the car. In her peripheral vision, she could see him standing there, watching her in the same manner as he had the night before. She tried not to let it bother her, but somehow he always managed to get the best of her. She sighed and held up one of the rounds. “Have you ever seen a bariine alloy projectile?”
He shook his head and approached. “Is it like a frag round?”
Ziva nodded and handed him the bullet. It was about the length and thickness of her little finger, tapered on both ends to ensure an easy transition from the mag into the modified plasma cell and firing chamber. It was still slightly warm to the touch and had taken on a dull grayish-brown color.
“Let me show you something,” she said, taking it back from him. She held it up to his forehead between her thumb and forefinger as if it were a dart she was about to throw at a target. “What you’re seeing right here is going to be the last thing Dasaro sees before his miserable existence comes to an end.”
The look on Aroska’s face was priceless. He brushed her hand away, the shock morphing quickly into anger. “You need to calm down, Ziva.”
“Calm down?” Her eyebrows immediately dropped into a scowl. “This is calm, Aroska. You’re never going to see me calmer.”
He returned her scowl with one of his own. “You’re not calm. I can see the hatred in your eyes. Your mind is running in overdrive.”
“So I’ve been doing some thinking. What’s wrong with that?”
“No you haven’t. You just blew a prisoner’s brains out in the middle of an interrogation. You’re not thinking – you’ve lost your mind!”
She set her jaw and stared him down for a moment. “Believe whatever you want,” she growled. “I know what I’m doing. I’m tired of running, okay? I’m tired of all the
sheyss
I’ve gone through because of Dasaro. It’s time to put an end to it.” She began stuffing the rounds into the mag.
“And you seriously think going after him like this is going to fix everything?” Aroska scoffed. “You’re smarter than that, Ziva. I’m sorry about everything that’s happened to you – I’d want to kill the bastard myself, but not like this. Maybe you think this is your battle, but you’re not the only person he’s tried to kill. Think of Kade, of Kat. They’re victims just as much as you are. We’ve come this far as a team, so let the rest of us help you now. We can all sit down, come up with a plan. I urge you to think this through.”
“I
have
thought it through!” Ziva retorted, slamming the mag up into the rifle.
He grabbed her hand. “Then reconsider!”
“I’m not going to argue with you anymore.” Ziva wrenched her arm from his grasp. “Contrary to your belief, this
is
my battle, my business. I don’t understand why you can’t leave me to make my own decisions.”
“It’s because I’m concerned about you! You’re treating this as more of a revenge trip than anything else and your personal feelings are starting to cloud your judgment. You know better than that! Someone’s going to wind up getting hurt.”
“Oh, so now you’re going to try to teach me a life lesson, is that it? In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been at this a lot longer than you have.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re not capable of making mistakes!” he cried. “Ziva, you’re the most powerful, brilliant woman I know, but you frustrate the hell out of me. I know how skilled you are and I know how much pride you take in that, but I cannot even
begin
to tell you what you mean to me.” He stopped short and shook his head, clamping his mouth shut before he could continue.
A prickly sensation crept over Ziva’s skin and the hairs on her arms stood on end. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“
Sheyss
,” he muttered, turning in a slow circle and bringing his hands to rest on his hips. “A week ago, I was sitting in my bedroom with a gun in my hand trying to muster up the courage to
end it all
when I heard someone in my house. That someone happened to be you.” He shrugged and let out a short snort. “That’s right, Ziva. Whether you like it or not, you have once again saved my life. I’m just trying to save yours.”
Ziva was growing nearly as tired of this guilt trip Aroska was trying to send her on as she was with Dasaro and his crew. Hearing of his near suicide caught her off guard and confused her, and judging by his demeanor, this was what had been plaguing him for the past several days. But now was neither the time nor the place to be discussing such matters. She picked up the modified rifle from the table and secured the strap over her shoulder. “I don’t need anyone to save my life,” she muttered, stepping toward the car.
She started across the floor, annoyed by the sound of Aroska’s heavy footfalls as he stormed after her. Did he seriously think he was going to stop her? What was he going to do, tie her up? Render her unconscious? Shoot out her knee again? She balled up her hands, ready to deliver a blow if needed.
When he reached her, she barely had time to half-turn before he caught her face with a firm hand and pulled her to him. Before she could register what was happening, he had his lips pressed to hers, so suddenly that she couldn’t even voice a protest. Her left fist hovered in mid-air, frozen halfway through the process of delivering a hard hook. Aroska pulled away after a moment and it was over just as quickly as it had begun.
It was almost as if he had sucked the life out of her because for what seemed like a long time, Ziva could neither breathe nor speak. Aroska was silent as well, eyes closed as he gently traced her scar with his thumb. It was all Ziva could do to keep from shaking as she removed his hand from her face and lowered it back to his side. Still at a loss for words, she swallowed and edged closer to him, leaning up into his space and placing a hand on his chest. “Aroska,” she murmured.
His only reply was a nervous “Hmm.”
Her hand curled abruptly into a fist, taking a handful of his shirt with it. “Unless you
want
me to castrate you right here and now, you will
never
try anything like that ever again. Do you understand me?”
Aroska hung his head and looked away. “Yes.”
“No, I’m not sure you do.” Ziva took hold of his jacket and forced him back against the wall, pinning him there with her forearm across his chest. “I’m not going to lie – we make a decent team. You’re a good man, Tarbic, and I know you mean well, but I’m counting on you here. You’re telling me my mind’s not right? It’s certainly not going to help if yours isn’t either. You’re going to have to make a choice – either you do what I say and help me out here, or
there’s
the door.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have. It was a stupid—”
“No!” Ziva exclaimed, holding her hand in front of his mouth. “I don’t want your apologies. What’s done is done, and you’re not going to bring it up ever again. Got it?”
He nodded, still reluctant to make eye contact. “Let me help you.”
Ziva released him and took a step back, placing her hands on her hips. “Two months ago, you shook my hand and told me you wanted to be my friend, and that’s what I need you to do right now. You can be a friend by watching my back and staying out of my way. I have tried to be as patient as possible with you, but I
swear
if you ever pull another stunt like that or you try to talk me out of something again, I
will
kill you.” The realization that she was serious took her by surprise.
There was a long pause where the two of them refused to look at each other. Ziva turned and stared out the door, rubbing her hand over her mouth in hopes that it would keep her jaw from trembling. In all reality, she was terrified by what had just happened, and the fact that she was terrified scared her even more. She wasn’t sure what Aroska had hoped to accomplish. It had been a foolish, impulsive move, and if anything it had destroyed whatever shred of focus she’d had.
Ziva sighed, taking a moment to calm her nerves and her thundering heart. “I’m going to need a spotter,” she said, turning back to look him in the eye. “Trying to take a shot from anywhere on this blasted planet is going to be hell. Do you still have the comm Foda was using?”
Aroska’s face was pale as he fished the device out of his pocket and slapped it into her open hand.
She hesitated a moment, closing her fingers around his hand before he had a chance to pull away. She tightened her grip, ensuring she had his full attention. His eyes flitted about just as they had in the kitchen with the kytara, settling on her for only a split second before darting away. Ziva shook her head. “Damn it, Aroska,” she muttered through clenched teeth, “what the hell were you thinking?”
He didn’t give her an answer, but she hadn’t wanted one. She took the communicator and headed upstairs, where she found Kat and Kade sitting at the table in awkward silence. By the way they squirmed and refused to make eye contact, Ziva guessed they had not only heard but had also witnessed everything that had just transpired downstairs. The last thing she wanted – or needed, for that matter – was for such a ridiculous incident to be affecting everyone in such a way.
“Pull it together, people,” she said, placing the communicator on the table beside Kade’s computer. “We need to pull Dasaro’s comm code from that and get a fix on it. Can you do that?”
Kade hesitated a moment before nodding. “I can.” He plugged the device into the computer.
Ziva leaned down over the table. “Listen – we’ve all got scores to settle with Dasaro. I’m doing us a favor here.”
She left it at that.
