3013: SALVATION (3013: The Series Book 5) (13 page)

“We’ve been working on this
particular project for months now,” Catherine replied. “We’ve had numerous
setbacks, but finally made a breakthrough the other day. If all goes according
to plan, we could have a viable formula completed within the next few weeks.
Timing is critical right now in this stage of the testing. I’d be happy to show
you our notes, but I don’t understand what this has to do with some mistake on
a shipping manifest.”

“Because it wasn’t a mistake.”
Arik leaned back in his chair. “And I believe the reason you have been pushing
your timetable up on the
xili
project you’re working on may have
something to do with forty million credits Henry here has hidden in an account
on Reema.”

Henry Atwood’s eyes bulged out as
he sputtered for a moment. Sweat beaded his brow as he tried to protest. “What?
I have no clue what you’re talking about!”

“I think you do. You have a lot
of questions to answer, starting with why both the female doctors have been
tainted with
xili
, but you aren’t, Dr. Atwood.”

“Tainted? We haven’t been tainted
with anything. We’re studying the
xili
plant, not using it,” Astrid insisted.

Serra’s voice was filled with
sympathy as she said, “Not voluntarily.”

“This is crazy!” Catherine
exclaimed. “Henry doesn’t have those kinds of credits, and we certainly haven’t
been tainted with
xili
.”

“Funny thing about my man here,”
Skylar said casually as she nodded toward Arik. “See, there is a well kept
secret about the D’Aire. They are able to tell when someone has been drugged
with the xili drug just by being in their presence. It’s a pretty fucking cool
ability, actually.”

“Thank you, my love. It certainly
comes in handy.” Arik stroked a hand over her hair before pinning the sweating
man with a steely stare. “I could tell Catherine and Astrid were under the
influence of the xili drug as soon they entered the room, but it was confirmed
when I touched them. But you, although you were trying to block your thoughts,
you were thinking about escaping the planet tonight when I shook your hand.”

 Overcome with panic, Henry
bolted from his chair. But before he could take two steps, Commander Malloy
slammed his fist into Henry’s face, dropping the small man to the ground in a
dead faint.

“Henry!”

Ignoring Astrid’s cry of
distress, Skylar simply looked down at the man on the ground with disgust. “That
was...highly unsatisfying.”

“I don’t know. I found it pretty
fucking satisfying.” Matt Malloy cracked his knuckles then grimaced as Henry
came to. “Oh man, he’s crying. I hate it when they cry.”

“I don’t understand what’s going
on,” Astrid said, tears streaming down her cheeks. She raised her hands to grip
her head. “I can’t...my head. My head feels like it’s going to explode.”

Serra moved around the table to
sit next to the crying woman. “I know this is confusing right now. You may not
believe me, but I know exactly how you feel. Stop trying to think about Henry
right now. Clear your mind and focus on pushing past the pain.”

“I did it for you!” Henry sobbed.
“I did it all for you, Astrid.”

“For me? What, Henry? What did
you do?”

“He drugged you,” Arik said softly.
“He drugged both of you.”

“Why? Why would he do that?”
Astrid cried.

Before anyone could react,
Catherine launched herself at Henry just as Commander Malloy hauled him to his
feet. Henry hit the floor again as she landing on top of him, wailing away with
her fists as she screamed, “What have you done? You son of a bitch, you drugged
us? How could you? How could you!”

“We should probably stop her,”
Commander Malloy commented as he leaned back against the wall with his arms
folded.

“Stars! Catherine, stop!”
Commander Jessup rushed forward, trying to pull the doctor off Henry who was
curled into the fetal position on the floor trying to protect himself. With a
sigh, Commander Malloy gave a nod to Officer Perez, who helped Commander Jessup
pull Catherine off Henry.

“Shut the hell up,” Commander
Malloy growled as he picked the sobbing man off the floor and shoved him back
into the chair.

“What did Henry do to us?”
Catherine demanded. “Is there some way we can fix this? I want my bonded.
Rachel, I want Dale and Micah.”

“I’ll get them for you,”
Commander Jessup said, then got on wrist unit to make good on her promise.

“The effects of the
xili
coercion
can be counteracted if Henry tells us exactly what happened,” Arik explained. “You’ve
been drugged with the pure form directly from the plant and not the altered
version we’ve discovered, but the truth shall release you from its thrall.”

“Start talking,” Skylar demanded
and all eyes turned to the Henry.

“I didn’t mean for this to
happen. I swear it,” he began in a shaking voice. “He made me. I didn’t want to
do it, but I had no choice. You have to believe me.”

“How can we believe anything you
say,” Astrid bit out.

Henry’s eyes welled with tears
again. “I did it for you. All I wanted was you, Astrid.”

“What do you—” Her words were cut
off as her eyes went wide with shock. “You...drugged me to bond with you? How could
you do that to me? Oh my God, I’m going to be sick.”

Serra helped the gagging woman as
she stumbled to her feet. “We’ll be right back.”

As they hurried from the room
Officer Perez followed them out after Commander Malloy gave him the order to stay
with them and protect them.

“You stole the two
xili
plants after they arrived here on Avox,” Skylar guessed. “How did you manage to
change the logs? You had to have security clearance for that.”

“I didn’t have the clearance so I
had to...” He cleared his throat. “We had originally requested twelve
specimens, but after we started testing them I got the idea on how I could use
it...”

“For your own personal use,” Arik
finished for him.

“Astrid would never have looked
at me twice if I hadn’t,” Henry cried. “Sure, we were friends, but she would
have never let me claim her if I didn’t do something. But in order to take the
plants, I had to make sure Catherine and Astrid thought there were only ten
plants and I had to change the security logs so they matched.”

“Holy nova, I hope they fry you,”
Catherine spat out.

Henry cringed as two large men rushed
into the room. “Catherine!”

The doctor jumped out of her
chair and flung herself into their arms. They held her close as they glared at
everyone else in the room. “Why has our chosen been crying? What the fuck is
going on?”

“He drugged me, Dale. Henry
drugged me and Astrid.”

Director Dale Whitmer pushed
Catherine into Micah Field’s arms then launched himself at Henry. The smaller
man squeaked as he jumped up to hide behind Commander Malloy, who shoved the
attacking man back. “We already played this game. Now, sit down and relax so we
can get to the bottom of this.”

Director Dale Whitmer struggled
to control his fury, but sat down in a chair next to Catherine and their other
partner. “Explain.”

Skylar saw the male egos clashing
as the men glared at one another and stood, taking control of the room. She
recapped the situation for the newcomers, explaining their visit to Avox and
what Henry had done. When Serra, Astrid and Officer Perez returned, they were
silent as they listened to him explain the rest of what he had done.

Henry had created a secret
compartment in his quarters where he kept the two
xili
plants hidden.
Originally planning to only take one, he took the second to ensure that he’d
have enough of the drug to use in case the plants didn’t survive in his
makeshift containment area. He had used the drug in small doses on both Astrid
and Catherine at first, making sure that it worked, then he had completed his
plan of making Astrid fall in love with him.

Once she was his, he knew he had
to get rid of the plants, but the testing they were doing in the lab intrigued
him and he realized he was being short sighted. Instead of just destroying the
specimens, he figured he would be able to sell them on the black market for
credits. He claimed to have done so for his and Astrid’s future together, but
it just sounded like the hollow excuse that it was. He admitted drugging
several other officers—including Director Whitmer and Micah Fields—to alter the
security logs, and also allow him access to a secured communications unit that
couldn’t be traced back to him.

It took time and planning, but he
finally made contact with a Tarin representative on Alpha Station: X7 who was
interested in purchasing the plants for a client. Before the exchange could be
made, the buyer had contacted Henry again. Because of the bragging he had done
about his research while trying to make the initial sale, the representative
said that the client was no longer just interested in the plants. He also
wanted the formula to mass produce the drug in a synthetic form that Henry had
been testing in secret.

“You see, I had no choice,” Henry
swore. “They would have exposed me if I didn’t give them what they wanted, and
I had to protect Astrid.”

“How would that be protecting
Astrid?”

Skylar thought the man was a
pathetic waste of air. It sickened her to be in the same room with him, but she
needed more information before she would be finished with him. Even though he
had told them what he’d done, he was being evasive about the man he had sold
the formula and plants to, but she wouldn’t stop until she got a name. It had
been hard enough to corral the others while Henry had given all of them his
convoluted version of events. She would have preferred to clear the room for
her interrogation, but she had kept everyone quiet with the threat of her boot
up their asses if they didn’t behave.

“I didn’t know who I was dealing
with until it was too late. Then I couldn’t turn back. The Tarin that wanted
the formula is a powerful man, and he threatened to take Astrid and make her a
slave on their planet if I didn’t do what he wanted. He could do it, too. He was
able to send one of his men on a shuttle transferring some of the female Tarins
that sought sanctuary here. The pilot took the
xili
specimens with him
along with the formula I gave him. He told me they would kill me if I ever told
anyone.”

“Give me the buyer’s name,
Henry,” Skylar demanded.

“I can’t. He’d send people after me
and Astrid, and I can’t risk that.”

“How dare you use me as an excuse
for what you’ve done,” Astrid said softly, unable to hold herself back from
scathing him with her fury. “You put countless people in jeopardy by giving a
madman the ability to produce this drug.”

“I did it because I love you,
Astrid!”

“Love?” she spat out bitterly.
“You don’t know the meaning of the word. You’re a monster!”

“They don’t know I gave them a
flawed formula,” Henry said in a rush. “I still haven’t figured out a way to
replicate the effects of the
xili
plant exactly. They don’t know it will
eventually fail.”

“What does that mean?” Skylar
demanded, shooting Astrid a quick look that told her to keep her mouth shut.

“The formula I gave them is based
partly on our experiments for the creation of the new version of the
enhancements, but every time we accelerated the process, the formula broke down
over time. We figured it was because the plant itself doesn’t remain viable for
long if not under the proper conditions. All my experiments have shown that the
synthetic drug will break down over time and leave those who have been given a
dose free and clear of the effects in a matter of months.”

“They would have killed you when
they found out.”

Henry nodded, his lips trembling.
“They insisted on conducting a few tests before they paid me. The tests worked
to their satisfaction, but I planned to be long gone by the time they figured
out the effects wore off. I would have taken Astrid somewhere where they
wouldn’t have found us. Nothing that was done with my formula wouldn’t
eventually be fixed.”

“But first, you needed Catherine
and Astrid’s help perfecting the drug. You wanted a product that actually
worked the way it was supposed to long term,” Skylar guessed. She could tell
that she’d hit the mark when his face paled.

“I just needed enough so I could
get us away safely.”

Skylar slammed her hand down on
the table, making him jump in his seat. She leaned forward and got in his face,
letting him see all the anger and disgust she felt for him. “Bullshit. You were
planning on selling it again, weren’t you? You liked the credits and the power
it gave you, controlling people like that. You’ve killed people, Henry.”

“No! I didn’t hurt anyone!”

“You have. Those tests they’ve
been doing on X7 and X15 have gotten people killed. You’ve betrayed your chosen,
drugged others to hide what you’ve done, handed over the means to destroy
countless lives even if the effects are only temporary. I want the buyer’s
name.”

Sweat dripped down his face in
rivulets. “He’ll find me. Even if you lock me up, he’ll find me.”

“Your life is over. You took
payment while handing over the means to destroy the Alliance and everything
we’ve work toward. But if you love Astrid like you say you do, you’ll give us
the name. She’ll never be safe until we stop him. I’m done fucking around with
you. Now, give me the fucking buyer’s name!” Skylar demanded again, refusing to
give him any quarter as she ruthlessly used his weak spot again.

He sobbed out a breath. “It’s
Lord Lobo Khan. But you can’t stop him. He’s a powerful Tarin lord with spies
everywhere. No one even knows where he lives. He’s a ghost.”

Skylar’s smile was feral. “Oh,
I’ll find him. And when I do...I’m going to end him.”