Alien Refuge (48 page)

She looked up at him, pleading desperately. “Conrad will not let him go, no matter what the E.I.K. says. I have to tell whoever it is how dangerous Conrad is to Thomas without me there to protect him. Please!”

The Imdiko and Ospar exchanged a look. Their expressions told Iris how worried they were for her. She loved them both for their concern, but she knew she would never forgive either if they forced her to stay behind.

Rivek told their Dramok, “I fear it will do her more harm to not speak to this man.”

Ospar’s jaw tightened. He raked his fingers through his hair, sending it into disarray. Finally, he nodded. “You will remain careful, Iris. You won’t attack the E.I.K.’s representative, and if he should try for you, you will do all in your power to stay away while I deal with him. You cannot help Thomas if you are incapacitated. Promise me.”

Iris nodded. Anything to find her baby. “I promise, my Dramok.”

They released her from the medi-bed, disengaging the connections between her body and the consoles. They hurriedly but carefully dressed her, then Ospar and the attending doctor got into a loud argument over her release from the facility. Ospar turned his most overbearing, bullying the harried medic into getting out of their way. Iris finally had an idea of just how dominating her clanmate truly was as he left the poor Imdiko doctor wringing his hands in helpless fury.

Moments later, Ospar and Rivek were running out of the room, the priest carrying Iris to the hospital’s shuttle bay.

* * * *

Iris stopped short a few steps into Ospar’s office when she saw who waited for them with Dramok Borl. Her voice was soft and hurt as she said, “Father Stephen?”

The priest wouldn’t look her in the eyes. His thin shoulders hunched as if he was ashamed. In a low tone he said, “I’m sorry it has come to this, Iris. You know how the Church feels about mixing the species.”

Next to her, Rivek asked, “And your faith condones abducting an innocent, disabled child from a loving parent?” His voice was loud, filling the immense space of Ospar’s grand office.

Ospar only growled. His fists were clenched at his sides, and his body sang with tension. Iris could tell he was having great difficulty keeping from launching himself at Father Stephen.

Finally, the priest did raise his gaze to meet hers. “Let me assure you first of all that Thomas is fine. Very upset and missing you, but perfectly healthy.”

Tears welled in Iris’ eyes. She had the urge to scream and cry, to pummel this man to whom she had trusted if not all her secrets, at least her child’s welfare. Of all the Earthers on the colony that she thought would be kind to Thomas, Father Stephen had topped the list.

She would not flag. She would not crumble now, not when her son needed her to stay strong.

“What are the demands, priest?” Ospar spat out the word to show how little he believed Father Stephen deserved the title.

The father glanced at Ospar and quickly looked away again. Fear sparked in his eyes as he recognized the Dramok’s barely restrained threat.

The words trembling on his lips, Father Stephen said, “All Kalquorians must leave Haven in the next 12 hours, without any of the Earther women they’ve clanned. You will allow us to govern ourselves with no interference from now on. Otherwise, Thomas Slade–” he scowled and quickly amended, “—Thomas Jenson will not be returned to his mother.”

Borl frowned at him.

Ospar scowled. “What do the Kalquorian rebels get out of this? They know we cannot leave. They’re fully aware the attack on the temple and kidnapping of my child will only bring about more bloodshed. They don’t care for your E.I.K. All you mean to them is how you can be used for their purposes.”

The priest’s mouth opened and shut. He seemed to have lost all his nerve.

Iris took a step toward him. Ospar and Rivek on either side of her each grabbed an arm, preventing her from getting any closer. She didn’t fight them, knowing they would not relent.

Pouring all her agony into her voice and eyes, she begged, “Please tell me where Thomas is, Father. You’re a good man. You know what his father is capable of.”

Father Stephen’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. He stared down, and drops fell to the thickly woven rug beneath their feet. “They wouldn’t tell me where they were taking him as I left to deliver this message. Iris, you are to give yourself up within the next three hours at the community grain storage building to show that the terms are agreed to. You must go alone or Thomas will be killed.”

The room rocked precipitously beneath Iris’ feet. She didn’t believe Conrad would murder Thomas, but just hearing such a threat was enough to make her heart stutter.

Ospar and Rivek’s grips on her tightened almost to the point of pain as they reacted to the priest’s words. The Dramok took in a breath, possibly ready to shout, when Father Stephen held out a hand to stop him.

“There’s more.” The priest lifted a suddenly angry face to look at Ospar. He took a step to one side, away from the governor’s aide. In a rush he said, “Dramok Borl is the direct line between the Kalquorian rebels on Haven and their leader, the Basma.”

The carefully controlled expression on Borl’s face fled to be replaced by shock. “What—”

Father Stephen kept talking, his words spraying like bullets. “He is a traitor to your people, Ospar, and the mastermind behind everything that has happened here. Also Nobeks Kith, Dalwer—”

Borl interrupted him with a shriek. In a flash, he drew a long knife from his belt and cut Father Stephen’s throat, nearly taking the man’s head off. Blood sprayed from the slain priest’s flesh and he dropped to the floor.

Ospar and Rivek sprang at the backpedalling, snarling Borl. The aide howled, “For the good of the Empire!”

He shoved his knife into his own heart and dropped just as the two men reached him. Iris screamed. An instant later, a flood of security guards poured into the room, blasters drawn.

Ospar barely noted their entrance. His com was in his hand and he shouted, “Jol, come in!”

The Nobek’s voice rang out as if he was in the room. “Jol here.”

“We need you here in my office immediately. Borl was working with the rebels and the E.I.K. I’ve got dead in my office and Thomas’ life has been threatened.”

“On my way.”

Rivek rushed back to Iris, turning her away from the gruesome sight of the nearly decapitated Father Stephen. “Don’t look. Don’t look at him, my Matara.”

As awful as the last few seconds had been, only one thing truly mattered to Iris. She told the Imdiko, “We have to go now. We have to find Thomas.”

Ospar was still ignoring the security detail, the head of which was frantically asking him what had happened. When the yelling Nobek got in his path, the governor snarled, “In a moment!” He shoved the other man back hard enough to nearly take him off his feet.

Ignoring the stunned officer’s cry, Ospar hurried over to Iris and Rivek. “We can’t go anywhere yet, not without a plan. Iris, I know how much you want to get to Thomas, but we don’t know exactly where he is. We have to be smart or he could be hurt. We have three hours. Trust me. Please.”

Iris looked into his face, seeing the anger, frustration, and concern twisting his features. Ospar was right of course, but everything in her soul screamed that she had to race out, had to get to the grain storage, had to get her son back.

But that would be playing right into Conrad’s hands, which could damn her and Thomas to a neverending hell. She had no choice but to trust the clan who swore they would get their child back. As Rivek and Ospar closed ranks, surrounding her with their bodies, she clung to them, hoping she was right to rely on them.

* * * *

Nearly three hours after Dramok Borl killed Father Stephen and himself, Iris drove her snow crawler to the colony communal storage area. This was where the food grown by the colony as a whole was kept until it was sold and shipped to planets like Kalquor, Dantovon, and other places where Earthers had gone to live following Armageddon.

The treads of the crawler moved easily over the snow. The lane was kept mostly clear even though much of the stores had been shipped out weeks ago. Iris squinted as the bright sunlight reflected off the dazzling white drifts on either side. The pre-fab storage silos were just ahead. The grain storage buildings were at the front of the collection of Kalquorian-made structures. As Iris’ vehicle cleared the slight rise just before reaching the area, she saw Conrad waiting with four armed masked men.

Her heart sank that there was no sign of Thomas. She knew Father Stephen had said he’d been taken somewhere else, but she had still hoped to see her little boy safe and sound. Instead, she had to look at the monster and his bastard helpers.

Iris stopped the crawler a few yards away from the waiting group. She opened the crawler door and stepped out, Thomas’ winter coat clutched in her hands. All the blasters were leveled in her direction, making her heart pound. Jol had told her to expect something like this, reasoning that the E.I.K. would make her a hostage in case she was followed by a rescue team.

“Show us your hands!” one of the masked men shouted.

Iris put her hands up, one still gripping the coat that Thomas should be wearing in the frigid temperatures. God, how she hoped he was being cared for.

One of the masked men muttered something, then trotted forward. He snatched the coat away and searched it quickly, then ran a scanner with Kalquorian characters etched on it over the garment. He also waved the scanner over Iris, front and back.

“She’s clean,” he reported to the rest.

“Let her come forward,” said another.

The E.I.K. member tossed the coat back to Iris. He edged back in line with the rest of them. Iris slowly came forward, her gloved hands still in the air. She went straight up to Conrad, hating him with every mote of her being. How easy it would be to wrap her hands around his throat right now!

Between clenched teeth she snarled, “Where is he? Where is my child, you hateful son of a bitch?”

Conrad’s slightly worn but still handsome face twisted into something almost inhuman. Iris only had an instant of seeing movement before the back of his hand connected with her cheek, knocking her off her feet.

Ospar and Rivek had warned her over and over how her healing injuries remained a concern. Iris hadn’t put much stock in it, chalking it up to overly cautious clanmates. She now realized they had been absolutely right. Pain filled her battered body despite the cushion of soft snow she landed on.

* * * *

Jol was unable to restrain a soft growl as Conrad struck Iris, making her fall heavily to the ground. Crouched next to him in the shadow of a low-limbed tree, Rivek placed a hand on his shoulder.

With their snowsuits’ white hoods covering their inky black hair and mufflers drawn up over mouths and noses, Ospar’s clan was nearly invisible in the matching snow. They crouched deep within the sheltering branches of the foliage that sat high on a hill. Their position overlooked the colony’s storage units. They had sent Iris in once they were sure it was only the five Earthers waiting for her. Jol and Ospar had plasma rifles sighted on Conrad, just in case things got too dangerous for their Matara.

Only the three of them had come on this mission. It would have been two, but Ospar and Jol had been unable to convince Rivek to stay behind. If it came to hand-to-hand fighting, Jol had more confidence in his Imdiko than any Nobek he knew. He’d taught Rivek everything he knew of the fighting arts after the priest had nearly been killed by Ospar’s enemies years ago, just before they added the Imdiko to their clan. When Jol’s expertise had been exhausted, Rivek had continued to train, seeking out the best fighters to teach him until he surpassed his Nobek.

It wasn’t hand-to-hand combat or even fighting with blades that had made Jol argue against Rivek coming along. The firepower their enemies possessed gave him pause when it came to his clanmate’s safety. Rivek was not a shooter.

It had not been easy to come without security backup, not with Iris’ safety at sake. However, Jol was taking no chances. Not with seven of his security staff missing, two of which had been named as traitors by Father Stephen before his death. He had no idea how many of Haven’s Kalquorians were in league with the Basma’s rebellion. Despite knowing his clan may be badly outnumbered, it seemed safer for them to attempt Thomas’ rescue on their own, without the chancy support.

Jol’s senses washed with relief as Iris picked herself off the ground. She was too hurt to be doing this, but there had been no choice but to send her in. His beloved had to give herself up to Slade in order to find Thomas. The Nobek had every hope he’d be able to kill Slade for his crimes. The feral look on Ospar’s face assured him his Dramok felt the same way. The only trouble with the scenario was that passing their own judgment and execution could give the rebellion and the E.I.K. more ammunition for their continued fight.