Broken Vision (18 page)

Tired of her relentless attempts to free herself, Alerik hauled Maegan in front of him and
crossed his arms across her chest in an effort to subdue her. "Take care of the priests. Do what you
have to. Make them engage in dialog. Anything. I want them back on their vessel. Something must
make them believe the children are here. Find out--Balls of Sortor!" Pain exploded through his foot
and his belly as Maegan simultaneously stamped down and drove her elbow into him. He jerked
back just in time to avoid her head butt to his chin.

Then he lost his temper. Part of him watched in utter amazement as he gripped her with
one hand and delivered a hard whack to her ass with the other. Hampered though she was, she came
right back at him with a lethal back kick, that could have taken him down, had he not turned just in
time to block it. He managed to grab her other arm and jerked her to him.

He was aware of his team frozen in shock around him as he stood nose-to-nose,
belly-to-belly with Maegan. They were both panting, and Sagar's slieking crystals if he wasn't
getting turned on as her sweet breath puffed across his face.

"You don't fight by the rules," she said through clenched teeth.

"No," he countered, already regretting the small public humiliation he had inflicted on her.
"The rules are not the same for lovers."

"Batriel slime. Let me go."

"Learn to ask more politely."

"Where are the children?" she hissed.

"That's what we're here to determine."

"You're going to give them back to the priests, aren't you?"

"Not my decision."

"Why did you bring me here? I'm not about to cooperate."

"No, but others might. You're bait for the day, Green Eyes. And like it or not, we're going
to be inseparable."

Her nostrils flared and her lip curled. He wanted nothing so much as to bend her back over
his arm and wipe the sneer off her face with a kiss that would leave her subdued and submissive.
Except that even last night, despite all the kisses, she hadn't exactly been submissive.

"Enough," he snapped, afraid he would lose control altogether and take her standing up
against one of the arched columns. He swung her around.

"Corenna, Drakal, with me. Let's pay Janas a visit and see what secrets can be liberated
today."

Margaine Confluence:/ Fourth Rising
Pallas Four

Blazing starpits, nothing had gone her way yet.

Nothing.

True to his word, Alerik hadn't allowed her more than two paces away from him. He might
as well have joined them with a magfield.

She was alone now in a bathing chamber, but only after she had threatened Corenna and
Drakal with bodily harm when they'd wanted to stay in the room while she relieved herself. They
had compromised by performing a thorough inspection for possible escape routes and now stood
guard outside the only door. Alerik had gone off to meet with someone. She didn't know who.

It worried her. And it worried her that she hadn't seen Makiee yet.

She shook her hands under the cleansing dry shower. The metal bracelet on her wrist
gleamed in the light. She had never felt so helpless. Automatically, she raised her hands to repair
the damage done to her hair earlier by Mistress Gloriana's enthusiastic greeting. In the reflection
given off by the holovid, she noticed a small irregularity on the surface of the bracelet. She gently
pried the object loose. It was a tiny multi-purpose chip. Someone, in the course of the day, had
attached it to her.

The bathing chamber had a simple communication console. She dropped the chip into one
of the receptacles. The small screen on the console flickered. A message flashed briefly before the
screen went blank again.

The priests know. Stay away from them.

Certain there was more to the cryptic message, she pressed replay, but the screen remained
blank. Frustrated, she tried again. So intent was she on her purpose, that she had no warning before
a hand reached into her line of vision and a voice said, "I'll take that."

She pivoted. Corenna, arms folded, shook his head sadly at her, while Drakal inserted the
chip into his comm band.

"Nothing," he informed Corenna. "It's a self-destruct."

"What was on it, Maegan?" Corenna asked.

"Nothing. It was blank."

"We saw the flash."

She shrugged. "Sorry, it was blank."

The two glanced at one another.

"Let her explain it to the governor," said Drakal. "We may be able to retrieve something
off it back on Pallas Five."

"Why wait?" Corenna moved to take Maegan's arm. She flung up a hand in warning and,
with a grimace, he gestured her ahead of him instead. "This is Janas Corporation--cutting edge
information technology systems. Let's have them test it."

"Why would they cooperate?"

"It's not a question of cooperation. It's an opportunity to humble us lesser sentients with
their superior knowledge and technology."

They hustled her down the hall toward her office.

"Maegan, here, is going back to the governor's care, thank Sagar's crystals. You and I are
going to have another chat with that gorgeous Soron in the lab. She seemed quite, ah, receptive and
talkative."

If anyone could retrieve the erased message, it would be Nimon. The chip had to be from
Morgon. A warning. But what did the priests know?

Maegan passed Coryon's station with a nod at her wide-eyed assistant, mounted the
shallow flight of steps and entered her office. His back to her, Alerik was comfortably ensconced in
one of her guest chairs.

Makiee sat across from him. Guilt flooded his young face as soon as he caught sight of
Maegan. What had they been discussing?

Alerik swung around, glanced past her to Corenna and Drakal, then rose slowly to his feet.
"Trouble again?"

"We're on it, sir," Drakal said, ever cheerful. "We'll be back as soon as we complete a
small task."

Alerik nodded and flicked his sapphire gaze back to Maegan as Corenna and Drakal left.
The look in his eyes promised much, and an involuntary shudder rippled through her. But he
gestured behind him and said calmly, "Makiee has agreed to accompany us to your habitat. I think
we're almost done with Janas Corporation for the day."

They hadn't uncovered anything then. Maegan allowed herself a deep breath of relief. No
second set of books. No tunnels. No one but she and Morgon knew about the tunnels, although
sometimes she wondered how those of her staff involved in the rescue relays could fail to suspect
something.

Alerik bent down and touched the comm on the table. "Coryon, are those files done
yet?"

"Almost, sir."

Maegan went cold. Her gaze flew to Makiee, who was looking everywhere but her. "What
have you done?" she whispered.

His face was a mask of misery, but it was Alerik who answered. "He followed my
instructions and uplinked your personal database to our network. It will make it easier for you to
work on Pallas Five."

Blazing starpits, how had he convinced Makiee to do that? And what exactly had Makiee
done? She was under no illusions. Even now, her data was being analyzed back on Pallas Five.
Depending on how strong the bans were that Makiee had sent after her data, they could have
nothing but legitimate Janas records.

Or they could have everything, including the second set of books and all her relay routes.
Damning evidence indeed.

Makiee's expression said it all. She couldn't bring herself to blame him in the least.

"You had no right," she said through gritted teeth to Alerik.

"I had every right. You may not be incarcerated, but you're far from being absolved."

"So you'll find an additional set of financial records and you'll find old flight routes. I'm
sure you had your suspicions," she said bitterly. She couldn't think what this might mean to her
personally, but she mourned the crumbling of Morgon's hard built dream.

Alerik stepped closer. "Stop fighting this so hard, love."

The heat of his body reached out to her coldness. The endearment battered her defenses.
He was her greatest threat. Why did she yearn so to yield to him?

"What happened with Corenna and Drakal?"

"Someone passed me a message chip today, probably Gloriana." It was inevitable that he
would learn that too. Why was she fighting him so hard?

"The message?"

"The priests know. Stay away from them."

"Blood of Cor!" Alerik jerked away from her and punched at his personal comm. "Where
are the priests?"

Commander Foster's voice answered, "Still haven't located one, sir. We always seem to be
a step behind."

"We know how many there are?"

"We believe five, sir."

"Has the counselor come through with resources?"

"Yes, sir. We have teams of three on every priest."

Alerik glanced at Maegan. The simmering sapphire-black of his gaze revealed strong
emotion. "At least one of the children is equipped with a tracking device. Morgon Trion knows it.
The priests are chasing false signals."

* * * *

It had to be the older child. There'd been something very strange about his eyes. An
implant? A prosthetic?

Maegan allowed Alerik to help her out of the transporter. Makiee followed still looking
like a whipped baby mercat. He'd whispered his apologies, but they'd had no chance for further
private conversation.

Alerik hadn't taken his hand off her since they'd left Janas Corporation. It was almost as if
he expected her to dissipate into thin air.

He placed his other hand on the access panel to the habitat, and she watched in renewed
disbelief as the door slid open.

"How did you--?"

"The code was on my console shortly after the bonding quorum." Alerik pulled her aside to
let Corenna and Drakal enter the habitat first. "Morgon Trion must not share your objections."

It was too much. Her brain was already overloaded with too many unanswered questions.
It was inconceivable that Morgon endorsed this partnership with an heir to an institution against
which he had long rebelled.

They were all barely inside the habitat with the door secured behind them when the men's
communicators buzzed to life. "Three priests on their way to the habitat."

"Location of the others?" Alerik barked.

"Unknown. We lost track of them."

"Cor's blood! Let's not take any chances. Shield the exterior," Alerik ordered.

Drakal was already moving to the main control console in the corner of the room. "They'll
know we're here. The transporter--"

"My guess is they've had trackers on us as we've had on them." Alerik was hustling her
toward the interior hall of the habitat. "Makiee, follow. I want you and Maegan in here."

He pushed her into the safe room, an area completely reinforced and capable of
withstanding tremendous force. It would remain standing even if the rest of the habitat was blown
apart.

The door slammed closed and she and Makiee were left in a vacuum of peculiar
silence.

"Maegan, I--"

"No more apologies, Makiee," she cut him off. "I can't imagine what he said to you to get
you to cooperate, but it doesn't matter now." She ran over to the room's small control panel. "Can
you get me into the bathing chamber next door?"

"He wants us to stay here."

"Makiee!" Makiee seemed well on his way to having a serious case of hero worship.

"All right. All right. Why?"

"I have something I need to do." Like find Morgon. If he was in the tunnels. "But I want
you to stay here."

Makiee already had the panel open and the interior cover which contained the room
controls off. He whistled at the contents behind it. "Morgon's work again. This could take some
time."

"Just hurry."

Makiee glanced at her sideways. "If you need to use the--"

"I don't. Concentrate, please."

"What do I tell the governor when he shows up and finds you gone?"

"You may not have to tell him anything." Maegan shifted from one foot to the other. "I
might not be gone long at all." She was counting on the priests keeping the Mariltar team busy for a
while.

Makiee frowned and fiddled with the panel. "But what if-- There, not so hard after
all."

One of four doors to the safe room slid open. "Oops, sorry, wrong room."

The door closed and another slid open, this time to the bathing chamber.

"Thanks, Makiee. You're a genius!" She threw her arms around him in a brief hug. "Stay
here and close the door again."

How she would communicate with him when she was back, she didn't know. No sound
could penetrate the room from outside and the comm could only be accessed from the great room.
It was something to be figured out later. She waited impatiently for the safe room door to close
completely before she activated the entrance to the tunnel.

She climbed onto the pad and touched the control that would take her to the hidden habitat.
It wasn't the only place Morgon could have concealed the children, but it was the most logical.

The habitat was bathed in a dark silence. As she moved further into the unnatural stillness,
the tiny hairs on her nape stood up.

Every instinct in her body clamored at her to leave and leave now. Yet something
compelled her forward. The lumens brightened to a low glow with her progress.

A tall, dark shape materialized from the shadowed corner of the room and moved toward
her.

"Morgon..."

* * * *

"All five are back on their vessel?"

"Every one."

"No response to our communications?"

Sharm shook his head. "None. I've never dealt with people like this. It's clear they don't
want confrontation, nor to engage us in any way. There's simply no interest. They're completely
focused on this search."

"Then why did they all give up and return to their vessel so abruptly?"

"Don't know."

"Unless they found what they're seeking?" Corenna interjected.