Carnevale and Subterfuge (20 page)

Roberto hurried up to them, clutching a file. Ana hoped he was bringing good news.

“The Morrigan model is a class-A Chameleon Cyborg,” he said, addressing Drogan. “It’s the highest grade the government authorized to be put into commission before the order of termination. Only one was put out. Its goal was to be a team in a box so to speak. The machine that is lugged along is a DNA sequencer that allows the Chameleon Cyborg to become anyone it wants while retaining its own core self. Here’re all the details. Destroy after reading.” Roberto handed the file to Drogan before bowing out.

“Officer Lavender, Tigress, with me.” Drogan said. “Officer Taybor, tell the ambassador to join us in my office as soon as he gets out.”

The security officer manning the check-in point nodded but said nothing.

Ana and Tigress followed Drogan to the elevator. Ana hoped that they would learn something that would allow them to gain the upper hand.

* * *

Morrigan looked around. Darkness surrounded her. Breathing was difficult. The air was compressed and stale.

Ships. How she loathed spaceships.

She moved to her right and something clattered to the ground. The seconds ticked by as she waited for someone to come and investigate. Nothing. Moving with great care, she picked her way through the cleaning supplies and grabbed a shelf. She hauled herself up and popped open a vent before crawling into the air duct. Her clones had been captured. Instead of going after them, she decided that she had to complete the mission. One way or another, the ambassador was going to die.

Morrigan’s vision became fuzzy and then cleared once more. She swore. Her energy banks were low. She needed her generator.

She called up the ship’s map. A small diagram of the
Hades’ Helmet
floated before her. “Computer, map out a route to the holding area.”

A red line was drawn from where she was to the deck she wanted to be on. Following the path, she made her way through the maze of ducts until she arrived at her destination. A peek through the vents showed her just a single guard on duty.

Morrigan smiled. Piece of cake.

Chapter Fourteen

Diego sat across from Drogan. The stress of the day pressed on his body, caused his shoulders to droop. His eyelids kept slipping down. The day pulled at him, urging him to sleep. But he couldn’t sleep. All his energy was ebbing away. He couldn’t help but wonder if he would even be able to make it to the elevator, much less to his quarters. Roberto was talking but the words were a jumble that didn’t make sense.

“Here.” Ana pushed a mug into his hands. The scent of coffee floated up to him and made him smile.

“Thank you,
amor mia
.” Diego wanted to kiss her but couldn’t lift his body out of the chair. Ana just nodded, ran a hand over his shoulder, and took a seat next to him.

“As I was saying, the Morrigan model is a cyborg unit able to make fully developed, independent, corporeal copies of herself. She is the only one of her kind. The only one to be developed by the company before they terminated the project. What the special ops team saw was a fully realized hologram who could react and think but not become solid. But its lifespan, as it were, is short. These copies can only last a few minutes away from the energy unit.

“Now, as for the cyborg herself, depending on energy depletion she can last days or even months without needing a recharge and update from the mainframe system. However, similar to changing one’s appearance, it takes massive amounts of energy and, with all three clones out and about at one point, I’m sure it was draining on the main cyborg, so she’s going to have to refuel at some point.”

“What about the threat she poses?” This from Drogan. “If she’s low on energy, would she still be a danger? Can she morph her appearance?”

“Depends. The test trials were inconclusive. There wasn’t enough fieldwork conducted to come to any conclusions, so we don’t know what she’s capable of. However, it’s my guess that yes, the threat level would lessen. Even the hologram would deplete her reserves. We can assume she’d go after both her clones and the machine.”

“I’ll place extra security on the holding area,” Tigress said, hurrying out of the room.

“Here’s another question,” Ana said. “Why didn’t she kill Tigress? Or the other person she imitated? Why leave them alive?”

“Too many bodies to bury is too much time wasted,” Roberto said. “Why kill when you can incapacitate? Disappearing members of crew would draw too much attention to her. Much easier to knock them out, assume their identities, and stow them away in their quarters or med deck.”

Drogan nodded. “So we can assume that the only person she wants dead is the real ambassador, which is both good and bad. My crew isn’t in danger but he is. The question is, how do we make it to Veritas 10 and capture her?”

“Use me as bait,” Diego said. “We leak the location of the real ambassador and go from there.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ana tense but couldn’t say anything to soothe her just yet.

“I’m for that. We can have special ops waiting for her and go from there. Where is Tigress? She should have been back by now.” Drogan looked around. He hit a button on his desk just as the doors whooshed open.

“Sorry for the delay. The captain of the special ops unit had an idea. He drained the machine to almost nothing, leaving just a little bit of energy left, and set it out in the open. The trap is set. If it works, we’ll be able to catch three birds with one stone. The conman won’t have to risk himself, the ambassador will be safe, and we’ll get the assassin.”

“Careful, Chief. I’ll start to think you like me,” Diego smiled.

Tigress sneered back at him. “You’re more useful alive than dead. Besides, I dislike the real ambassador. Smug bastard thinks he can jerk around my people. Not likely.”

Diego smiled as Tigress settled in next to him. For the first time since taking on this job, he felt comfortable. Both Drogan and Tigress had his back, and he and Ana were making progress.

“Captain, when this is all over, I’d like to speak to you.” Diego sipped the last of his coffee before setting it on the arm of the chair.

Drogan nodded. “I would like that.”

There was a lot unsaid in those simple words, and Diego was hopeful. Despite the claustrophobic feel of the ship, he had Ana and that was enough for him. He could sense a new adventure on the horizon if Drogan took him on as a crewmember. In what capacity he would work, he didn’t know. “Come on, love. Time to go to bed. I could sleep for a week.”

“Captain?” Ana remained seated, waiting.

“Go on, Officer Lavender. It’s been a long two days.” Drogan nodded.

Diego and Ana rose and left the office. Without thought, he put his arm around Ana, and they stepped into the lift.

“How are you doing?” Diego said, placed a kiss on Ana’s temple.

“Tired.”

The ride to their floor was short. As they ambled toward Diego’s quarters he couldn’t help but wonder why the ambassador had chosen to leave his hiding place. The danger hadn’t been lifted. Diego remembered the interest he’d shown in Ana, and how the man had flirted with her. A shudder rippled through him. He hadn’t wanted to say how disturbing it had been. Although Ana had shown no interest whatsoever, Diego had seen enough of that type of behavior in men of power to know that it wasn’t over. The ambassador wanted Ana. She’d stood up to him and most people didn’t do that. He just prayed the man would get the message before something bad happened.

When they arrived at the door Diego punched in the security code and stepped into the room. He took a moment to survey the space until he felt it was safe for Ana to be inside.

“You OK?” Ana said, as she brushed past him to sit down.

“Tired.”

“We need to talk.” The words were spoken quietly, as if she didn’t want to actually say them out loud.

“I know.”

“I don’t like the ambassador.”

“Neither do I.”

Ana laughed. “I have no interest in him whatsoever. He makes me uncomfortable, but I do want to talk about after this is over. Where do we go?”

“Not sure,” Diego lied. Until Drogan agreed to his idea, he wouldn’t get Ana’s hopes up or put her into a space where she felt conflicted.

“Liar.”

Diego smiled. “How did you know?”

“Your expression was neutral. I won’t press. Too tired to. But can I ask if there’s hope?”

“Yes, you can, and yes there is. Things just have to work out the way I want them to.”

“OK.”

“I want to pursue this, Ana, I do.” Diego settled across from her. “I want to be with you, that’s certain.”

“But you don’t like being on the ship.”

He shrugged. “There’s ways around that. Do you want me to stay?”

“Yes.”

“Thank the Goddess. Should we go to sleep now? I’m knackered.”

She held out her hand. “OK.”

He took it and reluctantly stood up. For a moment the room swayed and a yawn escaped from his mouth.

“You’re really tired,” Ana said.

“Everything has collided and I’m feeling the effects. They said this would be easy. When I return to Il Doge I’m going to throw a tantrum.”

Ana laughed. “You don’t look like a tantrum guy.”

“Yes, well, I’ll make sure not to have it around you.”

“I’ll just have to be there to make sure that you’re on your best behavior.”

Diego sucked in a breath at the thought of his mother meeting Ana. The idea didn’t make him uneasy. The memories, on the other hand, that could be brought up didn’t sit well with him.

“It’s OK.” Ana pulled him to the bedroom. “Nothing you did will make me leave you.”

Diego’s heart stuttered at that statement. “You don’t know what I’ve done.”

“But I see the result. You’re a good man. That I know.”

“You won’t know until I tell you…and I’m scared.” The confession made the darkness inside of him rush up to squeeze his heart. The breath was stolen from his lungs as he tried to shove his emotions back down.

“You can tell me in bed. Now strip.”

He didn’t argue. He took off his clothes and climbed into bed. Ana scooted toward him and he wrapped his arms around her.

“Now tell me.” Ana placed her head on his chest.

For a moment he tensed. The words were stalled on his tongue. He wasn’t sure he could do it.

“It’s OK, just tell me.”

Diego sighed and let the words fall from his lips unchecked. “I’ve killed people. I took their money and saw evil up close.” A shudder went through him. “I saw people die and did nothing to stop it. I’ve seen innocent people being crushed under the heel of the rich and did nothing to stop it. Sure, I’d give back occasionally, but for the most part it was about me. I lied to people, made women think I was in love with them. I took money from the rich but I didn’t care who got caught. People lost their jobs and lives because of me. I stopped caring about anyone but myself.”

“That’s a lie. If you didn’t care about your brother and mother then you wouldn’t have taken this job.”

“Yes, but they had to use her health to even get me to see her. I wouldn’t have gone had they not told me she was dying.” Diego had never confessed that out loud. “I wouldn’t have gone if they hadn’t said she was on her death bed. There are parts of me that are still angry that I had to grow up so fast, that I was the one to protect my mother and brother from my father. I’m angry that I may have a half brother out there. And I’m tired. I’m tired of using people to get what I want…and I’m tired of being used.

“I was once pulled into starting a war. I got out before things got too bad. The fight is still going on. But despite everything I’m proud of the cons I’ve pulled. Well, some of them at least. But for the most part I hate myself. I hate that I’m proud of some of the things I’ve gotten away with.”

Ana said nothing, so Diego continued. “I can’t look myself in the face anymore. I don’t know who I am, and I don’t know if I can come back and care. I did this job to have my record wiped clean and get paid. That’s it. That was the biggest draw of all, even more than doing the job for my dying mother.” Diego hated the words coming out of his mouth and what these confessions could do to the way Ana saw him.

“You’ve lived a life most people could never imagine,” Ana said at last. “But you do care, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing any of this. You wouldn’t care about me or your brother. You’re lying to yourself so you won’t get hurt. You’re scared of how I’ll react, and you’re unsure of your future. Stop thinking and just let go. You’ve had a long two days. A lot has happened. You’re running on empty, Diego, so it’s time to rest. Let me take care of you. Let me help you.”

“Oh? And how are you going to do that?” He turned his head and watched her roll her eyes.

“Just go to sleep.”

“But you didn’t answer me.” He chuckled.

“I’ll answer you in the morning. Now sleep.”

At her words, his eyelids began to drift downward. A yawn escaped and he groaned.

“Fine, but your answer better be really creative.”

“Oh, trust me, it will.”

* * *

Morrigan surveyed the brig through the vent. Still only one guard on duty. Stupid officers. She dug into her breast pocket and drew out her laser knife. She cut through the vents and grabbed the covering before it fell. Pulling it inward, she rested against the wall and went into shadow mode.

She slid out of the duct and landed without making a sound. She crept along the wall, moved past the stasis pods, and headed to her power cell. Her body felt jittery as though she was working on near empty. Her fingers tingled and her feet ached with each step she took. When the large battery came into sight, relief swept through her. Eagerness to become fully charged made her rush toward it. When she arrived at the cell, Morrigan reached out with trembling fingers.

As soon as her hand made contact with the machine, there was a whir of the fan and the delicate music of a computer coming to life. The first pulse of electricity rushed up her arm. It was like a balm to her weary muscles. But the hit didn’t last. The energy stopped almost as soon as it had begun.