Ronan: Ziva Payvan Book 3 (38 page)

-51-

Tarbic Residence

Noro, Haphez

A series of strange clicks startled Ziva out of a sleep she didn’t remember falling into. Her eyes refused to open for several seconds – exhaustion had finally gotten the upper hand – and she was forced to wallow in a strange, semi-conscious state. She was sitting up as far as she could tell, although she was so disoriented that she couldn’t be sure. The crick in her neck told her she certainly wasn’t lying down.

The sensation of something warm and heavy in her lap reached her as she struggled through the haze. One hand rested against something prickly. Increasingly confused, she rolled her head around and finally managed to pry her eyelids open for a split second, only to be blinded by the sunlight that streamed in through the window. Those clicks, louder and clearer this time, repeated again, and she realized someone was knocking on a door. The sound finally drew her out of her stupor.

Blinking against the bright light, Ziva looked down and was startled to find that the object in her lap was Aroska’s head. Her fingers were running through his hair, almost as if she’d been stroking it in her sleep. His eyes were still closed, and his face was contorted as if he’d been plagued with terrible dreams.

It was all she could do to keep from pushing him away and leaping to her feet. She vaguely remembered collapsing to the floor when the sobs had finally overtaken his body and his knees had given out. It wasn’t often that she heard grown men weep in such a way, and when she did, it usually had a selfish undertone as they begged for their lives. Not so with him. She hadn’t known what to do other than drop to her knees right along with him, and she hadn’t had much choice considering he’d still had her wrapped in his arms as he’d fallen. She honestly had no idea how long the two of them had sat there crying together before sleep had overtaken them.

Her back was against the short wall that separated the kitchen and living area, and his head and shoulders rested against her legs. It didn’t seem like a particularly comfortable position for either of them, but it apparently hadn’t mattered. The knocks came again, and this time it was clear that the caller was at the apartment door. Doubtful Aroska was going to wake up, Ziva slowly eased her legs out from under him, shushing him as he began to stir, and got to her feet.

Her eyes once again felt like they were full of sand, and she could almost see the puffiness in her peripheral vision. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d legitimately cried; she’d shed more tears recently than she would have liked, but never had it been anything this substantial. She ran the heel of her hand across her face, desperately trying to wipe away the tear residue and compose herself as she staggered toward the door.

The knocking had stopped by the time she got there, and she could hear heavy footfalls moving away down the corridor outside. She opened the door and stepped out anyway, fixing her eyes on the wild orange mane belonging to the would-be visitor.

“Skeet.”

He stopped and turned when he heard her voice, lowering the communicator he’d been holding to his ear. “Z, wha—” He paused, clearly shocked to see her there, and glanced between her and the apartment door. Even from a distance, she recognized the flicker that flashed across his eyes. Quizzical. Confused. Maybe even a little accusatory.
You spent the night here.

Ziva braced herself for another tirade about opening up to Aroska and not him, but she could see his face soften significantly as he approached and studied her swollen, tired eyes. He gave her a slight nod of understanding and respectfully remained silent.

“What do you need?” she croaked. Her hand went to her throat, attempting to massage away the lump that still felt like it was lodged there.

“There have been some developments with the GA’s recon team and Emeri wants you back at Headquarters,” he responded. “I’ve been looking for you all morning. I couldn’t reach anyone on comm, so I came here to see if Tarbic had seen—” He stopped and glanced over her shoulder, and Ziva could sense Aroska standing behind her in the doorway.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“We’re needed at Headquarters,” she answered. She started to turn around and go back into the apartment but realized she hadn’t brought anything with her. “Go grab what you need.”

He nodded and retreated from the hall, leaving her to stand there in awkward silence with Skeet. She was sure he wanted to ask what she’d been doing there, and she dreaded to think of what kind of assumptions he was making, but he kept a couple of paces between them and didn’t press the matter. She strained to figure out why she didn’t have her communicator and concluded that she’d left it in the car, along with her weapon. Emotion had made her sloppy.

“You okay?” he asked quietly.

It was hard to believe a full day had already passed since he’d asked her the same question in Salex. She managed a nod and gave him the same answer: “I will be.”

Aroska returned a moment later wearing a jacket not unlike the one he’d used to try to stop Maston’s bleeding. He fell into stride with them as they headed for the elevator, still fiddling with the clasp as he secured his sidearm to his belt.

“The GA hasn’t heard back from their scout ships yet,” Skeet explained as they filed into the elevator car and rode it down to the parking bay.

“I heard it was a stealth mission,” Ziva said, letting her hair down and raking her fingers through it before tying it back up into a fresh ponytail.

“It was. No one was supposed to make verbal contact, but we were still expecting to receive some data transmissions. Those scouts have had plenty of time to get to Forus and do a fly-by. Something’s wrong.”

The elevator opened into the parking area. “What are they planning on doing?” Ziva asked, turning toward the borrowed HSP car while Skeet angled for the one he’d brought.

“Sounds like they’ve changed their timetable. The GA wants to mobilize as soon as possible – the fleet has been prepping to leave since the initial attack on Na. They’ve got a couple of reps at Headquarters on standby for a holo-conference with Emeri and Officer Ganten. They’re just waiting for you.”

Ziva almost asked why but realized she knew better. She was the so-called Nosti expert, the one they were all still relying on to save them. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. The last thing she wanted was to stand around a table with the politicians, trying to decide on the best course of action.

“Meet you there, then,” she said, using her key to remote-start the car’s engine before she reached it.

She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but for some reason she was surprised when Aroska slid into the passenger seat beside her. Perhaps Adin had flown him home from the med center the night before and he had no vehicle. Either way, his presence triggered an odd silence, and thoughts of the night before came flooding back. They lifted off without a word and followed Skeet’s car out of the bay and into traffic.

This sector of the city was still under military control, though the soldiers’ presence seemed less prominent now in the daylight. Vehicles and pedestrians moved about almost like normal, though there was a certain urgency in the air that kept all the movement strict and efficient. GA officers and HSP agents alike held posts at nearly every intersection, a deterrent for the inevitable looters and a barrier through which the missing Resistance officers should not be able to pass.

“I said some awful things to you last night,” Aroska said, watching as a pair of identical HSP groundcars zoomed by in the oncoming lane with their sirens blaring.

Ziva gnawed at the inside of her lip and tightened her grip on the steering controls. “Doesn’t mean they weren’t accurate.”

He drew in a breath as if he were about to say more but shut his mouth and let the breath out in the form of a sigh. She was glad he didn’t argue. The way she saw it, there was never any need to apologize for telling the truth.

They arrived at Headquarters in mere minutes, and after producing appropriate identification, they were ushered through the military blockade and directed toward the ops building. The lockdown had been lifted from Code Red to Code Orange for efficiency’s sake, but Ziva wouldn’t have been able to tell save for the color of the lights flashing from the security scanners they passed through. With the way everyone was moving, she was half afraid they’d be detained by one of the skittish GA soldiers roaming the halls. They acted as if this was their facility now.

Aura Stannist met them on the way to the elevator, keeping a curious but wary eye on Ziva as she approached. If they were as much alike as Ziva had guessed, the woman could no doubt read the emotion that still lingered in both her and Aroska’s faces.

“We have a situation,” she said, handing them each a data pad.

“So we’ve heard,” Ziva muttered, wishing someone would just come out and give them all the details. She glanced down and skimmed over her data pad as the four of them crowded into the elevator.

“We last heard from the scouts as they passed by Uturn in the Iaonides system, the halfway mark,” Aura explained. “It was their last scheduled check-in before going dark.”

“When was this?” Aroska asked.

“Last night. We were supposed to receive an encrypted data package this morning after they’d performed their fly-by of Forus and cleared the area. It never came. We’ve given them two extra hours.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she was alluding to. The GA believed their recon team had been taken out. The theory made sense; Ziva didn’t know where, when, or how it had happened, but it was the most likely explanation for the silence. If the
Vigilance
and the
Titania
had been in the area at the time of the scouts’ departure, perhaps they had managed to intercept a transmission and warn the Resistance base.

The elevator opened onto Emeri’s private floor and the group moved forward toward his office. The door already stood open, a sight Ziva wasn’t sure if she’d ever witnessed. She took another look at her data pad. “But if the military is still wanting to send the fleet out—”

“We’ll be going in blind!” Emeri’s voice roared from inside the office, completing her thought for her.

They entered to find him standing on one of the comm pads at his conference table, flanked by the two GA reps Skeet had mentioned. Across the table stood the silvery-blue holograms of three more military men in formal uniforms, as well as a man Ziva assumed to be Royal Officer Jan Ganten, based on the insignia on his uniform. The three officers flickered unsteadily as if their transmissions were struggling to get through from Na.

“The fleet is ready to go,” Ganten said in response to the director’s outburst. “We can’t afford to have it just sitting around while we wait for another scout team.”

Emeri opened his mouth to speak but clamped it shut again, wisely choosing to keep his thoughts to himself. Ziva couldn’t help but stifle a snicker. His eyes did all the talking: “
With respect, sir, you’re not the Royal General
.”

He looked over when he saw her and gestured wildly toward one of the vacant communication pads. “Payvan, get over here!”

And the brief moment of amusement was gone, just like that. Ziva straightened her shoulders and strode forward, though the movement felt mechanical, forced. The thought of herself offering tactical advice to the planet’s military leaders seemed absurd. She didn’t know the first thing about battle strategy on such a large scale. Under normal circumstances, she’d be part of that recon team, swooping in from behind and working quietly in the shadows. She stepped up onto the comm pad, taking a moment to steady her breathing before clearing her throat.

“Captain Payvan,” Ganten said. “Your reputation precedes you.”

His tone made it hard to tell if he was impressed or disgusted. Either way, she decided to take it as a compliment. “Thank you, sir.”

“I trust everyone on your end has been apprised of your…situation.”

Based on the way Emeri was watching her, she guessed he was talking about her Nostia, or at least her knowledge of the Nosti presence. She doubted the director would have given up her secret entirely, but by now there was no point in hiding the fact that she’d been the source of the nostium intel. Still, she turned and looked back at Skeet, Aroska, and Aura, then examined the faces of the two military men beside Emeri. They both watched her in silence with looks verging on awe, and the pins on their uniforms indicated that they were of high enough rank to have been briefed on the nostium originally.

She cleared her throat again. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Payvan, I don’t know how you know what you know, but I want you running point on this thing.”

His words surprised her.
Running point?
Leading the attack? It would still mean having thousands of people relying on her, watching her every move, but the thought of finally getting to join the fight – to do what she was best at – was irresistible. But there was something odd about the way Emeri was looking at her, almost as if he knew something she didn’t. Suddenly Ganten’s offer didn’t seem so generous, and she refrained from responding.

“Report to Haphor this afternoon,” the Royal Officer continued. “You’ll be advising our strategists from the command center here.”

Ziva ground her teeth, glad she’d caught on to Emeri’s glances so her spirits weren’t completely crushed. The director was still watching her, the look in his eyes warning her to tread carefully.