The Dracons' Woman (27 page)

Val, Trey and Garen all glared at her, but she felt the smiles hidden behind their eyes.  She ignored them and finished her dinner, knowing that later, in bed, they would have a thing or two to say to her about it.

Chapter 12

Lariah leaned against the stall door watching Nahia munch her hay as Garen, Trey and Val finished looking after their own mounts.  She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Doc enter the barn and greet the guys, then turn toward her.

“Hello Lariah, how’re the riding lessons comin’ along?” he asked.

“I love it,” Lariah replied at once.  “Except the guys decided that since I was so tired yesterday, they needed to keep the lessons shorter.”  Lariah rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide the smile.  Sometimes they acted as though she was made of glass, which could be a little frustrating.  But mostly she loved the way they always cared about her. 

“Well, riding can be hard till you get used to it,” Doc said with a smile.  “And you can’t fault men for looking after their woman.”

 “Spoken like a true man,” she retorted with a laugh.  “Where’s Tiny?” she asked, suddenly realizing the dog was missing.  She had been leaving him with Doc when she had her riding lessons as he was not fit enough to run behind the horses.

“He’s outside the barn, lying in the sun sleeping,” Doc told her.  “He poked his head in here a bit ago and saw you, then decided to catch himself a nap.”

“He sleeps a lot,” Lariah said.  “I suppose his body needs it.”

“Yes, it takes a lot of energy to heal,” Doc said.  “the more injuries, the more energy it takes.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Lariah said.  Something in her voice caused Doc to look at her sharply, but he looked away before she noticed. 

“I was wondering if I could talk you into helping me out now and then at my little clinic,” Doc said. 

“Really?” Lariah asked.  “You want me to help you with the animals?”

“I do,” he said.  “There aren’t any other vets for at least a hundred miles in any direction.  Lots of people around here have animals though, and I thought with you helping out, I could probably help a lot more of them than I can now.  I can only open the clinic one or two days a week, and sometimes I have to turn people away.  That’s real hard to do, but there’s just the one of me, and I have responsibilities here on the ranch.”

 “I’d love to help,” she agreed at once, smiling brightly.  Then her smile faded.  “But Doc, I really don’t know much about animals, and I don’t know anything about medical stuff.  How much help would I really be?”

“Well honey, with that little secret talent of yours, I thought maybe you could give me a bit of insight into what’s ailing my patients.  Sure would help me figure out what’s wrong with them in a hurry, and I’d be able to treat them more efficiently too.”

 “I never thought of that,” she said.  “That would be so wonderful, to help animals like that.  When can I start?”

“Start what?” Trey asked as the guys joined them.

“Lariah has agreed to help me out at the clinic once a week,” Doc said

Garen hesitated, but the expression of happiness and excitement on Lariah’s face stopped him.  “Just so long as you don’t over work her Doc,” Garen warned.

“Wouldn’t think of it,” Doc replied easily.  Then he turned to Lariah. “See you day after tomorrow at my place, bright and early,” he said.

“I’ll be there,” Lariah promised as Doc tipped his hat and left the barn.

Later that afternoon Trey and Val stood at the patio window and watched as Lariah worked her own special brand of magic on Pater, the gardener.  Pater wasn’t quite as gruff and grumpy as Doc, but when it came to the garden and the plants, he made it clear it was his territory.  Pater had just returned from a long trip, and the guys had already decided how they were going to handle his tantrum when he discovered that Tiny had taken up residence.  But the expected tantrum never did materialize.  Instead, Pater was standing out there in the garden that very moment, answering Lariah’s questions about one plant or another, while scratching the gigantic animal’s ears.  Val and Trey could only smile and shake their heads in wonder.  Lariah seemed to win over everybody who met her. 

“Looks like that message we’ve been waiting on just came in,” Garen said from the other side of the room.  Val and Trey looked once more at the scene in the garden, then turned and followed Garen into the study.  Once they were all settled and the door was firmly closed, Garen flipped the switch to begin playing the Director’s message. 

The Director’s image filled the screen.  He looked even more tired than he had before, but his eyes looked brighter.  After the usual greetings, the man rubbed his eyes and stared into the vid screen.

 “Well, I have both good and bad news.  The good news is that our operation was a success.  The bad news is that our Primary Target, Loggia, escaped capture.  He is still at large, location unknown.”  The Director sighed.  “From what you’ve already told me in your previous messages, I know that you are fully aware of who Ellicia is and her special capabilities.  You also know more about our shop than we care to have publicly known.  So, I’m not going to play any word games, but I am going to remind you to treat all of these matters as a State Secret.

“The incident involving Lariah convinced me that there was a significant security breach, likely one or more moles, inside our organization and that Ellicia was at risk.  At about the same time, we received a Request for Assistance from a planet that has strong economic ties with many of our Members but has not signed the Convention.  As we have no obligation to respond in those cases, I normally would not have sent a team, but given what was at stake, and in light of certain,” he paused to smile enigmatically, “advantages, we could obtain by cooperating in this instance, I dispatched Ellicia and her team there.  It turned out to be a lucky decision. 

“Long story short, Loggia stole the Crown Jewels of Marrazo,” the capital letters were audible, “killing the Queen of the Four Systems in the process.  The Queen just so happens to have been the sister of the planet’s security chief, Jung Del.”

Trey whistled softly.  They had heard of Jung Del.  He had a reputation for ruthlessness exceeded by none other.  There were rumors he liked to dispose of “special” adversaries by eating their entrails before their dying eyes.

“Jung Del suspected that Loggia orchestrated the theft and the murder.  One of the reasons he suspected Loggia was the, shall we say, ‘condition’ of his Sister-Queen’s remains.”  The Director swallowed hard, and dropped his eyes.  When he looked back up again it was clear he was not going to relate details. 

“My team agreed with Jung Del.  The MO fit to a tee.  Also, it was clear from his profile that he would likely retain the jewels for himself.  We have long suspected that Loggia has multiple bases, disbursed through several systems.  When he stores stolen property from one planet, he always does so on a different planet, usually in a different sector, to make objects harder to trace. We’ve tried various methods of following the goods in interstellar transit, but without success.  But then, we have always stayed within a fifty-light year radius, because we thought it impractical to move stolen goods quickly and secretly across any greater distance.

“In this case, however, we thought fifty light-years was too small a scope.  After all, if you had killed Jung Del’s sister, wouldn’t YOU want to be more than fifty light years away?”

‘Fifty thousand is more like it,” Trey remarked.

“Based on a tip that Loggia had been seen on Earth at about the right time, Ellicia and her team decided to return to Earth to search for the stolen jewels.  Earth and Jung Del’s home world are pretty much at opposite corners of the Thousand Worlds.  It was worth a try. 

“They returned two days ago, and Ellicia was able to locate the missing Crown Jewels, and Loggia’s base almost immediately.  We executed a textbook Surround and Seize operation on his compound, taking it, his computers, his people, and his warehouse of weapons and merchandise intact.   He is out of business.  As I said, we took his computers intact, so we have the locations of all his bases, his contacts, all his com frequencies and encrypt codes, the transponder/locater codes for the ships he uses to carry illegal cargo, and all his banking records.  We’ve impounded every ship and frozen every account.  But, as I said, we did not catch Loggia himself, or his two bodyguards.  According to Loggia’s men, he had just gone off on a short jaunt and is expected to return in about ten days.

“The good news is that by the time he returns, he won’t have anything to come back to.  All of his bases will have been neutralized and his funds inaccessible to him.  He won’t have anywhere to go, and, other than whatever funds he has in his ship’s vault, he will be broke.

“The bad news is, his personal yacht is equipped with an espionage grade cloaking device, illegal for civilians, and he can illegally disable the transponder/locator.  The yacht is virtually impossible to see, or track so long as the device is engaged, and he keeps it engaged at all times.” 

The Director paused here, and then shook his head a little.   

“Jung Del is very grateful to Ellicia for finding the jewels, and asked her if there was anything he could do for her in return.  Ellicia told Jung Del about Lariah’s abduction, and expressed a desire to be certain that Loggia was unable to ever touch Lariah again.  Jung Del swore a blood oath to Ellicia that he would see to it.  Normally, I would not approve of this sort of arrangement.  In this instance, however, this particular aspect of the operation may not make it into my official report.

“The reason I’m telling you this is that Jung Del has come up with a plan for catching Loggia, and it involves Lariah.  He wants to lure Loggia to Jasan by letting it be known that Ellicia personally returned to your world for the sole purpose of discrediting my organization as revenge for what happened to Lariah.  He wants to sweeten the pot by adding that the Marrazon royal family has granted to Ellicia a large reward for her role in the return of the Crown Jewels, and that she has returned to Jasan to live happily in the lap of luxury with you. 

“As Lariah is a civilian and given everything she has already been through, I am highly reluctant to place her at further risk in an operation involving an adversary like Loggia.  On the other hand, Loggia’s comm records contained a message indicating that one of his informers had told him that she was at the Dracons’ ranch on Jasan.  We think he still wants Ellicia, to add her special abilities to his arsenal.  And he still thinks that Lariah is Ellicia.

“Whatever we do, Lariah is at risk.  Even without Jung Del’s involvement, it’s possible that Loggia will become even more determined to get Lariah back once he discovers his empire is gone.  It is possible that he will see her as the easiest, fastest way to rebuild his organization. 

“Because his cloaking device gives him the whole galaxy in which to hide, our only chance of catching Loggia is to lure him to a specific place, then wait for him to arrive there.  If we don’t lure him, it’s likely he will show up there anyway, only when he does, nobody will be waiting for him.  If we do it Jung Del’s way, there’s a good chance of catching him once and for all. 

“Consider this proposal, then advise me how you want me to proceed.  If you want to work with Jung Del to prepare an appropriate reception for Loggia, I will let Jung Del know who you are.  As of now, all I’ve told him is that you are far enough out that he needs to warp for 53 hours in the direction of the Zubin Elgenubi sector in order to speak with you real-time.  He left yesterday in hopes that you would agree to work with him.

“As of right now, Loggia is expected to return to Earth and discover that his organization is a total loss in about 7 days.  We have no way of knowing how long he’ll stay in this sector, so if we are going to spread news about Ellicia, we need to do it quickly.  So the clock is ticking on that. 

“You should also know that a limitation of his cloaking device is that it can conceal his warp field from being detected only if he travels slowly.  Accordingly, if he intends to remain undetectable, as we think he will, it would take him about two months to reach Jasan from Earth.  If you decide not to work with Jung Del, I want you to at least have an idea of when to expect Loggia.”

The Director paused for a moment.  “There is a part of me that wants you to work with Jung Del and catch this little son of a bitch.  But there is another part of me that hates the idea of pointing him at Lariah Daniels.  That young lady has suffered more than enough.  So I guess all I can tell you is, whatever you decide to do, I wish you good luck and Godspeed.  It’s not much, but from where I sit, it’s all I’ve got.”

Garen reached out and shut off the vid screen, then met his brothers’ determined gazes with his own. 

“It’s our best chance of putting Loggia down,” Val said.  “We have to do it.”

“I agree,” Trey put in.  “We have a lot more planet security than the Director thinks.  Loggia would never be allowed to land his ship on Jasan, and our barriers would prevent him from transporting to the surface.  If we don’t do this, I think we can keep Lariah safe from him.  But, at the same time, we risk never being able to catch him at all.”

“And that is not acceptable,” Garen said.  “Loggia must be stopped, and he must pay for his crimes against Lariah.”