The Fight for Peace (2 page)

The generators on the transports hummed to maximum output as they fed the electricity into the shields manifested by the dactyls. Nothing crossed the barrier. Even inside his dactyl, Jared could smell scorched earth and stone as it vaporized. He’d seen the shields in testing but he’d never stood inside one. Now he saw why Arinna had worked so hard to recreate the strange phenomena she’d seen the day the FLF bombed Europe.

“Looking good on your end, Captain?” Kehm asked. He sounded nervous.

“Yeah. I love these things. Remind me to tell Arinna th
a—
Shit.” Jared ducked as the front screen of his dactyl blazed white. Immediately the electricity in the shields arced blue, absorbing the energy of the blast to increase in strength with the surge and blocking the Guard troops from whatever had just detonated. Nothing could stop the violent aftershock that swept through the ground though. His plane bucked. The extra energy integrated into the shield backfed static, blinking the screens and lights in his plane. Jared was certain the shield was about to fail.

“I repeat, Captain, are you there?” Kehm sounded frantic.

“What the hell?” Jared said, finally taking a breath. Which is when he realized he hadn’t died. “Kehm, what did that look like on your end?” Jared started flipping open comm channels, trying to ping Arinna. His plane couldn’t find hers. “Kehm?”

“The satellites are still a little blind from the blast. It looked nuclear,” Kehm said, his voice trembling. “It looked like Kiev.”

Jared should have thought of that. Arinna should have. The bombs the FLF had detonated in Kiev had to have come from somewhere, been stored somewhere. They never should have assumed the FLF had utilized their entire arsenal because they hadn’t used a nuke the rest of the war.

“Do you have contact with all troops? Is everyone okay?” Kehm asked.

“Lieutenants report!” Jared ordered. He knew he couldn’t do anything to help Arinna, but he didn’t want to stop trying even long enough to check on the troops that were his responsibility. Please not only his responsibility now. Outside the ground rumbled and a wind hissed around his plane, blasting it with a powdery dust.

“Lieutenant Faronelli reporting. This section is holding,” Gabriella said, sounding amazingly unruffled. “Minor electrical discharge across my plane and I’m pretty sure there will be some melted wires in the transports, but my allotment of troops is reporting only a few minor electrical injuries.”

“Lieutenant Assad reporting.” Farrak sounded a bit more unnerved. “Situation is the same. Surprisingly no radiation indicated behind the shield, which is good. Otherwise the EMP would have fried everything and we’d be dead. Sir, have you heard from the Lady Grey?”

Jared didn’t want to answer that question. He turned off his links to everyone but Kehm and the ghost of Arinna’s plane.

“Dammit you better still be alive,” Jared swore into the mike. “Arinna!”

He got only static. Outside the blue-white light dimmed as the shield weakened. What he could see beyond the small circle of safety was terrifying. It looked worse than Kiev. Her plane remained unaccounted for as his radar stabilized with the fading blast.

“Arinna!” Jared yelled again, angrier than he remembered being when Michael had ordered him to stay behind when the main Guard force had flown to Kiev. Because it had been too dangerous to not separate command of the troops, Michael had said. Damn Arinna for being so much like her late husband. Jared swore every curse word he knew.

“Man you sound pissed.”

Jared dropped to his chair at the sound of Arinna’s voice. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” he said. It took him two tries to speak.

Arinna’s laugh was off, even though her tone was as dry as usual when she spoke. “I don’t ever want to do that again. From where I’m sitting, I would say the target has been neutralized.”

“Where are you sitting, my Lady?” Kehm asked. His voice shook.

“Probably at the bottom of the damn bunker. Could you come dig me out, Captain?”

Jared hadn’t laughed so hard in years.

Chapter 2

CORIANNE HEYLOR

TESTIMONY

“That is why Tatiana never mentioned you,” Corianne said to Pyotr. “You weren’t home.”

“She wasn’t allowed to tell. Heck, I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, even her,” Pyotr confessed.

Corianne snorted. Ever since she’d been reunited with her family and learned what Pyotr had been doing, she found she got along with him better than anyone else. He too had been doing things her mother would rather not know about. And he didn’t look at her the way her mother did, like she was constantly on the verge of tears. Or the way Tatiana avoided looking at her until she had to, and then it was with a forced smile.

“So Tatiana is engaged to Phillip?” Corianne asked.

Pyotr frowned. “Yeah, I heard. I haven’t met him yet. She said he wanted to come, but offered to stay behind to take care of the farm.”

“Which is nice and responsible,” Corianne said, surprising herself by defending a man she wouldn’t recognize unless Tatiana was clinging to his arm. “Your sister really loves him. She’s a bit more trustworthy than me.” Corianne meant the last as a joke, but her voice trembled.

“Corianne, don’t,” Pyotr began, taking her hand.

She pulled away, using her freed hand to wipe away a stray tear. “I told you, it is Cori now.”

Pyotr coughed on a laugh. “I would like to hear you introduced at a ball as Cori,” he teased.

“I think we both know I’ll never be attending another ball, especially after the hearing today,” she replied.

Saying it hurt. But it was a fact. She accepted it. Eventually her family would as well. The future they’d hoped for her was beyond her reach now. The door opened following a knock, stopping Pyotr from speaking the thought on his lips. He frowned at Gabriella who waited in the hall. Corianne stood, not needing to be told it was time.

“You don’t have to do this, Cori,” Pyotr said. “It will be a rumor forgotten in a season. You could move on.”

“Not go on record and ‘ruin’ myself?” Cori cast Pyotr a sad smile. Despite what her cousin or any of her family might think, she’d thought on this over many a long night. “Testifying is the only thing that makes what happened have meaning. I know my mother and Tatiana just wish I’d go home and forget everything that occurred. But I can’t. Even if I did, pretending it didn’t happen won’t make me forget. At least this way I know something good came out of it.”

“Something good already did,” Gabriella said. “You saved Byran’s life and his family.”

“It’s a start. Now to finish it,” Corianne replied.

The session was called a hearing, but really it was a trial held in front of the full Parliament, and she was the main witness. Settling into her chair in the front of the large audience room, Corianne did not see anyone involved in the events of the bombing. Byran wasn’t there, nor was the Lady Grey. Gabriella had stopped escorting her after opening the door to the room. Cori did not see her family, which balanced the momentary isolation she felt. She’d rather be alone than have her mother sitting nearby. This was going to be difficult enough. So Corianne did her best to ignore the many faces of Senators she had worked for over the last few months. Instead, she focused on the face of the man in front of her.

Corianne did not know the man questioning her. Legislator Tilton was patient with his questions, asking for details when she hesitated, but kind enough to ensure she had water or verifying if she needed a break. Not knowing him made it easier to say the details she wanted to forget. Surprise or shock never registered in his brown eyes. His tone never condoned or condemned her actions. The vast hall of people faded and Corianne concentrated on him.

“It was the man who raped you who said he was FLF?” Tilton asked. Corianne confirmed it. “He freely told you that?”

“No. He said Mr. Eldridge had asked him to fake an attack on Byran Vasquez’s residence and to make it look like the FLF organized it. He laughed and said there they were in the flesh. He thought it was funny.”

“What else did he say about Mr. Eldridge?”

“That he, Mr. Eldridge, had been trying to contact the FLF to create a peace deal and that was where Mr. Eldridge had gone when he’d left a few days before the bombings,” Corianne said clearly. She knew this was the important part.

“Anything else?”

“Yes. That I was payment from Mr. Eldridge to the man who attacked me for the help in contacting the FLF.” Corianne ignored the muffled words and shifting chairs the statement brought.

Tilton did as well, continuing without pause. “What else was said by this man?”

“That he and the men, the FLF, with him were going to attack Parliament the day of the vote on the election proposal, but had decided against it because of Mr. Eldridge’s request.”

“To bomb the Vasquez house? Why was that important, at least more important than the whole Parliament as a target?” Tilton asked at Corianne’s nod.

“Because he said something would be found alongside Byran’s body that would remove the Lady Grey as well, and with her gone Europe would give itself to the FLF in a month.”

Tilton waited this time for the flurry of conversation to fade. “That would be the satchel of letters found in Mr. Vasquez’s office?”

“I don’t know,” Corianne admitted. “He didn’t say what. Only that Mr. Eldridge and those like him who really controlled the government would use them to destroy the Lady Grey.”

“Did David Eldridge ever give you documents to take to Byran Vasquez?”

Surprise filled Corianne, smarting her eyes with a new wound. They thought she had a role in this after all. Tilton waited for Corianne, gaze unwavering and not judging. He looked like it was as fair a question as any. That made Corianne take a breath to steady herself. It wasn’t just speaking about what had happened to her that was going to make today difficult.

“No. Mr. Eldridge never gave me documents to take to Mr. Vasquez.”

“Or ask you to put in his briefcase?”

“No.”

“Did you ever see Mr. Vasquez and the Lady Grey together?”

“Yes. After the vote on the election proposal,” Corianne said.

“In public? Did you ever see them together in a more private setting?”

“No.”

“But you worked for Mr. Vasquez?”

“I worked for Parliament. I photocopied papers and arranged meetings for Mr. Vasquez whenever he asked.”

“So you were around him quite a bit?”

“During the day, yes.”

“But you did not see them together? Make appointments for them to meet? See correspondence between them? Anything like that?”

Corianne shook her head with relief. “No. Nothing like that, ever.”

“Danielle le Marc also worked with Mr. Vasquez on the election proposal. Did she ever ask you to give Byran paperwork?”

“All the time. I made copies of draft proposals and notes she’d written and carried them to Byran.”

“Did you ever see anything other than these draft proposals or notes?”

“Not that I noticed,” Corianne replied.

For what felt like the first time, Tilton looked down at his notes. Corianne blinked in the release from the quick succession of questions. “That is everything I have for you. Thank you for your testimony today, Ms. Heylor.”

There was no applause as Corianne walked to the small door she’d entered. But she didn’t need it. The relief to have it done was more than enough. That and knowing she could go back to her room and be alone. Only when she opened the door, her mother was there.

“I’m so proud of you, sweetie. You were so poised,” her mother, Linda, said, embracing Corianne.

“I didn’t think you were there,” Corianne said over a dry throat.

“An upper balcony,” Pyotr said, making Corianne realize that he and Tatiana were in the room as well. “They didn’t want us to distract you.”

“You should have seen how the Senators reacted to what you said. I could tell how much they respect you,” Tatiana said as Linda led Corianne with an arm around her shoulder to a small couch. She didn’t let go as they sat next to each other.

“For testifying?” Corianne asked, doubtful.

“Because they know you from all the work you’ve put in over the last few months,” Tatiana said firmly. “You aren’t just a nameless girl, you know. You worked with them and they saw you every day.”

Corianne leaned into the sofa back. She hadn’t thought about that.

“You really did well,” Pyotr said. “You should run for Parliament when they open elections again. I think you’d win a seat.”

Her eyes stung again at the compliment. “Hah. I’ll think about it, but I’m not certain I’m ready for that right now.”

“Goodness no,” Linda said. “You need to come home and help us prepare for Tatiana’s wedding this spring. We need to think about what flowers to plant and the dresses,” her mother rattled on for a moment. The idea felt as suffocating as her mother’s tight arm around her shoulders.

Corianne leaned forward, trying to catch her breath. “I don’t want to go back,” she said, interrupting her mother into sudden silence. Her family stared at her.

“You don’t want to come home?” Linda asked. Her mother looked ready to cry again. Corianne took her hands.

“I want you to be in my wedding,” Tatiana said quietly.

“I want to be there,” Corianne said, reaching for Tatiana as well. “I’m just ... I can’t come home. I’m afraid if I do I’ll never leave.”

“Then what do you want? You can’t stay here,” Linda trailed off, even though Corianne could guess what was supposed to come after – without supervision.

“I want to join the Guard.”

Three voices, each rising to be heard over the others assaulted her.

“Is everyone all right?” the Lady Grey asked from the doorway.

“Why are you here?” Linda asked in a tone more fitting of the words “what do you plan to do with my daughter?”

“I came to thank you, Ms. Heylor and to see if you need anything.”

“Before she enlists, you mean?” Linda said, hand protective on Corianne’s shoulder as she stood.

“Actually, I already told Coria
n—
Cori,” the Lady Grey corrected. “I told her she could not enlist right now.”

“Why? You need soldiers. I won’t change my mind,” Corianne said firmly.

Arinna held Corianne’s gaze for a moment, a faint smile crossing her face as she looked away. “Then waiting a month won’t be so much an issue since you’ll still feel the same.”

The answer disappointed and gave her hope at the same time. “That’s it then, you’ll be coming home,” Linda said.

Corianne looked at her mother ready to argue and then closed her mouth. She hadn’t seen her mother so close to falling apart since they’d learned of her father’s death in the war. Her mother who had raised her and her two cousins, managed a farm despite myriads of setbacks, and found ways of trying to make a better life for her daughter. A dream that Corianne had destroyed. Yet still her mother wanted her to come home.

“I’ll go home, but when the month is over, how will I contact you to let you know I still wish to enlist?”

The pique in Corianne’s tone earned a smile from Arinna, one that flashed in her blue eyes. “The Guard is going to fly you home. If in a month you still wish to join, you need only send word to Rhiol. The Guard will come and get you. If that is acceptable?”

“It is,” Corianne said, sitting a bit more properly in her chair instead of slouching. Perhaps all the years spent following good manners wouldn’t be wasted. Without them she never would have spoken to the Lady Grey so. “Did I make a difference, today?”

“Your testimony? Yes. It confirmed much of what else was heard, and you did do very well. I had my turn in front of Parliament, too, and Tilton was far less pleasant. I’m glad he was kinder to you.”

“Why were you questioned?” Pyotr asked before Corianne could.

“I hid the existence of MOTHER and a war. I daresay Parliament is not very pleased with me at the moment.”

“But what the FLF said ... they wouldn’t, I don’t know, remove you?” Corianne asked.

“I highly doubt it, but I really don’t know. All of us make choices, Cori, that result in events we might not foresee. I do not regret most of mine and will live with the consequences. Remember, go to Rhiol if you need anything,” Arinna said, leaving Corianne with her family and new worries, as well as the promise of a long, cold wait of a month spent in a farmhouse in northern England.