A Touch of Lilly (21 page)

Lilly
reached into the inside pocket of her coat, pulling out the earpiece
and the QAL badge she’d had forged on Dallas Eight months ago.
She would like to have put on the sunglasses for disguise, but even
the flood lights pouring down on the tarmac didn’t make them
necessary in the darkness of Garalon Five. Checking her timepiece,
Lilly tamped down the panic. It was nearly time for Tervoss to take
the podium. She’d wanted to find the Drikspa before he spoke,
but perhaps hunting him down would be better done while the crowd was
focused on Tervoss’ speech.

Jostled
once again, Lilly realized she needed to get out of the growing
crowd. She debated working her way to the secured tented area to her
left, pushing her way into the thick of Tervoss’ security. But
getting close to the Drikspa when he was so intent on studying the
crowd, would be difficult for sure. If she was going to take him down
without bloodshed, she’d need to do it with secrecy as her
advantage.

Lilly
searched for another plan. To the right of her, a staging for media
had been set up. The front of the platform was lined with televid
cameras pointed down at the crowd. Behind them stood several aliens
she recognized as city officials. Perhaps from that vantage point she
could better scan the crowd.

And
that’s when she saw him—behind the media, mingling with
dignitaries—the Drikspa who, six months ago, had made her worst
nightmares a reality. Her world became a narrow focus of anger,
revenge and the alien. He spoke to another Drikspa. Their heads were
close together, their eyes surveying the area, wrists lifted to their
mouths as they spoke to an unknown entity. Definitely with security.
The two looked at each other and nodded before separating and her
Drikspa headed off the platform.

But
she no longer followed his movements.

The
crowd burst into a loud round of applause and she was vaguely aware
of Ambassador Tervoss taking his place behind the podium. The roar of
the crowd barely penetrated the rush of blood pounding in her ears.
Lilly stared in disbelief as the second Drikspa took up position
behind the media, hidden among the dignitaries.

The
crowd quieted and the ambassador spoke. “Good evening. I’m
pleased to be here on Garalon Five…”

But
Lilly wasn’t focused on what Tervoss was saying. The Drikspa
above the crowd now had her fully attention. Sometimes karma smiled
and shined in her direction. The alien above her wasn’t a
Drikspa by birth. This alien wore the tattoo of a Braugtot and the
marks snaking along his neck to swirl up his cheek and around his
left eye were the same ones she’d seen on Grebetz’s
communicator last night.
Hij’Rozhod
. Lilly had no doubt.
He’d come here to take out the Commander-elect.

“…
will
be meeting with the league of galaxies and begin working…”

The
Ambassador’s words rolled into the background noise of the
crowd around her. The instincts of a detective, honed from years on
the Chicago force, kicked into gear without any thought for her
safety. Lilly’s own problems would wait. She had probably been
the sole witness to the last-minute plans of an assassin whose
intended target was Ambassador Tervoss.

She
had no time to stop the man above her on the media platform. Bringing
attention to him at this point would only leave the ambassador
vulnerable to any number of weapons the alien may be carrying.
Lilly’s only course of action was to get to the man behind the
podium.

Propelling
herself through the crowd, Lilly ignored the protests of the aliens
she pushed aside. Unapologetically, she flashed the fake badge, her
only care—protecting the ambassador. She’d answer to the
authorities later. If
Hij’Rozhod
succeeded, the galaxy
would be thrown into turmoil and the criminals would score another
win.

In
excruciating slow motion, the other Drikspa with the missing horn
stepped out of the tent on the far side of the security area. In
sight of everyone, he lifted a Treljon laser, aimed it directly at
Tervoss and managed to pull off two rounds before being taken down by
security. The zip of beams cut through the air, but she couldn’t
tell what, if anything, they hit. The ambassador was swarmed by
security, blocking him from her view. Screams reverberated as chaos
erupted.

Lilly
pushed against the flow of the crowd as they swarmed in a panicked
mass away from the podium. Tervoss, surrounded by his security team,
was pushed directly toward the staging on her right. More security
rushed across the platform, clearing the escape route for the
ambassador. The Braugtot-Drikspa moved with the contingent, in direct
line with the approaching Commander-elect. Her Drikspa had only been
the catalyst to put the assassination plan in motion.

She
broke through the crowd with the credentials flashing and screamed,
“There’s another assassin on the platform!”

A
feral yell of frustration roared from her left. “You bitch!”

Lilly
turned to see the Drikspa near the stage pull a weapon of some kind
from his sleeve. With deadly precision he shot two of the security
guards and sliced a lethal energy beam across the neck of a third.
The aliens crumpled at his feet. In the time it took to blink, the
Drikspa turned to her, his eyes burning with recognition. The flashes
of light blasting from the weapon were nearly blinding in their
intensity, the sound of the energy unusually loud in her ears. Pain
exploded in her back just before she went down hard on the tarmac.

Fire
burned in her gut, spread out to lick hungrily at her arms and legs
and explode in her head. Lilly rolled to her back, moaning with the
wave of pain the motion brought.

“
Lilly.”
Her name echoed through the haze of agony. “Lilly.”

She
was sure the angels were calling her. When her eyes focused, it was
Dallas’ face that swam in her vision. His halo was nearly
blinding in its intensity and she shut her eyes against the beauty,
hoping he would carry her from the agony crackling along her nerves
into the serenity of heaven.

“
Oh
no you don’t. Lilly, stay with me.” Dallas’ voice
broke with emotion. “Open your eyes.”

She
forced herself to obey. Deep lines of worry marred his angelic
features. “Why are you here…did I…”

“
You
saved him, Lilly.” She watched Dallas’ hand move down her
face, but she couldn’t feel the gentle caress of his fingers
against her skin. The scorching pain had been extinguished by ice
that now flowed through her veins.

She
wanted to talk. To ask who she’d saved, but she couldn’t
get her teeth to stop chattering.

“
Thanks
to you, Thaegan took down
Hij’Rozhod
.” He leaned
in close to her face, his beautiful eyes glistening in the bright
lights. “Lilly, you saved the ambassador. Now I’m going
to save you.”

Dallas’
voice was a faraway echo that she couldn’t understand. The cold
became a roaring black hole, surrounding her in its vortex. It
consumed light and sound, dragging her down with it. Lilly wanted to
make it stop, to beg Dallas to hold onto her and keep her from
getting lost in the darkness. But she couldn’t find him in the
swirling vacuum as it engulfed her. The noise and heat and cold and
pain disappeared as Lilly was sucked into the blackness alone.

Chapter Ten

Lilly
hadn’t expected heaven to feel this way. Everything hurt.
Jesus
, even her hair follicles pulsed with hundreds of
pinpricks of pain. Then it occurred to her, perhaps that wasn’t
where her soul had gone. She wondered if she could stay in this
darkness and not acknowledge where she was.

“
Lilly.”

Inwardly
she sighed. She shouldn’t be surprised someone in the bowels of
hell knew her.

“
Lilly,
it’s Dallas. If you can hear me, open your eyes.”

Her
lids fluttered, light spearing more pain through her skull. She
forced her eyes to focus and he was there, his smile warm and
inviting. Had he been sucked into the darkness with her? His
happiness made no sense.

“
Hi,
beautiful,” he said. “You scared the living crap right
out of us.”

“
Is
this hell?” The words were gravel scraped over the soft skin of
her throat.

“
You’d
have thought so if you’d had to put up with him over the last
couple of days.” Thaegan leaned in and slapped Dallas on the
back.

“
You
were no picnic with your pacing and hand-wringing, my friend.”
Dallas laughed and kissed her forehead. “But no, you’re
in a hospital. You were hurt really bad. It’s been touch and
go.”

“
That
explains why I hurt everywhere.”

Dallas
offered her water and she drank cautiously, unsure she’d get
the liquid past the hot lump of pain in her throat.

“
Easy.”
He pulled the straw from her mouth. “You’ve been out for
a couple of days. They told me to have you go slow. Too much and
you’ll puke.” He shrugged. “Despite our best
efforts, you haven’t seemed to want to come out of that
slumber.”

“
I
thought I died and went to hell.”

“
No,
that would’ve been Thaegan’s endless stream of Ka’al
prayers he kept repeating in your ear. I kept telling him it was
sending you deeper into a coma, not the other way around. But he
never listens. Sorry you had to put up with that.”

“
Like
she was enjoying your reading of
Homer
. Boring Earth drivel if
you ask me.” Thaegan grabbed a chair, turned it backward and
sat down with his powerful arms thrown over the back, his hands
resting comfortably on her shin. “You certainly were tap
dancing this side of death’s door. But thanks to this guy…we
had a happier outcome.”

Dallas
actually blushed. “I just donated blood.”

“
Yeah,
indestructible
blood.”

If
it were possible Dallas’ face deepened in color at Thaegan’s
statement. “Well it’s blood-blood, it’s just that…”

“
Your
body heals faster,” she said. “And obviously isn’t
affected by
my
prowess.” She wiggled her fingers in the
air.

“
Yeah.”
Confusion furrowed Dallas’ brow. “How’d you know?”

“
Thaegan
told me.”

The
alien lifted his hands in surrender when Dallas glared at him. “Hey,
I didn’t say a word.”

She
hurt too much to laugh at their exchange and simply relaxed into
their comfortable banter. “Well, not straight out. More like he
mentioned it while I was,” she motioned air quotes,
“sleeping
.”

“
At
the cabin?” Dallas asked and she nodded.

“
Yeah,
we wondered about that Sleeping Beauty routine,” Thaegan said,
squeezing her leg.

“
What
else did you hear?” asked Dallas.

“
That you lost someone
important to you…to you both.”

Dallas
shot Thaegan a look she couldn’t quite discern. “Lilly,
we lost several team members in that operation on Canus Delta. Sarah
just happened to be one of them. And every one of their deaths weighs
heavy on us.”

“
You
were betrayed by a leak in QAL?”

“
Well,
that leak’s been plugged.” Thaegan’s hands tapped
out a quick rhythm on the chair back. “Not that we give a
shit.”

“
Who
was it?” she asked.

“
Bastower,”
Dallas replied through clenched teeth.

“
What?
Didn’t you tell me he was your boss?” Was there no end to
the double agents in QAL? “How’d you—”

“
Well,
we have
you
to thank for that.” Dallas ran his hand down
her hair, letting it rest at the back of her neck, his thumb
caressing her cheek. “I saw you on the televid at the news
conference. I’d laid down the law about you staying put in your
hotel—”

“
And
he knew how well you always listened.” Thaegan laughed as he
reached out again and rubbed her leg. There was comfort in their
touches.

“
Anyway,
the determination on your face shouted loud and clear that you
believed something was going down. I wasn’t sure what you were
seeing, but a new member had joined our team several months back. A
Drikspa, allegedly wounded in the line of duty. The timing aligned
with your kidnapping.”

“
Bastower
had just presented us with some flimsy excuse to pull the Drikspa for
Tervoss’ security detail and things began to add up.”

“
You
also mentioned Grebetz’s boss was a Braugtot—”

“
Bastower’s
a Braugtot,” Thaegan continued seamlessly. “He’s
been everywhere the assassinations have taken place over the past
three years because
we’ve
been chasing
Hij’Rozhod
.”

“
Actually
turns out my QAL team was giving him cover,” Dallas said.

“
Why
would QAL want to assassinate all those government officials?”
she asked.

“
Not
QAL. Bastower,” Thaegan clarified.

“
The
same reason he had the Drikspa transferred to our team. Two words…”

“
Slave
trade,” she responded.