Dremiks (53 page)

O’Connell shrugged into her jacket and fastened the snaps before sitting again. “All well and good, maybe even plausible, but why would your brother need to silence me? I’m just the pilot. Taking me out doesn’t cripple the
Hudson
, since you’d still be in command and Price could still fly her. I’m not part of the colonial command structure. I don’t have any political power…ah.” Her shoulders slumped.

Brett nodded. “Took you long enough.”

Maggie felt like banging her head again. “It always comes back to daddy dearest.” After a moment’s reflection, she felt more like shooting something, or someone. “Permission to curse quite colorfully about a superior officer?”

“Be my guest. Once you’ve completed that, though, we need to determine what it is my brother wants with your father. I doubt the admiral is calling the shots in this.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

“Look, I know you two don’t get along.” He acknowledged her snort at his understatement. “But your father would never condone killing you.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “You’re sure of that, are you? What the admiral wants, the admiral gets and be damned
anyone
who stands in his way. Trust me. I learned that lesson young.”

The captain refused to accept that Admiral O’Connell would want his daughter assassinated. “And yet you’re here. No, I think my brother was trying to send a message to your father, rather than taking orders from him.”

Maggie watched the captain as he sat thinking. His back was obviously bothering him since he was careful not to let the seat back touch him. He was unconsciously rubbing at a small burned patch on the back of his right forearm, and he looked generally disheveled. He also looked worried.

“Sir, you really think Ryan was behind the attack on us and making this mess?” She gestured at the last of the disabled wiring.

Brett considered that for a minute before shaking his head in the negative. “I don’t want to believe it, but the possibility has to exist. I need to know exactly what he said to you last night, before I confront him.”

O’Connell fidgeted with the snaps on her jacket. She didn’t know why the captain had decided his brother was dangerous, and she certainly wasn’t going to share her long-held aversion to Ryan Hill. Maggie could guess how the captain would react; she could actually hear his cold tone when he asked her why she hadn’t shared her concerns earlier. She opened her mouth to repeat her assertion that the conversation had been meaningless drunken seduction. Then her eye caught the expression on the captain’s face.

“Don’t even think of lying to me, Maggie.” He needn’t have quietly stated the command, his look was sufficient to scare her into veracity.

Closing her eyes against the probing, steely, glare, Maggie tried to recall the exact words. She repeated exactly what the Vice Chancellor had said about her cemented loyalties and his questions about what she learned while the
Hudson
had been gone. “What else?” Resisting the urge to lean back, the captain crossed his legs with one booted foot resting on the opposite knee. He crossed his arms against his chest and waited.

O’Connell glanced at her unfinished repairs.

“I’m quite willing to sit here all day and night until I get an answer out of you.”

She jerked her head and glared right back at him. “He said you weren’t any good at seducing women and wanted to know if I had “broken you to the saddle.” Like I said before, just drunken nonsense.” Angry at her own discomfort, she continued to glare at the captain. “Satisfied?”

Years of dealing with his brother’s taunts immured Captain Hill to any distress at the comments about his sexual prowess. “I wonder why he cares? Why has he been chasing you, and why does he care what goes on between us?”

O’Connell couldn’t answer any more questions, especially those about her relationship with the captain. She stood abruptly and moved toward the door. “Between your brother and Dr. Fortunas, the entire colony will be convinced there is an “us” to be gossiped about. People around here have some seriously repressed sexual urges, and I’m tired of them projecting their feelings while interpreting my actions.” She swiped at a curl that kept tickling the side of her face. “I’m going to do my
job
and finish these repairs. After I get us safely back to the ship, I intend to find out who keeps trying to kill me. With your permission, sir?”

The captain didn’t look up. “Granted.”

Stepping up to the door, Maggie’s hand was about to activate the controls when she heard the captain clear his throat. She turned around and backed up involuntarily, surprised to find the captain uncomfortably close. He didn’t come any closer. The expression on his face was contemplative. The silence lengthened, leaving them staring at each other. Maggie was the first to break eye contact. Her glance fell to his mouth. He noticed, and the corners of his lips quirked upward. She returned her focus to his eyes.

Brett’s blue eyes swept over her in a blatantly assessing look. “I wonder,” he said in a soft voice, “if I should be insulted or complimented at the notion that I had to seduce you to gain your loyalty.”

His grin widened when the commander gave him an equally sultry assessment. Then she licked her lips. “You forget, sir, that Ryan decided I was the seducer.” The inflection she put on the word “sir” was anything but proper. “Maybe you should be insulted at the idea that you would fall for my charms.”

The captain raised his hand and enjoyed seeing Maggie’s composure slip as he stepped forward. He stared down at her lips. His smile vanished. He leaned against the door mechanism to activate it. Just before she stepped backward out of the lander, he leaned in so close that his breath moved a curl resting on her cheek. “Where’s the insult in that?”

His soft laughter ended abruptly when they heard the fine gravel of the walkway crunching under approaching feet. Brett reached out and yanked Maggie back into the shadows.

Chapter 31

Ben Fortunas stepped into the lander, took one look at the two of them, and decided that feigning ignorance of their tension was better than setting off a powder keg. “I’m so glad I found you both together. I think there are things we need to discuss.”

The captain saw the commander glare at the scientist and saw the scientist return her glare with a coldness the captain hadn’t known he possessed. While he watched, Fortunas seemed to become younger, more physically intimidating, and infinitely more dangerous. Instinctively, Hill stepped towards Maggie.

“Sit down, Margaret, before you pass out or the captain here decides I’m going to do you physical harm.”

Miraculously, to Captain Hill, O’Connell sat down without a word of protest. Her expression indicated nothing more than bleak resignation.

“Would you care to explain your familiarity with ordering around my officer, Doctor?”

Ben’s smile was sardonic at best. “Because I am
familiar
with her.” His emphasis was not missed by his audience. “I fed her sweets as a child and pulled her sopping wet head out of the North Sea.”

When Hill glanced at her for confirmation, O’Connell shrugged. “He did, though it wasn’t all that heroic, I could swim.” She paused. Seeing that Fortunas was willing to let her tell the story, she continued, “During the European war, my father was stationed in Hamburg working with the allied intelligence networks. A young German doctor was an occasional visitor. He gave me, on one occasion, a package of chocolates and a year or so later pulled me away from a pleasant swim.”

“In frigid waters she’d plunged into after being ordered off the dock by her father.” Ben’s expression softened. “Petulance isn’t a becoming trait for a child and is less so for a grown woman, Margaret.”

She ignored him, too tired to fight. “I thought I recognized him when he reported to the
Hudson
. His name was different, of course. Later, after my wreck, I realized who he was. And,” her expression turned stony, “I have to wonder at his deception and his presence here now.”

“Keep your hands visible, if you please, Margaret. I’m not here to harm either one of you. I’d prefer to avoid proving that by letting you stab me with that boot knife.”

Brett looked in shock from the scientist to Maggie’s foot and back at the scientist. He sunk back onto the bench seat. “Right. One of you had better start making sense and leave off the riddles.” He looked down at O’Connell’s foot again and frowned at her, but shook his head. He’d find out about the knife later.

“The commander is right. I worked for the allies during the first stages of the war. As a biologist specializing in germ warfare, I had the knowledge and contacts they needed. Margaret’s father liked first hand intelligence from field operatives. When he wasn’t locking her in her room, Margaret used to skulk around and overhear more than she should.”

“And you saw more than you should have.”

“And I paid dearly for it. When the Admiral learned the extent of my knowledge, he arranged my death. I lost my wife and our young daughter in the Bremerhaven bombings—I should have died with them. I drifted after that. Where I went isn’t as important as what I did. I spent those years erasing my past and making sure to avoid those who could identify me. When the Dremikians, and peace, came, I jumped at the first available chance to leave Earth behind. Imagine my shock when the red-headed brat of my past almost foiled my plans.”

“Me?”

“Your father, curse his attentiveness, must have stumbled upon my true identity. His agents tried very hard to have me removed from this mission.”

“So,” the captain interrupted, “you’re saying your heart condition was actually an attempt to kill you? Forgive my skepticism.”

“It would explain why Cassie couldn’t find anything physically wrong with you within a week of our launch.” Maggie was quiet for a minute. She leaned her elbows on her knees. “But why did the Admiral allow you on the flight?”

“Because your father isn’t all powerful, and I have my own resources. Once I realized that he was behind my poisoning—which didn’t take very long I assure you—I made sure I was on this flight.”

Captain Hill’s eyes narrowed. “So you could keep an eye on Maggie and determine the Admiral’s purpose for keeping someone of your background and knowledge off the mission.”

Maggie stood abruptly. “I’m going back to work.”

She couldn’t squeeze past them to the door, so they ignored her. She tinkered with a systems motherboard while she listened.

Ben ran his hand through his hair. “I admit I wasn’t sure of your innocence at first. It took a bit of time before I realized you were no more Daddy’s pawn than you were his precious little girl. And then someone started trying to kill you.” He leaned forward from his seat on the opposite bench, hands clasped together between his knees. The captain had never taken note of the muscles in the doctor’s forearms or the size of his hands. He felt the fool, seeing the elderly, eccentric science officer now, as he truly was: a cold blooded operative. “I’m going to assume by the events of the past day that you’ve come to the same conclusions I have. Ryan Hill, Admiral O’Connell, and untold others, have plotted the failure of our stated mission and the dissolution of the Dremikian alliance.”

“Back up a minute, please. Why the deception about your age and specialty? If you are truly what you claim to be, we could have used your insight long before now.”

“No one suspects the white-haired old man to be much of a threat. It’s not hard to change a hair color and act twenty years older. As to the second part of your question, I couldn’t be sure of
your
allegiances, much less your receptiveness to the suggestion that your brother was behind a conspiracy of staggering proportions.” His shoulder shrugged. “I admit that I find it all rather fantastic when viewed objectively.”

“My head hurts.”

The comment, said in bland tones and without expression, brought the men’s attention back to Maggie.

“Arial mines will tend to do that,” Fortunas responded.

“You realize I trust you less now than I did ten minutes ago?”

The captain and the scientist stared each other down. “I’d be disappointed if you trusted me at all. I’m certainly not on your “side.” After years of war and betrayal, I have very few loyalties and none of them to the military, the fleet, or the government.”

“And yet...” Maggie’s green eyes blinked back tears.

Dr. Fortunas’ tone and expression softened. “And yet, I didn’t fish you out of the sea to see you blown to bits or abandoned to your death eighteen years later. I’m a sucker for little girls with pigtails and a love for chocolate. Sorry.”

“Touching. What if Maggie is the traitor in our midst? Does her sweet-tooth absolve her of guilt?”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous, Captain. If Margaret was the traitor she’d have killed you ten times over by now and managed to do it with a good deal more flair than whoever is trying to kill her. Which brings me to the reason for my visit and this informative little chat, what exactly are your plans for keeping her safe?”

“As if I’m on a freaking pedestal and unable to protect myself. I did save
his
ass this morning, you know.”

Captain Hill grunted. “At ease, Commander.” He turned his head back to Fortunas. “She has a point, though. I’m certain Maggie can keep herself safe. I’m more concerned with the bigger picture. If Ryan’s power play has been discovered by all sides, and I think that is a safe assumption, what’s our next move? Also, what do the Valtoza plan to do now, and how can we thwart them to the betterment of our cause?”

Ben shook his head, then, combed his hair back off his forehead. “I have no idea what the Valtoza plan as I only learned about them yesterday. As for Ryan, that blast this morning indicates his desperation. Going forward, he’ll be more overt.”

Maggie’s head jerked up from her morose perusal of the motherboard. “He said something last night: “What is it you think you know”. At the time I just thought… well, it sounds more ominous now.” She looked at the captain. “I think you better tell Ben everything, sir.”