No More Heroes: In the Wake of the Templars Book Three (30 page)

Ariel sank down beside Raena and took her hand. “I—”

Raena shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. It would only make what Thallian did to her seem worse. It couldn’t have been any worse. At least she was free of him when she died.”

“One of the grays here last night used Revan’s likeness to persuade Jim into letting them onto the ship. The
Veracity
recognized him, but Eilif tested him and made sure he wasn’t Revan. It’s possible he was an android like Outrider. Maybe all the grays are androids.”

“Any indication where they took the boy?”

Raena’s tightly controlled voice betrayed no anger or emotion at all. Ariel had heard her use that tone years ago, while they were running from Thallian. It was the voice Raena used to deal with Imperial officers, the voice of command she’d learned from her master. Goose flesh shivered over Ariel’s skin at the sound of it.

“Home,” Ariel answered. “The Revan soldier said they were taking Jim home.”

Raena nodded.

“He ordered his men to scuttle the
Veracity
. Mykah has been waiting to talk to Haoun about hiring some engineers to repair it. I don’t expect the damage will be too bad, though. This whole thing is a trap for you. They won’t want to slow you down too much, just enough that they can get to Drusingyi before you do.”

“I want to get out of here as soon as I can,” Raena said.

“I know. I set Corvas on the Business Council. As soon as the ship is ready to go, you’ll be ready, too.”

Raena looked down at Eilif again. “What do we do about her body?”

“Coni’s forged a death certificate to look like she was killed in the rioting last night. I am having her cremated here on Kai. I’ll take her ashes back to Callixtos.”

“I’m sorry for the loss of your friend,” Raena said. She opened her arms to Ariel, gathered her close. Ariel finally let her tears fall, knowing Raena would understand them. Raena herself remained too infuriated to cry.

*   *   *

A short while later, Mykah tapped on the door to Eilif’s cabin. “We have a message from Kavanaugh.”

Raena stood up as Ariel wiped her face. They moved toward the door together, holding hands.

“In the lounge,” Mykah said.

The gathering struck Raena as strange. Coni and Haoun were a minority now, outnumbered by the humans.

Kavanaugh’s craggy face filled the screen. “Vezali hasn’t come back up yet, but she got some video of the cloning labs.” He reached offscreen to set it to play.

The seam on the cloning dome was ugly and brown, compared to the elegant surviving structure of the transparent dome. Many figures swarmed around inside. Several were recognizable as Outriders. Raena saw the antique medical robot that had served as the Thallian family doctor. Towering over them all was an insectile figure with a shiny black carapace and far too many legs.

“Are you seeing that?” Kavanaugh asked.

“Yes,” Raena answered. “Looks like a Templar Master.”

“Now we know for certain what they’re cloning,” Kavanaugh said.

“We’ll be there in a couple of days,” Raena said. “Don’t wait for us. As soon as Vezali comes back to you, get off the planet. We’ll meet you on Callixtos afterward.”

“Understood,” Kavanaugh said. “See you there.”

The screen went blank and no one spoke. The Master was chief commander of the Templars’ military forces. There was only ever one at a time, as far as Raena knew. This one could be cloning himself an army.

Seeing the shocked expressions around the lounge, Raena asked, “Mykah, what have we got to drink on this boat?”

*   *   *

The next morning, Kai’s Business Council agreed to hear Raena’s final plea. Raena dreaded to think what setting up the meeting had cost Ariel: one more thing to be grateful for. She realized that she’d lost count.

The Business Council’s chambers were opulent, swathed in rich dark fabrics that played up the austerity of the plain wooden chairs in which Raena sat with Ariel and the remaining crew of the
Veracity
.

Corvas bent close to whisper to Ariel. Raena wasn’t sure what their game plan was, but she hoped this was the endgame. She was good and ready to blast off this rock.

“Let’s call this meeting to order,” one of the councilors said. Her baggy fur was an odd shade of orange, but she wore an elaborate robe covered in dangling copper disks. She had the tallest hat, so Raena supposed she must be the boss.

Corvas said, “My client has been charged with several crimes by the Business Council of Kai. In each case, the charges have been dropped for lack of evidence. She has volunteered to pay fines for minor misdeeds she was not initially charged with. We are asking that she be released from Kai’s legal system and that her bail be repaid to Ms. Shaad.”

“Your client has been broadcast murdering four people,” another councilor said. The profusion of feathers on his hat bobbed as he spoke.

“I’m sure Kai could have claimed the bounty for Revan Thallian, if only the dockmaster had detained him before he attacked my client in your souk. As it is, Ms. Zacari is already being hailed across the galaxy as a hero.” Corvas added, “As I am sure you are aware.”

Raena wondered if she was due another bounty. Maybe that’s what this hearing was about: the Business Council trying to shake her down for some of her reward.

“Yes. Well. The other three soldiers she murdered have not been identified . . .”

Corvas swiped across his handheld and put six photographs up on the council room’s screen. The first row of images came from Kai’s booking records. The corresponding photographs beneath were Imperial ID photos. “As you can see, we have confirmed the dead men were crewmembers of the
Arbiter
, as identified by Jain Thallian in court. It wouldn’t have been difficult to name them, if your coroner had done a basic genetic trace, but we merely compared their booking photos with the
Arbiter
’s crew roster.” Corvas looked up. “We invite you to press the murder charge—and we will detail your coroner’s failure publicly.”

“Are you threatening us, Mr. Corvas?” the head councilor asked.

“Stating a fact only. Do you find it threatening?”

“I’m not sure I like your tone,” another of the councilors said. This one’s blue skin was dotted with orange to match her hair.

Corvas swiveled both his eyes toward her. “It seems to me that Kai lit a fuse without considering where the explosion was going to take place. By leveling trumped-up charges at my client—then broadcasting the depth of Kai’s ineptitude across the galaxy—it appears that you’ve dug yourselves a very deep crater. At this point, the best way out of it might be to hire my client as your new head of Planetary Security, have her fire every incompetent you have toiling on this rock, and then train the rest to be a respectable force capable of protecting the wealthy clientele who come to Kai to escape their fears of extortion and kidnapping.”

Stunned silence greeted that proposal.

“Do you
want
a job heading up Kai’s Planetary Security?” Haoun asked Raena.

“No.”

Ariel leaned forward. “Corvas, if you’ll permit me?”

“Please.” He made a sweeping gesture and stepped back out of her way.

“I have a theory.” Ariel didn’t bother to stand up to address the council, merely lounged back in her uncomfortable wooden chair. “I think Kai was presented with a can’t-lose money-making strategy. I think the Business Council was aimed at an easy target, one little human who appeared to be a ticking time bomb. It shouldn’t have been difficult to provoke her into doing something catastrophic. Her associates were young, but they had pulled in good money from the Council of Worlds. Surely, they would part with some of it, rather than face a court broadcast that would discredit them and end their careers in front of the whole galaxy. But after the match had been struck, the Messiah documentary aired. The kids were linked to Mellix, which was exactly the kind of attention that the Business Council would prefer not to face. Too late to backtrack, though, wasn’t it? Whoever had suggested the brilliant scheme in the first place revealed his conditions. It looked less like a can’t-fail proposition for Kai and more like blackmail. But by then, Lautan had arrested her. They demanded their cut. The bounty hunters got hold of her and they expected to be paid. Once she disappeared into the desert, you must have breathed easier, but Raena didn’t stay lost. The only way out you could see was to have her killed by an unstable human-hating cellmate. Unfortunately, once that cellmate started crowing about the impending murder, you had to either bribe or eliminate everyone on the cellblock. That included some tourists made famous by the court broadcasts. So the jailers rescued Raena at the last minute. Officially, the murder attempt was labeled a bureaucratic error. Cheaper than trying to buy that much silence.”

“This is an amazing delusion, Ms. Shaad . . .”

Corvas made another swipe across his handheld and put an image of Outrider up on the screen. He stood in this same council chamber.

“How did you get that?” one of the councilors demanded.

Ariel ignored the question. “Once you saw the Messiah documentary and learned what he was, you had the sense to be afraid of him. But he told you that the drug was already on Kai. He’d already been in contact with Kai’s human service workers, some of whom were eager to spend their youth to buy some payback for how they’d been treated here. And Outrider threatened to unleash them on the Business Council, if you didn’t do exactly as he told you.”

One lone voice asked, “What can we do?”

“You can’t stop him,” Raena said. “He undoubtedly learned all he needed to know about his targets while you were busy harassing me. He’s a sociopath. You are doomed.”

The silence that greeted that pronouncement was even grimmer.

Coni looked at Raena. “You’ve survived a Messiah attack. Help them. Please.”

Raena gazed back at her, calculating, then faced the Business Council. “Oh, let me count the reasons I won’t risk my life to help you,” she said. “First off, if not for dumb luck and sheer incompetence, you would have already sold my corpse back to Ariel. Secondly, I am not magic. Those Messiah addicts could be anywhere in the galaxy by now, although odds are they haven’t gone too far. After your government collapses and they are dead, Outrider will want to reveal them, to spread fear to the rest of the galaxy. However, because my friend pleads for you, I’ll give you some advice for free. When it becomes clear which of you are under attack, get those council members into restraints or under sedation, where they cannot harm themselves or become a danger to anyone else. The Messiah addicts cannot kill them, but they will do everything they can to drive them mad. There is no bargaining with Outrider and, now that you’ve given him time to flee Kai, you have nothing that he wants.”

“We thought he wanted you dead,” one of them told her.

“You’re welcome to give that another try,” Raena said. “See if my death really does stave off what we all know is coming. Be careful how you do it, though. You wouldn’t want to spark another riot. And you might consider this: what if this whole fiasco was only a distraction? Outrider played on your greed and now he’s ruined your reputation. Why shouldn’t he go ahead and destroy the Business Council altogether? What’s to stop him? Where would be the fun in letting you go?”

“But why is he doing this?”

“For the pure love of chaos.”

Mykah spoke up. “Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to return Ariel’s bail money. You’re going to pay Raena restitution for dragging her into this debacle. You’re going to release an official statement absolving her of guilt. And then you’re going to talk to Mellix about how you were played by one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy. You’ll detail how he contacted you, what he offered you, and what you’re afraid of now—so that what has happened on Kai will serve as an object lesson to the rest of the galaxy.”

“Absolutely not,” the head councilor said.

Mykah smiled. “You don’t have any choice about being investigated by Mellix,” he pointed out. “He can either tell the story that makes you look gullible and greedy—or the one that makes the Council of Worlds put you on trial.”

Raena asked him, “You don’t want to stay to do the interviews yourself?”

“We have business on Drusingyi,” Mykah answered.

Raena smiled at him. Her first inclination was to argue, to tell Mykah it was too dangerous, to try to protect him. But just as the
Veracity
had not abandoned her to face this trial alone, they would back her up on Drusingyi. Her kids were growing up.

She didn’t really care what Kai had to say at this point, but she grudgingly focused her attention back on the sputtering head of the Business Council, who demanded time to consider the
Veracity
’s threats. Raena let her get a good head of steam going, then stood up.

“You’ll excuse us, Councilor. We have more pressing things to attend to.”

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Your little drama on Kai has been a distraction from the Templar cloning themselves back into the galaxy,” she said.

The councilor’s mouth closed with an audible clack.

“I am going to meet with the new Templar Master to see if there is anything I can do to prevent him from wiping out humanity. I can think of nothing more terrifying for you to threaten me with. I’ll leave it to Ariel and Corvas to work out the particulars of how you’re going to clear my name, but you have wasted the last of my time.”

When Mykah, Haoun, and Coni joined her on their feet, the Planetary Security guards moved hesitantly to block the exit. Raena darted toward the first of them. As he thrust his stun staff at her, she spun inside his reach and plucked the staff from his hands. She tossed it to Mykah.

He covered her as the next two guards charged to attack. Mykah tangled his staff into one of the attacker’s, but it was clear from the lack of spark that the guard had actually forgotten to switch the stun staff on. Mykah swept it from his grasp. Haoun caught it from the air.

Raena was pleased to see the other agent had both switched his staff on and used the lanyard to loop it to his wrist. Still, it didn’t seem as if he’d ever sparred against an unarmed opponent intent on fighting back. She yanked his staff over far enough to stun his remaining comrade, then rammed the staff’s heavy base back into his chest. He sat down hard.