Quantum (24 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

“I really hope you know what you’re doing, Rian.” As they entered Sarolta’s house of government, a ripple of unease surged through Zander when the doors closed behind them and various CP officers stood at attention around the lobby. Holy hell, he’d done some questionable things in his time, but today’s adventure—if they got through it in one piece—would be one for the ages.

He wanted to say this was pretty much the most insane thing Rian had ever suggested, but it wouldn’t be true. His old war buddy had done some pretty crazy-ass things over the years. This would be one more in a long list of deranged, wacky plans.

“You know how my luck runs, Zander, and part of me wants to be wrong. But odds say that the shape-shifting bastards have infiltrated every frecking corner of our universe.”

“Well, that’s a comforting notion,” Forster murmured, a step ahead of them, leading their little party through the building.

They passed through several security checkpoints, and with each one, the cold gripping Zander’s insides dug deeper claws into him. If this all went south…never mind the Reidar wanting to kill him, he’d be lucky to leave this building alive.

At the last checkpoint, they had to relinquish their weapons. Zander took out the two pulse pistols he carried but left Chase’s Reidar stun gun pressed into his lower back, where he’d holstered it beneath his shirt. Forster had assured them that Sarolta’s security was piss weak and they wouldn’t bother to double-check. Sure, Forster was Rian’s cousin, but Zander still wasn’t sure how far he trusted the marauder. Old IPC habits died hard, he supposed, and depending on how this little jaunt turned out, it would confirm once and for all whether he could count Forster as an ally.

Two CP officers led them down another short hallway and opened a set of double doors. Forster sent the men a nod and asked for the doors to be closed behind them. Rian surreptitiously palmed the lock on the side of the doorway and scrambled the codes using some device Tannin had given him.

Inside the large room, which looked to be some sort of informal study or library, eight men in various types of IPC and government uniforms stood to greet them.

“Captain Forster.” A man wearing presidential robes stepped forward. “You said you had something important you needed to share with us?”

Forster nodded. “Yes, High President Hamilton. I’ll explain in a moment, but first, this is for your own good.”

Zander swore as Forster yanked out the pistol Chase had given him and lined up the high president of Sarolta. The man’s eyes widened, but before he could make a sound, Forster shot him.

Chaos erupted, spurring Zander and Rian to whip out their own guns. Without a word, they started at opposite ends of the loosely lined-up government officials, while Forster turned to two in the middle of the room. Most of the men simply looked stunned, the pulse of energy having no effect on them. All except for one on the far left, who’d collapsed to the floor.

“What is the meaning of this?” High President Hamilton stuttered, smoothing unsteady hands over his chest. In the background, several fists pounded on the door, muffled shouts accompanying the noise.

Rian shoved his stunner away again and drew the nucleon gun he’d smuggled in.

“We’ll explain in a moment. First, tell us who that is.” Rian motioned with his gun, slowly moving in on the prone form.

“That’s Ron Wagner, the trade minister.” The high president’s voice came out uneven.

“The trade minister? Huh, wouldn’t have guessed that,” Rian murmured.

The fallen man suddenly moved, rolling into a crouch with a fluid movement then shooting upright. A new wave of panic rolled through the room as the creature faced them, its scalelike skin glistening under the overhead lighting.

Before it could make another move, Rian lit up with his nucleon gun, emptying the forty-round chamber into the creature’s chest at close range. After the barrage of gunfire, silence rang in the room, only broken by the
clunk
as Rian’s empty power cartridge hit the floor, followed by a solid
chink
as he loaded a new energy pack.

“So, Chase’s Reidar gun works a treat.” Rian’s tone held a definite edge of grim satisfaction as he inched forward and kicked the splattered Reidar in the side. After a long second, he nodded and slipped the nucleon gun away. “You know, getting rid of the liquefying Reidar carcass after the fact has to be the least fun part of this.”

“They
liquefy
?” Forster demanded, affecting an exaggerated shudder.

Rian glanced at his cousin. “Yeah, real messy, real fast. What happened to the one on your ship?”

Forster shrugged. “Vented about two minutes after I shot it.”

“Any longer than that and you’d have needed a shovel and bucket.”

Zander released a long, uneven exhale, the pressure in his chest telling him he’d been holding his breath and hadn’t even realized it.

The high president of Sarolta had dropped into a nearby chair, his face washed of any color, while the remaining government officials had scattered to the far sides of the room. The CP officers in the hallway were still attempting to get in. Rian stepped over the dead alien and yanked a banner down from the wall then flicked it over the body.

“Now, High President Hamilton, I’m going to let your oh-so-effective security detail back in here, and you’re going to tell them not to kill us. Also, make sure no one sees this body until it’s finished decomposing. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”

High President Hamilton cast a slow look between the now-covered alien and Rian, thumbs hooked into his weapons belt. The man blinked and seemed to snap out of his daze. He shot to his feet, a stain of red flushing his face.

Great, just what they needed—for the poor sap to have a coronary on them.

“Not until you tell me what
that
was and what the hell is going on here!” The high president glanced at Rian, but seemed to be directing his outrage at Forster.

Forster tossed up both hands. “Hellfire, I barely know what in the name of a saint’s ass is going on, myself. Rian, feel free to do the honors.”

A shadow of impatience crossed Rian’s face, but his expression mostly remained perpetually lethal, like usual. “Fine, but what I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room. If it does, I can assure you with all certainty that your entire planet will be blown to spacedust.”

High President Hamilton cast a quick look around the room, gesturing for the rest of the government members to come forward. They sat around the rectangular table in the middle of the room, then the president motioned for Rian to continue.

Zander crossed his arms and watched the dawning expressions of horror on the men’s faces as Rian told them the truth. With the hard evidence of a dead alien in their midst, obviously they couldn’t refute what should have been an outlandish tale. Shape-shifting aliens? It sounded like the punch line to a bad joke, or the premise of some B-grade horror movie.

Tension pulled at his neck and shoulders. How had his life come to this point?

Only two things were holding up his sanity right now. First—the burning drive to get back what was rightfully his, plus a little revenge served on the side. And second—Mae Petros with her secrets, razor-sharp intelligence, no-nonsense attitude to everything that crossed her path, no matter how ridiculous, and the way she kissed him when he had her naked and splayed—

“Graydon!”

Zander glanced up to see Forster and Rian staring at him with almost identical expressions of annoyance.

“Sorry, zoned out for a second.” He rubbed the back of his neck, forcing down the smolder his momentary imaginings of Mae had caused.

The other two men had their Reidar stun guns out, so Zander slipped his free as well. The high president had gone over to the doorway and was conducting a discussion through the locked panel, assuring the CP officers that everything was well and they didn’t need to bust into the room with guns blazing.

“Let’s get ready to roll.” Rian took out his nucleon gun and now had a weapon in each hand. He nodded toward the door, and Zander got his unspoken message. Any of those CP officers could be Reidar as well, so they’d be weeding the garden on the way out of the building.

When the high president stepped back and sent them a nod, Forster walked over and used Tannin’s device to unscramble the security codes, allowing the double doors to swing outward. Pissed-off-looking CP officers lined the hallway, easily twelve or so of the bastards.

Rian stepped forward, both guns pointed outward. “Now, you all are going to obey your high president and put your weapons down. On the ground, kick them to the middle of the corridor, and put your hands on your head. I see anyone making a move, I splatter their brains all over the ceiling.”

The guards all looked to High President Hamilton, who confirmed the order in an unyielding voice. There was a bit of grumbling, but with a short clatter of discarded weapons, the officers all complied.

“All right, this next part won’t hurt a bit, so long as you’re one of us.” Rian took a quick glance back. “Qae, take the left. Zander, go right.”

Zander moved up on Rian’s right side, steadying his stun gun in a two-handed grip. The three of them moved down the corridor, Forster and him pulsing a blast of energy through each soldier, while Rian kept watch, ready with the nucleon gun if any of the officers reacted to the energy weapon.

By the time they’d reached the end of the hallway, most of the soldiers were looking either irritated or curious, but none of them had been revealed as Reidar. Lucky, because Chase’s Reidar stunners had all run out of juice.

Forster sent the president a nod as they holstered their weapons. “Thanks for your time and understanding, sir.”

President Hamilton inclined his head in return. “I should be thanking you, Captain Forster, for bringing this to our attention. Between the new equipment you sourced and this unbelievable revelation—well, just know that you’ll always find safe refuge and welcome on Sarolta. All of you.” The president cast a thankful glance over the three of them then disappeared into the room they’d just vacated.

“Let’s get back to our ships,” Rian murmured.

“Yeah, we’ve got a few minor details to work out,” Zander added. Like formulating a plan to take his own ship back. Which should hopefully be easier to do now that they’d confirmed Chase’s weapon could reveal a Reidar.

The three of them didn’t make much small talk as they headed back to the undersized, private, and most importantly abandoned spaceport where the
Ebony Winter
had set down.

Mae and Lucie were sitting on metal folding chairs just beyond the ship’s ramp, both holding bottles of aerated electrolyte water and sharing a packet of crisps.
Well, isn’t it nice being some people?
While he’d been risking his neck, Mae had been enjoying a pseudo-picnic with her new friend. The two women stood as they got closer.

“Obviously it went well. You’re all still in one piece,” Lucie said, holding the crisps out of Forster’s reach as he made a grab for them.

“More importantly, did you find any Reidar?” Mae walked toward him. Zander found himself reaching for her like it was the most natural thing in the universe, even as she stepped into his hold, bracing her palms against his pecs and leaning up to kiss him…on the cheek. Not what he really wanted, but he wasn’t about to complain. He caught her hip in his hand before she could escape.

“Worried about me?” he murmured.

She arched a brow. “Somehow, I feel like if I admit that I was, it’d be giving you a definitive advantage in this relationship.”

He slid his other arm around her, holding her in place as he met her smoky-gray gaze. “Is that what we’re doing now…a relationship?”

A hint of vulnerability and uncertainty shadowed her eyes for a brief moment, sending a slight chill through him. Okay, he didn’t want to hear the answer to that stupid question, especially if it wasn’t anything good.

“Forget I said anything. Now is quite obviously not the time.”

“But that’s exactly our problem, isn’t it?”

Her quiet words sliced through him, but he didn’t have the luxury of hashing things out or telling her what he really felt, particularly considering their audience.

Though Mae’s expression had shut down, he pulled her in for the kiss he’d really wanted in the first place—his lips against hers, savoring the warm slide of their mouths together. If only they were by themselves, he wouldn’t have hesitated to deepen the kiss, pull her harder against him, and take a moment to forget every single little problem plaguing them.

Instead, he broke the almost chaste kiss and eased away.

“If you two are finished mauling each other, we have business to discuss.”

Zander looked up at Rian, finding his old friend was the only other person still standing outside the ship. Everyone else had disappeared.

Mae shot Rian an exasperated glare. “You were always such a romantic, Sherron.”

“Except that’s not why you didn’t sleep with me. From memory, it was lack of privacy. That couch in the officers’ lounge on the Beta Fourteen waystation wasn’t exactly concealed, although that didn’t stop us from—”

“Rian,” Mae interrupted in a hard tone Zander had never heard her use before.

But forget the warning in her voice, ice pricked his fingers as he glanced between them. He’d already guessed they had history, but how, exactly, did that story end, and did he want to know? His heart gave a few uneven pounds. It shouldn’t matter—it was clearly in the past, and technically wasn’t any of his business; by all accounts he had no right to Mae and never would. But the illogical acid burn of jealousy had taken hold in his guts.

“Didn’t stop you from what?” The demand was out of his mouth before he’d even finished debating the common sense of pursuing this conversation.

Mae sent him a look that clearly told him he was an idiot. “Rian is just pulling your chain, Graydon, so quit yanking back.”

Oh, so he was back to being Graydon now, was he?
Fantastic.