The Nexus Series: Books 1-3 (49 page)

17

“WE
know next to nothing about these assassins,” the director went on.  “We
don’t know why they were sent, and we don’t know why they made the gracious
last-minute decision not to blow us up.  However we may be reasonably
certain that they—or whoever comes in their stead—will not be so gracious next
time, and that next time will most likely be sooner than later.  We also
know there are
Earthside
agencies, probably several
of them, with heavily protected information about said assassins.  I think
you see where I’m going with this.”

Corey laughed
humorlessly.  “Nothing to it.  We infiltrate the agencies, crack into
their databases and get the information we need.  Then we take out the
assassins.”

Holiday shook
his head.  “I do not believe these people flew to MS9 with a personal
vendetta.  They were sent here by someone else—someone with hands in the
United Space Programs.  When you find the assassins, you must find out who
sent them here.”

“Oh, is that
all?”
Dizzie
said with a roll of her eyes.

“No, that is not
all.  We have to assume that whoever is behind the attacks realizes by now
that we are still alive.  The ruse could hardly last.  That means
‘they,’ whoever they may be, will be on the lookout for us.”

“Which means we
have to find a way to get to Earth incognito,” concluded Amber.

Holiday
nodded.  “You won’t be booking the next public shuttle to the Home
Planet.”

“Then how?”
asked
Dizzie
.  “This is sounding more and more
impossible!”

Bradley frowned
at her.  “This from the one who insisted we stay on no matter what? 
Like I told the director, don’t sell us short!”

“We’re up to
this,” Amber reassured
Dizzie
.

“Easy for you to
say!  You’re not the ones who have to hack their way into ultra-private
government databases.”

“It won’t be
easy for any of us,
Diz
,” said Corey.  “But it’s
our only option.  You know it.”

“And remember,”
Jill added, “these are people who killed Amber’s dad.”

She sighed and
looked at the floor.

“We’re still
waiting to hear the plan for shipping us to Earth without getting caught,”
Amber prompted Director Holiday.

“You’ll need a
private shuttle with a private pilot,” the director answered, “one that leaves
from a private dock.  Furthermore, to keep from arousing suspicion on the
other end of the journey, you’ll need this private shuttle to be one that makes
regular journeys to and from the Home Planet.”  He gave Bradley a
significant look.

The arrogant,
overconfident Bradley Park they had always known vanished in an instant. 
In his place stood the embodiment of desperate anxiety.  Something primal
took over his expression and lit a fire in his eyes as he stared at the
director.  He shrank back slightly, clenching his fists and gritting his
teeth like a cornered animal.    “No,” he answered an unspoken
question flatly.  “Not a chance.”

“On the
contrary, it’s our
only
chance.”

“You can’t ask
me to do this!”

“I’m not asking;
I’m ordering.”

“Then I refuse.”

“You’ve got to
try,” Corey urged him.

“I said
no!”
 
Bradley spat, practically shouting by now.

Jill and Amber
looked questioningly at
Dizzie
.  She just
shrugged, as confused as they were.

Holiday’s gray eyes
grew tense.  “I assumed you would be willing to do whatever was necessary,
Mr. Park.  Perhaps I sold you short?”

Bradley looked
away.  Jill thought his eyes were watering.  His fists were still
unconsciously clenched.  “I wish I could,” he said quietly.  “But I
can’t.”

“I don’t know
what you’re talking about,” said Jill, “but if the director thinks this is our
only chance, we’d better go for it.”

Bradley looked
at her menacingly.  “You’re right—you
don’t
know what we’re talking
about.  Your little half-breed brain has no clue what’s being asked of
me!”

Now at least
three people in the room were ready to let loose on Bradley.  Corey was
the quickest.  He leaned in until his nose was an inch from Bradley’s, and
his eyes blazed with a fire of their own.  His voice was a whisper—a
strained whisper with an avalanche poised behind it ready to burst down on
Bradley.  “Don’t call her that again.”

Bradley started
to mutter a reply.

The next instant
his back was slammed against the office wall and Corey had him at the collar
with both hands. 
“Never again.”

No one else
moved—not even Holiday, though there seemed to be almost an amusement behind
his expressionless face.

Corey went on in
that same whisper.  “I seem to recall you laying into Jill a couple days
ago because she didn’t do what needed to be done for the good of the mission,
in your opinion.  We’ve always heard plenty from you about how the rest of
this team isn’t willing to go far enough.  Are
you?”

Now the mist in
Bradley’s eyes had become at least one genuine tear.  “I can’t,” he said,
trembling.  “I know what you’re saying is true, Corey.  I don’t deny
any of it.  But this...I just
can’t
do this.”  He looked away.

Corey relaxed
his grip on Bradley’s collar.  The avalanche behind his whisper
subsided.  “We’ll go with you, Bradley,” he said softly.

Bradley looked
at him again.

“You’re going to
face them,” Corey told him, “you know that.  You can’t avoid it.  It
was only a matter of time anyway.  But we’ll be there with you.  All
of us.”

Bradley bit his
lip and slowly began nodding.

“HE’S
always been silent about his past,”
Dizzie
told Jill
and Amber when they were back at the dorm.  “I know his family life was
rough, but I don’t know any details.  I’m guessing that’s what this was
about.”

“I’ve never seen
him like that,” said Amber, shaking her head.  “I mean, he was a total
wreck.”

Dizzie
nodded.  “Yeah...I kind of enjoyed it.”

Amber raised an
eyebrow.

“Well, didn’t
you?”
Dizzie
said defensively.

Amber
hesitated.  “It
was
a little satisfying,” she admitted.

“It had to be
even more satisfying for you, Jill,” said
Dizzie
. 
“He’s treated you worse than anyone else.”

Jill didn’t
respond.

THE
team sat in silence as Bradley drove east from the cannery.  Downtown
glowed across the lake behind them.  In front of them, Earth was still
bright against the dark sky.

A five minute
drive brought the black department car to Goldenrod Heights, a hilltop district
of ritzy properties near the rim.  Big gates to private drives lined the
winding lane.  Just beyond the hill’s crest, Bradley turned to approach a
driveway cobbled with white stones.  He braked to a stop in front of the
barred gate and stared straight ahead.

No one said a
thing.  Even
Dizzie
had swallowed her
tongue.  Jill looked out at the humanoid statues capping the pillars on
each side of the gate.  Beyond the gate’s bars she could see the glass
walls of the ultra-modern house.

Corey cleared
his throat softly.

Bradley started
like he was coming out of a trance.  He rolled down his window and made
himself reach out to punch the gate’s code.  “Probably won’t work,” he
said to himself.  “They have to have changed it by now.”

The gate creaked
slowly open.  The gleaming white drive stretched before them.

Bradley gripped
the wheel and eased the car down the drive.  He parked in a circle below
the house, a collection of wildly stacked, sharp-angled wings with flat sweeps
of rooftop.

They got out and
started toward the house.  Bradley was last in line.  Ground level
lanterns lit the short path as it climbed terraced landscaping and bridged a
gurgling stream.

When they
reached the front porch they stepped aside for Bradley to approach the
door.  He grimaced as he reached a finger slowly toward the doorbell.

They heard the
chimes sound inside.  Lights came on in the glass-walled front room and a
middle-aged Korean man appeared to answer the door.  When he opened it,
his eyes locked on Bradley—and lit up.  He stepped toward him, speaking
quickly and enthusiastically in Korean.

Bradley smiled
faintly in return and gave a brief reply.  He switched to English and
said, “Everyone, this is my father, Park Sang.”

The middle-aged
man nodded a greeting, but did not immediately invite them in.  He looked
gravely at Bradley.  “I don’t know if this is the best time,” he said in
accented English, darting his eyes back inside.  “Vera is...”

“It’s okay,”
Bradley said, moving toward the door.  “She’s the one we want to talk to.”

His father
blinked in disbelief.

“Come on in,
guys,” Bradley told the others.

His father gave
in and held the door open for them.  Happy as he had been to see his son,
his face was anything but happy now.  He spoke in a whisper. 
“Bradley, I really don’t think this is a good idea.  Are you sure you—?”

“Sang, who is
it?” a woman’s voice sounded from somewhere in the house.

Mr. Park
paled.  He didn’t answer.

“Sang?” the
woman’s voice repeated, closer.

She stepped into
the room.  She was tall, blonde, and American by the sound of her
accent.  She wore a regal looking ivory gown and held a Bordeaux glass of
red wine.  Jill thought there was something familiar about her.

The woman froze
as she caught sight of Bradley.  Her eyes narrowed and her voice turned
arctic.  “So, it’s you.  I wondered when you’d come crawling back
here.  I hope you haven’t come to ask for money.  The answer is
no.  We’re not here to support your habits.”

“I’m not
asking,” Bradley said coolly.  “We need a favor.”

She barked a
laugh.  “Well,
that’s
some nerve!”

“Would you all
like to sit down?” Mr. Park asked awkwardly.

No one moved.

“I can’t
believe,” the woman went on, “you have the audacity to come here and beg us for
help.”

“Does it look
like I’m begging?” Bradley asked, an edge in his voice now.

“Mrs. Park,”
said Corey, politely but firmly, “please, hear him out.”

Suddenly Jill
realized who the woman was:  Vera Park, the U.S. Ambassador to
Anterra
.  She was famous for marrying the divorced
Park Sang—doubly scandalous considering that here on
Anterra
neither Koreans nor ambassadors married outside their own national backgrounds.

Vera’s stare
shifted to Corey.  “And who are the rest of you, Bradley’s little
playmates from the streets?  Maybe fellow dealers?”

“He’s not on the
streets anymore, darling,” Mr. Park said timidly.  “You know that.”

“Of course,” she
said with a roll of her eyes.  “A very compelling story!  He quit his
addiction cold turkey and ended up getting a job with the government—which,
conveniently, he can’t tell us anything about.”  She laughed again. 
“Please!  Tell me what’s really going on, here.”

“We have a job
with the government, ma’am,” said Corey, “which we can’t tell you anything
about.  What we can tell you is that we need your help.”

Her eyes widened
as if she’d heard a joke.  “You’re sticking with that?”

“A lot of lives could
be at stake,” Amber said earnestly.

Vera sniffed and
looked at Bradley again.  “So you thought you’d hire an amateur theater
company to sell your story, did you?  I hope you didn’t expect it to
work.”

Mr. Park put a
hand on her shoulder.  “I think they’re telling the truth, darling.”

“Shut up, Sang,
you simpleton!” she snapped.

The hand was
withdrawn as if from a nest of vipers.

Vera looked at
the team one by one.  “Well, thank you all for coming to offer us some
free entertainment.  I’m sorry you can’t stay any longer, but, you see, we
were just settling in for a relaxing evening in, weren’t we, dear?”

Sang looked
silently at nothing.

“What’s going
on, Mom?” a girl’s voice came from down the hall, accompanied by her
approaching footsteps.  “Who’s in there?”

Bradley
unconsciously took a step back.

The girl stepped
around the corner into the room.

Jill stared at
the twelve- or thirteen-year-old girl.  She looked...

Like Jill.

18

“THEY’RE
just leaving, Violet, sweetie,” Vera told her daughter dotingly.

Violet Park
stared at Bradley.  “What are you doing here?”

“Honey,” Mr.
Park told her, urging her back toward the hallway, “we’ll take care of
this.  Don’t worry—”

“You were never
supposed to set foot in this house again,” Violet went on, ignoring her father.

Bradley looked
at the floor.

“Apparently,”
Vera said, voice shifting back to ice, “your stepbrother forgot that little
arrangement.”

“I’d hardly call
something you screamed at me an ‘arrangement,’ ” said Bradley, still keeping
his voice remarkably level.  “And I didn’t forget it—I’m just ignoring
it.”

Rage flashed in
Vera’s eyes.  “Leave, Bradley.  Go back and blend into the crowd of
creeps and losers that fill this city.  I have a reputation to keep up,
you know, and that’s hard enough considering I have to live on this floating
cesspool.  I don’t want the neighbors having to see you come around
here.  It’s bad enough they know I have a felon and an addict for a
stepson.”

One second Jill
was across the room from Vera Park.  The next second she was in her
face.  “You have a hero for a stepson.”  It was the same whisper
Corey had used on Bradley earlier this evening, the same avalanche bound up
behind it.  “I’d tell you how many lives he’s saved—including mine, more
than once—but I can’t count that high.  You have no idea how privileged
you are to have Bradley Park standing in your home, not to mention as a member
of your family.”  Her eyes ventured away from Vera for just an instant
during that last part, glancing significantly at Violet Park.

Vera’s eyes
widened, but her frown was still menacing.  “Stop playing this game!”

“
You’re
the game player,” Jill said, shaking a finger at Vera’s face, “prancing around,
pretending to be Miss Diplomat, smiling in the faces of
Anterran
politicians and then bashing their city behind their backs.  You’re
nothing but a facade, Mrs. Park.  Your stepson, on the other hand, is the
real thing.  It’s people like him that keep
Anterra
from sinking into the mud and mire you sit around and complain about.  He
doesn’t get any thanks or any recognition, he just does it.  And to keep
doing it he needs a favor from you, and
you’re going to give it to him.”

Vera was
trembling, but she met Jill stare for stare.  “I don’t buy it,” she said,
crossing her arms.  “And don’t bother showing me some badge that any
ten-year-old could fake.  I don’t believe you’re all from some top-secret
government agency.  I just plain don’t believe it.”

Jill
shrugged.  “Fine,” she said, drawing her weapon and nearly touching the
muzzle to Vera’s nose.  “Go with your story:  We’re desperate
criminals who will do anything to get you to cooperate.”

Vera’s wineglass
slipped from her hand and shattered on the tiled floor.  She nearly went
cross-eyed as she stared at barrel of Jill’s gun.  “What do you want?” she
asked, almost inaudibly.

“You’re
scheduled for a trip to the Home Planet early next week.”

“I didn’t
arrange for any trip—”

“We’ve made the
arrangements ourselves.  You’ll call your
Earthside
office tomorrow morning to confirm.”

Vera clenched
her teeth.  “You’re trying to get me off the satellite?”

“We’re trying to
get ourselves off the satellite.  Save seats for us.”

“My interns
usually join me—”

“Not this
time. 
We’re
your interns on this trip.”

The ambassador
eyed Jill and her teammates suspiciously.  “You’re telling me you can’t
take a public flight to Earth?”

“Just make the
call,” Amber told her.  “Give them a reason for the last-minute
arrangements.”

“Oh, and make it
sound convincing,” said Jill.  “We’ll be listening to the conversation.”

“And keeping our
eyes on you for every minute of every day in the meantime,”
Dizzie
added.

Vera
swallowed.  “Who are you people, really?”

“Lately,” Corey
answered, “some people have been calling us Guardian Angels, but that’s kind of
an exaggeration.”

Vera turned as
pale as her gown.

Jill turned to
hear teammates.  “This house stinks.  Let’s get out of here.”

“WILL
she give us away?” Bradley wondered aloud as they walked back down toward the
car.  “She thinks we’re up to something fishy.”

“She watches the
news,” Amber replied with a shrug.  “She heard the director’s ‘Guardian
Angels’ speech. 
Diz
said we’d be keeping our
eyes on her, and she believes it.”

“But with
Sherlock hibernating, we won’t know if she decides to alert the authorities.”

Dizzie
cleared her throat.  “
Unless
someone had
the good sense to hack her computer network and her mobile.”

Corey
whistled.  “I’m impressed,
Diz
.  An
official embassy network, too!”

Dizzie
waved the compliment aside.  “The embassy
firewalls are a joke.  If she decides to blow the whistle on us, we’ll
know it the instant it happens.”

They reached the
car.  Corey put a hand on Bradley’s shoulder.  “I’ll drive this
time.”

“Thanks, but I’d
like to.”

“You sure? 
You seem a little rubber-legged after that confrontation.  Not that I
blame you.”

“I’ll be
fine.  I had to be the one to drive here, and if you don’t mind I want to
be the one to drive away.”

Corey
smiled.  “You got it.”

They all got in,
and Bradley started the engine.  He glanced over his shoulder toward Jill
in the backseat.

She gave him a
quick nod.

He smiled
faintly and returned the nod.

It was the best
conversation they’d ever had.

“Let’s get out
of here.”  Bradley hit the gas and peeled out, leaving black streaks on
the white stone driveway as they departed.

“Real classy,
Bradley,”
Dizzie
remarked, pinned to her seat as the
car whipped through the gate and around the corner.

Jill just
laughed.

THAT
evening the department members gathered in the garage to exchange hugs and
goodbyes.  Everyone acted like it was just a temporary farewell. 
Everyone knew it might not be.  They might never trace the origin of the
attacks.  They might never be able to wake Sherlock again.

Chief Analyst
Amanda Farrell, a studious-looking young woman with bangs and spectacles,
pushed her way through the sentimental crowd toward
Dizzie
. 
“I admire you for staying, neighbor,” she said as they embraced.

“Guess we’re not
neighbors anymore,”
Dizzie
said sadly to the girl who
had lived in the room next door to hers since she joined the department. 
“Then again, I guess we weren’t
gonna
be for much
longer anyway, since you’re getting married and abandoning me and everything.”

Mandy
laughed.  “Say hi to the Home Planet for me.  I know you’ve always
wanted to go there.”

“Come with us,”
Dizzie
pleaded.  “We need a great hacker for this
job!”

“You have one!”

Dizzie
shrugged in an unconvincing pretense of
modesty.  “Okay, we need
two
great hackers.”

Mandy shook her
head.  “I thought about it,
Diz
.  I really
did.  ‘
Rawlie
-boy’ even gave me the go-ahead,
but I can’t do that to him.  I can’t leave town this close to the
wedding.”

“Fine,”
Dizzie
huffed, smiling in spite of herself.  She
always used that term for Mandy’s fiancée Broderick Rawlings, but she’d never
heard Mandy use it before.  “I’ll miss you big time, girl.  The way
you took me under your wing when I first got here...” 
Dizzie’s
words trailed off.

“And now you’re
the one taking everyone else under yours,” Mandy replied.  “They need you,
Diz
.  You’re the glue that holds your team
together.  Don’t forget it!”

“Shucks,”
Dizzie
said with a wave.  “Not to plan your wedding
for you, but I don’t think the Lawn Flamingos have a gig scheduled that day.”

“No?  Put
your agent in touch with me!”

On the other
side of the crowd, a dark little man with sparse white hair approached
Amber.  He bowed slightly to her.  “I bask in your radiance, Amber
Phoenix.”

Amber
laughed.  The department’s physical trainer always overdid his
compliments.  She loved him for it.  “Goodbye, Bear.  What will
you do?  I mean, if we don’t...you know...”

“I shall open my
own training center.  May fate smile upon me enough to bring me women to
train who possess even half your skill...and even a quarter of your beauty.”

“Don’t make me
blush, Bear.”

He suddenly
looked concerned.  “Watch out for Miss Branch, won’t you?  She’s a
good hand with a gun, but without one she beats the air much more than her
opponent.”

“Oh, she’s not
so bad!”

Bear looked
amused at the comment.  “Well.  Good luck to you all as you venture
to Earth.  May your skills always be used for the benefit of your team and
of our city.”

“Thanks, Bear.”

He leaned a bit
closer to her and said earnestly, “You possess great talent, Miss
Phoenix.  Yet honor does not come with talent, but with the way one uses
it.  You are capable of fighting and of winning...even of killing. 
But what will you do with such capability?  That will show the world what
you are made of.”

Now Amber gave a
slight bow.  “I’ll remember that, Bear.”

Momma Ginny was
hugging everyone in sight.  She hugged Jill longest of all.  “Now
who’s going to visit me early in the mornings and cheer me up?”

“Who’s going to
give me the perfect advice at the perfect time, whether I ask for it or not?”
Jill asked.

Ginny wiped away
a tear or two.  “Don’t worry, honey, we’ll all be back here before you
know it.  You’ll get this cleared up, and the department will be on its
feet again.”

“We’ll try,”
Jill said with a shrug.

“I meant
you
,
Jill. 
You’ll
find a way.  Oh, I know you have good people at
your side, but you’re the one they’ll be depending on.  You don’t know
what a blessing you are to us all.  You’ve saved this department before,
and you’ll save it again.  I feel it in my bones!”

Jill didn’t know
what to say, except to whisper, “Thanks, Momma.”

Ginny swept her
up in a final hug before she pulled her suitcase toward her car.

Jill looked
around.  It was really happening—almost everyone was leaving. 
Director Holiday was making sure he shook each person’s hand and gave a final
word of exhortation.  She noticed Corey had quite a crowd gathered around
him for tearful farewells.  Mostly girls.  Of course.

Then she spotted
Bradley, hovering awkwardly beyond the edge of the crowd like a lone moon in
orbit.  She stepped beside him.  “Crazy, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” he said,
shuffling his feet.  “Crazy.”

They watched in
silence.

“Listen, Jill,
I’ve been meaning to tell you...the way I’ve treated you—”

“Forget it.”

“But I just want
to say I’m sorry.”

“No big deal.”

“It
was
a
big deal.  I was a jerk.  Mostly to you, but honestly to everyone
else too.  Don’t bother denying it.”

She didn’t.

“This department
is the best thing that ever happened to me,” he continued, “and yet I’ve
totally alienated myself from everyone here.  Not one person has come up
to me to say goodbye, and I don’t blame them.  Nobody will miss me. 
Why would they?”

Jill stepped a
little closer to him.  “There are some people who would miss you,
Bradley.  It’s just that they don’t need to say goodbye, because they
happen to be staying here with you.  That’s all.”

He studied her
expression to see if she meant it.

She did.

Now the cars
were loaded up and the caravan began filing into the tunnel.  The small
group of hardy souls who would be staying at the department waved until the
last pair of taillights vanished into the darkness.

An emptiness
hung in the garage.

The thought
flashed in Jill’s mind out of nowhere…Maybe she should have gone with them.

She tried to push
the feeling away, but it lingered.  She gazed across the garage floor
toward the mouth of the tunnel.  Until this moment, there hadn’t been any
second thoughts about staying.  Not one.

So why did that
tunnel seem to beckon her all of a sudden?

Someone was
calling her name.  She looked around and discovered she was alone in the
garage.

“Jill?” she
heard again.

She turned
around.

Dizzie
was peeking through the door leading back to
HQ.  “You coming back?”

Jill made
herself walk toward the door.  “Yeah...I’m coming back.”