Captivated (11 page)

“She’s fragile. People hurt her. She’s wary.” Vincenz sat at the table.

“I know. Julian, I think you should continue with your debrief. I’m sure it’ll be better than mine anyway. It’s your gift.”

Julian had long since ceased to be surprised when Ellis said exactly the right thing. He just did and everyone in Phantom Corps accepted this fact.

“When we finish with Ms. Black, we have another series of meetings. Daniel is at Roman’s and they’ll comm in from there.”

“And how is the babe then?” Abbie was Daniel’s sister and the wife of Roman Lyons, the leader of the Federated Universes. She’d had a
baby only two months before; in the midst of so much chaos, there had been joy. It was important to remember that.

“Mera is thriving. Not hard when every single person she sees dotes on her. As if Abbie would allow anything else.” Wilhelm grinned as he shook his head.

“Sounds like her.” Vincenz had a great deal of admiration for both Roman and his wife. They’d made a great deal of good in the Federated ’Verses, had brought them forward so much when it came to the extension of basic rights to their people. As a leader, Vincenz felt that Roman was peerless. He made hard choices and he did it well. He was courageous and intelligent and hard when he had to be.

“Ah, you must be Hannah.” Wilhelm stood and Vincenz watched, amused, as Hannah’s eyes widened when she took in nearly seven feet of Wilhelm Ellis, Comandante of the Military Corps. “I’m Wilhelm Ellis.” He held his hand out, and she took a deep breath and returned his handshake. “Please, come in and join us.” Wilhelm put her hand on his arm and led her to the chair Julian had put out for her.

“You’re very large.” She clapped her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

Instead of anger, Wilhelm laughed as he sat across from her. “Not rude at all, Hannah. I’m told my father was very tall as well. Must be where I got it.” Ellis sobered. “My condolences and those of Roman Lyons and House Lyons for the loss of your family.”

She blinked several times and nodded. “Thank you.”

Ellis studied her intently but she held up under scrutiny. Vincenz had to clamp down on his instinct to rush in to protect her. He wanted to defend her against this, but he knew she needed to do this on her own. Knew it meant something to her and it definitely would with Ellis. Vincenz trusted Wilhelm Ellis more than anyone else he knew. He had to continue to do so.

Finally Ellis leaned forward. “I’m here … well, I suppose you
must know one of the reasons I’m here. I wanted to thank you in person for submitting to the brain scan. I know it was … difficult for you, especially given your history with the Imperium.”

“Julian told me the scan works better when—well, when the person’s brain isn’t murky and sort of broken. I understand you need more from me.”

Ellis flicked his gaze to Julian and Vincenz knew understanding passed between them.

“Broken seems an inappropriate word for what your brain is, Ms. Black. To be blunt … as brains go, it’s quite impressive. But yes, because of the mental trauma you endured, the scan was less than conclusive. So the real question is—they had you for some time and yet they didn’t kill you. This is a good thing, obviously, as you’re alive and we like that. But it’s a puzzling thing. Do you know why?”

She sat straighter. “Why didn’t they kill me? Why did they keep me alive on this side of the ’Verse line? You think I know something. Or that I’ve been implanted with something that poses a danger to the Federated Universes.”

Ellis smiled and nodded approvingly. “You’re very smart.”

“I am if all the letters behind my name and the certificates I’ve earned aren’t counterfeit. The treatment I underwent with Dr. Pesch mapped my brain. He tells me that while my brain has damaged spots, there’s no evidence that I’ve been implanted or altered.” She took a shaky breath and Vincenz handed her a mug of tea. After a few gulps she looked back up to them again.

“He made the same report to me. I was glad to hear it. But the puzzle remains, doesn’t it? Killing you would have solved the problem if it was that you’d seen something you weren’t supposed to. They killed nearly everyone else; why not you?”

Julian smoothly took over as Ellis settled into the background. “Indeed. Tell me what you think you know.”

She sighed. “I’ve gone over it. The simplest answer is that it has something to do with my work. Communicable diseases. Some life threatening. But none of them were of a type I’d have recommended for biological warfare if that’s what you think.”

“That’s good to know. I want you to add details like that if they occur to you. Did you get visitors from the Imperium?” Julian asked.

“Of course. It was a joint project between both the Federated Universes and the Imperium. About half of our funding came from them.”

“Like who? People who worked with you? Other doctors and researchers? People who came from the Imperialist territories to oversee grant funding distribution? Who?”

She closed her eyes and Vincenz wanted to hold her hand, the one she had in a fist in her lap.

Fuck it.
He reached out and took it, unfurling her fingers and placing it between his palms.

“We had six researchers. Four from our Edge ’Verses and two from theirs. A staff of ten more as lab techs, administrative help. I was one of three researchers with an assistant. Total staff excluding security was sixteen.”

“With security?”

“Twenty-four.”

Julian didn’t look up, but Vincenz knew he found that number as interesting as Vincenz and Ellis did.

“That seems a lot. Is it a lot, Hannah?”

“I never worked in a similar situation so I can’t say other than that I found it rather odd that they’d have so many guards. The building was well protected as it was. I had to show four pieces of identification just to get in each day. But it was politics.” She shrugged and Ellis nodded. “The foundation had Imperium visitors at least several times each quarter year. Usually other researchers. Sometimes they had
in-house training or lectures with guests from both sides of the ’Verses. Federation visitors on a regular basis as well.”

Julian led her around through the story. He did it patiently and gently, backing off when Hannah got angry or upset and two hours later, it was Wilhelm who held a hand up.

“Young woman, you’ve said enough for now. You must be tired and in dire need of refreshment.”

“We all are, I wager.” Julian stood. “A meal and then, Hannah, you’re fortunate enough to be free to skip all the other meetings we have to attend afterward.”

“W
e know they have one more portal-collapsing device.”

Ellis said it without preamble once they’d come back to the table after lunch.

Daniel and Andrei also looked on via vid screen where they’d just joined the conference some moments before.

“What’s the plan?” Vincenz sipped his kava.

Wil looked carefully at Vincenz and Julian. “You two need to go and destroy it, naturally.”

This woman he’d met, Hannah, what a wild card she’d turned out to be. He didn’t miss the way his operatives took care of her, protected her. Nor did he miss the intelligence of the woman herself.

They sat on a hinge point. He knew it in his gut. Things were building up and any one of those things could change the game in a big way.

“That was my belief when I’d concluded the interrogations as well.” Julian sat back and sipped his kava. Wil had hated the necessity
of using Julian in so many interrogations. Knew it took a toll on the man. But he hadn’t been lying when he’d told Julian he had a gift. He did. And because of those interrogations with prisoners of war, they’d built up a wealth of intelligence.

Normally, both these men would have jumped at the opportunity to go in and destroy the device. But Wil didn’t miss the quick check they both made toward where Hannah worked out in the garden.

“What do you think she knows?” He changed tack for the moment.

Julian took a deep breath. “I’ve gone over the logs and notes. They questioned her in a fairly narrow area. The timelines and the things they wanted to know from her seem to indicate she saw something. But their reaction in not killing her seems to indicate they needed it from her, that perhaps they didn’t know it themselves. Or that they were missing a key element.”

Wil nodded. He believed pretty much the same. “Pesch indicated several attempts to manipulate certain parts of her brain to stimulate recall.” He smiled. “Which only seems to have made her will to resist them stronger.”

“She’s an asset.” Julian leaned forward, his hands clasped in on the tabletop. “She understands Imperial culture in a way few do.” Julian looked to Vincenz, who lifted his shoulders.

“When I first met you,” he said to Vincenz, “I knew you had a path to walk. All these years you’ve proven yourself over and over to be one of our best people. You’ve got a head for formulas and for machines, which are fine skills. But now you are integral because Julian brings up an important point. You know the Imperialists. You know their motivations and the hows of what they do and why. It’s why you need to be the one to head up this mission to destroy the last remaining device. If we control all the remaining Liberiam and they have
nothing left to build a device with, they can’t use them. This is the biggest weapon in their arsenal.”

“Unless this thing Hannah knows has to do with another weapon.” Daniel spoke from the vid screen.

“My father is no fool. He’s arrogant, yes. Spoiled. But he’s surrounded by smart and vicious men. They won’t have only one weapon.” Vincenz licked his lips. “There’s another lab Hannah visited before they came to take her from the foundation.”

“Do you think they might have the data we need there?” Wil asked.

“I don’t know. But I think there’s a good chance there may be some answers there. At the very least we’d be able to count things out.” Vincenz pulled at his hair as he thought it over.

“You and Julian need to head the mission. We have some intel on the location of the labs where the portal-collapsing device is being built.”

Julian huffed out a long breath and looked toward Hannah again.

Wil pretended he hadn’t seen them both look to her so frequently. And he hoped these two were the last to go and get themselves tripped up by love. At least until the war was over. “We can send her to Ravena. She’ll be safe there. You know Abbie and Carina will take her under their protection. Help her build a new life.”

Vincenz pushed to stand and began to pace. “She … she’s …”

“She needs to be with me and Vin.” Julian put his mug down and leveled a look at Wilhelm.

About time
. Wil looked them both over. “Is that so? And why do you say such a thing?”

“I think whatever she knows has something to do with her work. Just as
I
understand how things work in the Imperium, so does she. If she knows something, she’s the best person to help us find it. I
don’t know a thing about medicine and science or how to even begin to figure out what to look for. I blow stuff up.”

Wil smiled. Nicely done. He’d made the right choices with the people in his Phantom Corps. “She’s not trained for this. And this op may have nothing to do with whatever she might know.”

“We’ll take care of the backup and defense. She’s an asset here. One we can’t afford to ignore.”

“And?”

“Her entire world has been turned upside down. Her parents are dead. Her friends are dead. Her old job is gone. She has nothing here right now. Nothing but us, and we’ve made the commitment to her to be here.”

It was the most impassioned he’d seen Julian since before Marame had been killed. Hannah Black was important. A bright point in the maze of all this insanity. She had a purpose and Wilhelm Ellis didn’t like to ignore people’s fate.

“All right.”

Julian looked at him askance and he wanted to laugh. Instead he glowered.

“She’s not classified as Phantom Corps like Piper. Just know that in advance. This is a onetime thing. I don’t know why you all choose to lose your heads over a woman right at the worst possible time.”

Vincenz opened his mouth to argue and then sat back. “That’s not what this is.”

“Pull the other one, boys. Stop lying to yourselves. As for the mission? You’ll have to do both. Get that lab and the portal device. Make sure she’s got some basic weapons training. I’ve got to meet with Brandt, who is stopping by on his way out of the Imperium. Coordinate with Daniel on this. Get it done, gentlemen.”

* * *

“H
e seems to think we’re romantically involved with Hannah.” Julian sat at his data console pretending to read the screen, but in reality, he was thinking about Hannah.

“He’s got a touch of prescience.” Vincenz rustled around and found the card he needed.

“He knows. About you and me I mean.”

Vincenz input a series of codes before looking up, amusement clear on his face. “Not much of a secret. Is it?”

Julian grinned. “Not if anyone has eyes.”

“And after last night, ears.”

They laughed, remembering the rather loud session they’d shared while Hannah had been in the bath.

“So why do you think he made that assumption then?” Julian asked again. “You know, about Hannah.”

Vincenz put the data aside and met Julian’s gaze. “Because he’s got a touch of prescience, like I said. I see the way you look at her. I see the way you touch her, the way you hold her when she’s in our bed.”

Julian took a deep breath. “And does that bother you?”

“Yes, but not in the way you think.”

“She gets to me. There’s something about her. She moves past all my defenses and has curled up inside me.”

Vincenz nodded. “I tried thinking it was fraternal. For a while. I thought she needed protection and I have a sister so she was like that to me. I can protect her and love her, but it’s like Carina.” He snorted. “Only that’s a lie. It’s nothing like Carina.”

“No. Not even like Marame.” The guilt rose. “It’s hard, you know. Not to take my kisses deeper. I haven’t though. You know that, right? Temptation doesn’t mean anything. I wouldn’t do that to you.”