Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 (39 page)

-85-

Haphezian Embassy

Chaiavis

As Diago Dasaro stood there watching the local law enforcement officials secure the straps on Nejdra’s body bag, he couldn’t help but notice the trembling in his hands. He placed one on his hip and rubbed the other over his chin, praying no one else would notice. The hairs on the back of his neck had yet to settle back down and Ziva’s chilling words continued to echo through his head:
“Do you know how long it takes a bariine round to travel eight hundred meters?”

It had been nearly an hour since she’d shot his colleague, and during that hour he’d felt more uneasy than he’d ever felt in his life. The realization that Ziva had been staring right at him for the duration of their conversation had hit him first, followed immediately by the unnerving idea that she could have just as easily killed
him
. Now he stood there obsessing over why she had chosen to shoot Nejdra instead. Was there something he was missing? The round she had used – or what was left of it, anyway – had indeed been partially composed of bariine alloy, a substance commonly found on Haphez and neighboring Fringe worlds. Surely she hadn’t been using one of her own rifles; all of her personal weapons had been confiscated immediately following her arrest. And yet she had still been able to make the shot. It was clear that she had managed to catch up to him, judging by what she had revealed during the transmission, but now he feared she was actually a step ahead.

Dasaro shifted his attention from the body bag to the embassy doors when Kyron Hoxie emerged with a pair of investigators. “Nothing,” he said, handing Dasaro a viewscreen that displayed infrared views of every rooftop within eight hundred meters. “No signal from the communicator, either. She’s not stupid enough to leave it lying around.”

A mistake Dasaro had already made when he’d continued to use the comm code he’d shared with Lieutenant Tarbic. That explained how they’d managed to track him to the embassy and contact him. Using Foda’s communicator had been clever indeed; the Cobian had no doubt been captured while searching for Kat Reilly, and Dasaro guessed he was dead now. He kicked himself for having answered the call so readily after Foda had failed to check in at the appointed time.

He lifted his eyes and gazed out at the surrounding buildings, mentally eliminating any that were too short or obscured by other structures. He paused to look at several towering buildings a bit further away. “She was beyond eight hundred meters,” he said, shaking his head. “Think about it. She’d want to be as far away as possible so she’d have plenty of time to escape again. She’s a coward.”

No, she’s a crack shot
, but saying otherwise still made him feel better. An eight-hundred-meter shot was child’s play for a marksman like Ziva, and she was the type who could turn even the worst of weapons into effective killing machines merely by holding them.

It had always driven him mad how good she was. As her superior officer, he should have been proud to have someone so talented under his command. The higher rank still didn’t help the fact that she was better than him, however. He’d been the top dog in spec ops since she was still carrying around mock weapons at basic training, and suddenly she’d been bombarded with opportunities and job offers, all because she’d managed to kill some rogue Nosti. She’d gone straight into special ops training without graduating – or even
completing
– the Junior Guard program.

One would have expected someone like that to be a cocky, mouthy little
shouka
, but that had never been the case with Ziva. In fact, she rarely spoke. She was just always
there
– he had to suppress a shudder – lurking around, waiting to steal more opportunities from him. She was good and she knew it, but she never flaunted it. Dasaro often wished she would, just so he’d have a more legitimate reason for disliking her.

His hate went beyond petty jealousy though. He was at the top of the food chain in special ops for a reason, so there was no point in being envious of Ziva’s abilities. It had taken him years to finally be named lieutenant of the Alpha team, and after a mere nine months in that position he’d been bumped up to captain to make way for Ziva and her team. In all reality, the promotion had seemed like more of a
demotion
, and he had fought for the chance to continue some field work. The director claimed it was because spec ops needed someone younger, someone fresh, but that Dasaro was still invaluable and the agency couldn’t afford to lose him. It had always struck him as a glorified way of sweeping him under the rug.

Okay, so maybe he was a little jealous, but only because he’d worked his whole life to get to where he was and she’d simply been adopted into the program. The woman had skills, and he’d been totally honest in saying that she was the only real threat to his operations, which were the only thing that made him feel like he was in control anymore. It wasn’t that others were incapable of catching on. It was just that, knowing full well that he despised her, Ziva tended to keep a closer eye on him than anyone else at HSP. She was bound to find out about Argall sooner or later, the reason she’d made a perfect candidate whenever he needed to arrange a distraction for the rest of the agency.

He suddenly became aware of Hoxie speaking. “…we check those other buildings?”

Dasaro shook his head and turned to face the other captain. “Sorry?”

Hoxie released an exasperated sigh and started over. “They’re willing to extend the search radius and look again,” he said, gesturing toward all the structures surrounding the landing platform. “If we check those other buildings, maybe we—”

“We’d be wasting our time,” Dasaro finished for him. “Ziva is long gone by now, and now that she knows about Argall, she will no doubt try to launch some form of offensive. We need to make preparations to return to Haphez.”

“She’s got three people with her,” Hoxie said, lifting an eyebrow. “How will they be any match for us?”

“They won’t, but they can still talk. Nejdra was right – we can still tie everything up, but we have to hurry. Ziva will go straight to the director, but I think I know how to buy us some time.”

“What should I tell Loric?”

Dasaro was quiet for a moment, contemplating the ultimatum they had finally reached. “Shut everything down,” he said. “
Everything
.”

Hoxie reached for his communicator but stopped before he had removed it from his belt. He shook his head. “You’re really prepared to kill all those people?”

“Keep your voice down,” Dasaro growled, taking several quick steps away from the investigators. Hoxie reluctantly followed, and the conversation resumed. “We still have a chance to save ourselves here, but it will mean getting our hands dirty.”

“They’re not dirty already? HSP is going to find out what’s going on.”

“Time, Kyron!” Dasaro said, taking him by the shoulders. “The key is
time
. Erasing as much as possible will slow HSP down enough that we can get safely away. We’ll be rich men, with the resources to hide and start new lives.”

Hoxie set his jaw and shook his head again, making a show of securing his communicator to his belt. “This isn’t what I signed up for. You promised us crystals at the beginning. You never said anything about wiping out an entire city.”

Dasaro moved his hand down to rest on his holster and loomed over Hoxie, looking him squarely in the eye. “So that’s it then? After everything, you’re going to just walk away?”

“What are you going to do, shoot me?” The former soldier remained unfazed. “No, not here in front of all these people. Come on, Dasaro. Payvan’s on to us, Nejdra’s already dead. I think I’ll take my chances and get out while I’m still breathing.”

Dasaro stared him down a moment longer, but it was to no avail. He could see in the man’s eyes that the decision was final. “Fine,” he muttered, not wishing to make a scene with so many people around. He took a step back and gestured for Hoxie to be on his way.

The other captain nodded his thanks and took off at a brisk pace toward the embassy doors. He paused just outside and turned back for a moment. Dasaro saw him mouth the words
I’m sorry
and with that, he was gone.

The apprehension he’d felt over the past few days was nearly overwhelming. He’d been anxious after hearing of Ziva’s escape, and even more so when he’d found out she was still alive. But this new wave of anxiety that washed over him trumped all the others. This was like a game of chess and his opponent had just put him in check. On top of that, he’d just lost the only two people he trusted to help him.

Angrier than ever, Dasaro pulled out his communicator and opened up a transmission to Emeri Arion. Trying to hide now was pointless, as there were plenty of witnesses who could place him there at the embassy. There was still a card he could play, a card that could potentially redeem the situation if he was lucky. However, he couldn’t help but feel his luck was running out.

“Dasaro, Alpha 40824,” he said in response to the automated prompt that would give him access to the director’s personal line.

It seemed like an eternity before a gruff voice answered. “Captain! May I ask where you’ve been?”

Dasaro drew a deep breath and put a bit more distance between himself and the embassy officials, who were carrying Nejdra’s corpse to the ship that would transport it back to Haphez. “Director, you have my sincerest apologies, but I think you’ll be interested in what I have to say. I’ve found Payvan.”

-86-

HSP Headquarters

Noro, Haphez

Hearing those words shocked Skeet as much as they would have if he still thought Ziva was dead. There was total silence in the director’s office for a moment as he, Zinni, Luko Zona, and Emeri all took turns throwing surprised glances at one another.

The call had come through as they’d been presenting some recent findings to the director, one of which was a surveillance recording from the Noro spaceport that showed Kade Shevin purchasing three intragalactic transport tickets. Since his wife and daughter were both accounted for, the only reasonable explanation they’d been able to conjure up was that Kade was in league with Ziva and Aroska and the three of them had escaped together. Where they had gone remained a mystery, but perhaps Dasaro could shed some light on that.

Emeri furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head, playing the part of a confused man well. “What are you talking about? Lieutenant Payvan is dead.”

“That’s what I thought too,” Dasaro said. “But one of my people found footage of someone wearing the riding suit of the pilot who was found in the forest. I began to look into whether she could possibly still be alive, and suddenly there was an attempt on my life. That answered my question well enough.”

“Oh please,” Zinni muttered.

Emeri looked just as disgusted. “You’re telling me Payvan is alive and that she tried to kill you?”

“That’s why I left,” Dasaro replied, “and why I couldn’t tell anyone. If she knew we found that footage, she had to have somehow breached our system, and there was no telling what she’d do. If everyone suddenly knew her death was staged, she would disappear for good. But if she thought she was still relatively safe, I thought she’d be more apt to slip up, increasing our chances of catching her once and for all.”

“Is it possible that she staged her death because she’s innocent? Is she defending herself?”

There was a suspiciously long hesitation on Dasaro’s end, or at least it seemed long based on the simplicity of the question. Perhaps the director had moved too fast, though the conversation was making Skeet angry enough that he probably would have said the same thing.

“Director, Payvan killed Captain Venn.”

Once again the room fell dead silent. Skeet took a step forward, fighting away the nausea brought on by the doubt he suddenly felt. They had finally gotten close to proving Ziva innocent, and now, if Dasaro was telling the truth, she had just murdered another HSP agent.
She would have had her reasons
, he told himself.

Dasaro continued speaking as Emeri brought up the agency-wide alerts on his computer. Sure enough, there was a news flash with Nejdra’s name on it, originating from the Haphezian embassy on Chaiavis. “She managed to track us here and she contacted me this afternoon, confirming my suspicion that she had somehow gotten into the system. She shot Venn and got away, and now Captain Hoxie has disappeared.”

The director rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. “What did she say when she contacted you?”

“She said she’s not going to stop fighting. I believe she’ll try to run again, and with your permission I’d like to continue hunting her.”

“By yourself?”

“Maybe it’s better that way. I know how she operates, sir. I’m going to do what I can to put an end to all of this.”

Emeri straightened his jacket and turned to face the rest of the group. “Permission granted, Captain, but I’ll be expecting a thorough debrief every evening. The agency will do what it can to back you up, and I’ll see to it that you have the Chaiavian embassy’s full cooperation.”

Zinni rushed forward the moment the transmission disconnected. “That was the biggest load of
sheyss
I’ve ever heard!”

“At ease, Officer Vax,” Emeri said. “I don’t believe a word of it either, but how do you explain the fact that Captain Venn is dead?”

“We don’t know the circumstances. She was in league with Dasaro anyway, so I say good riddance.”

Skeet had to agree, especially after the way Nejdra had treated them in the interrogation room at the start of the investigation, but he placed a warning hand on Zinni’s shoulder anyway. “What do you propose we do, sir?”

Zona stepped forward. “If I may, I would suggest investigating Argall while Dasaro is still off-world. If any of the information I’ve found is accurate, we should find answers there.”

“Fine,” Emeri said. “Sergeant Duvo, make preparations for a recon operation. I want you to go in quiet – the galaxy only knows what we’ll find there. You ship out tonight.”