Starshine: Aurora Rising Book One (43 page)

“Um….” The man behind the desk looked down then up again. “Yes, Capt—Ms—Ma’am. And Colonel. And, uh, sir.”

Caleb swallowed a laugh and wondered what in the
hell
he had gotten himself into as he fell in two steps behind them.

The office was well-appointed but spartan and rather sterile. The woman who rounded the desk to greet them wore a dress admiral’s uniform, and other than the color of her hair bore almost no resemblance to Alex. She held herself with the stiff, rigid bearing common among high-ranking military officers. Her expression only briefly deviated from the bearing as she faced but did not approach Alex.

“I am sorry for the delay. It was unavoidable, but I know you made efforts to arrive here with due speed and I do appreciate it.” Her gaze shifted to fall on him, and deep, dusky hazel eyes penetrated straight into him. He decided—though for reasons he did comprehend—Alex
seriously
underestimated her mother.

“Mr. Roark, is it?”

“Yes, ma’am. A pleasure to meet you, though I wish it were under better circumstances.” He shook her hand warmly but couldn’t shake the feeling she had instantly deduced
everything
about him, and them, and the last week.

“Okay, pleasantries done.” With a word Alex somehow dominated the room. “Now about the
aliens
preparing to invade. You’ve had the report for three days—what are you
doing
about it?”

Navick had retreated toward the rear of the office; the brief glance he managed told him the man was involved in a private interaction of some sort. It made him nervous having the man at his back, but he didn’t dare show it as a simple corporate space scout. Here in this room, he was submissive and in awe and
totally
out of his element. Yessiree.

“General Alamatto has tasked his advisors with reviewing the data to verify its credibility and plausibility and—”

“Oh you have
got
to be—”

“Alexis, do not start with this. You know I have absolute faith in your abilities and competence. But—”

“My
competence
? I don’t—”

“Yes. That was a compliment, in case you didn’t notice. I have no doubt as to the accuracy of your report, I truly don’t. But mine is not the only opinion which matters.”

Damn, this was
fascinating.
He had surmised Alex’s relationship with her mother was complicated at best and knew it was informed by decades of conflict, but…
damn
.

He was so enthralled by the interchange that for half a second he missed the rigid tension abruptly manifesting in Navick’s stance behind and a little to the left of him. When he did sense it he recognized what it meant, even if he didn’t know
precisely
what it meant.

He tried to get Alex’s attention, but she was fully engaged in antagonizing her mother, who he had already discerned very clearly loved her daughter and just as clearly had no
idea
how to talk to her. He made a mental note to try to find a way to diplomatically point it out to Alex at a more opportune time.

Navick stepped in front of him and produced a military-issue Daemon. He displayed no reaction to the gun pointed at his chest and remained calm as his wrists were grabbed from behind. “Sir, if you will let me explain, you will find I am not your enemy.”

Alex finally turned around. Her eyes widened in considerable surprise to see two MPs handcuffing him and her oldest friend holding a gun on him. Her brow furrowed, eyes searching his for guidance. He gave her a small smirk…plans rarely survived contact with the enemy, after all.

“What the hell is going on?”

“I’m sorry, Alex, but Mr. Roark is not who he represented himself to be. His name is actually Caleb Marano and he’s an intelligence operative for the Senecan Federation government.”

Her face screwed up at Navick. “I
know
that. We were going to get around to telling you. Why the fuck are you handcuffing him?”

“You
know
? Alexis, you brought a Senecan operative into
Headquarters
? How
could
you!”

She whipped back to her mother. “Because he’s not a threat to—”

“Not a threat? How gullible must you—”

He ignored their yelling to meet Navick’s stare directly. “I apologize for the subterfuge, but I am not here to harm the Alliance in any way. I beg you, give me two minutes of your time. I am—”

“
I’m
gullible? You’re the one who fell for this stupid farce of a war. We are trying to save your asses, and everyone else’s in the process—”

“You know nothing of the military situat—”

“—here to ask for your
help
.”

The man’s glare faltered and uncertainty flashed in his eyes, so quickly it was gone almost before it had appeared.

“Richard, get him out of my office
now
.”

Navick looked to Alex’s mother before returning to him. “Then you shall have to ask the judge for help. You won’t find it here.” He motioned to the guards. “Take him to the detention facility.”

He didn’t put up a fight as they manhandled him out the door. He
could
have fought and very possibly have won—this fight at least—but it didn’t seem a good long gamble.

“Richard, what are you
doing
? Would you listen to me for one goddamn second? He’s not—”

The door closed behind him, muting the remainder of Alex’s plea. A moment later a pulse flashed into his vision.

I’ll come for you as soon as I can

Though knowing what he did about where he presumed he was being taken, it should be impossible for her to do so, he had learned not to underestimate her.

Instead he chose to believe her.

“Why did you do that! I
asked
him to come here with me. We want to put a stop to this stupid
khrenovuyu
war and—”

Her mother glared at her with a cold hostility she hadn’t seen in…oh, twenty years or so. “Do you have
any
idea what you have done? By all rights you should be arrested and tried as an accessory—as a traitor. If you were anyone else but my daughter you
would
be.”

She refused to be intimidated; she was too fucking angry to be anyway. “I am not a traitor and neither is he. We are
trying
to stop you from ruining our best chance at defeating these aliens.”

Richard cleared his throat. “Miriam, maybe we ought—”

Her mother’s hand slammed down on her desk. “We are at
war
. I realize you lack a proper concept of what that means, but it most certainly means you do not bring a spy for the enemy
into my office
!”

The woman may be difficult to provoke, but it seemed Alex had located her breaking point. She searched around for a more sympathetic audience. “Richard, how did you know?”

A puzzled expression came over his face. “A copy of his internal Senecan Intelligence Division personnel file arrived in my comms a few minutes ago. Anonymous source.”

“Seriously? Isn’t that a little odd?” Who knew Caleb was here? His boss Volosk, perhaps? She wasn’t sure how much Caleb had revealed to him. And how did
anyone
know to send the information to Richard? Also,
why
?

He shrugged. “Sure, but does it matter where it came from?”

“Yes it matters, because there are a lot of suspicious things going on around this ‘war.’” She pinched the bridge of her nose in a futile attempt to stave off the encroaching headache. “Listen, we were planning to tell you. I wanted to get a few items regarding the aliens covered first is all.” Her gaze flitted to one then the other. “I’m sorry we deceived you, but it was necessary to get in the door.”

Richard gave her a small smile. Miriam did not, but her glare did soften from somewhere around absolute zero to a mere icy chill. “I believe you thought you were doing the right thing. You’re not a professional. You were taken in by a handsome, manipulative man—you always did have a weakness for the roguish ones—and made a mista—”

“Don’t you
dare
.”

“I’m merely—”

“If you use that condescending tone with me one more time, I
swear
I will walk out of here right now and you will never see me again.”

Cast-iron bitch mode faltered. Miriam’s eyes darted to Richard, then the window. Finally she nodded almost imperceptibly. Almost.

Alex smiled thinly, her voice tight under the strain of forcing it to remain even. “Putting aside Caleb’s status for a moment, let’s get back to the alien army. We can at least do something about
it
, I hope. Do I need to review my report with the Board? With someone else?”

“The science advisors to the Board are still studying the report—” her mother held up a hand to forestall the interruption “—but they should be finished by this evening. I’m certain they will sign off on its veracity, at which point it will be forwarded to the Board members. General Alamatto would like you to present your findings tomorrow afternoon.”

“Tomorrow.
Afternoon
.”

“Yes. A meeting is scheduled for 1500. Its primary business will be the war of course, but you’re tentatively scheduled to present as well.”

“You
do
understand I raced here at practically reckless speed, not getting any sleep working on the damn report, all so I could get this information in front of people who mattered immediately?”

“Yes I understand it. If it were up to me, we would be meeting now. Difficult decisions lie ahead and the sooner we get started on them the better.”

“
Fine
. Tomorrow. What can I do now? Can I talk to these ‘advisors’? I imagine they’re quite educated and whatnot, but forgive me if I’m skeptical of their sense. Who is—”

“There’s nothing you need to do. The matter is well in hand.”

She thought about Caleb, locked up overnight in…she had to find out where the MPs took him. “Then if the Board has ‘science advisors’ and everyone’s getting the report, do I need to present at all? I made sure the summary could be understood by laymen, and hell, even bureaucrats. I’m not certain what my presence really adds.”

“It transforms a sterile data file into something real. Your passion can convince them when visuals cannot—but not too much passion, please? It will be counterproductive for you to cause a scene. And don’t even
think
about bringing up your wild ideas concerning the war or you are likely to find yourself forcibly removed from the meeting.”

“I’ll take it under advisement.” She tried to pulse Caleb to warn him she might be a little while, but it bounced. She sent a message…which bounced. Terrific.

“Well if there’s nothing for me to do, I should get out of your way. I imagine you have a nonsensical, moronic war to run or some such. Richard, walk me out?”

He nodded, though he seemed distracted. “Sure.”

“Alexis?”

She looked back at her mother, an eyebrow raised in question.

“I
am
glad you made it back safe.”

You have no idea.
She left without responding and waited for Richard on the other side of the door.

He was grimacing as the door closed behind him. “Alex, I’m sor—”

“Let’s wait until we get outside.” He frowned but complied. He probably hadn’t been intending on joining her the entire way to her vehicle, but she indicated for him to enter the lift ahead of her. Once it was underway she stepped closer to him, her voice low.

“You’re an intelligent, rational, reasonable man. I need you to hear me out with an open mind, okay?” He didn’t protest, so she continued. “You know I feel no particular love for Seneca, and why. But we—I—believe they did not intend to assassinate the Trade Minister, and they
absolutely
did not intend to start a war. Now—” she motioned his interruption silent as the lift came to a stop at the parking lot “—we didn’t order the attack on Palluda, did we?”

The flicker in his eyes was all the answer she required. “I didn’t think so. Richard, this war is a
setup
. Now maybe it’s because someone wants to finish what was started over two decades ago, or maybe it’s…maybe it’s something worse. Regardless of the reason for it, the result will be to divide and weaken all our forces, leaving us exposed and vulnerable when these aliens attack. We need to see past the trickery and
work together
.”

They reached her skycar and he turned to her. He wore a troubled expression, one she had rarely seen from him. “Do you realize what you’re asking? This isn’t some little side conflict. This is the real thing. We can’t simply hold hands and kiss and make up. And how would we even
begin
to prove any sort of trickery or deception?”

“That’s what we were
going
to tell you. Caleb’s superiors think if they could examine the details of the Trade Minister’s assassination they may be able to prove it wasn’t committed by the man who’s been accused.”