Treason, page 17
“Hang on.” Pamas reached behind the driver’s seat and pulled out two automatic rifles. Giving one to Dael, she pulled out yet another sidearm for Darmiya. “Here you go, love.”
“All right. Let’s go. Who knows how fast someone can get here.” Dael pointed north. “I hope that once we’re out of range of whatever technology they used to scramble our communicators, we can reach our people. They should be looking for us by now, since we’re not where we’re supposed to be.”
They began walking among the shrubbery, which slowed them down but also provided some protection. Darmiya looked at her extra sidearm. If she fiddled with the settings, she could use it as a laser-light if they needed to signal their own people.
“You really did save my life,” Pamas said as she walked behind Darmiya.
“And that meant saving my own, as I can’t imagine being without you,” Darmiya said over her shoulder. “So, purely for selfish reasons.”
“Uh-huh.” Pamas clearly didn’t believe that last part for a second. “You don’t fool me.”
No, she didn’t. Darmiya would give her life to keep Pamas safe. She never thought she’d feel that way about anyone, except perhaps her twin brother, but with Pamas, she was certain.
“As romantic as that is,” Dael said sternly, “let’s focus on not getting killed, all right? Eyes and ears, people. Eyes and ears.”
“Yes, sir,” Darmiya and Pamas said in unison, but Darmiya could hear the smile in Pamas’s voice. Now all they had to do was get ahold of their people and work together to find out who was behind this attack or abduction attempt. Darmiya had initially thought they had to be going after Dael, as she was the highest-ranking officer among them. Thinking of it now, she wasn’t sure anymore. Surely the creature couldn’t possibly think Pamas would be an easy person to turn? She had been subjected to the Nestrocalder’s methods before and not given up any information at all.
Darmiya thought about herself and her accomplishments. If the Nestrocalder gang had abducted her, they could have taken advantage of the fact that she sat on a vast knowledge about Gemoconian technology and advances. She could see where they might think she was easy prey, as she had only a certain training in self-defense, but they couldn’t be sure how long she could hold out.
Then a thought hit her, and she stopped, making Pamas walk right into her. “Creator!”
“Creator, indeed?” Pamas hissed as she rubbed her chin, which she’d hit against the back of Darmiya’s head. “Are you all right?”
“I am. But I think I’ve figured out who among us those people were after.”
Dael had turned and now joined them while keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. “Go on.”
“We are all valuable to them in our own right. But we’re also strong, though the two of you out-strong me by far. Think about it though. If the Nestrocalder managed to abduct both Pamas and me, they could use each of us against the other. They probably know Pamas would be strong against them, since she has before.” Darmiya’s eyes filled with tears. “And I could probably hold on if I felt that would keep Pamas, Spinner, and you, Dael, together with all our friends and our people, safe. But if someone hurt Pamas right before my eyes…I don’t think I could have taken that, not for long.”
“Of course,” Pamas whispered. “I can only say the same. If they’d hurt Darmiya, I wouldn’t have lasted long.”
“Yet another reason to move faster. Good thinking, Dar. We should be able to join our people soon. Their scramblers can’t reach too much farther. At least I hope not.” Dael started walking again, and this time Darmiya and Pamas didn’t talk. Instead they walked behind Dael, side by side, and regarded each other warily. Darmiya’s heart hurt with each beat at the thought of someone doing something, anything, to Pamas, and judging by the looks Pamas gave her, her mind was torturing her the same way.
Darmiya did her best to keep up with the other two women’s longer strides. She wanted to get back and deal with the threat of this malevolent creature once and for all.
Chapter Twenty-five
Zoem had no idea where her sudden strength came from. To move at such high speed should have been impossible, but it wasn’t. She had just passed one mountain by locating a naturally occurring tunnel, and now she veered forty-five degrees south for no apparent reason and kept running at a steady pace.
Thoughts of what, and whom, she’d left behind had plagued her the first few hours. Only when she forced the images of Neenja away from her mind could she focus on letting her instincts soar. Her feet moved faster, and, in her head, other images occurred—memories of levitating, of moving through air. That seemed crazy, but she’d done something like that just the other day. It wasn’t a dream—it had to be a memory.
That notion came and went very fast, and then she couldn’t feel the ground beneath her anymore. Without the slightest effort, she rose more than a meter off it, and this slowed her down, as she had no traction for her feet. Annoyed, she tried to lower herself back onto the ground, but she didn’t know how. Other images, of twirling in the air in her damp and cold cell, flickered through her brain. Those memories made her move forward without knowing how she did it. Did a mental effort, rather than something physical, propel her forward? If she could do twirls in the air, she should be able to move in a certain direction. It was only logical.
Zoem focused her mind, her fervent desire to keep Neenja and all her fellow Gemoconians safe adding to her strength…and her body aligned itself in the direction she’d been running. She was still stationary. Forward. Quick. The words could have been a key, because in her mind, a door seemed to open with a resounding boom.
Zoem moved like a spear thrown by an expert. With her arms close to her body, she found she could maneuver just by focusing on the correct direction. It was insane how clear that direction was to her—as if she had been here before, which of course she might have, but in a sedated state. Could her brain really override sedation and still store impressions?
Afraid that such philosophical musings would interfere with her search for the Nestrocalder, Zoem cleansed her mind and began preparing for what she would find when she reached her target.
***
Neenja pushed the hovercraft to its limit as she continued her search for Zoem. In the meantime, her mind tormented her by replaying their lovemaking. What had possessed her to let Zoem that close, knowing full well that she meant to sacrifice herself when going up against the Nestrocalder? Never one for taking emotional risks like that, Neenja was furious with herself. And yet…would she have wanted to go through life not knowing what it was to make love with the woman she adored…that she loved.
The realization struck her as if someone had smacked her on the back of her head. She loved Zoem Malderyn with every cell in her body. If allowing the physical closeness was a bad idea, not being watchful when it came to her treacherous heart was disastrous. Neenja couldn’t follow through on that line of thought. Not truly. Yes, she loved Zoem, and to be honest, if last night was all she would have of Zoem, so be it. She wouldn’t berate either of them for making love. That was exactly what they had done. They had made love…made love happen.
Something at the far-right corner of the windscreen caught Neenja’s attention, and she shoved back the thoughts of Zoem’s naked body as far as they would go. Pushing the lever and pressing sensors with her feet, Neenja sped toward the object.
At first, she thought it was merely something glimmering in the dense shrubbery, but when she came closer, she saw antennas protrude between branches that someone—it had to be Zoem—had used for camouflage. Circling the hidden hovercraft, she scanned it and confirmed it was the vehicle in question. She slapped her communicator that was linked to the stronger comm center in her hovercar.
“KahSandra to Tylio.” Not many could page the president directly, but Neenja was glad that her voice pattern was in the recognition buffer that let her through.
“Tylio here. Go ahead, Commander.” Tylio sounded collected, but Neenja knew her well enough to detect a faint note of stress.
“I’ve located the hovercraft Zoem used this morning. She’s covered it up pretty well.” Neenja gave the coordinates. “It’s not far from the first mountain.”
“I will have one of your subordinates send a forensic team to see what they can find out. They might detect something to suggest which direction Zoem continued in.” Tylio spoke quietly to someone in the background. “There. Done.”
“I have a request. Something that will give us the upper hand and lead us to Zoem.” Neenja cleared her through. “I need Caya and Briar with me, or the search will fail. And if that happens, we lose our best chance to take the creature out for good.”
“Creator…” Tylio was silent for a few moments, and Neenja knew better than to interrupt the president’s thought process. “All right. Fine. I’ll allow it, if they’re willing, which they will be, of course.” Her voice stark, she sounded matter-of-fact, but her underlying tone of dread about sending Caya and Briar into danger was obvious. “As we know, the hovercars don’t operate well among the mountains, I’ve forgotten why, but I’m sending you a cruiser and several assault craft.”
“Thank you. I recommend that you add hoverskids for everybody. They, for some reason, worked very well during the mission to the cave where Zoem was found.”
“Good point. Now, if…when, you find Zoem, I surmise she’ll be tracking the creature. If she finds it, you must call for more backup. I will have more assault craft as well as cruisers with ground troops ready to deploy.”
“Yes, sir.” Neenja frowned as a thought struck her. “Will Spinner be joining me?”
“No. At least not right away. We have a situation developing here as well. Caydoc, Do Voy, and Pamas Seclan are missing. Spinner is heading up the search as we speak.”
“Fuck.” Wincing, Neenja rubbed her face. “Sorry, sir.”
“No need. The assault craft will be with you shortly. Do what you can to find Zoem.”
“Yes, sir,” Neenja said, feeling as if a cold fist had punched her midsection. “Have them page me with their ETA. I’ll be searching the area around the abandoned hovercar in the meantime.” Neenja couldn’t possibly sit idly by and wait for reinforcements. It would drive her crazy.
“Very well. Tylio out.”
Neenja pushed the lever and took the hovercar up to maximum height, which was about eight meters off the ground. She let it run in circles around the other vehicle and thought she could see a faint trail where the tall grass had been broken. So, Zoem had headed due east, into the mountains. She glanced at the blue-tinted giants at the end of the plain. They looked both majestic and foreboding where they stood, shoulder to shoulder, one line after another. In there, Zoem was hellbent on sacrificing herself to save everyone else, but Neenja hadn’t given up on finding another solution. She couldn’t. If she did, she would go against everything her training had instilled in her. But what was more, she would betray her own heart.
***
Caya and Briar entered the cruiser craft sitting on the landing pad behind the governmental building, flanked by two assault craft on each side. Strapping into their harnesses, surrounded by soldiers, medics, and law-enforcement agents doing the same, Caya could only look at Thea, who stood behind the impenetrable safety-glass window fifty meters away. They hadn’t said good-bye, merely acknowledged that Caya and Briar would be careful. A quick kiss and then Caya had walked out onto the landing pad with her sister. Now she made sure that the box holding her orb was safely tucked in under her seat.
Adina was on a mission with Spinner, trying to locate Dael, Darmiya, and Pamas, which meant Briar had had to inform her about their own tasks over the communicator. Adina had sounded as if she wanted to argue, but had immediately quieted and merely told Briar to be safe. What else was there to say? It was as if everything was crashing down around them, and all they could do was take one thing at a time and split their resources. Hardly ideal, but inevitable.
“Take my hand,” Caya said, holding hers out. “We should start scanning right away to save time.”
“You’re right.” Briar took the proffered hand and turned to the young man across from them. “You ready to take notes and relay vital information to either the president or Commander Vantressa, Mr. Revoc?”
“Yes, sir.” Revoc looked confident and held up a device. “I’ll also record your words for later reference. I have two communicators on special frequencies that will let me reach the ones that need your information instantly.”
“Excellent,” Briar said and closed her eyes.
Caya had to do the same, thus losing sight of Thea. Immediately, a multitude of images and voices flooded her. She began to filter through them, pushing the ones she didn’t feel important off to the edge of her mind. Eventually, she was left with Neenja, Spinner, Darmiya, Pamas, and Dael. Uncertain why they were all together, as they were in different places at the moment, Caya tried to find images of Zoem.
“I hear some of them,” Briar shouted over the sound of the propulsion system as the cruiser took off. “Dael, mainly. They’re on the move, she and the others, from what I can tell.”
“Yes. Heading north!” Caya yelled back. Then the cruiser hit its designated altitude, and the noise became less disturbing. “I can’t say where exactly, but they’re all on their feet at least. Carrying weapons. Thank the Creator.”
Caya heard Revoc talk into one of his communicators but kept her eyes closed, not wanting to lose focus. “I see Neenja. She’s in a hovercar, circling, waiting for us.”
“Yes. She’s frustrated and…um, heartbroken?”
“Heartbroken?” The unexpected adjective made her recall the string of images that had flashed through her mind earlier. Neenja and Zoem in what looked like a log cabin. Eating, talking…and more? “Oh, my.”
“Guess we know now. Let’s move away from there,” Briar said quickly.
Caya shifted her viewpoint, realizing now the full scope of why Neenja was so frustrated and adamant about protecting Zoem. She loved her.
The cruiser was in the air for only ten minutes before it began to descend. It landed next to the abandoned hovercar, which apparently Zoem had tried to cover up. The hatch slid open, and an out-of-breath Neenja charged through it, throwing herself into the vacant seat next to Caya as the door slid closed behind her. “Let’s go,” she called out toward the pilot’s seat. “Due east in between these mountains. I detected a trail in the grass there. I landed and checked it out. Humanoid tracks.”
“Aye, sir.” The pilot revved the propulsion system and took the cruiser up to minimum altitude for surveillance. Normally, assault craft were used during these types of missions, but it was doable from a cruiser when you needed a larger crew.
Caya had opened her eyes as Neenja entered but now closed them again. It was a good thing she and Briar had invaded some of Neenja’s privacy, as they had seen Zoem. Using that sighting as a starting point, Caya could pull up the images of how Zoem had walked right by the guards with only minute gestures and stolen a hovercar. She had then driven the vehicle east, straight to the site where Neenja had found it.
“You’re right,” Caya said, feeling Briar squeeze her hand harder. “Zoem ran in among the mountains, but how’s that even possible? She’s still weak from having been immobilized for quite some time. She kept up a good pace and…Creator of all things…” She couldn’t believe the images that seemed to whirl on the inside of her eyelids.
“Caya?” Briar’s voice trembled.
“What? What is it?” Neenja asked and grabbed Caya’s free hand.
“It’s Zoem.” Caya could barely talk. “She’s far into the chain of mountains.”
“Already?” Neenja sounded puzzled. “How can that be?”
Caya cleared her voice. “She’s flying.”
Chapter Twenty-six
Zoem flew so fast, she felt more like she was falling. She found it easy. All she had to do was twist her body a little, and she veered accordingly. On top of that, she knew where she was going, but not in her mind. Some instinct, which felt physical somehow, propelled her. Around her, the mountain walls were a blur, and the air, cooled by her speed, chilled her face. Without hesitating, she flew around another mountain, and now she was also ascending. As she went up, her stomach turned toward the steep mountain, she looked for…something. A sign perhaps? A landmark? A person? She had no idea. She was operating on autopilot in a sense, and she had to do it.
Aware that the Nestrocalder could be calling her, she kept her senses sharpened. All she had detected so far was wildlife: birds, rodents, and larger animals that resembled those on Oconodos. Living in the jungles most of her life, she had watched the wildlife between the bars in her window opening. Soaring among such beautiful scenery took her back to a time when watching a small rodent play or gather food would make that day memorable.
She rounded the mountain and realized why she had ascended. Behind it was yet another mountain. Full of perfectly circular holes, it looked like someone had drilled into it, so it had to be manmade. What, in nature, could create such holes? No, some sort of drill had made them. Or magic.
Zoem kept close to the mountainside, hiding among shrubbery and small trees as she descended in front of it. She saw no guards and detected no traps or any changer activity. Had she always had this ability to pierce everything with her mind, or had it been necessary for her to come to Gemocon to…turn? Did the black garnet in her system have anything to do with this power? So many things she didn’t know. She landed behind a natural wall made from boulders that had fallen off the mountains a long time ago. Covered with moss, they provided her with the protection she needed. Oddly, she wasn’t afraid of being detected prematurely. After a minute, she realized she was sending out a deterrent. Unless the other person was a much stronger changer than she was, she would remain invisible as long as she could maintain it.
