Dakiti: Ziva Payvan Book 1 Read online

  For a moment she seemed startled by their presence, but she acknowledged them with a nod and turned down the corridor toward the commons and assignment terminals. Aroska watched her go until he realized he was staring, or until Adin pulled him into the elevator with a scolding grunt – he wasn’t quite sure which came first.

  “Something to eat – good idea,” he said, struggling for a moment to remember what they’d even been talking about.

  They continued the ride in silence, with Adin staring straight ahead and Aroska trying to decide why the strange woman had affected him in such away. He realized that, if only for a moment, he’d completely forgotten about the whole ordeal with Soren and Ziva Payvan, odd considering the subject had consumed him for much of the past two years. Adin had always teased him about having an eye for the ladies, and maybe that was part of it, but at the same time it felt like there was more to it than that.

  He drew a breath, ready to ask if Adin had any idea who the woman was, but he hesitated when he noticed his friend’s behavior. He was standing bolt upright, arms crossed in a defensive manner, one foot tapping against the floor. Aroska couldn’t fathom what he could possibly be nervous about, especially after he’d been joking around only moments before. He suddenly found himself afraid that he was missing out on something important, and that cloud of anxiety was beginning to form again. “Who was that?” he finally asked.

  “Don’t you already have a girlfriend?” Adin muttered. His voice lacked the joking undertone that the response might normally have warranted.

  That didn’t answer his question, but the elevator opened onto the director’s private floor before he could ask for a more thorough explanation. Aroska stepped out, drawing quick glances from the secretaries at their stations. With a shrug, he turned back to Adin in the elevator. “Meet you in a few minutes,” he said. “Wish me luck.”

  An overwhelming sense of déjà vu settled over him as he walked across the foyer toward the main office. For a brief moment, he was whisked back to two years earlier when he’d stormed out of the same elevator, clothes sweaty and bloodstained, ready to march into that office and demand an explanation for Soren’s death. He hesitated outside the door just as he had then, still able to hear Emeri Arion’s angry voice echoing through his memory.

  To this day, Aroska still wasn’t sure who the director had been on comm with that afternoon. He also wasn’t sure what had possessed him to put his ear to the door and listen in on the muffled conversation, possibly the dumbest decision he’d ever made throughout his career. It had no doubt been due in part to his raging emotions and the fact that he was willing to go to any length for some answers. What he did know was that he’d gleaned several important pieces of information thanks to his eavesdropping.

  “We have a situation,” the director had been saying. “Ziva Payvan killed Soren Tarbic.” There’d been a short pause, accompanied by the sound of footfalls as he’d paced back and forth across the room. “Yes, we received the data from Lieutenant Tarbic.” More silence. “No, she wasn’t. She shouldn’t have even been there.”

  That had been enough for Aroska that day. He’d rushed away right then and there, fueled by the new knowledge that he held, knowledge that he’d only ever shared with Adin. Telling anyone else what he knew would cost him his job, and his job was the only way he’d ever catch up with Payvan and confront her. Today however, he went ahead and knocked on the door, still driven by that same knowledge but finally ready to come clean.

  A stifled voice bade him enter and he let himself in, allowing his eyes a moment to adjust to the office’s dim lighting. The majority of the room’s illumination came from the natural sunlight streaming in through the massive picture window on the far wall. Aroska had only been in the office on a couple of occasions, but he’d always been impressed by the view out that window; a person could see all the way across the city to where the sunlight was glistening off the waters of the mighty Tranyi River. He imagined the director probably got a lot of thinking done while looking through that glass.

  “Lieutenant, come in. What can I do for you?” Emeri Arion rose from his desk and beckoned for Aroska to come closer. He’d been the prime director of HSP – ranking even higher than the other directors at the agency’s regional offices – since before Aroska had been employed there. He was generally well-liked and respected, despite the fact that he was rather reclusive and rarely ventured beyond the walls of his office. In spite of that, he knew all the operations agents by name and kept close tabs on all their major missions. As always, he was impeccably dressed in his HSP dress blues, and the two turquoise stripes that ran through his graying hair were combed perfectly into place.

  Aroska politely declined when Emeri offered him a chair. He suddenly felt numb again, unsure how the director would respond to what he was about to say. There was a good chance he could lose his job or even be imprisoned because of what he knew, but if he chose to stay quiet, the only way to successfully avoid working with Payvan would be to resign anyway.

  Might as well get on with it, he thought. He crossed his arms and took a step back from the director’s desk. “Ziva Payvan?”

  A flicker of uncertainty flashed across Emeri’s teal eyes. “So you received your assignment.”

  “She killed my brother.”

  If Emeri was shocked, he concealed it well. He was completely silent for a long time, his mouth a straight line as he stared Aroska down. Finally, he cleared his throat and clasped his hands behind his back. “Lieutenant, you know as well as I do that the identity of the Cleaner assigned to carry out a death sentence is kept confidential. What makes you so sure it was Payvan?”

  Aroska sighed and reluctantly explained how he had overheard the director’s conversation on the day of Soren’s murder, carefully avoiding the fact that he’d told Adin. Emeri stood with closed eyes, massaging his forehead for the duration of the story.

  “Soren was innocent!” Aroska cried, recalling Adin’s warning about losing his temper. “I submitted the evidence that proved it!”

  “Evidence that you weren’t supposed to have,” Emeri said, voice quiet but firm. “You were benched from the investigation because of your relationship with the convict. On top of that, his grace period was up. You missed the deadline. A Cleaner could have struck at any time.”

  “But HSP received my data before Soren was killed!”

  “Yes we did, but—”

  “So Payvan killed him even when she knew he was innocent! That shouka murdered my brother, and she tried to kill my father!”

  “At ease, Tarbic,” Emeri snapped. “You don’t know as much as you think you do. She’s the most skilled operative that HSP’s got.”

  Aroska began to reply but was cut off when the office door burst open. The woman from the elevator stormed into the room, face contorted with frustration similar to what Aroska himself was feeling. She bristled and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him there, silently regarding him with those striking red eyes. Her presence made his stomach churn, but now it wasn’t out of excitement as it had first been at the elevator. Thinking back on Adin’s reaction and taking her current behavior into consideration, he was beginning to wonder if she was… She isn’t, is she? The office fell totally silent as the two of them held eye contact.

  “I’d appreciate it if you’d knock, Lieutenant,” Emeri finally said, unimpressed.

  Aroska’s heart sank. I should have known. This powerful, attractive creature who had briefly distracted him from his troubles was also the ruthless monster responsible for the death of his brother. If not for the fact that he was paralyzed by rage, he would have lunged across the room and strangled her then and there, even with Emeri watching.

  Maintaining her rigid posture, Payvan slowly began to move in a wide circle around them, looking Aroska up and down as she went. She was certainly solid, with strong arms and long, powerful legs. Her jet-black hair was pulled back tightly into a braid, and she bore a long scar beside her left eye that Ar
oska somehow hadn’t noticed earlier. She finally shifted her penetrating gaze to Emeri, who was looking rather chagrined.

  “Welcome home – I trust your missions were successful,” he said, adding a sharp nod in Aroska’s direction. He knows. “I’m sure you remember Lieutenant Tarbic.”

  “I do,” she replied in a gravelly alto voice that sent chills down Aroska’s spine. She turned toward him again, though she was clearly still addressing Emeri. “I must say he looked better through my rifle scope,” she said, tracing invisible crosshairs through the air with her fingers.

  Aroska ignored her and turned back to the director, completely numb. The rage welling up inside him had tied a knot in his throat, rendering him speechless. He watched Emeri with wide eyes, unsure what the director could do to fix the situation but hoping he’d at least do something. The older man stared back, clearly at a loss. There must have been something truly special about Payvan if she could successfully shut down the veteran director of the planet’s finest police force.

  “Can I help you with something, Lieutenant?” he finally said, “because if not, we’re trying to carry on a conversation here.”

  Aroska was startled by the feeling of warm air on the back of his neck. He suddenly realized that Payvan was standing directly behind him, her mouth mere centimeters from his ear. The fact that he hadn’t even noticed her move made his stomach flop. He tensed, ready to bring his elbow back against her face, but she caught his shoulder with a firm hand.

  “I’d go take Adin up on that breakfast offer before things get really awkward,” she whispered, digging her fingers into his collar bone and squeezing just hard enough to make him wince.

  He tore away from her, not about to let the hands that had spilled his brother’s blood touch him for longer than necessary. She kept her eyes locked with his, demanding his obedience without having to speak a word. A wave of nausea washed over him when he realized he was the first to break eye contact. He’d allowed her to take control of the situation, and she had gladly done so. Fine, you win this round. Blood boiling, Aroska brushed past her and headed for the door. He could hear Emeri calling after him as he went, but he was done there, at least for the time being.

  - 4-

  Haphor-Noro Traffic Lane

  Tasmin Forest, Haphez

  The mid-morning breeze was already warm and carried with it a sweet scent that Jayden Saiffe didn’t recognize. He guessed it was coming from the bushes across the clearing from where their cars were parked, the ones with the bright pink blossoms bigger than his head. The local flora and fauna made the Haphezian jungle nearly as beautiful as the planet’s cities, in some cases more so, considering the jungle didn’t have the noise of traffic or the seedy underbelly.

  Jayden finished stretching his back and then leaned up against the car he’d been riding in, gazing off into the trees where his father and two of their guards were gathered around a flock of colorful birds. Enrik Saiffe had halted their entire convoy when he spotted them – this was the second time in two hours that they had stopped to look at wildlife or scenery. Jayden appreciated the sights just as much as anyone, but these stops were making the four-hour trip from Haphor to Noro even longer, and he was looking forward to getting the journey over with.

  Several more security personnel milled about in the clearing, wandering to and fro among the three parked cars. One in particular, Captain of the Guard Gavin Bront, approached Jayden with an understanding twinkle in his eye. He was just as tired of the pit stops, but he did a better job of hiding his impatience. “How are you doing, sir?”

  “Not as well as he is,” Jayden sighed, gesturing off toward his father.

  Bront chuckled. “The governor is an enthusiastic man. In the mere two weeks that we’ve been here, he’s come to love this planet. The opportunity for diplomacy means a lot to him.”

  Jayden lifted an eyebrow. “I just hope it’s worth it. The Haphezians must be desperate to get their hands on the resources Tantal has to offer. Otherwise I can’t imagine they’d ever want anything to do with a human colony.”

  “You don’t think it will work out?”

  “Don’t get me wrong. Forming an alliance with these people is more than anything we could have hoped for. Military support in exchange for a few minerals is quite the deal. But I doubt the Haphezians have any interest in babysitting a bunch of humans, especially when we’re from a system in a completely different sector. When it comes down to it, I just hope they’ll hold up their end of the bargain.”

  “Your caution is understandable, sir,” Bront said. “Do they know that we’ve been friendly to the Resistance in the past?”

  “They’d better not. Nobody is supposed to know about that.” While that was true, Jayden had never exactly been sure what the Haphezians had against the Resistance in the first place. It was nothing but a pitiful band of freedom fighters from various worlds who opposed the Federation, the governing entity that unified many of the galaxy’s civilized systems. As far as he knew, the real problem was the Nosti, a sect of Resistance fighters who had been introduced to a chemical called nostium that gave them telekinetic abilities. They were agile warriors who specialized in melee combat with kytaras, small but deadly double-bladed retractable swords. Jayden had never met a Nosti, and while he respected their skills, the ability to manipulate objects with the mind was just a bunch of hocus pocus as far as he was concerned. Still, it was no joking matter on Haphez. Ever since the Federation had retaliated against the Resistance and made the use of nostium illegal, the Haphezians had made it clear that the group was not welcome on the planet. They arrested and deported any known members, and Nosti were usually executed on the spot.

  The best explanation that Jayden could think of was that the Noro system was situated on the very edge of populated space – a Fringe System – and thus Haphez wasn’t part of the Federation. Any sign of Resistance presence on the planet would attract unwelcome Federation attention. The Haphezians didn’t actually have anything to hide as far as he knew – they were just very private, protective of their culture and skeptical of outsiders.

  The governor and his two guards were finally making their way back to the convoy, accompanied by the Haphezian man who was guiding them from Haphor to Noro. He was unarmed at Bront’s request, but he towered over everyone and was burly enough that Jayden didn’t doubt his ability to handle himself regardless of whether he had a weapon. His jacket sleeves were rolled up, revealing an elaborate star tattoo on his forearm. Jayden still couldn’t get over how commonplace body modifications were with the Haphezians; it seemed that almost everyone he’d met had some sort of tattoo or abnormal piercing, in addition to the dotted tattoos they all wore on their faces. As if their colored eyes and hair stripes aren’t strange enough, he thought.

  “With respect, I must insist that we get moving,” the guide was saying. He continued muttering to himself in Haphezian as he veered toward the lead car.

  Enrik paid him no mind and continued to laugh along with his escorts. “Isn’t this planet beautiful?” he said to no one in particular, clapping Jayden hard on the back. “You could live here for years and not even see half of what it has to offer.”

  “We’ll never get to see that other half if we don’t make it to Noro in time for our meeting,” Jayden reminded him, pointedly checking the time. “The Haphezians already think we’re incompetent. How will it look if we can’t even keep a schedule?”

  “Son, you worry too much,” Enrik said with a sigh, putting his arm around the young man’s shoulder. “No more stops, I promise.”

  Bront ushered them into the back of the car and then slid into the pilot’s seat. The silence of the jungle was broken as the three vehicles roared to life and lifted from the ground, then took off in the direction of Noro.

  -5-

  Tarbic Residence

  Noro, Haphez

  Lieutenant Aroska Tarbic: a formidable young man – well, no, he was actually older than her – tall, able-bodied, and honest
ly not bad-looking. When she’d first seen his name in her assignment description, Ziva hadn’t quite known what to think. First of all, there had never been more than three agents on a team in the history of HSP. While this joint task force was only temporary, it still meant having a team of four for anywhere up to three months. She had hand-picked her teammates after training and the three of them had held the top position in special ops for years, bonding into a single unstoppable unit. She wasn’t sure what would happen when someone like Tarbic was thrown into the mix.

  The biggest problem was the fact that he wanted her head on a platter. She’d always assumed that he’d somehow found out she was responsible for his brother’s death; the circumstances surrounding the shooting had set the special ops division abuzz for awhile and it wouldn’t have surprised her if information got leaked. She’d also received a notification that someone in field ops had tried – and failed – numerous times to access her profile and she’d traced the attempts back to him. The field ops clearance level was inadequate for him to actually learn anything of course, but it had unnerved her all the same. She hadn’t been sure exactly what he knew or how he knew it, but if he was seeking her out, it had to mean something.

  Ziva watched as he took a bottle of liquor from the cooler and poured himself a glass, completely oblivious to her presence. She’d made herself at home on his sofa and had contented herself with reading through several of his data pads during the past hour. Tarbic had finally emerged from his bedroom just a moment earlier, hair rumpled, dressed in pajama pants. It had been twenty-four hours since their encounter in Emeri Arion’s office, but she doubted his attitude toward her had changed at all during that time. She’d stayed and pleaded with the director for a replacement Solaris expert – the reason she’d rushed into his office in the first place – but he’d stood fast in his decision despite the potential conflict it could cause.