Shards of Hope(180)
“I made the shooter talk.” Pressed up against him, Zaira suddenly stiffened her body and slipped an arm around his waist. “You’re about to keel over. Get back in bed.”
“I will, but not here.” Touching Vasic’s mind, he asked his friend for an assist, shooting him an image of the location he wanted.
The remote teleport was flawless, and Aden and Zaira were standing by the bed in their cabin the next second. Pushing him gently into it, Zaira went to the end and unsnapped his boot clips before tugging one boot off.
“I never expected you to be so domestic,” he said softly, feeling his heart expand to an impossible size.
“I told you to be quiet.” She glared at him even as she removed his other boot, then stripped off his socks. “You’re bloody. You need to be clean before you can sleep.”
“I’m not sure my legs will hold me upright at the moment,” he admitted, waves of exhaustion crashing into him. “Did the shooter tell you anything else?”
“It’s what you thought,” she said, coming around to help remove the shreds of his shirt. “This group wanted to assassinate you in order to subvert the stability not only of the PsyNet but of the world. All their actions are fueled by that single aim: to foster discord, fear, and panic.”
Zaira disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a wet cloth. Climbing into bed behind him after nudging him to a seated position, she tugged him back against her and gently cleaned the blood on his shoulders and chest that the medical staff hadn’t bothered with in the rush to save his life. “The group calls itself the Consortium.”
“You missed a spot,” he said, his mind heavy.
She kissed him for the teasing. “Do you want to hear the rest?”
“As much as I can before I fall asleep.”
“We have one of the Consortium leaders in custody,” she told him. “His memories confirm that the people at the top of the organization come from all three races—their plan is to take advantage of the post-Silence fractures to destabilize the world while putting their own empires in position to benefit from the ensuing chaos.”
Sinking against her, Aden permitted his eyes to close. The Consortium’s plan was predictable in a way—but only if you thought solely of individual gain rather than the good of the world. “Like an arms dealer who starts a war.”
Zaira ran the clean side of the damp cloth over his chest. “Yes. And here’s the other thing—they’ve made certain they can’t identify one another. All meetings were done via audio and even the voices were disguised.”
Compartmentalization at its highest. “Clever,” he murmured. “One person has to know everyone, however.”
“The instigator behind the entire idea.” Putting aside the cloth, Zaira wrapped her arms lightly around his neck. “That’s definitely not the man we captured, though once we put together all the clues from his memories, it’s likely to point us in the direction of some other players.”
“Does the Consortium want political power?”
“Not according to the shooter, but I’m getting faint hints of something else from the memories of the CEO we’ve captured—I haven’t had time to mine all the data in his mind yet.” She telepathed him the pieces she’d picked up so far.
Aden immediately saw what she hadn’t, her brain not wired for politics. “The leaders of this group want to be the shadow powers behind the throne.” It fit the cunning and slyness of their actions to date. “They want to manipulate puppets of their choosing while staying safe in their anonymous skins.” Ironic, given how they’d fostered rumors saying he was nothing but a stalking horse for the real leader of the squad.
He went to vocalize that, but his lips barely parted before a curtain of drowsiness had him fighting to raise his lashes.
Zaira pressed her lips to his temple. “Sleep. We have things under control.” Another kiss. “Vasic has promised to provide me with rope to tie you down, so don’t tempt me.”
That fire.
Aden curled his soul against it and fell asleep.
PSYNET BEACON: BREAKING NEWS
Nikita Duncan has released a statement on behalf of the Ruling Coalition quashing rumors of Aden Kai’s death. Text as follows:
An attempt was made on his life, but he is an Arrow. A simple bullet has never stopped an Arrow. Those who persist in believing otherwise will have to admit to believing in ghosts when Aden reappears.
Anyone else who wishes to try to assassinate Aden Kai should take note of the fact that the assassin is alive only because the Arrows did not find him worth executing. He is also recovering from multiple broken bones and other injuries delivered by a woman half his size.