Justice Keepers Saga--Books 1-3, page 69
“Fine, fine,” Ben said. “No whining.”
One thing that Harry had never noticed in all his years living in this house was just how much stucco decorated the ceiling of his bedroom. Cold, gray light came in through the window on his left, glinting off the mirror across from the foot of the bed. As it was, he really didn't want to get up.
Harry was stretched out on the mattress with his hands folded behind his head, his skin still glistening with sweat. “Well,” he said, eyebrows rising. “That's one way to start the day off right.”
Jena stood up, pulling a red t-shirt over herself. Her head popped through the neck hole, and she blinked. “Best morning workout ever…” she said, turning away from him. “Much better than that lousy treadmill.”
She made her way over to the window where tiny flurries of snow swirled about behind the glass. The sight of this woman in a pair of black shorts and an old t-shirt was hotter than any underwear ad he'd ever seen.
Harry bit his lip, shutting his eyes tight. He turned his head so that his cheek was pressed to the pillow. “You know, things have been pretty slow lately,” he mumbled. “I wonder if I should just take the day off.”
Jena snorted.
He sat up.
Hunching over, Harry covered his face with one hand. The sweat on his brow left a prickling sensation. “I don't see why that's so funny,” he said. “There are a few things I need to take care of.”
When he looked up, she was standing by the window with arms folded, silhouetted by the daylight behind her. “And this has nothing to do with the fact that Anna and Jack might find out we spent the night together?”
Embarrassment made it hard to lie with a straight face. Harry had always been a very private person. Part of that might have been the result of years spent keeping Della away from his colleagues. His ex-wife had a tendency to make a scene at the very worst possible time.
Leaning against the wall, Jena glanced over to the alarm clock on his nightstand and frowned. “I need to get ready,” she said. “I'm meeting with the Senior Directors in less than three hours.”
“Doesn't sound like you have to rush.”
Jena moseyed over to the bed with her hands in her pockets, shaking her head ever so slowly. “Well…” she said with a shrug. “I wouldn't have to take a cab to the SlipGate terminal if you just went into work with me.”
“No, no; we can't do that,” he insisted. “We have to come in at least five minutes apart so the others don't find out we're sleeping together.”
Once again, she snorted.
As she made her way around the foot of the bed, Jena paused and stood so that he saw her in profile. “You know,” she said with playful exasperation in her voice. “You're lucky I'm the kind of woman who doesn't mind having a boyfriend with a bewildering need to cover up their new relationship.”
She left the room.
Harry felt his lips curl, his cheeks burning with chagrin. “I am lucky,” he said to himself. “And I know that you will never let me forget it no matter how many reminders I may need.”
A moment later, he heard the sound of the shower running in his bathroom. Now, that was a wonderful idea. “Want me to join you?” he shouted.
“No thanks!” she replied. “Intimate showers are for boyfriends who don't freak out about the possibility of someone finding out they had sex!”
That only intensified his embarrassment, but then what could he do? Harry liked Jack and Anna and all the others, but he wasn't about to start discussing the details of his personal life with a kid that he had mentored in the ways of law enforcement. And never mind Lenai! Just the thought of her watching him with a playful smirk while he admitted that Jena had spent the night…
“Oh Harry!” Jena's voice came through the wall. “I forgot to mention. Since you're now an official member of the team, I thought it was time to upgrade your accouterments. Check the nightstand drawer.”
He pulled it open to find a gauntlet with a long rectangular touchscreen and a small metal disk attached. The sight of it left him feeling a little off balance. He had never been one of those people who swooned over Leyrian technology.
Harry frowned as he studied the device. “A multi-tool?” he asked. “I don't know, Jen…I've had the same smart phone for years. Can't I just keep on using that?”
“Harry, I can put up with exactly one phobia in a lover,” she said. “So which is it? Technology or gossip?”
Mopping a hand over his face, Harry brushed sweaty hair back from his forehead. “Okay,” he said, blinking. “I'll accept the multi-tool. But I reserve the right to grumble about you whippersnappers and your gadgets.”
For a long moment, there was silence.
Then Jena replied with more than a touch of irritation in her voice. “Wow,” she said. “You know, I've never wanted you more than I do right now.”
He sank back down into the covers, pulling them up over his chest. It occurred to him that his original assessment was correct; there was just no good reason to get out of bed today. None at all.
He wanted to be a better partner – the kind that proclaimed his love from the rooftops – but there were factors that made that difficult. This was the first relationship he'd had since divorcing Della. Melissa and Claire had been his primary focus over the last four years. That and protecting his city from aliens.
He still wasn't entirely sure how his girls would react to the idea of a new woman in his life. Melissa seemed to be happy for him, but they seldom discussed it. And Claire? She was too wrapped up in the latest episode of Southampton to care all that much about her father's girlfriend. That alone left him feeling uncomfortable. His daughter was too young to be interested in teen soaps.
Much too young.
He'd been musing on the idea of asking Jena to join the three of them for dinner one night, but he wasn't sure how she would respond to that. From what little he knew about her, she had spent most of her life gallivanting from planet to planet, never settling down. Serious relationships were not her thing. Maybe it was better to keep this casual? Della had the girls for the next few days; that left him with plenty of free time.
Harry grabbed a pillow.
He pressed it to his face and let out a groan, pretending to smother himself. “Yeah, it's official,” he muttered. “I am not getting out of bed today.”
2
Double doors parted to reveal a room where black tiles stretched from wall to wall and two desks faced each other in front of a window that looked out on the stars. Each had a polished surface of Smartglass with keyboards sitting on pull-out trays.
Anna strode into her office in gray pants and a white long-sleeved top, keeping her head down. “So I was thinking we could review the open case files,” she said. “With any luck, we'll find something we can attack. Being proactive always looks good.”
In her mind's eye, she saw the silhouette of Jack standing out in the hallway with a cup of tea in hand. “Yeah, no problem,” he said, following her in. “But you don't have anything to worry about; Jena likes you.”
That may very well have been the case, but Anna wasn't quite sure what to make of this Jena Morane; the woman had a reputation for throwing the rulebook out the window whenever it suited her. True, Keepers were supposed to bend the rules in the service of the greater good – she herself had defied orders when she pursued Denario to Earth – but that didn't mean one should do so casually. She just didn't share the same comfortable relationship that Jack had cultivated with their new supervisor.
That, in and of itself, was a major source of frustration. Jack had latched on to Jena Morane because she represented a bastion of integrity in a world tainted by underhanded politics. For the hundredth time since her arrival on this station, Anna wished that she had been here to complete his training. What exactly had gone on over the last three years to make him so ready to distrust other Keepers? She knew of Breslan's betrayal, of course, and Slade was now under investigation. But she would like to believe those were isolated incidents.
As she approached her desk, she saw something that left a very queasy feeling in her belly. A single long-stem rose with dark red petals was resting on the metal keyboard, and there was no sign of a note.
Baring her teeth in a snarl, Anna felt her cheeks heat up. “No! No! No! When is that asshole going to learn that I am just not interested in him?”
Jack stood at his desk, setting the cup of tea down on its surface. “Daython?” he asked, keeping his back turned. “You mean to tell me the guy made yet another romantic overture?”
Anna winced so hard it hurt, then tossed her head about in disgust. “No! No! No!” she spat, grabbing the rose. “This is unacceptable! This time I'm going straight to his supervisor!”
Jack turned around.
He leaned against his desk with arms folded, scowling down at himself. “That, I'd like to see,” he murmured. “Seriously, An, three times is outright harassment. Something has to be done.”
“Something will be.”
The doors slid open to admit a frustrated Jena who strode into the room in beige pants and a loose blue top. “Morning, children,” she said. “Anna, I just got a call from Larani Tal. She wants to speak with you later this afternoon.”
Anna looked up to blink at her. “About what?” she asked, ashamed by the hostility in her voice. “I filed my report about the shuttle chase; no one got hurt, and we managed to capture the perpetrators.”
The other woman spun around to face her with arms folded, shaking her head. “I'm not sure…” Jena paused when she saw the rose, a look of confusion passing over her face. “If you're trying to sweet talk me, Lenai, I already have a partner.”
Anna thrust a hand out, pointing with the rose.
The petals nearly hit Jena's nose, and she jumped back on instinct. “This…” Anna hissed. “This is the latest attempt by a persistent young man who simply doesn't know when to quit.”
Jena turned to Jack.
“No, not him!”
Slapping a palm against his forehead, Jack groaned. “Really?” he shouted, in disbelief. “You think I would do something like that? No, no, no. If I were going to ask her out, it would require a Bloody Mary and three Xanax.”
Jena backed away with hands raised defensively. “Okay,” she said, nodding once. “Just speak to Larani; I'm sure it's nothing, and if you need help dealing with…whoever sent that…let me know.”
She left the room.
Chewing on his lip, Jack watched her with deep blue eyes. “Extraordinary boss,” he said, shaking his head. “Really good at handling the subtle nuances of all those delicate interpersonal conflicts.”
Anna lifted the rose up in front of her face, hissing with seething rage. “Enough is enough!” She spun around and flung the rose away. “I'll go to his supervisors. I'll file a harassment complaint.”
The rage died to be replaced with dismay when she realized that the only evidence she had in support of her claim was a single crumpled rose. True, Daython had asked her out twice, but that in and of itself was not harassment in light of their history on Alios. He could claim he had nothing to do with this latest gesture.
Anna sat on the edge of her desk.
Crossing her arms, she huddled in on herself and shook her head. “So what am I gonna do?” she asked in a breathy whisper. “I have absolutely no proof that Daython was the one who put that rose on my desk.”
Jack stood there with his hands in his pockets, staring off into space. “Maybe you do.” He turned back to the desk, running his fingers along the Smartglass. “This room is monitored.”
A hologram shimmered into existence, depicting their office with the lights off. The doors slid open to leave a square of light on the tiled floor before a small mail-delivery bot rolled in on two wheels.
Roughly three feet tall with a cylindrical body, the thing reminded her of one of the trash receptacles that she had seen on busy city sidewalks. Bots were rarely designed to look like humans, but it wasn't functionality that motivated that decision. She suspected that people just weren't comfortable with the idea of simulated intelligence that looked like a real person.
The bot rolled over to her desk and settled to a stop. Its lower compartment opened to reveal a long arm that held the rose delicately in a metal claw. There was no note, of course. She wasn't sure what this hologram proved.
Anna looked up to study it with lips pursed, deep creases slowly forming in her brow. “So…a bot delivered the rose?” she asked. “How exactly does that prove it came from Daython?”
“Check the mail room logs.”
That could work. Correspondence was almost always done through digital mail – her people had stopped using paper centuries ago – but every now and then, someone had to deliver a physical object. Mail bots handled that task. Each item was pared with a chip that identified its sender and its destination. “Okay,” she said. “I guess my next stop is the mail room.”
“Have fun,” Jack said. “I'll just be here…saving the galaxy.”
Anna stuck her tongue out.
Larani Tal's office was an elegant room with black floor tiles and two pillars that rose to the ceiling. Beyond that, a simple desk sat in front of a window that looked out on the vastness of space.
Anna strode into the room with fists clenched, shaking her head in disgust. I don't know what this is about, she thought to herself. But if they're going to chew me out for not firing on that man, I'll…
She would what? Deep down inside, she knew that she should have pulled the trigger – she had been beating herself up about it for days – but every time she imagined herself sitting in the cockpit of that shuttle, she realized that she just couldn't do it. Anna Lenai could not take a life.
Larani Tal stepped out from behind a pillar.
The woman was tall and slim in a pair of black pants and a white t-shirt under a black vest. Her dark-skinned face was framed by long black hair that hung loose to her shoulders. “Anna,” she said. “Good. I wanted to speak with you.”
Anna pursed her lips as she held the woman's gaze, blinking slowly. “Ma'am?” she said in guarded tones. “Is something wrong? I thought I detailed the events of the shuttle chase in my report.”
Larani waved it away.
She turned around, picking up one of the tablets she had left on her desk. “Nothing major,” she said. “I wanted to discuss the anomalous sensor readings you picked up from Ganymede.”
Oh… that.
Licking her lips, Anna let her head hang. “I was wondering about that,” she muttered under her breath. “To be honest with you, ma'am, I was under the impression that we had no other bases in this system.”
Larani turned around to lean against the desk with her legs crossed at the ankle, the tablet held up in front of her face. “Until last night, I thought the same thing,” she replied. “But I decided to have a little chat with Slade.”
That left Anna feeling more than a little uneasy. The head of the Justice Keepers – until he was formally charged, he would maintain his rank and title – was currently under suspicion for his support of a known traitor.
Anxiety flared in her chest when she imagined Jena's conflict with Cal Breslan. She had read the reports; the man had been found dead in a hotel room with his neck snapped and Jena sitting calmly at the table. Since the day she had arrived on this station, Anna had watched her supervisor for some sign that Breslan's death weighed heavily on her conscience. She had seen nothing of the sort.
That troubled her.
Slade's near unilateral support for a known traitor had seen him removed from active duty while the senior directors investigated his involvement with Breslan. That a Justice Keeper could knowingly aide a terrorist…
Anna lifted her chin to study the other woman, then narrowed her eyes to slits. “If you'll pardon my frankness, ma'am,” she began. “It bothers me that we've started placing military installations in this system without telling Earth's governments.”
Larani offered a small smile before nodding her agreement. “No more than it does me, Agent Lenai,” she said. “According to Slade, the Ganymede station is a long-range listening post designed to detect ships at high warp before they enter the system.”
Anna turned away from the woman.
She marched across the room with her arms crossed, trying to put the pieces together. “That makes no sense,” she said, stopping in front of the wall. “The space stations we have in orbit of this planet would be able to detect an approaching ship just as well as a base in the outer system.”
“Slade claims the Ganymede Station was built shortly after first contact with Earth. At the time, we had no permanent outposts in this region of space. A base was necessary to warn our construction crews of any potential threat from hostile fleets.”
“And we hid it from Earth because?”
In her mind's eye, Anna saw the silhouette of Larani Tal standing by the desk with the tablet in hand. “Relations with Earth were fragile then,” the other woman explained. “We did not want to intimidate them.”
Closing her eyes, Anna breathed deeply through her nose. “That's brilliant,” she said. “So instead of openly building trust, we decide to plant our flag on someone else's property.”
“Ganymede can hardly be called Earth property.”
Glancing over her shoulder, Anna felt a lock of red hair fall over her face. “Article Thirty-Five of the Leyrian Accord,” she said, eyebrows rising. “The uninhabited worlds of any inhabited star system shall be designated local territory.”
Larani closed her eyes, turning her face up to the ceiling. “I understand your anger, Agent Lenai,” she replied. “I even share it. Regardless, now that you know, I must order you to never divulge this information to anyone. Especially Agent Hunter.”
Well, that made some amount of sense. Jack was known for his distrust of authority and his tendency to go his own way whenever it suited him; Larani probably thought he would run straight to the Canadian government the instant he got a whiff of something out of whack.
