“Cassie, go play outside. Go to the veranda.”
“Outside, outside!” she enthusiastically agreed, and scampered for the stairs.
Dek watched his partner sprint up the marble steps.
“Where is she going?”
“To play in the sun while we talk.”
“Ah.” Dek swept back to the table, placed one steaming mug before him, and took the seat opposite. After one deep swig of her kinna, she cradled the mug in both hands and fixed him with a penetrating look. “So talk.”
9
Dek was highly aware of the shifting tensions between them. Only too conscious of the chemistry that bubbled just beneath the surface and the way they were both struggling to deny it.
The change of venue had only heightened her awareness of the slow-burn magnetism drawing them together. It wasn’t what she wanted to be musing about just now, but…
Well, yeah, she recognized a losing battle when she saw one.
And him showing up here could very well be the opening volley.
She didn’t exactly hate the idea. It was just that there were other battles she needed to be fighting. Other wars she needed to win.
Yet when Sno set his teeth into his lip just so or raised his eyes to hers before all the heat had had a chance to burn away… Well. It did something to her at the subatomic level.
The man stroked his chin with a thumb and forefinger. Even that simple bit of body language was undeniably Sno, and irresistibly hypnotic.
“The first thing you should know,” he finally said, “is that I’m an agent with the Network.”
Dek stiffened, every muscle going ripcord tight. How did I not see it?
“Cassie is a prototype asset developed by one of our bio-engineer experts.”
“I thought you couldn’t talk about your mission?”
“I didn’t.”
“But you’re about to.”
“I am.” He slugged down a gulp of kinna. “More Cassies are being developed as advanced, deep-cover assets. My superior—Dr. K—has just informed me they’ve now been dubbed StarDogs.
“StarDogs?” she repeated. “Not StarCats? Or StarWeasels?”
“The largest percentage of their DNA is canine, and they were developed primarily for deployment as K-9 assets, so it seems like a logical tag.”
Dek nodded. “So why were you two sent here?”
“Cassie and I were sent to Site D for a confidential field trial in a very secure, Network-controlled zone with almost zero chance of discovery by the Ithian Alliance. Our exercise,” Sno caught and held her gaze, “is to uncover why Sarcassius Site D is such a highly sensitive area. The purpose being to evaluate the viability and effectiveness of an Agent-StarDog partnership. The powers that be just didn’t anticipate the Purmian Offensive happening at precisely the time we’d been deployed.”
“Why are you confiding in me now?”
“Because I’m altering my mission based on the intel I’ve collected to date. I think the site is in jeopardy. And I need your help to put the pieces together.”
“You chose not to work with Commander Tapp, now that he’s back?”
“Right. For two reasons. I don’t know him. So I can’t trust him.”
“But you think you know me and can trust me.”
“Yes,” he replied without hesitation. “Based on our interactions, I believe you’re in Network security for the right reasons. And you handled yourself well under extraordinary circumstances, including getting punched by an unknown aggressor. I can’t say the same about Commander Tapp. His actions upon his return don’t seem ethical or logical.”
“Are you referring to him kicking me off-site?”
“Exactly. Why would the commander remove the very person in charge of an ongoing investigation, not to mention his second-in-command?” Sno eased back in his chair. “I haven’t worked with Tapp so I can’t be certain of his motives, but I’ve seen enough to question them. For the time being, I have to factor in that he might be part of the problem.”
Dek raked her fingers through her hair. She wouldn’t confirm his suspicions, but she silently agreed that Commander Tapp’s leadership hadn’t always been…consistent. And he’d sure been in a hurry to eject her from the site upon his return.
“And the problem you’re referring to?”
“We’ve covered that. I still believe you’ve got a bad player on your team. Possibly more than one. And I have reason to suspect that information about the site is in jeopardy of being leaked directly to the Alliance.”
Dek rested her elbows on the table and clasped her hands. “Then you understand why the discovery at the site is so sensitive.”
“Because it’s a pocket of evidence the planet once supported abundant life, for one.”
“And for two?”
“That all indigenous life was wiped out and the planet sterilized by some cataclysmic event more than fifteen thousand calendars ago. That’s damning because it proves that the Alliance’s claim that they terraformed this planet only fifteen hundred years ago is fabricated. Terraforming completely re-orders the planetary elements. No fossils would’ve survived it.”
“Which means when this evidence is revealed, the Alliance may be caught in a monumental lie.”
“And if the Alliance is lying, the historical records claiming this planet was the original colony site of Old Earth some thirteen thousand calendars ago may be true. If so, LaGuardia was once Draxis, the same planet the Alliance now dismisses as a silly myth.”
Dek rose and paced to the kitchen window, looking out over the waves to the teal horizon. “If the Alliance gets wind of this discovery, LaGuardia will become the next Purmia. The site will be eliminated. Those on Site D executed. Everything the planet was, every historical artifact, every mention of its history will be sought out and destroyed.”
“And because the Network is protecting this site, the Network itself could be exposed,” Sno added.
Dek turned to face him. “But it hasn’t happened yet…which means the data hasn’t reached them.”
“It’s possible you surprised an Alliance operative in the process of collecting the damning intel. His next step will be to move off-site so he can relay the information to his contacts. For now, Site D’s security protocols prevent anyone from transmitting data outside the secure perimeter.”
She gave him a searching look. “Except for you.”
“That’s true. My comm equipment was modified to allow me to transmit from the site. That capability was authorized and deemed mission essential by Dr. K.”
“Which also means you’re capable of transmitting the site data to the Alliance.”
“But, obviously I haven’t done that.” Sno got very still. “Do you really believe I’m the enemy, Dek?”
“My gut tells me no.” She whisked her mug off the table and finished the last swallow. “But I don’t have enough information to make that call. For one, I’ve never heard of this Dr. K you say you report to.”
“No. Your chain-of-command is headed by a Network leader who goes by the code name General X. I hadn’t heard of him either, before I was given this tasking. The Network, by its very nature, must be a covert and compartmentalized operation. It has to be to survive detection by the Alliance.”