Athena's Ashes (9 page)

Renna approached the desk, hand extended. She ignored the angry glint in the man’s eyes. “Mr. Sherle, I’m Monet Green from the
Costa Star News
. We’re here on a matter of urgent business.” She glanced at the Trezian, then back to Sherle. “We need to speak privately. Now.”

His face turned purple, and he opened and closed his mouth before finally exploding. “Get out! I will not have reporters in my office!” He pointed toward the door, finger quivering. “You have thirty seconds before I call security.”

She stepped closer to him, lowering her voice. “Trust me, you’re going to want to hear this. I’m with MYTH. We have reason to believe you’re in danger.”

The man’s jaw snapped shut. “Godsdammit. Lissa, show Mr. K’Zergi to my private waiting room and get him whatever he wants.” He turned to the alien with a bow. “My sincerest apologies, Relge, this will only take a few minutes.”

The Trezian folded two of his arms across his broad chest. “You are trying my patience, Sherle. I will return tomorrow, and you had better be ready for our discussion.” He lumbered to his feet, towering over the humans in the room before stomping out.

Lissa muttered her apologies and shut the door quietly behind him, but not before first shooting Renna a death glare.

Mr. Sherle slammed a fist on his desk. “What the hell are you doing here? MYTH only contacts me over holovid. They’ve left me to run this business as I see fit.”

Renna lowered herself into the chair the Trezian had vacated and crossed her legs. She smiled slowly, all urgency gone. “Please have a seat, Mr. Sherle. There’s no need to shout.”

He froze, his face going a deeper shade of purple. After a long moment, he dropped back into the chair behind his desk.

Jayla and Blake took up positions on either side of the door. The commander’s hand hovered close to her blaster, while Blake crossed his arms over his chest. Renna ignored the way his white shirt stretched over his muscles and his full lips curved into an amused smile. At least someone was having fun.

“I demand you tell me what this is about,” Sherle said.

“Then I need you to tell me who your contact is at MYTH.” Renna leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. The position also allowed a clear view of her cleavage.

Sherle’s gaze didn’t even waver from her face. “Why?”

Well, it had been worth a shot at least. Renna straightened again and tried a different tactic. “Mr. Sherle—or may I call you Epher?—your company is about to be investigated by the Coalition Association for Scientific and Technical Research for illegal research practices. MYTH wants to leave you swinging in the wind, deny all involvement, but I’m here to help you.”

“And who are you exactly?”

“I’m a MYTH special agent. I’m trying to track down whoever sold you out, and I think they’re inside the organization. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” She let her gaze linger on him, slightly suggestive. The man flushed and dropped his gaze.

Ah, good. She was finally getting through.

Sherle pulled up a set of charts on his monitor. “MYTH funding accounts for sixty percent of our budget. We were formed from a startup company five years ago by the medical arm of the government, but our mandate changed three years ago to focus on manufacturing and design of networked computer systems that can be used for long-range communication.”

She nodded, pretending to already know that information. “Correct. And tell me, how often do you have contact with the MYTH shareholders? Who directs your production and costs?”

“Twice yearly we send a shareholders’ report on our progress to MYTH. As long as we keep making strides toward finalizing the comm plan, Major Larson leaves us alone.” He paused. “I don’t understand why we’re in trouble with the CASTR. We operate above board, within the rules of the Arlon Treaty. Why would they be investigating us?”

Renna twitched with excitement. He’d named Larson as one of the contacts. She was on the right track. “I’m afraid there is some internal turmoil within MYTH that is affecting certain special projects. I suggest you search for new shareholders and reduce your dependence on MYTH funding. If you’re caught in the crossfire, it will destroy this company.”

His eyes widened. “But…”

“I am telling you the truth, Mr. Sherle. Don’t trust any communications from MYTH or their subsidiaries. In the meantime, I’ll do what I can to delay the investigation.”

“Why do you care?” He placed his hands on his desk and leaned forward to study her. “Why are you helping me?”

She smiled slyly. “This is where we get to the back-scratching part.” Renna stood up and moved toward the desk. “I need access to your files and network.”

His jaw gaped. “What? No.”

“Just for a five minutes. I need to run a scan. I promise I won’t leak any of your info. I’m looking for something specific.”

“What?”

“I can’t tell you that. It’s classified. But I promise I’m not here to audit you. Your secrets are safe, Mr. Sherle.”

The purple had faded from his face, turning it ashen. “Absolutely not. Those files are confidential.”

Renna sighed and got to her feet. Why could people just never do as they were told? It would make everything so much easier.

He glared at her. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some shareholders to contact.”

“I’m afraid not, Mr. Sherle.” Renna crossed behind the desk and pulled out a small white packet. She opened it, and a small pile of light blue powder sat in the middle.

“What is that?” Sherle demanded.

Renna smiled and blew the powder into his face.

He spluttered in panic and waved his hands around, trying to brush the powder away. “What did you do, girl?”

“Took care of a complication. Goodnight, Mr. Sherle. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

A moment later, he slumped over his desk, sound asleep.

“Lieutenant, can you get him out of the way please?” Renna asked, glancing over at Blake who stood stock-still beside the door.

His eyes had gone wide, but he nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

TEN

“Did you really have to drug him?” Jayla asked, frowning at Sherle’s motionless body. Blake had stretched him out on the low couch in the corner before returning to his post at the door. “That’s not our usual method of handling these situations.”

Renna had already booted up the computer, and her fingers drummed against the smooth wood as she studied the hologram of his family on some off-world vacation. A pretty wife and two cute girls. They looked nice and normal. Hopefully she hadn’t made him one of Pallas’s targets. The traitor would not appreciate Sherle giving up this data.

“I didn’t have time to talk the guy down,” she said with a shrug. “Just easier to keep him out of the way.”

Jayla’s lips thinned, but she merely said, “Interesting that Major Larson is involved. I wonder what he has to do with Titan Industries.”

“Or what
that
has to do with finding Finn,” Blake added, arching an eyebrow at Renna.

Finn. Her heart clenched, catching her off-guard. Right. They thought her primary concern was looking for the
Athena
. Could she risk telling them the truth now? She was usually a pretty good judge of character, but if either of them were involved with Pallas, she’d be putting Finn in terrible danger.

But they were running out of time, and it was clear she couldn’t do this alone. She didn’t have much choice. Renna cleared her throat uncomfortably and typed a command string into the computer. Silence stretched until the room throbbed with it. Finally, she said, “Titan Industries is tied to MYTH, that’s true. But I’m not here to investigate Finn. I’m after something bigger.”

Jayla nodded. “We already guessed that, Renna.”

Renna felt her body tense like she was about to dive off of a high ledge. She met the woman’s gaze. It was now or never. She nodded, ignoring the twist of unease in her gut. She’d do what she had to, even if that meant trusting these people with the most important things in her life.

“What you don’t know is that there’s a traitor inside MYTH. Someone with the codename Pallas was behind Navang’s facility, and if we don’t find him, he’ll use that hybrid army to destroy the whole organization. Maybe even the coalition government.”

Blake’s jaw dropped. “That’s impossible.”

“This man is devious, Lieutenant.” Renna glanced down at the computer. “He’s spent years working on this plan. The problem is I have no idea where or when he’ll strike. Or even what he really wants.”

“And you think Larson is involved?” Jayla asked, gritting her teeth. “I always hated that man. He pinched my ass once. The only reason I didn’t punch him in the balls was because he was a superior officer. But I can’t believe he’d go as far as treason.”

“Commander, I’d bet my life that this man is one of Pallas’s moles within the organization. Draven Navang named him as a contact, and here he is showing up again, involved with Titan Industries. But I need to find real proof before I can accuse an officer of treason.”

Worry flashed across Jayla’s face, but she nodded. “Then do what you need to. We’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.”

Quickly, Renna searched through Sherle’s email, but nothing stood out. Next up were his network files. She pulled up several dozen earnings reports, a list of investors from the past ten years, and a shareholders’ report from last year. Digging a little deeper, she found the list of personnel who’d worked at TI and downloaded them to her disk. She’d have to run it through her scan later and see if any MYTH hits came up.

“Finding anything?” Jayla asked, opening the door to peer out at the lobby. “I think Miss Secretary is getting a bit antsy.”

“Almost done.” Renna moved on to the last year’s R&D reports and read over them quickly. Her fingers paused on the keyboard as she caught a paragraph that tugged at her memory.

The latest prototype for Titan Industries is a long-range communicator that runs on the electromagnetic energy between stars. Designed to allow almost instant communication between star systems with no lag, it holds great promise in uniting the great expanse of space. And would make TI one of the foremost experts on this type of communication.

Her skin erupted in goose bumps. With the neural network that Dr. Navang had developed for his hybrid army, a device like this could give someone complete and instant power over all the soldiers anywhere in the galaxy. They could send troops to any planet, commanding them in real time, while safely out of the line of fire.

Even more worrisome was the thought of the sleeper agents Navang had created. With instant communication, they could react immediately to threats or other orders. They’d be undetectable and unstoppable.

Renna swallowed and copied over the design plans. It was all here, she just needed to figure out what it meant. She wasn’t stupid, but Pallas had woven his web carefully, the parts moving like chess pieces across a board she couldn’t see.

Across the room, Commander Jayla suddenly went stiff. She pressed the comm below her ear. “What’s going on, Tevsi?” Several seconds passed before she nodded. “We’ll be right there.”

Like a switch had been flipped, Jayla’s spine straightened, and her voice took on a clipped, military tone again. “There’s been an attack on MYTH HQ. We have to report in. Now.” She met Renna’s gaze. “It looks like you were right.”

Lieutenant Blake jumped to his feet. “But that’s impossible. MYTH defenses are state-of-the-art. We have three Peron cannons guarding each facility, along with comm towers, electromagnetic barriers, and guards everywhere.”

Renna followed as they headed down the hallway to the elevator. MYTH’s defenses might be state-of-the-art, but if there was someone on the inside, it wouldn’t matter if they had the newest tech in the galaxy.

They’d all die anyway.

ELEVEN

Back on the
Eris
, Jayla paused in the CIC to address her crew. “Prep for immediate takeoff. Once I’ve debriefed with Major Dallas, I want to be ready to head directly for wherever he assigns us.” Jayla was completely in control and in command, but beneath her confident exterior, Renna saw the flash of fear in the woman’s eyes. Someone had attacked her family. She was getting ready for battle.