Part 8 (2/2)
The mental grid dipped beyond his s.h.i.+elds, a psi signature sparking bright and high far away on the psychic plane. The presence of another mind brushed against his. Nathan recognized the orderly thoughts of a psion who lacked the impression of a static human mind, which told him it wasn't a Warhound asking for a link. Nearly all Warhounds were s.h.i.+elded as human to some degree in order to hide. Strykers didn't have that luxury.
Aidan, Nathan acknowledged, initiating a psi link between himself and the Strykers Syndicate's third-in-command. To what do I owe this lovely little chat?
You already know, Aidan said, voice empty of all emotion. Nathan could still feel the ripple of the other man's mind, how it strained against his own power. We require a meeting.
You require? I'd rather you beg.
Nathan. Aidan paused, the pull of his mind weakening slightly as he conversed on a separate psi link with someone else. Finally, the Stryker said, Please.
Any other time it would have amused Nathan. Today, it only irritated him, but he had appearances to keep up. Keiko knows what my office looks like.
She'd been in it before, ferrying Ciari from wherever the Stryker OIC might have been, on the pretense of negotiating a contract to hide their true reasons for meeting with him. Only in The Hague, when they were in the same city together, did Nathan purposefully keep a mental feeler out, waiting to hear from her. Ciari wasn't with Keiko this time; she had Aidan. It was a mistake on her part, even if she didn't know it. She should have brought an empath.
They arrived before his desk in a teleport, and a red alert popped up at the bottom of the vidscreen. Nathan disengaged it. Security still called in.
”Sir,” someone said over the uplink. ”Is everything all right?”
”Only some visitors. Nothing to be concerned about.”
”Sir.”
The connection cut off and Nathan took in the pair's tired appearance with a keen eye. ”I expected you earlier than this.”
”We're under stricter monitoring by the World Court,” Keiko said.
”They're a little behind the mark, don't you think?” Nathan said. ”If I'm dealing with you, I suspect Ciari's closer to dead after that little stunt Erik pulled. Such an entertaining show.”
”She's alive.”
”And yet, she isn't here.” Nathan leaned forward and turned off the vidscreen. ”I know what the World Court has planned for your people, Keiko. Their salvation has always been the duty of your OIC. Did the World Court change its mind, or are you still the Acting OIC?”
Keiko lifted her chin higher. ”I am.”
”Congratulations. I doubt you'll live as long as Ciari did in that post.” Nathan's eyes flickered from one to the other. ”If the World Court knew where your true loyalties lie, they would have terminated you all. I can't have that happen before the launch.”
”Strykers are excellent liars, Nathan. We have to be.” Keiko paused, weighing her next words. ”Things have changed since our conversation weeks ago at The Hague. You know why we're here.”
”You came here hoping to bleed off more of your people into the Warhound ranks.”
”Yes.”
”A wasted effort.” Nathan lifted a hand to forestall any argument. ”I don't have time to retrieve the amount of psions you want to rescue. What you're asking for would raise the World Court's suspicion in a way I refuse to accept before the launch. That action would get you all killed via ma.s.s termination and you know it.”
The World Court was ignorant of the Silence Law that secretly tied the two Syndicates together. Only the highest-ranking Strykers Syndicate officers knew that the Serca family wasn't human. Their silence on the matter guaranteed the survival of certain rank-and-file Strykers. Suicide missions handed out by the World Court were altered into Warhound retrievals by the Strykers Syndicate OIC. Those saved Strykers were then reconditioned by the Warhounds for the Serca family's own use.
Those transfers were done with utmost care, the image of Strykers fighting for their lives against the enemy needing to be upheld until they were brought under Serca control. Freedom, of a sort. No neurotracker in their brain, but they were still required to obey strict rules if they wanted to survive under the government's radar. They lived longer in the Serca Syndicate-usually.
”You still need some of us,” Keiko said. She took a half step forward, Aidan staying by her side. ”You need a wider gene pool than you've got.”
”You are less the conniving b.i.t.c.h than Ciari is, so don't think you can bargain where she failed. Our partners.h.i.+p will be terminated at the launch,” Nathan said. ”You have known that since you took the post of chief operating officer for your Syndicate, Keiko.”
”We've kept your family in the clear,” Aidan snapped. ”You owe us.”
Nathan got to his feet, letting his mind weigh heavily against theirs as he approached Keiko. He smiled down at her, his expression all teeth and utter contempt. ”The same can be said of you. I am, however, not completely heartless.”
Keiko snorted her opinion of that.
”You have people you still want to save. I can admire that, Keiko.”
”You admire nothing that doesn't happen on your orders,” she said.
”True, but I can make room on the last wave of shuttles if I want. I will give those seats up only to the Strykers that I find useful.”
”And those would be?”
”Every kind of psion at a Cla.s.s III and higher-excluding you officers.” Nathan's smile got fractionally wider. ”I don't need a rebellion within my own company.”
”The question is, will you keep your word?” Aidan said.
Nathan-three Cla.s.s levels higher and thirty times stronger than the other man-stabbed his telepathy outward and coiled it tight around Aidan's mental s.h.i.+elds. Aidan's defenses were good, but he couldn't prepare for Nathan's skill. Nathan might not have the years of use under his belt that other psions did, but his strength was something only Lucas could match.
”I don't like being questioned,” Nathan said as he telekinetically forced Aidan to his knees, telepathy ripping through the other man's mind. ”You don't rule here, Stryker.”
”Let him go,” Keiko demanded.
Nathan could feel her telekinesis slam against his own s.h.i.+elds, sc.r.a.ping over his defenses. He sharpened his power against her, holding her back. Sharpened his telepathy until it sheared off half of Aidan's mental s.h.i.+elds, causing the younger man to shudder, blood dripping from his nose.
”This is my only and final offer,” Nathan said, twisting his power through Aidan's thoughts. ”Whether or not you accept it, I still expect your silence on the matter of my family.”
”So, you live and we die?” Aidan gasped out, s.h.i.+elds caving beneath the pressure of Nathan's telepathy. ”Is that it?”
”That is how it has always been. Don't fool yourself into believing otherwise. You won't live to see Mars Colony, to take part in what my family has worked to build. Even Ciari accepted that.”
”No matter the amount of unregistered humans that you subst.i.tute for those who should have a berth on the Ark, you won't have enough to breed psions out of them,” Keiko said. ”Let him go. Please.”
”So little faith, Keiko. You're all about filling Ciari's shoes, aren't you?” Nathan wrenched his telepathy out of Aidan's mind, leaving behind raw mental wounds. ”I'll have what I need.”
Keiko's lips curled back from her teeth as she bent to help Aidan up. ”f.u.c.k you, Nathan.”
The smile on Nathan's face got fractionally wider as he felt her pull back her telekinesis. ”Your jealousy is showing. Find yourself an empath instead of a telepath next time. I'd have thought you learned something from Ciari other than how to argue futilely. It seems I was wrong.”
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