Justice Keepers Saga - Books 10-12

Chapter 5-2

Isara glanced over her shoulder, her face barely visible in that hood. Her lips were pressed together in a frown. “The key word being "useful,"” she said. “That one was too much like Leo. Bloodlust without thought.”

“You yourself have done as much.”

He felt a warping sensation as Isara blurred into a smear of red. When she snapped back into his time-frame, her arm was extended toward him, a throwing knife flying from her fingertips. Glittering steel caught the overhead lights.

Effortlessly, Slade reached up and caught the hilt, holding the tip of the blade mere inches away from his eye. He said nothing, made no indication of anger. He just raised an eyebrow and waited for a response.

“I would not begrudge anyone a little violence,” she said. “But not at the expense of our larger plans.”

“I see.”

Crossing her arms, Isara shook her head. “You now have two symbionts,” she said. “Whom will you give them to?”

“I have some plans,” Slade replied. “Set a course for Leyria.”

The blinking multi-tool on the counter pestered Aiden with its constant nattering. He hadn"t bothered to put on the gauntlet this morning, and the screen kept flashing the same thing over and over. “Video message waiting. Video message waiting.”

In an old pair of shorts and a t-shirt that he had worn to bed, Aiden sat at his kitchen table with a mug in hand. He glowered at the counter, trying to decide what to do. Finally, he shook his head and said, “Multi-tool active. Play message. Holographic display.”

An image of his mother coalesced, floating just a few inches above the floor. Liah Shandi was a tall woman with copper skin, long, dark hair that she wore in a braid and glasses that made her look far too serious. “Aiden,” she said. “Please call me back. I"m worried about you.”

Lifting the mug to his lips, Aiden slurped as he sipped his coffee. “I bet you are,” he muttered under his breath. “Let up, Mom.”

“Sweetie,” Liah went on. “You don"t have to be a Justice Keeper to make us happy. There are many career paths for you. You always had an aptitude for science. I spoke to Jan Tressio the other day, and she said Balthane has an opening in its physics program.”

“Physics…” Aiden muttered.

His mother let her head drop, sighing softly. “It"s been three months, Aiden,” she lamented. “You"ve cut yourself off from everyone. I don"t know what you"re feeling, but I do know that you can"t live your entire life in that apartment.”

His grip tightened on the mug.

When his mother looked up to fix her gaze on him, Aiden felt like he was five years old again. “Your father and I are coming to see you,” she said. “I think it"s time you spoke with a councilor.”

Aiden threw the mug.

It shattered against the wall above the kitchen sink, thin shards flying off in every direction. Some of them passed through the hologram, causing it to ripple, but the audio played without interruption. “Aiden, please talk to us-”

“End message and delete!”

The hologram vanished.

Aiden was bent over with his elbows on the table, fingers laced over the top of his head. A shuddering breath ripped its way out of him. “Bleakness take me, Mom,” he said. “When are you gonna figure it out?”

Couldn"t they understand? Justice Keepers were the most respected people in society. Honoured above all others. All his life, he had expected to join their ranks. He deserved that respect as much as anyone else, but now…Now, a Nassai had declared that he was unworthy. Unworthy of that respect. Unworthy of the power. A b****y Nassai had taken away his future.

deservedNo. Not just his future. The damn thing had taken Melissa from him as well. She was of a higher class now, and Aiden would not accept being the lesser in any pair. An equal, yes. But lesser? The thought of it was intolerable.

A knock at the door drew him out of his reverie.

Red-faced and gasping, Aiden looked up and blinked. “What is it now?” he hissed, rising from his chair. “Who else wants to come by and pity me?

He pulled the door open and found a mail-delivery bot in the hallway outside. A waist-high cylinder of white plastic, it fixed a camera lens on him and then beeped when it confirmed his identity.

A slot in the robot"s body popped open, revealing a square-shaped device inside. He took it without hesitation, holding the thing up to the light to examine it. Aiden had never seen anything like it before. “Who sent-”

The robot was already rolling down the hallway toward the service elevator. Well, he supposed he would just have to figure it out on his own.

Slamming the door, he set the square down on his kitchen table and noticed a red button on one side. Well, the next step was obvious, but with the way his luck had been going lately, it was probably a bomb.

He pushed the button.

A hologram appeared, resolving into the image of a tall man in a well-tailored blue coat with gold trim. A man with a stern face, hollow cheeks and long, black hair that fell past his shoulder blades. Aiden recognized him instantly. You didn"t spend years learning the history of the Justice Keepers without memorizing the face of their most infamous leader.

“You!” he snarled, recoiling from the image.

“Yes, me,” Slade replied.

“What do you want?”

The other man spread his hands and bowed his head in a mockery of respect. “To correct a grave injustice,” he said. “I"ve had my eye on you for some time, Aiden. Do you recall the application you sent to the training program two years ago?”

“I do.”

Slade showed him a toothy grin, chuckling softly. Aiden saw nothing humorous in any of this. “I reviewed that application, Aiden,” he said. “You showed great promise. It pained me to hear about what happened to you.”

Leaning forward with his hands braced on the table"s surface, Aiden looked up at the hologram. He trembled with rage. “Great promise, is it? Well, it"s funny. The Nassai don"t seem to agree with your assessment.”

“The Nassai,” Slade scoffed. “Please. I think we both know what their opinion is worth. They"re aliens, Aiden! They don"t have a true understanding of human morality. The greatest mistake we ever made was binding ourselves to their rigid definition of right and wrong. A Nassai chose Jack Hunter as a host. It remained with him even after he tried to use his power to t*****e another man. Tell me, Aiden, have you ever made such a grievous mistake?”

“No.”

“And yet,” Slade went on, “Hunter is allowed to retain his honour, his authority, and the power that he misused…while you are left here to languish.”

Aiden felt his body growing tense.

Turning on his heel, Slade paced a line with a grin that seemed to ooze smug self-confidence. The hologram remained fixed in place, but it was clear that he was walking. “They told you that you were unworthy, Aiden. They presume to sit in judgment over you while turning a blind eye to their own sins.”

“What sins?”

“Where do I even begin?” Slade exclaimed. “Last year, after she took my position, Larani Tal allied herself with a man who had been convicted of smuggling weapons to the Fringe Worlds in direct defiance of the embargo. She used her considerable influence to lighten that man"s sentence and then she set him loose to do her dirty work.”

Was that even possible?

Weren"t Keepers supposed to be the best? The brightest lights in the darkness? How could one stray so far from their ideals? And not just any Keeper! The Chief Director of the entire organization!

“And speaking of Larani"s crimes,” Slade went on. “Your girlfriend"s father actually tortured a prisoner under Larani"s watch. And she did nothing. She didn"t prosecute him. She didn"t report the crime. She let him go free.”

Mr. Carlson? Torturing prisoners.

“It"s not possible…”

Slade was laughing outright now, shaking his head as he continued to pace. “And Melissa?” he said. “She was hospitalized for taking illegal drugs. I was there. And still, a Nassai accepted her. Have you ever experimented with drugs, Aiden?”

“No,” he whispered.

Slade faced him with a stony expression. Every last trace of amusement was gone. You would never have known that he was laughing only moments ago. “They lied to you, Aiden,” he said. “They"re not the noble people you thought they were. But you are. That"s why they can"t allow you the power of a symbiont Bond. Because they know that you will expose them.”

Aiden narrowed his eyes as he studied the other man. “Even if I believe it"s true,” he began. “Why would I ever agree to work with you? All the death you"ve caused. The lives you"ve ruined.”

“In the service of a greater good.”

Now, it was Aiden"s turn to laugh. Even he was amazed by the disdain in his own voice. “What possible greater good would require the s*******r of innocents?” he spat. “Go away! I want nothing from you!”

“The Inzari are powerful, Aiden,” Slade answered. “Their wrath is a terrible thing to behold, but they are capable of mercy as well. Some must die for the rest to live. It is regrettable, but it is the nature of the universe. You know this to be true. It is a reality that few are willing to acknowledge.”

“Why?” Aiden breathed. “Why should we serve these Inzari?”

“Join me, Aiden,” Slade beckoned. “You will have your answers and the power that you have been unjustly denied.”

The door slid open, and Telixa strode into her quarters, unzipping her jacket and removing it. She tossed it down on the couch and paced across the room. Another series of blood tests failed to find anything out of the ordinary. There were no nanobots in her system, or so Dr. Maderon kept insisting.

Of course, it might help if she told him that he wasn"t supposed to be looking for nanobots. She kept hoping that some anomaly would make him dig deeper, that he would discover the virus that Slade had injected and then maybe cure it. Or contain it. She could just tell him what to look for, but doing so might cost her her command.

That wouldn"t bother her if not for the fact that Slade would surely punish her when he learned of her disobedience. And he could leave her in agony for hours or even days at a time. Or so he claimed. Thus far, she had only been forced to endure a few minutes of torment at a stretch, but Telixa had no doubt that he could do it. Until she got the virus out of her system, she was essentially his slave. And sooner or later, Dr. Maderon would begin to suspect that there was more than simple paranoia behind her repeated requests to be tested.

Standing by the wall in pants and a tank-top, Telixa planted her fists on her hips. “Keep working, Doctor,” she whispered. “Please.”

“It"s time.”

A month ago, the sound of a disembodied voice in her empty quarters might have made her jump, but she was growing used to Slade"s unexpected visits. She turned around to find him sitting on the couch and smiling that oily smile of his. “Proceed with the next phase of the plan.”

“You must be joking,” Telixa spat.

Slade rose from his seat, adjusting his pompous red coat. At first, she was tempted to press her point, but he silenced her with nothing but a glance. “I thought we had been over this,” he said. “You will do as you"re told.”

Telixa strode across the room, shaking her head and growling like a caged tiger. “The plan is no longer viable!” she insisted. “The alliance between the Leyrians and the Antaurans shifts the balance of power. We would be fools to provoke them.”

“I am uninterested in your excuses. Proceed with the next phase.”

She tossed her head back, staring at the ceiling with a gaping mouth. Deep creases formed in her brow. “I forget how stupid you can be sometimes.” Antagonizing him was not a good idea, but whatever her circumstances, she refused to be this man"s lapdog. “I cannot just order a military strike that will almost certainly drag my people into a war we can"t win.”

Suddenly, Slade was right behind her, wrapping his arms around her stomach and pulling her close like an affectionate lover. She could feel his hot breath on her neck. “Telixa,” he whispered in her ear. “The arrangement is simple. My job is to create the plan. Your job is to sell it.”

“Let me go!”

“Do as you"re told.”

She tried to elbow him, but there was nothing to elbow. This was all just an elaborate hallucination. Neurons firing in her brain, tricking her into seeing and feeling and smelling things that weren"t there.

Slade reappeared right in front of her, and before she could even blink, he snapped his fingers. Pain drowned out her awareness of everything else. She was barely cognizant of falling to the floor. “Do as you"re told.”

Sobbing, Telixa made no effort to stop the tears streaming over her face. “We have to…move carefully!” she squealed. “If…we p-push too hard, the crew will start to suspect that-” She cut off in a scream.

“Do as you"re told,” Slade insisted.

“Fine! Fine! I"ll do it!”

The pain was gone.

Telixa got up on her knees, covering her face with both hands and wiping away the moisture. “I will do it,” she croaked. “But I promise you, Slade. One day, I"m going to make you suffer for this.”

His only response to that was soft laughter. The image of him faded away, leaving only a voice that echoed in her mind. “I look forward to it, my dear…I look forward to it.”