“Melinda, get into the walk-in safe and stay there!” He grabbed her gently by her arms. “Do you hear me?” Duran Jarreau asked his wife. Telepathically, he had sensed something, and it had unnerved him. Whatever it might be, he didn’t want his wife to become involved. The less she knew about his business dealings, the better it would be.
“But, darling, why? Whatever is the matter?”
For the past hour, Duran had been agitated, fearful almost. Melinda knew something troubled Duran but didn’t know what it might be. What could be so upsetting to him on Sinope? It was their honeymoon. For the past few weeks, she had been able to put aside the grievous pain that had torn her apart. After losing Nathan, she had feared she wouldn’t have the strength to survive, even for her children. Then, Duran, a wealthy entrepreneur, had pulled her from the despair into which she had sunk. He had convinced her that the constant reminders in her home of Nathan would make healing from his loss even more difficult. Melinda had quickly become dependent upon Duran. He had become her husband and a father to her children. Tracy hadn’t accepted his new role as the patriarch of their family. She continued to grieve for Nathan. As lost as Melinda had been to her own grief, she knew her children had suffered just as deeply. Now, her daughter was in trouble of some sort. Why couldn’t she have simply stayed at home with her brothers and Angelica?
“Is this about Tracy?” she asked.
“Get inside, Melinda. I’ll come for you when it’s safe.” Duran added a compulsion so she would obey his command.
Melinda’s eyes widened, and she clutched at Duran’s sleeve. A loud sound from below echoed up to them. “What was that?”
Duran shoved her inside of the walk-in safe and closed the door. He had insisted on only staying in a vacation rental with a safe that would also serve as a safe room in case of emergencies. He had a paranoid fear of thieves. Melinda activated a small security feed and placed a call to the Enforcers.
“There is an intruder in our house! Come quickly! My husband has gone down to deal with him.”
An enforcer said, “Stay hidden. Help is on the way.”
Duran took the stairs down to the first floor. He had his finger poised above his blaster’s firing button. All he needed was one clear shot and the intruder would be dead. He had made a few enemies. Lord Ajani wasn’t pleased with their business deal, but there was also the male who had taken Tracy as his wife. Eliminating either of those possible threats shouldn’t be a problem. He hadn’t made it to where he was today by being weak. Those who opposed him didn’t live to regret it. Dr. Heintz had made the fatal mistake of saying no to him. A few drops of poison were all it had taken to silence his protests. Melinda was pretty and kept him entertained, but he had learned that Tracy held the key to perfecting his serum.
A heavy blow to the back of his head brought him crashing down to the floor. Duran’s vision darkened before pain brought him back to his senses. Someone kicked his blaster from his hand before dragging him by his hair across the floor to the center of the living room. The man kicked furniture out of his way, unconcerned by the noise it made. All Duran could see of him was his solid black clothing. Duran pushed at the other male’s mind, but his opponent had a neural blocker. He tried to free himself and received another sharp blow to his head. Then, the man flipped him to his back and punched him in his throat. He grabbed Duran’s wrist, flattened it to the floor, and then stabbed through his palm with a blade effectively pinning him to the floor. Duran couldn’t scream because he couldn’t breathe. He looked up into dead brown eyes.
“You have stolen much from my employer, Duran Jarreau. Your greed and stupidity have been costly. First, you will transfer the credits you owe him into this account.” The man pulled a vid-screen out from one of his pockets and pressed Duran’s unimpaled hand to its surface. “Don’t worry. I’m not taking all of it, just enough to cover the expense of four ruined clones.” The man put the vid-screen back into his pocket. “No, it isn’t your credits that should worry you. It is what happens to those who take from my employer what is rightfully his.”
The man withdrew another blade and began slicing off each of Duran’s fingers. After Duran could pull in a breath, he used it to scream.
“Now, you will tell me the name of your partner.” He held the knife poised above Duran’s left eye.
“Jazon, hurry! Something is very wrong. I can feel it. Mother is terrified!”
They had brought Andy with them. He had progressed into the mental stage of a curious and indestructible teenager. Leaving him on the ship alone would have been too much of a temptation for the boy, especially one with his intelligence. Andy had begged to fire the ship’s blaster cannons more than once.
Through communications, Agata reported, “We are in position, but we aren’t the only ones. Enforcers are swarming the location.”
Jazon parked the transport behind one of many emergency transports. Tracy got out and ran. Her mind led her straight to her mother.
“Miss, you can’t go in there!” an Enforcer said.
Ignoring his warning, Tracy darted around him and other uniformed officers and ran up the stairs. Tracy had never sensed such stark, shocked disbelief from anyone. It was almost as if her mother’s mind had been frightened away.
“Mother! Mother!” Tracy searched the room. She knew her mother was here. Then, she found the safe. “Mother, come out!” Tracy heard the heavy door mechanisms as they released.
“Tracy?” Her mother grabbed her and held her with a needy ferocity. “Oh, Tracy,” she sobbed.
Tracy felt the telepathic bond’s resurgence between them. “Mother, what happened?”
Her mother had begun to shake uncontrollably. A couple of enforcers and a medic had followed her upstairs. Tracy glanced inside of the safe room and saw the live security feed. “What is that?” she asked.
Downstairs, the enforcers were documenting a gruesome bloody mess. It reminded her of what had been left of the clones after the ice bears had attacked. Whatever it had been, her mother had seen it all.
“I am Jazon Ponidi, an Imperial Guard in service to Princess Probus of Parvac, and these men are with me. We have clearance to be here.”
Several words were spoken by a male, but all Tracy could make out of it was, “There is nothing for you to see upstairs.”
“My wife and mother-in-law are up there. Try and stop me,” Jazon responded. Jazon was loud enough that both Tracy and her traumatized mother had heard him clearly.
While holding her mother, Tracy said reassuringly, “It’s okay, Mother. Jazon will take care of everything.” Tracy feared her mother might shake apart in her arms.
Melinda saw the man, Jazon, to whom Tracy had referred. He had the body of an elite soldier and the mind of a powerful telepath. His mere presence was enough to assure her that the horrific ordeal had ended. Jazon strode forward, sent Tracy’s mother to sleep with a strong psychic push, and picked her up. All but one of the Eriopis enforcers followed them back down the stairs and outside to a medical transport.
“Tracy, go with your mother to the hospital and stay there with her. We must apprehend this criminal,” Jazon ordered.
“I’m going with you,” Andy said.
Jazon held Andy’s gaze for a few heartbeats before saying, “No. Go with Tracy and her mother. Keep them safe.”
Tracy began to realize what it was her mother had witnessed, and a sick feeling spread throughout her chest. Fear for their safety prompted her to say, “Jazon, be careful. I love you.” She knew they wouldn’t be dissuaded from pursuit of the murderer.
“I love you,” Jazon said as he kissed her. He nodded to the medics and watched as the transport drove away.
Then, he joined up with Agata and Vasco to search for the assassin.
Many hours passed before Melinda awoke. Through a large open window in her hospital room, the sight of a calm lake greeted her. A gentle breeze blew from off of the lake and into the room. A head of black hair rested on the blankets near her knee. Melinda stroked her sleeping daughter’s hair. The control Duran had wielded over her mind was gone. Clarity had replaced the muddled mental haze in which he had kept her a prisoner in her own mind.
Sensing that she was awake, an Enforcer entered and interviewed her. He only sought clarification. The home’s security monitors had recorded Duran’s murder. Throughout the questioning, Melinda could sense the Enforcer keeping her calm and centered. Tracy slept through the interview, and Melinda had gone back to sleep once it had been concluded.
When Melinda next woke, her hand returned to her daughter’s hair. Tracy felt fingers gently stroking her hair and sat up. “Mother,” she began.
Seeing the fear in her daughter’s eyes, she said, “It’s alright. I’ve come back to myself again. I’m free of Duran’s control. I want you to tell me everything that you know.”
“I will give the two of you some privacy. I will wait in the hall,” Andy said.
No sooner had Andy stepped into the hall before a nervous Laconian male caught his attention. When the male made eye contact with Andy, he panicked and fled down the hall. Andy followed. He quickly caught up with the man at the hospital’s back exit. Before Andy could ask a question, the man started to babble. “I just came to check on the Heintz females. Please, Lord Jiri, don’t kill me! It was all Duran’s idea. I swear it! I warned him that the serum needed more work, but he wouldn’t listen. I….” The man’s eyes changed, and he fell heavily in Andy’s grip. The man began foaming at the mouth. Andy half carried and half dragged the man back inside of the hospital.
“Help! Something is wrong with this man!” Andy called out.
A nurse ran over to them and began to scan her patient. “Poison,” she said. Andy watched in shock as she took a blood sample and injected it into a drone for testing.
A doctor arrived and made futile attempts at resuscitating the victim. Andy backed away. He had swiped the man’s identification badge and kept it hidden in his pocket. He went in search of a vid-screen so he could report to Captain Agata.
The mother and daughter had a long and very serious discussion.
“You suspect that Lord Radford is involved?” Melinda asked.
“He is wealthy and has ties to the academy.”
Melinda rubbed at her temples.
“Are you alright?” Tracy asked. She gazed at her mother with worry clear on her features. To lose two telepathic bonds one after the other would be devastating enough, but also to have witnessed her husband’s murder would be horrific.
“I need to go home to Aurilius and the boys. I need to determine how best to explain this to them,” she said in a shaky voice.
“Everything will be okay. Jazon will come for us and take us home. Please, don’t cry.” Tracy tried to comfort her mother. She turned her head and watched as a doctor entered the room with a hover chair.
He gave Tracy a sympathetic nod and then gave her mother a shot. Melinda went limp.
“Mother?”
Suddenly, the doctor had his hand over Tracy’s mouth. He pressed an injector to her throat. “Make a sound, and she dies. The antidote to the poison is on my ship. Without it, she has a few hours to live. This should keep you compliant.” He jabbed another injector into Tracy’s throat.
She felt her telepathic abilities seeping away from her as she drifted off into a foggy semi-conscious state. As if from a distance, she watched as the man picked up her mother and placed her into the hover chair. He tucked a blanket around her. “You will walk at my side,” he ordered.
Unable to form a thought of her own, Tracy did as she was ordered.
Jazon and his men had tracked the assassin back to the land port. However, no ships had departed from Sinope since the time of Duran’s murder.
“I can better track him on the ship,” Agata said.
“I’ll go get the women and Andy at the hospital,” Jazon said.
Jazon sped to the hospital. Clearly, Felix Jiri had hired the assassin to exact his revenge on Duran Jarreau. That the assassin had executed Duran with the practiced skill of an experienced inquisitor hadn’t been lost on any of them. He had to capture Felix’s hired assassin and bring him into custody for questioning. He wondered if the man was in fact a former or current Parvac operative. Once he captured the assassin, they would have a trail to follow back to Felix. The bastard had eluded capture for long enough. Jazon parked in front of the hospital.
Torn from his investigative musings and thrust back into the present, Jazon came to a blood chilling realization. Tracy and her mother were no longer within the hospital. Entering the facility, Jazon strode inside while encouraging the minds around not to notice him. Inside of the security station, he accessed the hospital’s visual surveillance. Watching the footage as it took him back in time, he saw a male doctor leaving Tracy’s mother’s room. As though in a trance, Tracy walked at his side while he guided the hover chair that carried an unconscious Melinda.
Jazon slowly backed up the footage until the time at which the male had first arrived at the room and then played it forward. The male was an expert at avoiding detection by the facial recognition bots. However, Jazon did manage to get a lock on the transport he had used to take Tracy and Melinda from the hospital. Quickly, Jazon transmitted all of the surveillance to Agata. What did the assassin or Felix want with his wife and mother-in-law?
“Jazon, Andy reported a few minutes after you left the ship. Find him,” Agata out.