Chapter Twenty-Three

I leaned back in my chair beside Zafir, tracking the map in front of us. Colored dots indicating Sydney’s team moved through a human residential district, past parks and alleyways, heading for a supposed disturbance. Behind us, the Imperator himself observed.

“You said Sydney killed a Syldrari in cold blood?” Julien asked, his piercing blue-grey eyes trained on the map.

“Yes sir,” Zafir answered, his tone careful. “I’m concerned that the Project removed her humanity, if you will. Her behavior was that of a psychopathic killer, not a trained soldier.”

Julien shifted to look at me. “What is your hypothesis?”

He wants my opinion? I eyed him for a moment. “Permission to be blunt, sir?”

“Granted.”

“I think acquiring power humans don’t naturally have has given her a god complex. At base, she’s always attempted to lord over us—including her superiors,” I stated flatly. “She isn’t psychologically equipped to have this kind of power, and the Creshe Imperial Military lacks psychology and therapy specialists. Giving her some of my power is about as effective as strapping a toddler to a rifle and telling them to pull the trigger whenever they feel an emotion.”

[Elara…] Zafir warned.

Julien smiled warmly at me. “Good. Someone here can speak their mind. You are our closest liaison to Clan V’shir, from what I understand?”

“She is, sir,” Zafir murmured, frowning at the map.

“Elara, walk with me,” Julien stated, turning to leave. “I have a meeting to attend elsewhere in the capitol, so you and I will have our discussion on the way to the roof.”

“…yes, sir.” I followed him, his aide, and a pair of bodyguards onto the nearest elevator.

“Sydney has always been a problem,” Julien remarked, linking his hands behind his back. “We think she inherited her mother’s illness. Placing her in this program was Eddard’s ‘brilliant’ idea.”

“Eddard…?” I murmured. I was fairly sure I’d heard that name before

Julien nodded. “He was arrested in Resonance Project HQ recently. General Crowe and Professor Zafir discovered that Eddard was orchestrating the attempts on your life, and on your team’s lives. Furthermore, he was directly causing a rift in our relationship with the Syldrari. He had his people intercepting incoming communications from the queens. They would mark them as unimportant or delete them altogether. The work was sloppy. Crowe’s specialists restored the data and found the incriminating communications.”

And what does this have to do with his cunt of a daughter? I kept that thought to myself, and instead asked, “You think Eddard meant to use her to disrupt the Project?”

“That, and remove who he perceives to be my ‘heir,’” Julien mused. “His cohorts gave us everything. Eddard wanted to take my place.

“Sydney is a problem, one that I’m told can’t be fixed. Only silenced.”

“And you’re alright with that?” I asked warily.

“It’s a mercy. With no way to repair her mind, the options are to kill her or reprogram her. Reprogramming doesn’t fix all neurological problems.” Julien shook his head. “She is a threat to the empire and to the Resonance Project. Discuss her termination options with Zafir.”

“…yes, sir,” I answered.

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“Ah, and as for Citomy’s repeated demands…” Julien rubbed his chin. “I will continue refusing her attempts to sell her sons to you. That woman is awful at hiding that she has an ulterior motive. She’s after something—be careful.”

“I will. Thank you, sir.” I nodded.

When the elevator reached the roof, the Imperator and his entourage disembarked, leaving me to ride it back down to Zafir’s floor.

[You’re getting sneaky with that chip,] Zafir remarked with a chuckle. [Fun and games will have to wait. We have a problem.]

[Right. Be there shortly.] I eyed the floor numbers, then turned my attention back to my chip’s AR overlay.

A message from Rel appeared, so I swapped conversations and smirked the moment he began speaking. [Naughty, naughty, Elara. Leaking information in real time? Even for you that’s cheeky.]

[I figured you should know what we had to say,] I answered innocently.

[Perhaps…] There was a pause before his voice turned dark, commanding, devious, [I dislike this ‘sir’ nonsense. Save this submissive approach for us…if you can.]

Submissive… Oh. My face went hot when Rel sent a picture of a nude Syldrari laced up in rope, a collar around their throat. The pose, ropework, and photography were quite artistic, but it certainly got Rel’s point across. [Now who is being cheeky?]

[You think I don’t know what kind of place your mind wanders off to when you’re distracted?] Rel laughed. [I promise to provide you with a good…learning environment. Indulging is an excellent way to work off the stress of the day. If you could come over right now…]

He left his suggestion at that

I shook my head to clear it before walking off the elevator and toward the room I’d left Zafir in. [Hey, don’t give me ideas. I’ve got to get back to work and we’ve apparently got a problem on our hands. I need to focus.]

[Aw… That’s a shame. Keep me informed.] Along with his message came a picture of him laying back on his bed, his robe open and displaced around him. He wore a pair of tight white shorts…except the outline of his dick was clearly visible, the blue glow peeking through the fabric. The confident, sultry smile on his face made it clear he knew damn well what he was doing—and that it’d make me want to jump his bones.

I just said…need to focus….urrgh. I gnawed on my lower lip. Fucking hell. [I’ll do what I can. No idea if I can come play tonight.]

[Knowing you’ll be thinking about it is good enough, for the moment,] his breathy response sent a shiver down my spine.

When I made it back to Zafir’s room, all my amusement dropped the moment I spotted the map. The colored dots were gone.

“What happened?” I asked, coming to stand beside Zafir.

“When they reached the location that the disturbance was reported at, their signals went dark. There was no audio to indicate what happened,” Zafir answered, tapping away at his data pad. “…they want you to go investigate? But Diana has better stealth abilities. What…”

[Rel, we have a problem. Where is Jysel right now?] I asked.

[His base. What’s wrong?]

I narrowed my eyes at the map, then took a quick picture and sent it to him. [The dark circles are Sydney and her team. They’re supposed to be lit up. We lost contact and there wasn’t anything to indicate why or how. I’m not sure if they’ve gone rogue, or if Syldrari are involved. My bosses want me to investigate.]

[They would pull you out of the reserves for this? That doesn’t seem right.]

“They won’t budge. They want you to go…” Zafir stared at his data pad in distress for a moment, then turned to look at me. “You have permission to kill whoever you need to. I doubt this is something Sydney orchestrated. We should assume there’re hostiles in the area.”

“Right… Okay, I’m going. I’ll be cautious.” I turned and headed for the elevator, pressing the button that would take me up to the hanger where my skybike was parked.

As the elevator ascended, and Zafir created a group with Rel and I both in it. Zafir immediately spoke, [Something about this isn’t right. The Creshians were too quick to assign Elara to this mission.]

Rel sighed heavily. [Elara will reach the area before any of us do. I’ve alerted Jysel and Casair, but they’ll be longer. They don’t have transport points in that sector.]

[Rel, I have a bad feeling about this. I want you to be ready to undock if you have to,] Zafir spoke hurriedly, making me frown. What “dock?” [Or at least have shuttles waiting cloaked in the area. I don’t know. Something.]

[Calm down, Zafir. You are meant to be in charge,] Rel stated. [Elara, what are your thoughts?]

[My guess is this is retribution from Syldrari. The concern is which clan or group.] I summoned my battle suit as I stepped out of the elevator and jogged across the rooftop hanger to my skybike. [If we do have to take drastic measures, make sure you get my belongings from my room, Zafir.]

It took only a few minutes to reach the plaza the team had gone missing in, but I saw no trace of them—or of conflict. when my visor display suddenly dimmed, I clenched my teeth. Something was definitely wrong.

A piercing tone rung through the air, bringing me to my knees and making the feral balk.

“Another one!” A masculine voice called. “Orders?”

I began to conjure lightning around myself, then the chime resounded again. My body pitched forward, my eyes rolling back. Instead of smacking into pavement, I felt my face fall into soft clothes.

“There, there. Shhh…sleep.”