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Da'an was dead. Lili was dead. The Jaridian Vor'jek, or whatever his name was, had taken Lili's baby back to Jaridia before Lili's body was cold. Liam swished the dark amber liquid in his glass around, absently noting the way it formed a mini whirlpool in the center of the glass for a few seconds. Liam took a long drink and leaned against the wall. This was his first, the only drink he would allow himself all evening, and he was determined to make it last. Part of him wanted to throw it across the room and watch it shatter into thousands of tiny sparking pieces when it hit the wall. Another part wanted to curl into a ball on the couch and cry himself to sleep. A third part wanted to pour himself glass after glass until reality dissolved for a time. There had been so much death recently, starting with Jonathan Doors.
"Is everyone I care about condemned to die because of me?" Liam wondered aloud. It was a familiar litany. If he had not existed there would have been no need for the Resistance to tamper with his mother's CVI and her death might have been prevented. He should have been able to do something, anything, to avert Jonathan's death, and Lili's. Liam took another drink, a sip this time. If he had done a better job of convincing Lili not to try and blow up the Mothership after the election then she might be alive right now.
And Da'an as well.
Da'an hurt the worst. He had already lost Lili once by then and had not gotten over the shock of her return when she had died. But Da'an was a different story, Da'an had been a huge part of his life since day two. He had sworn an oath to protect Da'an and failed.
Liam almost wished that Zo'or would fire him. He knew that such an occurrence would be followed soon after by a most convenient "accident" but he barely cared anymore. A cynical part of Liam wondered if Zo'or only kept him around because he needed Liam to read Ma'el's work.
A bigger question was why he was not in a holding cell on the Mothership. He had caught Sandoval red handed, but after Lili died the implant had merely ordered him to collaborate his account of events. Emotionally drained and reeling from Da'an and Lili's deaths he had agreed, though he had seethed with anger as he lied to Zo'or.
His gaze shifted to his sidearm, lying on the counter by his coat. He did not have to bother with intermediaries. It would be so easy, so easy.
Liam forced his mind off that track. He could not change the past, only the now he reminded himself forcefully. The only thing he could do would be to go forwards. The Resistance needed him.
As if it were that simple.
* * *
Ronald Sandoval nodded at Volunteer Melissa Erikson as she handed him a global containing the latest status report. To the Taelons and the world, Da'an had been kidnapped and murdered by Resistance extremists. The use of Marquette's shuttle had been explained away as a symbolic gesture by the Resistance, as Marquette was surely seen as a martyr. It amused Sandoval to continue the charade as he knew how very different the reality of the was.
The only other individual aware that the story he had concocted was just that had entered the room quietly and stood waiting for Sandoval to acknowledge him. After the "incident" Sandoval had considered and quickly rejected exposing Major Kincaid as a traitor. After all, Zo'or would not be pleased to learn of a second Resistance agent so entrenched, the Taelon might decide to order an investigation outside of Sandoval's control the could expose his own agenda or even prompt him to reconsider an execution.
But there were other reasons as well that he realized only after the decision had been made. It could be useful to keep a lid on what he knew about the Major, for now anyway, to blackmail the man with later. Sandoval had no idea of Kincaid's true status in the organization, but suspected he was highly placed.
Sandoval at last turned toward Liam, automatically cataloging the other man's appearance with some alarm. There were dark circles under his eyes and an expression that indicated that Liam was not sleeping well these days. Most ominous, however, was the look in his eyes. Sandoval shivered involuntarily, at the haunted gaze of the younger man.
Sandoval felt a trickle of guilt as he suspected the cause of Kincaid's insomnia to be fear of his true loyalties revealed and guilt at his perceived failure with Da'an. The implant well understood how Da'an had the ability to will true allegiance even from those hardened against the Taelons, had he not experienced a similar feeling' Sandoval quelled those thoughts and clamped down on his guilt, he needed to be the true implant for now.
"Major."
"You ordered me to report to you at 0700." Liam said, his voice strangely harsh from barely concealed emotions.
How he must hate me, Sandoval thought. I wish I could tell him, but that would only make him hate me more. Kincaid cannot stand to be used and he has not forgotten or forgiven me for making him back up my account of Da'an's fate. Sandoval took a deep breath. "Yes Major, I did. With Da'an's death you are a Protector without a Companion. Of late, Zo'or has requested that I focus on duties not relating to his protection, to the degree that I can no longer provide him with adequate protection and accomplish the various tasks entrusted to me. Therefore, Zo'or has decided that I am no longer to function has his protector, though I will remain as his attache."
"Who will Zo'or's new protector be?" Liam asked, suspecting the answer.
"You."
* * *
Augur had been sleeping when Liam arrived. The cyber wizard had finally fallen asleep after hours of tossing and turning, but had gained little from it. His dreams were a replay of recent events that seemed to capitalize on everything he had failed to notice and throw it back in his face. Intellectually he knew it was survivor's guilt, but his heart told another tale.
He stumbled out of bed to find Liam sitting on his couch staring into space. Vaguely he remembered Liam telling him about an appointment with Sandoval.
"I'm sorry. I forgot that I asked you to come here after your meeting."
"It's all right." Liam whispered. "You looked so tired, even in sleep, and I did not want to disturb you. My news could wait."
"What did Sandoval want?"
Liam ran a hand through his hair before answering. Augur noted that he looked exhausted and wondered exactly how long Liam had been here. "He wanted to tell me I've been promoted." Liam finally said in a flat tone.
"To what?"
"I'm now Zo'or's protector. Sandoval is remaining as his attache. He pretty much told me point blank that he's still in charge, though."
Augur nodded and headed over to a small coffee machine. He needed something, he was too drained to even think clearly. "I'm sure your new position will provide access to good intell for the Resistance."
"Yeah. Either that or I'm walking into a trap."
"You don't sound too concerned." Augur said, his tiredness was rapidly being replaced by growing alarm at Liam's manner.
"Of course I'm concerned about the Resistance." Liam replied indignantly.
"I meant about yourself."
Liam sighed. "To be perfectly honest Augur, I'm really not too concerned about myself."
Augur sighed. "You never asked me what I did to look so tired." "I assumed it was recent events."
"Certainly a contributing factor, but not the whole enchilada. I hacked into Sandoval's files. The folks who set up the security measures for him made it a real challenge."
Liam perked up a little and showed signs of interest. "Did you find out anything on those Resistance members who were supposedly killed in the shuttle crash?"
"Yeah. Like Renee suspected, they had disappeared during the crackdown and were never heard from again by there families or cells."
"I wonder if the others who disappeared met similar fates."
Augur felt sick at the bare thought. "It is a possibility we have to consider," he said carefully. "But Sandoval never struck me as the type to waste resources. Its more likely they tried to get away and were killed, and he had their remains preserved for something like this. Remember that warehouse you and Renee found those prisoners in, the one where Lili had been' I'm betting he's got the rest of the prisoners stashed in such places for use in his projects."
"Experiments."
"Yeah, of the nasty variety where not all the subjects are around to see the conclusion."
"It just keeps getting better."
"At least we do have one shred of good news, though."
"Oh? What's that?"
"I was able to trace some of his recent activities. Not all of his cronies have such good security programs. Our boy has been funneling resources into black boxes while reporting loses on raids that never occurred. As far as I can piece together, one of his warehouses is in North Carolina, Camp Johnson. It was a part of the big Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, but with the scaling back of the military it was reportedly sold to conservation group."
"Let me guess, the FBI has taken a sudden interest in preserving the habitats of endangered species."
"Well they uses a front group, but yeah. Hardly surprising considering how tight the Feds and the Corps are. They share facilities at Quantico and the FBI recruits from the Marines. That part of North Carolina is not exactly a tourist mecca and the locals have gotten used to Camp Lejeune and the New River Air Station in their backyards. Plus with the bases so near they can easily explain away interest and stringent controls over who gets to fly in that airspace."
"What else have you uncovered?" Liam asked.
"There is a cell in that area and I had them check out Johnson. To make a long story short one of the members works in a local bar and got some folks talking after adding something special to their drinks. They also bugged his global and in the background of one of his calls you can get images of three people last seen in November."
"How many do they think are there total?"
Augur shrugged. "The working estimate is around two or three dozen."
"Any idea why they are there?"
"Only that it has something to do with NDE states, can't get more specific until we can get a complete list of who is actually there."
"Suggestions as to how we go about getting such a list?"
The cyber wizard smiled. "Doors International has a really nice satellite that will be in a good position to take pictures of that area at noon tomorrow."