Athena’s Ashes (Star Thief Chronicles #2)(17)
Author: Jamie Grey

“I’m afraid not, Mr. Sherle.” Renna crossed behind the desk and pulled out a small white packet. She opened it, and a small pile of light blue powder sat in the middle.

“What is that?” Sherle demanded.

Renna smiled and blew the powder into his face.

He spluttered in panic and waved his hands around, trying to brush the powder away. “What did you do, girl?”

“Took care of a complication. Goodnight, Mr. Sherle. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

A moment later, he slumped over his desk, sound asleep.

“Lieutenant, can you get him out of the way please?” Renna asked, glancing over at Blake who stood stock-still beside the door.

His eyes had gone wide, but he nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

TEN

“Did you really have to drug him?” Jayla asked, frowning at Sherle’s motionless body. Blake had stretched him out on the low couch in the corner before returning to his post at the door. “That’s not our usual method of handling these situations.”

Renna had already booted up the computer, and her fingers drummed against the smooth wood as she studied the hologram of his family on some off-world vacation. A pretty wife and two cute girls. They looked nice and normal. Hopefully she hadn’t made him one of Pallas’s targets. The traitor would not appreciate Sherle giving up this data.

“I didn’t have time to talk the guy down,” she said with a shrug. “Just easier to keep him out of the way.”

Jayla’s lips thinned, but she merely said, “Interesting that Major Larson is involved. I wonder what he has to do with Titan Industries.”

“Or what that has to do with finding Finn,” Blake added, arching an eyebrow at Renna.

Finn. Her heart clenched, catching her off-guard. Right. They thought her primary concern was looking for the Athena. Could she risk telling them the truth now? She was usually a pretty good judge of character, but if either of them were involved with Pallas, she’d be putting Finn in terrible danger.

But they were running out of time, and it was clear she couldn’t do this alone. She didn’t have much choice. Renna cleared her throat uncomfortably and typed a command string into the computer. Silence stretched until the room throbbed with it. Finally, she said, “Titan Industries is tied to MYTH, that’s true. But I’m not here to investigate Finn. I’m after something bigger.”

Jayla nodded. “We already guessed that, Renna.”

Renna felt her body tense like she was about to dive off of a high ledge. She met the woman’s gaze. It was now or never. She nodded, ignoring the twist of unease in her gut. She’d do what she had to, even if that meant trusting these people with the most important things in her life.

“What you don’t know is that there’s a traitor inside MYTH. Someone with the codename Pallas was behind Navang’s facility, and if we don’t find him, he’ll use that hybrid army to destroy the whole organization. Maybe even the coalition government.”

Blake’s jaw dropped. “That’s impossible.”

“This man is devious, Lieutenant.” Renna glanced down at the computer. “He’s spent years working on this plan. The problem is I have no idea where or when he’ll strike. Or even what he really wants.”

“And you think Larson is involved?” Jayla asked, gritting her teeth. “I always hated that man. He pinched my ass once. The only reason I didn’t punch him in the balls was because he was a superior officer. But I can’t believe he’d go as far as treason.”

“Commander, I’d bet my life that this man is one of Pallas’s moles within the organization. Draven Navang named him as a contact, and here he is showing up again, involved with Titan Industries. But I need to find real proof before I can accuse an officer of treason.”

Worry flashed across Jayla’s face, but she nodded. “Then do what you need to. We’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.”

Quickly, Renna searched through Sherle’s email, but nothing stood out. Next up were his network files. She pulled up several dozen earnings reports, a list of investors from the past ten years, and a shareholders’ report from last year. Digging a little deeper, she found the list of personnel who’d worked at TI and downloaded them to her disk. She’d have to run it through her scan later and see if any MYTH hits came up.

“Finding anything?” Jayla asked, opening the door to peer out at the lobby. “I think Miss Secretary is getting a bit antsy.”

“Almost done.” Renna moved on to the last year’s R&D reports and read over them quickly. Her fingers paused on the keyboard as she caught a paragraph that tugged at her memory.

The latest prototype for Titan Industries is a long-range communicator that runs on the electromagnetic energy between stars. Designed to allow almost instant communication between star systems with no lag, it holds great promise in uniting the great expanse of space. And would make TI one of the foremost experts on this type of communication.

Her skin erupted in goose bumps. With the neural network that Dr. Navang had developed for his hybrid army, a device like this could give someone complete and instant power over all the soldiers anywhere in the galaxy. They could send troops to any planet, commanding them in real time, while safely out of the line of fire.

Even more worrisome was the thought of the sleeper agents Navang had created. With instant communication, they could react immediately to threats or other orders. They’d be undetectable and unstoppable.

Renna swallowed and copied over the design plans. It was all here, she just needed to figure out what it meant. She wasn’t stupid, but Pallas had woven his web carefully, the parts moving like chess pieces across a board she couldn’t see.

Across the room, Commander Jayla suddenly went stiff. She pressed the comm below her ear. “What’s going on, Tevsi?” Several seconds passed before she nodded. “We’ll be right there.”

Like a switch had been flipped, Jayla’s spine straightened, and her voice took on a clipped, military tone again. “There’s been an attack on MYTH HQ. We have to report in. Now.” She met Renna’s gaze. “It looks like you were right.”

Lieutenant Blake jumped to his feet. “But that’s impossible. MYTH defenses are state-of-the-art. We have three Peron cannons guarding each facility, along with comm towers, electromagnetic barriers, and guards everywhere.”

Renna followed as they headed down the hallway to the elevator. MYTH’s defenses might be state-of-the-art, but if there was someone on the inside, it wouldn’t matter if they had the newest tech in the galaxy.