Morgan Selwood has just been recaptured after an abortive escape attempt. Now she meets the man in charge — and he’s not what she expected.
Her first encounter with Admiral Ravindra sets the tone for everything that follows: defiance, attraction, and a battle of wills that neither intends to lose.
******
Morgan wriggled her arms behind her back. The wrist bands weren’t tight but she’d been wearing them for hours now. They’d shoved her into a bare grey room and left. No chair, no water, nothing. Even the sensors were switched off. She wondered again where Jones and Sayvu were. They’d hustled them both away somewhere else. Soon enough they would come for her. She’d paced for a while, fought down the pressing urge to use the toilet. That was just fear. They’d been so close to getting away.
Leaning against the wall she closed her eyes and let herself slip down until she sat on the floor, knees raised, her head tilted back. Maybe this was all just a nightmare and soon she’d wake up. Wouldn’t that be good?
Her eyes opened at the swish-hiss of the opening door. Fear rose like lava from her belly. She swallowed. A tall man wearing a black officer’s uniform stepped over to where she sat, towering over her. Somebody else put down a chair in the middle of the room and left.
“Up.”
She tried, wriggling to angle her legs so she could stand. But without the use of her hands, she simply struggled on the floor like a landed fish. With a last effort that sent her thigh muscles burning she got herself onto her knees. Panting, she rested a moment before the final surge. She hated this. She hated this. On her knees, helpless.
The officer reached down, grasped her shoulder in one hand and pulled her upright so fast her feet left the ground. He let go and she swayed, regaining her balance. The light winked on the gold sunburst on his shoulder.
Well, well. Her heartbeat steadied. Maybe she wasn’t for the firing squad just yet.
“Welcome back, Morgan Selwood.”
She stared at him, straight into slit black pupils in an amber field. She was supposed to look down, wasn’t she? Well, fuck him. She wasn’t beaten yet.
“You have not yet learnt manners, I see.”
“Where I come from, meeting a man’s gaze shows honest intent.”
“You are not where you come from.”
He struck her face. Her head whipped around. She staggered sideways and stumbled to her knees, her cheek stinging. She hadn’t even seen him raise his hand. He hauled her effortlessly, one handed, to her feet again. He must be enormously strong. His fingers must have left dents on her shoulder.
“So. Let us start again.” That even, baritone voice. He might as well have been at a cocktail party.
No, she wasn’t where she came from. Wishing she could rub her cheek, she bowed her head. “Srimana.”
The word stuck in her craw. She fixed her gaze on his rank insignia. Daryabod—Full Admiral. Second only to Daryaseban—Grand Admiral in the Manesai fleet hierarchy. A very, very powerful man. Another bastard admiral.
“Better. You have not been entirely honest with us Suri Selwood.” Still with that cocktail party voice.
“I told you no lies.”
“You left out quite a lot. Such as your ability to connect with our computer systems through the sensors.”
She met his gaze for a fraction of a moment and looked away again. “Who told you that?”
“Come now. Let us not be disingenuous. Your colleague Jones was happy to tell us what he could.”
“The sensors were off when I was brought here.”
“Yes. We did wonder why you seemed to stare at them so intently, so often. But it was confirmed in the last conversation between Sayvu and Jones before your escape attempt, so we ensured that option was not available to you here.”
“So she was in it? In this trap?”
He turned, lithe and graceful and prowled over to the chair, the light glinting off the ornate silver clasp that held his hair. He sat, long legs thrust out before him, crossed at the ankles.
“She was trapped herself, you might say. There are always Bunyada cells on large warships. Prasad had begun to suspect the young lieutenant. We expected that Bunyada would be most interested in your colleague in particular, because of his round eyes. We offered the bait and she took it. Of course, we had our own informer in the group and that individual eventually managed to hide a listening device on Sayvu’s person.”
“What will you do with Sayvu?”
“She will be executed.” He tossed the remark away, as if it didn’t really matter.
“Jones?”
“He has been most cooperative.” Ravindra smiled, a curve of the lips that sent a shiver of fear down Morgan’s spine. “Amazing what a little pain will achieve.”
So not averse to torture. Why would she be surprised?
He sat up straight, placed his hands on his thighs. “Jones is of no further use to me. I will send him to Military Headquarters for further interrogation. But you… you have talents I can use.”
She stared at him until a quirk of his eyebrows warned her to avert her eyes. “To do what? Is this something to do with Bunyada? Because I don’t know anything about them. Not a thing.”
“Bunyada is a canker which I would like to erase. But I have a much more pressing problem. The Yogina, the aliens you were in company with when we found your ship.”
She sighed and shook her head. No, wrong. But the head jerked back for no seemed so inadequate. “We weren’t in company with them. They’d taken us in tow. I know even less about them than I do your freedom fighters or terrorists or whatever they are.”
“You have devices in your head and so have they. You have artificial eyes and so have they. And you have the ability to understand computer systems that are alien to you. Jones says you can run a spaceship with your mind.” He placed the fingers of both hands on his forehead for a moment.
“I have just returned from a planet called Dilmar where these aliens destroyed the entire population and set the settlements on fire. We were fortunate that one man survived to tell the tale.”
Morgan’s heart jolted. “A whole planet?”
“A pioneer world. Fifty thousand people, in three cities.”
She looked over his shoulder at the bulkhead behind him, plain, featureless. Fifty thousand people. “Just ordinary people? Not a military outpost?”
“Ordinary people of all classes, trying to build a future for themselves. I can show you the evidence.”
She snorted. “Evidence. Evidence is like statistics.”
“You don’t trust me?”
She smiled at the floor at her feet. He had to be joking, didn’t he?
She realized he’d moved when she saw his boots, polished to a mirror shine.
“You want honesty you can understand?” He lifted her chin with his fingers and locked his gaze with hers. “I do my job as honestly as I can. And that is to allow ordinary people to live their lives in peace.”
Not a blink, not a waver. But what did he want? More Supertech ‘magic’? “What can I do?”
“We have one ship, one of their fighters. We have the pilot, too. Dead, unfortunately. One of our patrol ships found the vessel, apparently abandoned in a planetary orbit. You will tell me what you know, what you think you may be able to discover. Perhaps penetrate the ship’s computer systems.”
He hadn’t let go, still held her chin in strong fingers. His skin felt smooth but tough. She’d never been so close to a Manesai. She could smell him, clean but spicy, a little like their food.
“Well, Suri?”
“Their systems are different?”
“We have no way of knowing.”
Intriguing. Absolutely intriguing. She felt that familiar surge of adrenalin that signified a challenge. But for him? This bastard?
“If I say no?” She treated him to a brief laser stare which would have had a human ducking for cover.
Completely unaffected, he let go of her and sat down again. “You would help Bunyada but not me? They are terrorists, killing and destroying to sow unrest. They claim to be anti-Mirka but it is usually everyone else who suffers. Shuba, Hasta and the poorer Vesha. Not the Vesha princes, not the rich merchants like Sayvu’s father. I can show you this, too.”
“Show me what you have and I’ll decide.” Bravado. He’d know. He hadn’t threatened her, no ‘do this or you die’. Then again, why state the obvious?
“In the meantime, can you take these things off?” She jutted an elbow in an attempt to show him her shackled wrists.
He pressed a button on the communicator at his belt. Almost immediately the cell door opened and an underling appeared, nearly falling over himself to bow. “Remove the bands,” Ravindra said.
Morgan felt the shackles fall away and flexed her shoulders. Ah, that felt good. Better than her cheek. She lifted her fingers to her face. I’ll bet I’m bruised.
“Come.”
*****
Sometimes survival means surrender. But Morgan Selwood doesn’t surrender easily. Want to know what happens next? Tap on the cover to find out more…
