Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 Read Free Page A

at bay. The news was a blow to her. She’d never cared for Tachi – had every reason to hate him, in fact – but now, standing in the building where the head of all of HSP had just been murdered seemed surreal. She swallowed and glanced toward the dining hall where the VIPs were being corralled. In such a situation, it was now her team’s duty to escort the director off the premises and to safety, no matter what became of the other dignitaries.
    She took Emeri’s arm and faced the two agents, who were growing antsy. “We’ll take it from here, gentlemen.”

-5-
    Residential Wing
    Palace of the Royal Officer
    Haphor, Haphez
     
    Kade Shevin sat on a chair someone had set up for him, surrounded by several of his peers. His shoulders sagged as he held a medipac to the lump on his head and pressed a cloth to his gushing nose. His left eye was swollen shut from the blow to his face. The culprit: a rock half the size of his head that the intruder had apparently taken from the garden.
    The last thing he remembered before being discovered by a fellow agent was an image of the intruder entering the palace. He had no inkling of how long he’d been unconscious and thus no idea how long the figure had been inside, but according to Zona it had been long enough to kill the Royal Officer with a professionally-placed shot to the head.
    “And you never saw a face?” Zona said, the fifth time he’d asked that question or one similar to it.
    “No!” Kade exclaimed, the same way he’d responded to every instance of the question. His voice was somewhat muffled by the compress over his nose. “All I saw was that it was someone about my height, maybe a little taller. It was so dark, and they had to have been wearing all black.”
    “He never spoke to you?”
    This time Kade resorted to a simple shake of his head so he didn’t have to taste the blood leaking down his face. It bothered him that Zona kept referring to the intruder as a male, though there had been no way to tell one way or the other. Whoever it was, however, was well trained in stealth and infiltration, had the signature of a professional killer, and was determined enough to proceed with their mission even after they’d heard Kade call for back-up.
    He tilted his head back long enough to rearrange the cloth over his face; it was so saturated with blood that he couldn’t even tell whether his nose was still bleeding. “I don’t know what else you want to hear – I’ve told you everything I know. I was out there, saw the intruder in the courtyard, went to investigate, and got hit in the head. Haven’t you found anything else to go on?”
    Zona sighed and wiped a gloved hand across his forehead. He was an experienced investigator in his mid forties, but the gray stripes running through his brown hair sometimes made him look older. They certainly did now as he took a moment to rub his tired eyes. The day had been long to begin with, but the unexpected developments had pushed everyone to the end of their ropes.
    “He somehow made it over the wall using a magnetic hook and grappling cable, all the while avoiding detection by any agents or security bots. There were plenty of tracks in the mud, but by the time we got someone out there the rain had done a fantastic job of washing away any distinctive tread marks. At this point it would be difficult to even get an accurate boot size out of them.”
    Kade shifted in the chair, arms tired from putting pressure on his wounds. “Any idea how he got up onto the bridge without me hearing?”
    Zona looked disgusted, and Kade wished he hadn’t made it sound like it was his fault any more than it already was. “There was no evidence of a grappling hook or other tool,” the senior agent responded, “but someone in decent physical condition would have been able to jump up and pull themselves over the railing. It would be quiet and wouldn’t leave any distinguishing scratches or marks.”
    “Fingerprints?” Kade