Enemy Games by Marcella Burnard Read Free Book Online

closed, he knew he’d hit a nerve.
    “No, Major,” she said. “Science isn’t all fieldwork and experiments. I am occasionally expected to do a bit of research.”
    “Lin was your bodyguard, Jayleia,” Damen countered. “For a decade, he guarded you day and night.”
    Pain spiked in the lines around her mouth.
    “Yes, he did. We were aboard the Balykkal for the first mission to Ioccal,” she said, her tone flat.
    He nodded. Six years ago, the Armada battle prowler, Balykkal , had escorted the Sen Ekir to a world on the edge of TFC space. The world had been colonized early in TFC’s expansionist history and then forgotten. When someone on Tagreth had finally uncovered records regarding the colony, the government had mounted an expedition to Ioccal, a habitable moon orbiting a gas giant in the Occaltus system.
    Jayleia’s records indicated she’d enlisted in the Armada against her parents’ wishes just prior to the mission. The expedition, led by Dr. Linnaeus Idylle, had found the colony deserted. During digs meant to determine what had happened to the colonists, the expedition personnel had been struck by a deadly plague.
    Of the 217 crewmembers on the mission manifest, five had survived. Dr. Idylle, Ari Idylle, Raj Faraheed, Pietre Ivanovich, and Jayleia Durante.
    The scope of the disaster had altered science ship protocols, first contact procedure, and even ship design throughout the known systems. Damen could only imagine what it had done to the survivors.
    “When the plague hit, we couldn’t leave the victims to die alone and in pain,” she said, her face pale and her gaze far away.
    “Three Hells,” V’kyrri breathed.
    The white edges of her lips and the fog of old nightmares in her eyes shook Damen. He’d reached for her before he could conquer the impulse.
    Some of the tension left her frame when he settled a hand on her shoulder.
    “Ari and I took turns holding the hands of the dying, trading off so we could sleep, though I don’t think either of us did. There wasn’t much we could do. None of us could, not that we knew at the time and Dr. Idylle and Raj had to try. Two hundred and twelve people died,” she said. “I talked to the ones I sat with, got them to talk to me. I wanted to know who they were, what had been lost.”
    A piece at a time, Jayleia returned from her corpse-lined past. Sorrow lingered in the bleak set of her features, but Damen knew she saw him when the color began returning to her face.
    She turned her gaze from his. “Omorle Lin, my bodyguard, was the twenty-second person to die on my watch.”
    “Didn’t he tell you he was your father’s best computer espionage agent? Didn’t he teach you before you went to work for your father?” Damen pressed. He felt the shimmer of anger in the muscles beneath his hand.
    “Of course I’ve worked with my father and his personnel,” she snapped. “In the course of our research aboard the Sen Ekir , we gather significant data on the Chekydran that might one day be of tactical use. Even the plagues . . .”
    “You send your father copies of research data?” he interrupted.
    She blinked. “What else would I send?”
    He bared his teeth, enjoying the hunt. It distinctly wasn’t a smile. He saw her register that fact when she glanced into his face.
    Her scent changed, giving away her ire.
    “You’re telling the truth, as far as it goes, but there’s more.”
    “It’s all the truth you’re going to get, Major,” she countered, her features a study in neutrality.
    “How much did your father have Lin teach you about cyber-espionage?” he prodded. “Have I been chasing you through the Claugh nib Dovvyth’s computer systems for the past . . .”
    “Stop it,” V’kyrri demanded aloud, closing a hand around Damen’s arm.
    Jayleia shifted out from beneath Damen’s touch.
    V’kyrri’s mental voice sounded in his head. What are you doing?
    Damen glanced at his friend’s hand, still on his arm, and mentally answered. My