Nexus: Ziva Payvan Book 2 by EJ Fisch Read Free Book Online

how the pirates had used her body to snuff out their cigars after spending an hour blowing the smoke in her face. They’d beaten and kicked her and hit her with the butts of their rifles, all the while keeping her pumped full of enough drugs to render her helpless. One of them had even had his way with her while she was too sedated to fight back, though she mercifully remembered little of the experience. But the real scars came from the amount of time she’d spent in that dungeon feeling utterly abandoned by those who were meant to back her up.
    “Allow me to pose a question now,” she said quietly before either of the men could speak again. “It has been three long years – almost to the exact date – since this happened. Explain to me why I would have waited all this time to take my petty revenge on Tachi.”
    “You tell me, Payvan,” Dasaro said.
    Ziva felt her will beginning to collapse, a sensation that made her entirely uncomfortable. She was disgusted at herself for allowing simple thoughts to cloud her judgment like this, but at the same time she could not allow them to take her to Haphor so she could re-live those agonizing days. Images from that bunker burned through her memory, and she squeezed her eyes shut in a vain attempt at fending them off. She took a deep breath and tried to return herself to a meditative state.
    Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard Dasaro asking why she had been late to the party, heard him conversing briefly with the director. Their voices were muffled, trapped behind the thickening cloud of pain swirling through her mind. She shuddered, much to her chagrin and no doubt Dasaro’s delight.
    “That’s it,” Emeri said, his voice cutting through the haze in Ziva’s head. “Get her out of here.”
    The door hissed open without further ado and something sharp pierced the skin on her neck. She didn’t even have time to register what it was before the room started to spin and her mind went blank.

-13-
    HSP Headquarters
    Noro, Haphez
     
    Zinni felt as though she had somehow been transported back to three years earlier and was re-living the countless debriefing sessions, disturbing images, and sleepless nights she had experienced then. She followed Skeet out of the holding room in a fog, attempting to process and sort out the load of information she was suddenly buried under. Everyone, including herself, had done their best to shut out any memories of the “incident” after Ziva had been found and the other agents were recovered, but now it was clear that it was somehow still far from over.
    Skeet stopped a short distance from the door and let out a deep breath as he ran a hand through his rumpled hair, a nervous habit he had developed over the years. If there was any language besides native Haphezian that Zinni was perfectly fluent in, it was Skeet’s body language. Right now, he was doing the same thing she was: sorting out his overloaded mind. His recollection of what happened to Ziva had been as difficult for him to speak of as it had been for Zinni to listen to. She gave him a few moments to regain his composure.
    “Please tell me that little love pat meant you have some sort of plan,” she finally said, arms crossed. She’d been patient for the duration of the interrogation, mostly because she didn’t know anything, but Skeet’s actions had greatly intrigued her.
    Skeet ruffled his hair again and refrained from answering until a pair of agents had walked by and cleared the vicinity. “I think I do,” he replied.
    “Good. I’d like to think you wouldn’t betray Ziva just to save yourself.”
    Skeet’s eyes grew wide. “You know I would never do that!” he snapped. He looked around to see if the two of them were arousing suspicion, then took Zinni by the arm and led her into a nearby alcove.
    “Telling Dasaro’s people what they wanted to hear was the only way I could see to help Ziva,” he continued, voice still hushed. “If we’d refused, we’d