Ronan: Ziva Payvan Book 3 by EJ Fisch Read Free Book Online Page A

cleared his throat. “What do you know about an entity called Ronan?”
    The question caught Ziva off guard. She found herself sitting in Kat Reilly’s shop on Chaiavis, listening to the young woman talk about the mysterious disease that had killed her friend Corey. “I…barely anything,” she replied, giving him an abbreviated version of the same story Kat had told her before returning to Argall. Nobody knew for sure what Ronan was, only that it had been responsible for Corey’s death and would have killed Kat too if she hadn’t sacrificed herself in the mining town. “She gave me some information she wanted me to look into after she had passed.”
    Emeri waved his hand over his own data pad, sending whatever he’d been looking at to the device Ziva held. “ This wouldn’t happen to be that information, would it?”
    Despite the fact that she’d never had time to take an in-depth look at the pad Kat had given her, a quick glance at the screen revealed that this was indeed the young woman’s data, copied word for word but now marked with an HSP case logo. Ziva opened her mouth to ask how the agency had gotten the original data pad, considering it had been locked in the hidden strongbox in her bedroom, but her mind made the connection before she could say anything. She saw herself lying in her hospital bed with Aroska hovering over her.
    “Where’s my kytara?”
    “I found it on Bosco’s ship on the way back here. I’ll put it away for you.”
    Of course. As of this moment, he was the only other person in the galaxy who knew the location of her strongbox. “Damn you, Tarbic,” she muttered.
    “Tarbic brought this information to our attention shortly after returning from Argall,” the director said, shooting her an unimpressed glance. “He said he found it in your backpack after you were shot.”
    Ziva forced her facial expression to remain unchanged. Even though Emeri knew of her Nosti abilities, she was thankful Aroska had left her kytara – and the strongbox, for that matter – out of the picture.
    “After meeting Ms. Reilly in person and witnessing what took place in Argall, Tarbic insisted we open an investigation,” Emeri continued. “We delegated the case to Adin Woro’s field ops team until we had enough information to act on. There was a lead on the other side of the Fringe, and they found evidence of Ronan’s presence on Niio…”
     

-6-
    4 Weeks Ago
    Warehouse District
    Niio Spaceport
     
    Aroska Tarbic stepped into the tiny room and swept his gaze across the space, lowering his rifle a bit when he saw it was empty…just like most of the other identical rooms he’d already looked in. The corridor he’d been assigned to stretched further than he could see with his night optics, and the walls were lined with hundreds of small storage rooms roughly three by three meters. Most contained nothing but dust and rodent feces. He’d found the occasional empty box, and one room had housed a pair of strung-out Elsara whose beady eyes had glowed as he viewed them through his headgear. But the rest were empty, with nothing to see but cold, windowless gray walls.
    Despite the fact that he had thus far found nothing of interest, Aroska continued to proceed with caution. He moved forward slowly while following a heel-toe pattern, treading so lightly he could barely hear his own footsteps. This warehouse complex was massive, and Ronan’s men were somewhere in it. Danger could literally be waiting around any corner.
    He still wasn’t entirely sure if Ronan was a person or an organization; maybe it was both. Whatever it was, it had numerous soldiers at its disposal. The ones they’d been tracking through the Niiosian spaceport appeared to be human, though it had been difficult to tell for sure since their faces had been covered by sleek helmets. None of them were overly tall – roughly Zinni’s height – but even with the light armor they wore it was clear they were well-built. Nobody else on