Neutral Space(53)

“They did; I have proof.” I threw a pad on the table with some of the critical documents loaded. She snatched it up and read them. I had them in Kelsairan and English side by side. Her face went blank as she came to realize I wasn’t lying.

“Supposing you can prove all this what do you want?” Sharon Davis asked.

“You always ask the best questions. What I want is simple. I want Kheda’s, and my name cleared. We both want to be discharged from our respective army and live our lives in peace.” She nodded about to speak, but I stopped her. “What we want for everyone else is to end the war.”

“You can’t simply stop 200 years of fighting.” Pyia spat.

“I know, you weasel. But the peace talks have to start now. I already know you can cooperate, or else the body counts would have been higher.”

“And why would we want to stop this? Granted I don’t like men like you dying but it keeps me rich, and it keeps them in power.” Masden spoke up.

“Because if you don’t, I’ll shut you all down. You’ll all be arrested for what you’ve done.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Pyia spat.

“If they can convict my daughter because she refused to fire on an enemy ship, and supposedly having an affair with a human, then what will the courts think of you conspiring with them to kill your own people?” Sen stared at the man, and he cowered. Sen was right, and the man knew it.

I glared at Ligas “Maybe General Schmidt would be interested in seeing why the Major and I met in the first place.”

“And why is that?” Schmidt and Ligas were soldiers through and through forced to play politics by their position. Schmidt was staring at me while still keeping an eye on his adversary.

“I think this is enough for now. I have a code to transmit. You have three hours to talk we’ll meet again then to discuss your options.” I got up from the table and purposely left the pad. They would read over the few documents it contained and find I had compelling evidence.

I found my way back to the room Kheda slept in while we were here together. Her extra clothes were still neatly folded in the footlocker with a bottle of perfume beside it. I ran my hand over one of her shirts before spraying some of her perfume in the air. I sat on the bed and ran my fingers through my hair missing her terribly. Sen leaned on the door frame. “That’s the same scent her mother wore when she was younger. I wouldn’t mistake it anywhere. I didn’t know Kheda wore perfume though.”

“She said she wore it to keep her from feeling too much like a man.” I looked up at him suddenly remembering what he’d said in the meeting room. “Kheda and I weren’t together until we were married. The tape was a forgery.”

“I know. I read her journal, remember? Besides, Ren told me. He seems to like you.”

“I think he feels guilty that Bhet nearly killed me during the purification ritual.” He laughed, and it wasn’t what I expected. I thought of him as a politician and expected a chuckle or half-hearted laugh, but this was a wholehearted belly laugh. Suddenly I felt better.

“Things are going well. They are listening. We will send your message and rest before starting again.” He put his arm around me as we headed back to the ship. There was no trouble this time coming or going. It only took a minute to send out the code and was hardly worth the trip. I longed to speak with Kheda, but I knew I couldn’t. They would decrypt this message hoping to send out their own in my place, but the code was set to change every time. I was sure to leave that at the end of the message as well, so they knew I knew what they were up to. Kheda was special ops, and I’d been around covert missions long enough to know how they worked. General Schmidt found me in the hall before I went into the meeting “Maybe when this is over you’d like a job.” He’d apparently got my message.

“With all due respect, general, I’m done with the army and the government. So you can shove your job.” It didn’t get the reaction I wanted, he was still smiling. I hadn’t heard the end of it. “Well, what’s your decision?” I asked as I came in and sat down again.

“We need more time. We can’t make peace in three hours.” Pyia was playing stupid.

I played along. “I’m not asking you to. I want you to agree it’s possible.” They all agreed. “Good, you have 24 hours to announce the location and date of the negotiations to the public.”

“But we can’t do that. We don’t have the authority.” Pyia was weaseling again.

“You were asked here for a reason. You’re the president’s right hand; he can’t shit without you. Make it happen Pyia, or I expose all of you.” They all stared at Pyia.

“We want all of your copies of these documents Lieutenant.” Ms. Davis demanded.

“You will as soon as I have a signed peace treaty. For now, I can give you one full copy a piece.”

“There’s more?” She countered.

“Much more to that matter plus a file on each of you for good measure.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Generals, I trust you’ve both been thinking of good stories to clear my wife’s and my name.”

“It won’t be easy,” Ligas replied. He was right about that. The Kelsairans made a mess out of the whole situation.

“No, but our discharges should be.”