Dark Matters - Michelle Diener Page 0,100

a grip on Lucy's arm, and pulled her forward, so she was standing alone with Dimitara out in what felt like the open, encircled by the small crowd that had accompanied them into the comms room.

She shifted uncomfortably.

The councilor visibly gaped.

“What do you say to this, Ulain?” His gaze went directly to the Tecran seated beside him.

The Tecran stood, eyes wide, opened her mouth, but nothing emerged.

“That is not all,” Dimitara said. “The Tecran military hatched a plot to disrupt our takeover of their systems when we arrived, engineered a riot, and then two of their Levron attacked Bane, the Class 5 who accompanied us.”

The shout that went up in the chamber as soon as she stopped speaking was not unlike the shout when Cynoa had accused Lucy of lying, and Dimitara simply turned down the sound to wait it out.

“What about the other three Levron?” The Tecran councilor looked sick.

“Two were sent to patrol your space boundaries. I don't know the whereabouts of the third one.” Dray stepped forward to answer.

“We're unsure if it was put in reserve to prevent damage, so they had a least one fully operational battleship nearby, or whether the captain of that Levron refused to go along with the plan to attack the United Council, and so has put the ship out of range.” Cossi stepped up beside Dray.

“What do you say, Chep?” The Fitalian councilor rose as well, and the Fitalian who flanked Dray stepped forward with a low, elegant bow.

“Everything spoken is correct. Some I've witnessed with my own eyes. We may still have a problem with the third ship, but there is nowhere for it to go, no ally for it to turn to.” He glanced at the Garmman ambassador, Cynoa. “That we know of.”

The glance did not go unnoticed.

“Do you wish to accuse me of something?” Cynoa's voice was cold.

Lucy had noticed Dimitara stiffen and go very still while Chep had been talking, her head down, looking at the floor, as if she was being briefed and needed to cut out all other distractions, but when Cynoa issued his challenge, she raised her head, and Lucy could see fire in her eyes.

“You have kept very much to yourselves since our arrival, Ambassador Cynoa. Not a single member of your team assisted in trying to get the protests in Fa'allen under control. We've invited you to help with the decision-making process over and over again, and you have never once attended. It's almost as if you're trying to play it both ways. Fence straddling will only get you a sore ass.” Dimitara's every word was spoken clearly and in a carrying tone.

There were snorts of laughter, of disbelief, at that, and even Lucy found herself fighting a smile.

“I object--” Cynoa's eyes narrowed.

“Go ahead. It will be the most strenuous thing you've done since you joined this mission,” Dimitara said.

Everyone in the room was staring at Dimitara as if she'd somehow lost her mind, but there was also no disapproval in anyone's expression, except the councilors visible on the screen.

“Is there a reason you are verbally attacking one of our allies?” The Bukarian councilor asked, his tone sharp.

“Yes.” Dimitara turned to him and the smile she gave told Lucy to never, ever underestimate a Bukarian. Those teeth were for rending.

“Bane has been helping our security team monitor all comms from the Urna, and it turns out that Ambassador Cynoa here has been in clandestine contact with the Tecran military since before we arrived, and that ten minutes ago, some of the Garmman military team tried to release the head of the Tecran military from the holding cell where he was being kept.”

Lucy could tell from the stillness behind her from Dray, Cossi, and Chep that this was stunning news to them.

“You had Tecran Defense Leader, Suu Ulima, in custody?” The Tecran councilor leaned back against her chair in outrage.

“Yes.” Cossi took the question, smiling in the same predatory way as Dimitara. “After he abducted Ambassador Dimitara and tried to torture her into revealing the whereabouts of the Earth woman so that his teams could kill her, I took him down myself.”

The Bukarian head of the United Council leaned against his chair and lifted a hand to his forehead.

“Did the Garmman succeed in freeing Ulima?” Dray asked.

“No.” Dimitara gave Cynoa a side-long glance. “Given how poorly they'd integrated into the rest of the teams, no one trusted the Garmman enough, and before they released Ulima they sought confirmation. Surprisingly, the Garmman involved took