Broken Protocols 1-3 Read online

Instantly, the sound stopped.

  “Levi,” Dani said now that she could be heard, “What’s going on?”

  “Intruders.”

  She gasped, clutching the covers to her chest. “What?”

  Levi bolted out the door, calling behind him, “Grab Charmin and hide in the pod room.”

  He couldn’t stay to make sure she obeyed the orders. Milo was stumbling through the kitchen when he arrived. “Any idea who it is?”

  “No.” Milo yawned but brought up the security system. “I also don’t know if it’s building-wide or just us.”

  “Find out.” Levi headed to the front door and his wall control panel. “The exterior is secure. There’s been no breach anywhere that I can see.” He called out to Milo. “I can’t see what’s triggered the alarm.”

  “Uh, Levi?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Can you come here?”

  Exasperated, Levi gave the panel one final look, but it didn’t have anything new to offer. “Coming.” He bolted to the kitchen. There was no sign of Dani, so he hoped she’d hidden as he instructed.

  In the kitchen, he came to a skittering stop. Milo faced him and so did Dani. Behind them both stood the younger Defino brother, Tommy Defino.

  “What the hell?” Levi approached slowly, his hands partially up. “How did you get in here, Tommy?”

  Tommy glared, his lip curling. “You’re not the only who’s good with technology. The world is full of geeks. Just not so full of guys that can get the job done.” He smiled a too-shiny grin. “Like me.”

  “And what job is that?” He studied the man, looking for some weakness. The asshole was cocky, confident. In fact, he looked too damn confident. This wasn’t the first time he’d broken into someone’s house, even a high-tech one like his. But under that was anger, fear, and maybe a hint…fear…of desperation.

  And that made him dangerous.

  “Besides, you didn’t use technology to get in here. Our scans would have alerted us. So how else?” While he waited for an answer, he studied his brother’s face. Milo kept rolling his eyes to the left. Levi casually checked out Dani’s pinched face then carried on to the counter where Milo was motioning.

  Dani snorted. “When I left the door open earlier. You snuck in then, didn’t you?”

  Damn. That actually made sense. The system had been off while Dani was out rescuing him and Milo. This kid could have snuck in and found a place to hide until he found the perfect time to come out.

  And Tommy nodded and laughed. “You geeks seem to think you’re so damn smart. Sometimes the easiest way is the best way to do something.”

  Milo made a sharp movement with his head. Levi saw the large 3D computer was up and running. The hot spots showed who was where in the building. It took him a moment to realize that Johan’s place was once again occupied.

  “Your brother already died in this building,” Levi said in an even tone. “Are you sure you should be here?”

  Tommy narrowed his gaze. “Like hell he did.” Tommy turned slightly to look at the shut down HoloKomp center behind him as if wanting to call his brother.

  “I saw his body myself. The Combot death squad retrieved him.” Levi realized the guy didn’t know. “I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t believe you. He’s on a job.” Tommy shook his head. “He’ll check in when he can.”

  “Except something went wrong.” Levi would hate to hear news like that from a stranger. “Sorry.”

  “Like hell. Paul is good. Better than anyone I know. You’re just messing with me.” He snorted and waved something around. Levi’s gut clenched. Shit. The guy had a laser gun. With a wave of his hand, he could cut a person in half. Dani wouldn’t have a hope of escaping. She didn’t even know what it was.

  “What do you want?” Levi asked in a cold voice. He smiled at Dani to reassure her, but his mind raced. What the hell was he going to do?

  He took a step forward.

  “Whoa. That’s close enough.”

  Milo made a sharp movement of his head again. Levi glanced over at the monitor screen. He studied the three figures in Johan’s place, then motioned toward the moving images.

  “Those are the ones that killed your brother.”

  “What? Like hell.” Tommy waved the gun around again and grabbed Dani’s arm, pulling her back a step. Dani lost her balance, only righting herself at the last minute when he shoved her forward again.

  “Leave her alone,” Levi snapped, his voice hard. He clenched his fists.

  “Or what?” Tommy sneered. “It’s not like you can do anything. She’s coming with me.”

  “Why?” He needed to keep the asshole answering questions. He had to find out where Dani was being taken, not that he’d let her leave…he just needed an opening.

  “What about me?” Milo asked.

  “I don’t know anything about you. Unless you’re worth something, you get to die along with Levi here.”

  “So you know me, but I don’t know you. Interesting. I presume you took care of Lina?”

  “What do you know about that bitch?”

  “Only that she was a bitch,” Milo said. He’d shifted closer to the monitor.

  “That she was.” Tommy pushed Milo slightly. He fell toward the counter and pushed something on the monitor, a move so slight it was almost unnoticeable.

  Then the balance of power shifted.

  Charmin sauntered into the kitchen. Dani gasped. Levi watched, waiting with a fatalistic attitude, knowing that something was about to give.

  Casually, Charmin hopped up on the counter by the monitor. He started to clean himself.

  Like any ordinary cat.

  “That is one ugly cat.”

  Uh oh.

  Charmin froze. His whiskers quivered. He turned to stare at Tommy. In a low voice, he snarled, “What did you say?

  Levi groaned.

  Dani rushed to talk. “Poor baby, you’ve still got that horrible hoarse voice.” She rounded on Tommy. “How dare you say that about my cat?”

  The poor guy’s jaw worked. He frowned, his shocked gaze going from Dani to Charmin and back again. “Did that cat just talk?”

  “You’re losing it,” Milo laughed. “How can a cat talk? Get too many bangs on the head by any chance?”

  Tommy glared. “Shut the hell up.”

  Behind Milo, a series of weird beeps started.

  “What’s that? What did you do?” He raced to the monitor. Charmin scurried backwards out of the way. Levi looked at him suspiciously. Charmin gave him a bland look back. What the hell had he done?

  Milo studied the computer. Levi caught a grin before he wiped his face clean. So Charmin had done something good.

  “Turn it off,” Tommy snapped. “Hurry up.”

  Milo reached over and tapped in a code. Instantly, the unit silenced.

  Tommy relaxed. “That’s why you shouldn’t have pets around computers. They’ll fry the circuits.”

  “This one is particularly bad.” Milo smiled. Charmin snickered.

  Tommy stared at him suspiciously before switching his gaze to Charmin. “Should throw the damn thing out the window.”

  “You’d do that?” Dani rounded on him. “What kind of a horrible person are you? Animals are innocent. They don’t deserve that type of behavior.” She poked her finger into his chest. “What kind of an asshole are you?”

  “The asshole with the gun, now lay off, lady.” He spun around, his glare angry and frustrated. “What kind of a house is this?”

  “A good one,” Dani said with a sniff and lifted her nose. “Unlike the one you live in.”

  Tommy shook his head. “I don’t know why the boss wants you. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere close to you.”

  She deliberately stepped closer. “Yeah, how about this close?” She took another step. “Or this?”

  “Stand back. I mean it.”

  Levi watched, fascinated, as Dani, her temper up now, shoved her face into Tommy’s. “Why should I? You can’t hur
t me. The boss paid you good money to make sure you don’t. So are you going to go up against the boss?”

  Tommy winced at the thought.

  “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

  Levi wanted to wince, too, because Dani wasn’t thinking. Tommy could just as easily hurt them…or Charmin.

  As if reading Levi’s mind, Tommy swung his arm out wide, bringing the laser gun around to bear on Charmin.

  And Charmin jumped.

  Chapter 13

  Charmin landed on Tommy’s arm. Claws dug in deep. Tommy screamed. And the laser gun went flying.

  Milo jumped for the gun.

  Levi jumped for Tommy.

  Dani jumped for Charmin.

  “Get it off me,” Tommy screamed, dancing backwards half bent over and still shaking his arm. Levi pinned him against the counter, twisting Tommy’s free arm up and behind him.

  “Charmin, let go.” Dani tried to pull Charmin off the man, but he was not interested. “Please, Charmin. You’re going to get hurt.”

  “He’s going to get hurt?” Tommy screamed hysterically. “What about me? I’m the one who’s been attacked.”

  Milo snickered. “Then you shouldn’t have threatened Dani. The cat is very protective of her.”

  “You guys are nuts. Do you hear me? Fucking crazy!” This last bit he delivered at the top of his lungs.

  “Ha,” Dani snapped. “You’re the one that attacked a poor defenseless cat.”

  “What?” Tommy stared at her in shock. “I didn’t attack him. He attacked me. And that makes him anything but defenseless.”

  “Not the point. You insulted him first.” With Charmin safe in her arms, she cuddled him close. “Ignore him, Charmin. He’s just being mean.” Charmin popped his head over her arm to glare at Tommy, and damned if he didn’t stick his tongue out at him. She glared at him. He raised an eyebrow and pulled it back in.

  “Did I just see that? Did you just see that?” Tommy cried. “That cat stuck his tongue out at me.”

  “No. You’re really going to need to lay off those recreational supplements.” Milo laughed. “Natural is fine, but not in the doses you’ve been indulging.”

  “What are you talking about?” Tommy groaned. “You all belong in the nut house.”

  “Right, and you’re the one making crazy talk about a cat,” Levi snarled.

  That shut him up.

  Dani watched from a safe distance as Milo checked Tommy over for weapons and communication devices. When he pulled Tommy’s personal com out of his pocket, he stepped back and started clicking away on it.

  “Hey, that’s mine,” Tommy protested. “Don’t mess anything up.”

  Milo rolled his eyes at him. “He’s got both Lina and John in his address book, and yes, here’s Johan.”

  “So that means nothing. Johan is behind all this bullshit.”

  “Then you’re in big trouble because Johan is dead,” Levi said, his voice icy and hard.

  Tommy froze. “What?”

  “I said, Johan is dead.”

  “That can’t be. No.” Tommy shook his head. “He’s the one who told me to come here and grab Dani. Said she needed tags. And we know what that means. Paul had an argument with him about it when he tried to retrieve the information for the Council. He wouldn’t tell him where it was. Only there was someone else there. He barely escaped that time so he had to go back.”

  “That argument finished Johan. He’d been hurt before. You brother must have given the final blow to his injured body. We were the others in that damn apartment. Your brother escaped from me,” Levi snapped. “And no, I don’t know what needing tags mean – what does it mean?”

  Tommy shook his head, trying to absorb the facts as they flew at him. “It means that she’s not from here.”

  “So, she’s from somewhere else,” Milo said, “What’s the big deal?”

  “They are eradicating the fringe groups. You know that.”

  “No,” Levi corrected. “They are isolating the fringe groups to live in one area where they can’t cause as much trouble.”

  “Talk about naïve.” Tommy snorted. “Look, they just dispatched a large group of them a few months back. When the alert came through on the tagging, they figured she’d escaped. She’d cause them a ton of damage if she spread the word.”

  Dani stared. “Are you saying someone committed mass murder and they think I got away? And now I’m going to blow the whistle on them?” Oh, this was not good. Like so not good.

  “Who did this?” Levi asked in a hard voice.

  But it was Milo who answered. “The Council, of course.”

  And Tommy nodded his head. “They did. And they can’t have anyone know what they did.”

  “Why kill these fringe groups? Were they terrorists?”

  “That’s what the Council will try to convince everyone, but they weren’t. They were people who didn’t want to live under the Council rule. They lived a more natural life.”

  Instantly, Dani felt a connection to them. “Those poor men.”

  “Women and children, too. They were especially clear about making sure the breeding stock was taken out so the problem couldn’t continue.”

  Dani burrowed her face into Charmin’s lush fur. How terrible. Centuries in the future and genocide was still a problem. In her own country, yet. She didn’t know what to say.

  Levi did. “Do you have any proof?”

  “Johan had it. He was trying to make a break from being under their thumb. They blackmailed him into monitoring everyone.” Tommy nodded at Levi and then at Milo. “Like you two. He didn’t want to tell them about Dani here, but they saw the information from his pod, and they found out anyway.”

  *

  Levi hated the ring of truth in Tommy’s words. This explained so much. Tommy no longer looked like a major badass. Instead, he looked like a punk who had made a wrong turn and didn’t know how to make the right one to get the hell out.

  He took a look at Dani. How she was taking this revelation? True to form, she had tears collecting in the corner of her eyes. He just didn’t know why. Fear? Agony for the victims? Something else?

  “That’s a horrible thing to do,” she said in a harsh whisper. “Those people just wanted to live their life their way.”

  Tommy nodded. “I agree. But you’re dead meat regardless. They can’t afford to let you live.”

  That’s when Levi realized that Tommy believed she had escaped the massacre, and if he did – others would too. She was marked. Unless this was solved…and fast…there’d be no end to this hunt. Ever.

  Except they had Johan’s material. He spun around to look at Milo and realized Milo – as usual – was way ahead of him.

  “You realize they killed your brother? They couldn’t leave him alive with what he knew. They’ve already – or someone has – killed Lina, Johan, and your brother.”

  Grief filled the young man’s eyes. “I was hoping you were lying. I haven’t heard from Paul since last night. He was on a retrieval mission at Johan’s.”

  “Retrieving what?”

  “The data Johan had on the Council.”

  It all made such terrible sense. “And what are they going to do with you now that you’ve failed?” Levi asked in a gentle voice. He wondered who had killed Johan. Then again, thugs were easy to find and even easier to hire. It could have been one of many. He doubted Tommy knew.

  Tommy shook his head and said in a gloomy voice, “I’m dead already, the final act just hasn’t happened yet.”

  Milo turned to look at him. “Run. Surely you can find a place to go where you can be safe.”

  Not likely, but Levi waited for Tommy’s answer. “No. There’s no place to run. All the Councils are connected. I could go to the other side of the planet and they’d find me within a day.”

  “Unless we find a way to stop them first.”

  Tommy looked up at Milo, a tiny bright bit of hope in his eyes. “What good would that do? You’re just going to throw me to them a
nyway.”

  “Did you kill anyone?” Dani asked out of the blue.

  “Me? No.” He looked shocked at the suggestion. “I’m good with computers,” he shrugged, “I’ve committed many a break-in though. That will get me off-planet jail for life. And it’s not fair. We were ditched early in life by mum and had to fend for ourselves after. A little hard to do honestly when you’re trying to stay out of the system and have no family to turn to.”

  And that was the biggest issue. No family to take them in and give them a home. Without it, life could be a little grim. Hell, a lot grim.

  Tommy confronted them. “So what are you going to do to me?”

  Chapter 14

  Dani heard the challenge in Tommy’s voice. She carefully placed Charmin on the table with a whispered warning. “Be quiet.” He shot her a hooded look. She wasn’t sure what he meant by that. She wanted to believe he’d be good, but there was no guarantee.

  Ever.

  Not with Charmin. Giving him a stern look, she walked over to Levi and slipped her hand into his. He squeezed her hand and tugged her up close. She murmured, “What can you do, Levi?”

  “I’m working on it,” he said with light humor. “Give me a minute.”

  She watched Tommy shift uneasily. Milo was back at the big computer. Now that Tommy had been disarmed, he’d lost his bravado. Now he just looked sad. Worn out. “How good are you?”

  “At what?” He looked confused.

  She glanced over at Milo, whose face had twisted in thought. “Milo?”

  “I’m thinking.”

  She groaned. “Could you two think a little faster please?”

  “What difference does it make?” Tommy slouched against the back counter. “There is no going back for me.”

  She wanted the brothers to step up and give the kid a break, but she didn’t know enough of how life worked here to make that happen. Maybe the kid was a major badass and needed to be slung out onto some horrific planet all alone. What did she know?

  “Levi, can you help him?”

  He glared down at her. “And why would I want to do that? He broke into my house and tried to kidnap you. Where in any of that does it say he deserves my help?”