That piqued Nolan’s interest, but he filed it away for later examination. Right now, he had to focus on the thing that mattered most: uncovering the truth about Bex’s involvement in the armory raid.
“You say you didn’t break into any armory, and yet, what do you have to say about that?” Nolan thrust a finger at the screen. Taia had kept the video footage playing on a loop, and the image of Bex’s face occupied the entire right-hand side of the screen. “You were caught on camera in the very act, both you and your partner Elden.”
“I don’t know any Elden Goyle!” Exasperation and frustration echoed in Bex’s words. She threw up her hands. “Yes, I can see my damned face right there on that screen, but I’ve never seen that guy in my life, and I didn’t break into any fucking armory!”
“Next you’re going to tell me you’re not planning on selling the guns to the SST.”
Nolan watched her reaction closely. Sic Semper Tyrannis was a terrorist outfit that sought to claim liberation from the Nyzarian Empire by any means necessary, no matter how violent or ruthless. Agent Styver’s dossier contained only a tenuous connection between her and the SST. Her partner in crime, Elden, had gone for drinks a few weeks before the heist with a former IAF comrade known to have links to the organization. That didn’t stop the Protection Bureau from suspecting her. And for someone with her Silverguard training and service record, taking her out, even preemptively, was definitely the way of things with people like Agent Styver.
Anger darkened Bex’s face, and her voice grew stronger, rising to a shout. “Look at me, Nolan. Look at what I did. Just like you.” She held up her arm, showing the dagger of the Silverguard tattooed onto the underside of her forearm. “I spoke the same oaths of the Silverguard creed you did: to serve as a guardian to the citizens of the Nyzarian Empire, to defend those unable to defend themselves. I could waste my breath swearing by whatever you wanted me to that I didn’t do it, but it’s not about me. It’s about you and what you believe.”
She leaned forward on the couch, her eyes flashing. “If you think I’m capable of doing the kind of thing I’m accused of, then pull that trigger and put two in my brain. But I am telling you that there is no way I would do something as monumentally fucked up as that damned video makes it look like I did! That would be a betrayal of everything we stood for.”
The woman’s tirade ended, but she held Nolan’s gaze unflinchingly. Her chest heaved with the passion of her fury, her pale face had flushed to a deep red, and her eyes blazed with that same stubborn, defiant anger Nolan had seen when he told her that going through the Heavy Detox protocol might kill her.
“Taia, what do your biometrics say?” Nolan asked silently.
“Autonomic reactions, respiration rate, blood pressure, heart rate, and muscular movement are all consistent with anger,” the AI chirped in the earpiece implanted in Nolan’s inner ear. “She wasn’t lying when she said she had no idea who Elden was.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that when she called him Goyle instead of Croyle.” Nolan never took his eyes off Bex. The woman looked ready to fight, fists clenched, eyes darting, the muscles of her legs, shoulders, and neck coiled to strike. That was the sort of response he’d expect from someone in her position and with her training. Nothing about her made him truly believe that she was the traitor or suspected terrorist Agent Styver’s dossier claimed she was.
But for all that, he couldn’t ignore the damning footage. A camera had captured her on video, with Elden, breaking into the IAF armory, time-stamped ten days earlier. He couldn’t just ignore the evidence before his eyes.
“And the video?” he asked Taia. “Is it genuine?”
“It is,” Taia replied without hesitation. “There is no doubt that is Bex on the camera.”
Nolan growled a silent curse. He’d been hoping the footage was doctored—it would make things so much simpler if the video had been falsified. But if Taia told him it was real, he had no choice but to believe the AI. She had been programmed to be honest—a stark contrast to most humans he’d met.
And yet, Nolan had to go with his instincts. “Okay.” He switched on the pistol’s safety and lowered the weapon. “I believe you.”
Bex’s eyes went wide again, and she froze, so stunned she could barely croak out, “W-What?”
“Well, scratch that.” Nolan chewed at his lip. “Let’s say I want to believe you.” He gave her a half-grin. “I’d hate to think I was the kind of person capable of harboring a terrorist. You know, being the upstanding citizen I am.” He couldn’t help a private chuckle at that; the man who had shot his way through half of the White Sharks was far from a law-abiding Exodian.
Bex didn’t seem to enjoy his humor. The tension in her body hadn’t faded—she still looked like a razorfang lizard ready to strike—but she made no move to attack, even after he slid the blaster pistol into the holster hanging from his wheelchair. She simply stared at him, caught midway between surprise, suspicion, and hope.
He was about to continue, but Taia’s voice echoed in his earpiece. “Incoming call from Agent Styver.”
Now it was Nolan’s turn to freeze. He’d just spoken to Agent Styver a few hours earlier, when the Protection Bureau man gave him the mission to hunt down and execute both Bex and her supposed partner, Elden Croyle. It seemed impossibly suspicious that Agent Styver was calling him at the very moment when he sat in the same room as one of his two targets. No way that was a coincidence—was it? If the Protection Bureau found out about Bex…
“Don’t move!” He glared at Bex. “Your face isn’t just on my screen. It’s being delivered to every IDF officer in the Nyzarian Empire, along with the order to shoot you on sight for being a terrorist.” It wasn’t quite a lie—as far as he knew, at least. Agent Styver had given him the contract, but Nolan would wager the Protection Bureau would be using all their impressive Imperial power to sort out the mess. He just needed to find out the truth before Bex caught a bullet.
Bex’s jaw muscles tightened, her fists clenching. “I’m no terrorist!”
“No one’s going to give you time to explain your side of things,” Nolan said. “No one outside these walls, at any rate. So sit tight—”
“Agent Styver is still calling for you, Nolan,” Taia said.
“—and when I’m done with this,” he went on, unfazed, “you and I are going to have a chat, figure all this out.”
Bex tensed as Nolan moved, but relaxed a fraction when he only grasped the pushrim of his wheelchair.
“I promise that I’ll give you a fair chance to speak, but only if you’re still here when I get back.” He didn’t belabor the point, just turned his chair and wheeled toward the bedroom. If she truly was innocent, there was a good chance she would do what he said. At that moment, with the whole Nyzarian Empire against her, she had to see that he was the only ally she had. And, after enduring the Heavy Detox protocol, she was in no shape to run for her life.
Still, as Nolan wheeled into his bedroom, he said in his mind, “Taia, keep an eye on her.”
“Copy that, boss,” the AI chirped. “Shall I put Agent Styver’s call through now?”