Guilt in Innocece Read online

  There was one other thing waiting for him. He had his suit interface with Ebun—which wascurrently in the dropship bay of L'owuro being repaired by a team of ship's engineers—and found that the computer had survived the explosion and the Eso attack. More to the point, it had finished running the program he'd started.

  Hembadoon then made a beeline for War Chief Tobi's quarters, having his robe computer inform the war chief that he was on his way. If Tobi wasn't in his quarters, he would be there by the time Hembadoon arrived.

  But Tobi wasn't there. Hembadoon waited, debating the efficacy of breaking the privacy seal on his door, then decided that was overstepping his authority.

  A headache started to come on, which meant there was a telepath nearby. Since the only one left, according to the reports he'd read, was Folami...

  Sure enough, he turned to see his former prize pupil. To his utter shock, she was talking and laughing with a cavalry chief—a pilot, based on his haircut. Talking he could see, but in all his time as a Orisha, he had never seen an Ori-Inu interact with a flatbrain in so friendly a manner before. Ori-Inu generally kept to themselves, as only fellow telepaths really understood what they went through. Cavalry had a tendency to be afraid of Ori-Inu and often expressed their fear through hostility.

  Folami looked up as soon as she turned the corner. "Orisha! You're awake!"

  "Yup." Hembadoon stepped forward as if to embrace her, then stopped himself. Of course, Folami had no idea who he was beyond an unconscious body they found on Oshun after she stopped the Eso. "I, uh, I have to meet—uh, meet with War Chief Tobi." He shot a look at the cavalry chief, who was staring only at Folami, which angered Hembadoon more than was probably rational.

  "About the Nide?"

  "Huh?" Hembadoon shook his head. Talking business, he felt on firmer ground. "Uhm, I believe I know where this Olokun Station might be."

  "Good." She sighed. "Because wherever Oranmiyan and the rest of them went, we can't trace them. They can trick anybody using a scanner so they don't see the actual readings, then make them wipe the scans. By the time I was able to get to them, they were gone."

  "They can't do that to you?" the pilot asked.

  "No. At least, not anymore. I broke through it on the surface. Oh!" She looked at the pilot, then Hembadoon. "Sorry, I'm forgetting my manners. Cavalry Chief Adejola, this is Orisha Hembadoon. Adejola's the Eta-shift pilot, and Hembadoon's the Orisha who recruited me."

  That brought Hembadoon up short. "Hold on—you actually remember me?"

  Folami nodded. "Side effect of Shango-oti."

  "Mogbe." Hembadoon wondered if it was better or worse that he didn't embrace her. Remembering the desperation with which Folami had asked for reassurance that she'd be mindwiped when her training ended, not to mention the reason for it, the Orisha added, "I'm sorry, Folami. I know you—"

  "I know," she said quickly, "but there's nothing to be done about it right now. We've got to finish the mission, which means finding out where Oranmiyan and the other Nide went. If you've found Olokun—"

  "I think I have. That's what I need to talk to the war chief about."

  "I'll join you for that, if it's okay," Folami said in a tone that made it clear that it would have to be okay. "The Oba put me in charge of the investigation."

  "Of course." Hembadoon only hadn't requested her presence because he wasn't sure if it was his place to do so.

  "Well," Adejola said, clapping his hands to break the awkward pause that was starting to grow, "I guess dinner's off, then."

  "Yes, Adejola," Folami said, "I'm sorry. I promise to make it up to you."

  And why does this pilot get under my skin so much?

  "Good to meet you, Orisha," Adejola said as he wandered off.

  Hembadoon stared in confusion at Folami, but waited until the pilot was out of earshot before asking, "What's that about? Dinner?"

  Folami shrugged, and smiled shyly, a smile he'd never seen her use before. "He likes me—as me, not as an Ori-Inu or as an object of desire. At least, he was interested in the person I was. Tonight was going to be the first time we talked since I got more of my memories back." The smile fell, and her entire body shuddered. "It's been horrible, Hembadoon. I remember so much…"

  Instinctively, Hembadoon moved to put an arm around her, but before he could do so, a loud voice came from down the corridor.

  "Orisha, I don't appreciate being yanked out of the flight deck by a—"

  Folami interrupted before the Orisha could. "Orisha Hembadoon has some information that may help us to pinpoint the Nide, War Chief."

  "Really?"

  Hembadoon got his first good look at Tobi, and was less than impressed. Mostly his loud voice served to exacerbate the headache that being in Folami's presence gave him. Normally, he'd use the analgesics that his robe could pump right into his blood, but he was already on painkillers prescribed by Modupe. The analgesic wouldn't even register.

  "Yes, really," Hembadoon said.

  Tobi glared at Hembadoon, then at Folami, before finally approaching his cabin door, which slid aside once it registered the war chief's biometrics.

  While the war chief took a seat at his desk, Hembadoon admired the various weapons that decorated the walls. "Impressive collection, War Chief."

  "You a connoisseur of weaponry, Orisha?" Tobi asked, eyebrow raised.

  "Not especially, I'm merely impressed by anyone who can gather that much of the same thing at once. The only items I was ever able to collect in such quantity were empty bottles of wine."

  Now Tobi scowled. "Somehow I'm not surprised." He settled into his seat, arms folded over his barrel chest. "Now, would you mind explaining what's so important it was worth me ending a staff meeting prematurely?"

  Folami smiled. "I thought you hated staff meetings, War Chief."

  Hembadoon found himself smiling as well, and wondered if Folami had always been this irreverent with her military escorts, or if it was the memory of the aristocrat she used to be coming to the fore. Somehow, he couldn't imagine her tweaking, say, War Chief Titilayo like this.

  Turning his scowl on Folami, Tobi said, "That isn't the point. We took a lot of casualties against the Eso, and there's been some rearrangement of personnel. Cleaning up after these Nide has just added to the difficulties."

  Something nagged at Hembadoon in the way Tobi phrased that. "Hang on—casualties against the Eso?"

  "Yes, Orisha," Tobi said in a slow, deliberate tone that one would use with a child, "we faced a battalion of Eso on Oshun. They killed a lot of my best people, including my XO, Cavalry Master Fasina."

  "That's not what I meant," Hembadoon said impatiently. "I know about the Eso. What I'm curious about is that you didn't suffer any casualties at the hands of the Nide—considering that the number of people they killed on Oshun numbered in the hundreds, in addition to a dozen Ori-Inu."

  Folami answered that. "Rufiji only faced one Nide, and I took care of her. The rest escaped before any of us had the chance to do anything."

  "And you couldn't find the ship they were using?" Hembadoon asked.

  "They were blocking us," Tobi said.

  "Wait a minute," Folami said, "don't your people have psi-screens?"

  Tobi was getting testier by the minute. "What is this, a board of inquiry? Of course we have psi-screens, and we used them, but our scanners can't cover everything in orbit. That's what the orbital station's for, but—"

  Folami winced. "But the Nide destroyed that, too."

  "So if you're done crawling up my ass, would you mind telling me this brilliant idea of yours, Orisha, so I can get back to my real duties?"

  Now Folami sounded like every bit the aristocrat she was born to be. "War Chief, this mission is the top priority of this vessel, as dictated to us by the Oba in this very room. This is your real duty."

  "Fine, then let's get on with it."

  Hembadoon watched the two of them stare each other down, wondering what the dynamic actually was here. Every time he t
hought he had a handle on it, he realized it was more complicated. Instinctively, he wanted to take Folami's side, but he wasn't even sure that Tobi was in the wrong in anything he did. Besides, it wasn't unusual for the cavalry support for Ori-Inu to resent their roles—that was why Adejola's being so ridiculously friendly with Folami was so bizarre in the first place.

  Then he shrugged it off. This isn't your problem, and Folami can take care of herself.

  He looked over at her, even more beautiful than she had been back at the academy. She had blossomed as an Ori-Inu.

  Shaking it off, he subvocalized instructions to his robe computer to interface with the projector on Tobi's desk. "When I was looking into Abeje's disappearance, I came across several references to Olokun Station—including one made by her target, Kosoko, before he died in custody right before the refinery explosion. Now—"

  Hembadoon cut himself off when he realized that Tobi was laughing. "You've got to be kidding me. Olokun Station? That's a fairy tale, Orisha. The awful place where bad Ori-Inu are taken to be punished. It's nonsense."

  "And yet, it kept coming up in every investigation made into the missing Ori-Inu, up to and including this one."

  "What, some madman in a cell mentions it and—"

  Folami jumped in. "It's not just Kosoko. Oranmiyan mentioned Olokun, too. He wanted to take me there so his Shango-oti could 'free' me."

  "I'm telling you," Tobi said, "it's a myth, and this is a waste of my time."

  "Not so fast, War Chief," Hembadoon said, calling up a map of the system on Tobi's holograph. Then several red dots appeared at various points. "Each of those dots represents a place where there were mentions of Olokun Station in relation to a disappearing Ori-Inu."

  Tobi raised an eyebrow. "So?"

  Hembadoon could see that Folami had figured it out—or just read it in the Orisha's mind. "What's the order of the sightings?"

  "Funny you should ask." Hembadoon subvocalized an instruction to his computer to draw a line through the various red dots in the order of the date of the reference.

  The result was a more-or-less straight line from one dot to another in sequence.

  "This is a course with no deviations," Hembadoon said. "Olokun Station is mobile."

  Folami couldn't sleep.

  Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the legions of the dead, strewn all across the streets of Kaduna Township.

  But they were all the bodies from Nupe, the people she killed at Olorun's orders in the stadium, the miners she buried alive, and so many more. She remembered every single detail of every single person's mind.

  It was precisely this that she became an Ori-Inu to forget.

  And now so much had come back, thanks to Oranmiyan, someone she had thought was her friend.

  Her memories of her training with Hembadoon had come back as well. Those, at least, she recalled with great fondness. Oranmiyan, Abeje, and Folami had formed a deep bond over many a session.

  Of course she also recalled his death, and the devastation she and Abeje and Hembadoon had felt. Oranmiyan had been older than the other trainees, including Folami, and he had taken on the role of elder statesman, always giving friendly advice and encouragement.

  And always with a smile. That was what was missing from Oranmiyan now. His warm, friendly smile.

  But then, did she really want him to smile when he was responsible for so many deaths?

  Folami stared at the ceiling of her cabin on L'owuro.

  This, she thought as she got up from her bunk, is getting me nowhere.

  Currently, L'owuro was conducting a thorough scan of the entire vicinity of Oshun—starting with Shango, the gas giant Oshun orbited, and moving ever outward, trying to find Olokun Station.

  Unfortunately, that search could take weeks, especially since they had no idea what they were looking for, though Tobi was going on the logical assumption that it was disguised as an asteroid of some sort. Since Yemoja's destruction, there were bits of rock all over the place, so it would make a good disguise.

  It was equally likely that, with the mission on Oshun completed, the Nide had moved on. Tobi had placed the entire area on lockdown, with psi-screen-enhanced techs staffing the scanners that would detect any unauthorized vessel. But Olokun could have slipped out before that net was cast.

  Either way, they were at the most uninteresting part of any mission: waiting.

  Normally, Folami would take advantage of the downtime to sleep. She'd been going strong for days now, with comparatively little rest. And she suspected that once they found Olokun, she would be in for the fight of her life. Oranmiyan trained with her. And, thanks to the haze of Shango-oti and mindwiping, he probably remembered her fighting style with greater clarity than she could. After all, there were still gaps in her memory. She recalled little of her life before Olorun recruited her, nor could she bring to mind what Hembadoon had called her "final exam" when she was officially made an Ori-Inu.

  Closing her eyes just brought up mental images that would not be conducive to sleep.

  During their training, Hembadoon had always said, "Always go in with at least two plans, because in any engagement, you're guaranteed to need both of them."

  Folami's body armor hung next to her bed for easy access. She slept in her underclothing, ready to suit up at a moment's notice. She slipped out of bed and padded over to the commode, where she found a silk bathrobe with the Hegemony Cavalry logo on the pockets, and matching slippers. Though tall for her sex, Folami was apparently shorter than the average cavalry. The standard-issue robe only came down to her calves.

  In fact, the robe was rather tight around the chest, which made Folami wonder who was supposed to have this cabin; it wasn't as though there weren't female cavalry…

  Shrugging, she left her cabin and made a right down the corridor.

  Tobi had called General Quarters, so she didn't encounter anybody in the corridor. Technically, she was violating GQ by doing what she was doing, but technically, she wasn't part of L'owuro's chain of command, so she wasn't obligated to follow Tobi's orders.

  She approached Adejola's door. At her approach, the camera outside the door showed him inside who was on the other side. At a word from him, the door slid aside to reveal that the pilot had begun to change out of his uniform. His chest was bare, and Folami couldn't help but notice the quality of his muscle tone. Then again, she knew he took pride in his workout regimen. Over dinner, he had talked about how he hated being sedentary and that the one thing he disliked about piloting was having to sit around for so long.

  "Uh, hi, Folami. Is something wrong?"

  "Actually, yes," she said honestly. "I can't sleep, and I could use your help."

  Adejola frowned. "Well, you'd be better off seeing the doctor, I can't—"

  "Not medical help—exactly. May I come in?"

  "Uh, sure, sure."

  Folami smiled as he stepped aside to allow her ingress. She couldn't read any specific surface thoughts, though her impression was one of nervousness. He also stared at the V-neck formed by the robe.

  "So how am I supposed to provide this not-really-medical help?" Adejola asked as he walked over to a sideboard where he kept a clear bottle filled with a green liquid.

  Sitting down at the foot of his bunk, Folami said, "I need a distraction. Ever since we got here, the mindwipe they did to me after I was done with my training has been coming undone."

  "I didn't know that was possible."

  Folami nodded. "It's difficult, but not impossible. You can't really eliminate memories without removing brain tissue, and that's too risky. What mindwiping does is block access to those memories."

  "And you've been able to re-access them?" Adejola frowned and held up the bottle. "Drink?"

  "No, thanks." Folami had tried the green liquid—the drink was called a highmaker, though some called it a grenade due to its effect—and had no desire to have it again. Alcohol and telepathy wasn't the best mix in any case.

  Pouring himself a glas
s, Adejola asked, "What do you remember?"

  "Horrible things." Folami shuddered. "Things I want to forget."

  He put a comforting hand on her thigh. "Then forget them. There must be some good memories."

  She looked down at the hand. His concern was genuine, although she could feel that he was still very nervous. Even through the silk, his touch was almost electric. She felt a shiver of desire.

  "I've tried," she said, "but even the good ones lead to bad ones. I think about my parents—but then I think about how they turned me over to a tyrant. I think about my friends growing up—but they're dead. I think about my training, but then I think about Oranmiyan and Abeje—Oranmiyan is ringleading the Nide, and I'm pretty sure Abeje's been recruited by them, too."

  Folami had never had a proper sexual encounter in her life. She'd certainly had plenty of offers, in Nupe, during training, and since becoming an Ori-Inu, but she'd always turned them down. Before her parents simply gave her to Olorun, she was saving herself for the right boy. While servicing the Oyo Empire, such things were not permitted. And during her training, all that mattered was achieving her goal of becoming an Ori-Inu.

  And since then, there were only her missions.

  But now, she felt only desire for this man with his nervous smile, who had been one of only two people who had shown her kindness and not betrayed it later. And seeing him here with his shirt off, she wanted nothing more than to let herself be wrapped in his well-muscled arms.

  And maybe, if she lost herself in his arms, she could forget all those who died at her hands.

  "Oranmiyan once told me that telepathic sex was a thousand times better than it was for flatbrains," she said suddenly.

  Choking on his drink, Adejola managed to swallow and say, "Really?"

  Just as quickly, she put a hand to her mouth. "Oh mogbe—I'm sorry, I can't believe I said that."

  He leaned close to her. She could smell the highmaker on his breath. He whispered, "I'm not sorry."