In Her Name

“Oh, Lord,” she moaned. “Why her? Why that fucking bitch?”

After a moment, her mind was made up. She had no other choice. Calling up the directory, she quickly found Tanya’s address. It was the same as it had been all those years ago. Glancing at the flow of people behind her, she darted to the rear of a boisterous group of Marines making their way back to one of the local barracks, using them to mask her escape through the nearest exit to the surface level.

* * *

The tiny suburb called Hamilton had changed little over the years. Jodi had last seen it while in her late teens, when she was still in school. She had befriended the daughter of a wealthy family that normally lived in Europe, but that had given their young daughter a cottage here, only a few kilometers from the capitol, where she could live during the school year. It probably would have come as no surprise to her parents to learn that she was seldom alone there. She was brilliant, beautiful, and cloaked by a touch of darkness that Jodi and many others had found irresistible. She was Jodi’s first lover, and without doubt the cruelest.

Sensing Jodi’s need for her affection, her approval, Tanya Buchet had kept her almost as an emotional slave, alternately tormenting her and pleasing her as she might an animal in an experiment. Jodi finally realized the extent of her plight when she found herself holding a blaster to her own skull, having discovered that her first love had been cheating on her. With the cold muzzle of the gun pressing into her temple, Jodi suddenly thought how much better it would be to kill Tanya instead, but she had let it go as only an unpleasant – if gratifying – thought. She had moved out that day, and it was not long after that the Navy whisked her away for what Jodi had hoped would be forever.

But forever hadn’t been as long as she’d hoped. Walking up the steps to the cottage, she saw how well it had been kept up. In fact, except for the growth of the trees and new paint, it had hardly changed at all.

Her spine crawling with dreadful anticipation, she rapped on the door of what had once been an emotional Hell. If there is a God, she thought, please let Him be with me now.

There was no answer, no indication of anything or anyone stirring within. She hesitated, then knocked again, louder this time.

The old wooden door suddenly opened without a sound, swinging back on well-oiled hinges. Startled, Jodi took two steps backward, nearly falling down the steps in surprise.

The woman who stood in the doorway was stunning, clothed in a black dress that was as elegant and beautiful as it was plain. Her long brunette hair framed a flawless ivory face, the hazel eyes appraising, predatory. The smile, when it finally came, exposed perfect teeth behind full, sensuous lips.

“Jodi,” those ruby lips said, exposing the husky voice that had come with womanhood, “how very nice to see you.”

* * *

Now, sitting on the sofa in the small parlor and holding the cup of tea she had been given, spilling half of it in the saucer from her shaking hands, Jodi faced the witch of her adolescent years.

“Believe me, Tanya,” she told the woman, who sat quietly in the chair opposite, her unblinking eyes focused on Jodi’s, “I’m not here because I want to be.”

“Jodi, dear, you didn’t come all this way just to hurt my feelings, did you?” Tanya replied evenly, shifting herself to reveal a little more leg from under her dress.

“No, of course not,” Jodi replied hastily, consciously looking away from Tanya. She would not, could not, let herself be drawn into that spider’s web again. “I didn’t even know you’d still be here. Even now, I can’t believe you are.”

“And why shouldn’t I be? This has been my home. I go to the family estate in Europe sometimes, when I feel like it. But Hamilton and New York serve my purposes adequately. I sometimes board students here who attend our old school.”

Jodi suppressed a shudder at what must happen to the students here.

“Didn’t you ever do your civil or military service time?”

Tanya laughed. “Of course not, dear! Who do you think is going to make the only daughter and surviving member of the Buchet family play soldier in this silly little war? I’m one of the five richest people on this entire planet, probably in the entire Confederation, and have been since just after you ran away. I’m quite content to let you little generals run about and play war games with the Kreelans. My interests lie elsewhere.”

Jodi gritted her teeth, forcing back the response that fought its way to the surface. “That’s obvious enough,” she muttered instead. “What about your parents?” she asked. “What happened to them?”

Tanya waved her hand, dismissing the issue as if her parents had never been of any consequence. “They got themselves killed on a transatlantic flight. I don’t remember the details, really. It’s not important now.” Like a wraith, she uncoiled herself from her chair and came to sit beside Jodi on the sofa, putting her arm across the sofa back behind Jodi’s neck. Jodi could feel her own body reacting instinctively to Tanya’s nearness, sensing her warmth, smelling the alluring scent of her perfume. “What is important,” Tanya whispered, “is you. Tell me, why are you here?”

Downing the last of the bitter tea that she suddenly hoped was not drugged, Jodi set the cup and saucer down on the coffee table and turned to face her nemesis-benefactor. Tanya’s gaze held hers. Her lips were so close…

“I need your help, Tanya,” Jodi told her, forcing out the words while looking Tanya in the eye. She had conjured up the sight of Nicole and Tony being held at gunpoint by the IS, and the anger that uncoiled in her chest gave her the strength she needed to resist Tanya’s magnetic gaze.

“I thought as much,” Tanya said, a smile touching her scarlet lips. “I suppose it’s not every day that I have a chance to speak with someone who conspired to kill the president.”

“That’s total bullshit,” Jodi spat. “Reza Gard did not kill the president and I didn’t help him get out of the hospital. We were both set up: Reza because the real murderer needs a scapegoat and me because I found out something I’m not supposed to know.”

One of Tanya’s eyebrows arched. “Really? And just what might that be?”

“It’s a long story,” Jodi said uncomfortably, suddenly wondering why she had come here. More and more, she felt as if she were in a trap. The words suddenly came to her: Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly…

“Well, dear,” Tanya said, casually examining one of her perfectly manicured blood-red nails, “I have plenty of time.”

Jodi bit her lip. “Please, Tanya. I have nowhere else to turn, no one else to go to. There’s a lot riding on this, a lot more than just my life. There’s something terribly wrong in the Confederation government. I think I know who murdered the president, but it wasn’t Reza Gard.”

“Well,” Tanya said, looking up from her nails to pin Jodi with her gaze, “I’m sure President Borge would be happy to hear about it.”

Jodi felt her black skin go pale as the blood drained from it. “President Borge,” she whispered. She closed her eyes. She was too late. “Dear, sweet Jesus.”

She felt a cool hand against her face. “Jodi,” Tanya asked with what almost sounded like genuine concern in her voice, “are you all right?”

“No,” Jodi choked. “The Confederation’s fucked. We’re all fucked, now that that bastard has gotten what he wanted.”

“Tell me,” Tanya said softly, “why do you say that? Borge has been a friend of our family for many years. I know him quite well.”

Somehow, that did not surprise Jodi. Their personalities seemed to go hand in hand. God, she thought, what do I do? She had no choice but to tell her. “I think Borge had President Nathan murdered, and I think I know who he used as an assassin.” And then she began to tell Tanya about her time at the research center, about Borge and Thorella, and all that she had learned there.

When she finished, Tanya was quiet for a long time, looking out the window at the dawn sky. She was a night person, Jodi remembered, forsaking the light of the sun for the moon and stars. Like a vampire.

When she finally spoke, Jodi almost didn’t recognize her voice: it was wooden, dead.

“I knew Markus Thorella,” Tanya said. “Our parents were very good friends, actually. I had always liked