The Taken and the Free: The Kyrennei Series, #3

By Arie Farnam

What if the price of freedom is too high?

Aranka Miko has been captured by the Addin agent known as Bradley who is obsessed with subduing her will. Because they can´t control her, Aranka faces death at the hands of the Addin, which is the real power in today's world.

Rick and Jace of J. Company dive into the the intrigues of Addin-controlled political and social elites in a desperate attempt to rescue Aranka. Not only has she become the symbol of the underground resistance against Addin oppression, she is also their friend and the beloved of Rick's brother Kenyen. But what chance do even two hardened fighters have against a power that controls the largest governments, militaries and corporations on earth? Their only attainable goal may be to help her die before Addin leaders give Bradley free rein to torture her.

The question is unavoidable. Can the Kyrennei be broken to the will of the Addin? Unlike humans, Aranka can resist the Addin, but at what cost? Much more is at stake than the life of one girl. Yet to Kenyen her life is all that truly matters. And when that is lost, what is left to fight for?

The Taken and the Free is Book 3 of The Kyrennei Series and the final book in the initial trilogy. The books are meant to be read in order. For earlier parts of the story see The Soul and the Seed (Book 1) and The Fear and the Solace (Book 2).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arie Farnam
• Release date: Nov 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9788090592759

Book preview

The Taken and the Free

Arie Farnam

What if the price of freedom is too high?

Chapter 1: Rick

Stephen O’Clery was on guard duty at around eleven in the morning when his wife, Bridget, drove up to the gatehouse through a fine mist of rain. Her face was a bit pale and he did wonder why she was there, driving an unknown and very expensive Mercedes with several men in tailored suits in the back, but it had been that kind of day.

Something big was happening at the International Meikan Council and O’Clery was the type who knew not to ask too many nosy questions. Sometimes it was safer not to know. Bridget worked for the Council and sometimes her duties did include driving visitors around. Besides, she showed him the sign.

I know all this because I interviewed both of them in-depth later. I couldn’t help but get the details, the way a journalist would, even though the purpose of the interview had nothing to do with journalism. Pretending to be a journalist was just about the only way that I could talk to them without either hitting someone or screaming.

Stephen was well-built with round-apple cheeks and thick brown eyebrows. Bridget had a pleasant, honest-looking face, curly dark-brown hair and eyes the color of the weeping Irish sky.

They didn’t look like traitors. And neither of them was under the control of the Addin. They could prove it with the Meikan sign.

That made the fact that they betrayed Aranka all the more chilling. Jace had always said that we relied too much on the sign and that it was no guarantee. A Meikan could be tricked, threatened or blackmailed, just like anyone else.

I try not to judge others. I have done some pretty awful things in the name of the cause and those two didn’t know who they were betraying or what the consequences would be.

Addin agents had kidnapped Bridget and their three children. They apparently kept tabs on the families of Council security guards as well as those of the Councilors. They had told Bridget that her younger two children would disappear and her older teen would be forcibly taken under Addin control, if she didn’t cooperate. They had also assured her that their attack wouldn’t harm the Council in any way but only punish outlaws.

They had then directed her to drive them through the gate, giving the sign to her husband to clear the caravan of cars behind her. Once inside, she had walked across the parking lot, called Stephen away from the two other guards on duty and told him what was being held over their heads. He had at first wanted to rebel against the Addin order to remain silent, but Bridget had begged him not to condemn their children.

These two were peaceable, law-abiding Meikans, who believed that outlaws were reckless, selfish people who endangered Meikan communities. And, in essence, the Addin hadn’t lied to them. We were outlaws. I suppose in some twisted reckoning, even Aranka was. The O’Clery children were later released, that being a lesson for other Meikans, I assume. Obedience pays.

The result was that it was too late by the time the trouble became visible to Jace and me. When Aranka and the others went into the Council that morning, we positioned ourselves outside the parking lot on the assumption that the most likely threat scenario would be that the Addin would attack when the Audi exited from the only gate to the Council parking lot. We hadn’t counted on them breaking the treaty by taking their attack onto the Council premises or taking over the gatehouse. That underestimation had a devastating cost.

Jace was on foot, across the major four-lane street from the gate, and I was positioned in our Volkswagen rental in a small street where I could see the steps to the Council Hall from a distance.

Aranka, Thanh, Cho and Jim went in around eight thirty. I had no idea how long it would take for Aranka to try to convince the Council to throw out their treaty with the Addin and join our fight. At a quarter past eleven, I saw Dirk moving the Audi back to the front steps. Jace had received the message saying that our team had been denied security assistance and would be coming out of the main doors. I hadn’t yet, but I could guess what the movement meant.

A few minutes later, I could see the tiny figures of Thanh’s team with Aranka in the center emerge from the building and start down the stairs. They were about halfway down when the flashbang went off, causing dim spots in my vision, even at that distance.

I grabbed my gun from under the towel that covered it on the passenger’s seat. I watched Thanh leap to protect Aranka and they all went down as their inner ears reeled from the shock of the grenade.

I leapt out of the car, meaning to do something... probably charge in and take down as many of them with me as I could. But smoke from secondary grenades quickly obscured the scene and Jace was racing around the corner toward me, pointing demonstratively back at the rental car. His face was bleaker than I had ever seen it. He slammed into the back door on the passenger side, wrenching it open and jumping into the back seat.

Drive! he barked. All you can do going in there is get yourself killed.

Damn it, Jace! I yelled back. How many times have you watched your team die?

Enough times to know what I can and cannot do, he said, his voice frosty with control. What we can at least attempt to do is to stop them when they try to drive Aranka away.

I jerked the car forward and swung dangerously into the confused traffic on the main road. Several cars probably driven by uninvolved civilians had stopped at crazy angles, half pulled off the street in response to the blast, the smoke and a single burst of shots from the parking lot. That slowed us, so that I could just see the silver Mercedes emerge from the gate as we approached.

I pulled our Volkswagen up on the right side and veered sharply, trying to smash the back corner of the heavier vehicle enough to cause the driver to lose control. My first attempt merely jarred us but there was still traffic going both ways on the street, making it difficult for the Mercedes to take on speed.

I swerved and came at them again, and this time the car skidded and stopped at an angle to ours. Jace had the back window down and he fired several rounds at their front passenger’s side. His rounds made only spider-webbed pockmarks in the armored glass.

Shots came from behind us, smashing our back windshield, as the Mercedes in front of us lurched into motion again.

I tried not to think about the stakes, not to imagine Aranka’s terror, not to feel my brother’s anguish. That wouldn’t help but only make my actions less precise.

I forced the rental to move again but before I could hope to catch the armored Mercedes, a large SUV turned from oncoming traffic to block us. I slammed on the brakes and someone fired at us from that vehicle. Both Jace and I ducked as the windshield shattered and more rounds hit the front of our car. Then the SUV pulled away again. A few more shots sprayed glass from the side across us as another vehicle that sounded like a Mercedes passed.

Are you hurt? Jace asked, when they were gone. By a miracle, neither of us was. Given what we had lost, I could have wished to die fighting.

We struggled out of the wrecked rental and ran the single block back to the Council parking lot as the sounds of police sirens swelled toward us through the city streets. Jace’s supposition turned out to be correct. They had abducted only Aranka. The others were still there, half-stunned and paralyzed with grief.

Conway! Jace shouted, running ahead. Are they free?

The answer came back in the affirmative. I could scarcely believe they hadn’t taken any of our J. Company people but apparently, as Jim explained later, they had claimed to be following the treaty, leaving Meikans alone. In reality, it appeared to be a kind of cat and mouse game, a tactic to demoralize the Meikans and keep them compliant with the treaty by demonstrating that they were utterly powerless.

I am so sorry, I heard the Councilor call to Jace but I turned my attention to scanning the parking lot for any further threats.

I found two Council security guards cowering in the gatehouse and a man and woman crumpled on the pavement outside. The couple was later revealed to be Stephan and Bridget O’Clery, who had been instrumental in allowing the Addin through the gate. They were already devastated by the consequences of what they had done.

Within seconds, Jace had loaded Thanh and the others into the Audi - by what appeared to be sheer force of will - and had taken the wheel himself. I leapt into the open side door, as he slowed at the gate, and we barely made it out of there ahead of the Irish police, whose late response naturally turned out to be a result of Addin influence and a decoy operation on the other side of town.

Our team was shocked and distraught by the attack but Thanh was in particular. He sat, silently shaking with rage, his head sunk into his hands. He had once been a cheerful and emotionally understated member of the team. But now he had lost both Kim and Aranka in a very physical way, and he had been shaken to the core by what he saw as a complete betrayal by the Council security guards.

Jace was as hard and cold as a pillar of stone, while he drove. As he settled into traffic on the motorway, he spoke in a carefully measured tone, J. Company, listen. We lost. We underestimated them and we lost. Rick and I will go undercover and maybe somehow we can help Aranka. It’s a long shot but we’ll try it. The rest of you must stand strong. If there has ever been a time when I might not come back, it’s now. You must go back to Canada and protect those we left there, find new hideouts, split the groups up, use the Kyrennei for encrypted communication. And please hold onto Kenyen.

He coughed and then continued. He may well try to throw himself in after us but we can’t let him do that. He won’t be in any state to go undercover, even if he wasn’t already known to them. Thanh, I’m giving you command of Kenyen’s team for the time being. He won’t be in any shape to lead a team either.

Thanh didn’t answer for several minutes. How are we supposed to keep Kenyen from going off on his own? he asked then, pulling his head up with effort.

We send you back immediately, Jace said, before news of this has time to reach our base through Meikan networks.

I realized then that we were indeed heading out of the city toward the private airfield where the plane was kept in a hangar.

When we arrived, Jace had a protracted argument with the officials at the airfield, but eventually, after a number of phone calls, he secured permission for the plane to leave carrying Thanh, Cho, Jim and Dirk. While Jace argued and Jim was on the phone, I sat with the others.

I felt numb. I had not truly thought about what this would mean. I couldn’t think beyond the image of Aranka in the hands of those bastards. My mind shied away from the thought and I never could get to the implications for our struggle.

Thanh was motionless and less intense now, having simmered down from his boiling fury.

When it seemed that they would have to leave soon, I put a hand out to him and spoke, There is the one thing, Thanh. They won’t kill her quickly. We may be able to do something. I don’t know what Jace has planned but... well, there is some little time.

He sucked in a breath with a whimper. I understood his sentiment. What they would be doing to her...

Please, tell Kenyen... I couldn’t think what could possibly help. Tell him, we’ll do everything we can.

My words were horrendously inadequate.

She told me what to tell him, Thanh said through his teeth. If that doesn’t hold him, nothing will.

Once they were gone, Jace drove back toward the city but soon he stopped at a luxury hotel off the freeway and began the process of transforming into Brandon Parker, the second-tier Addin leader who he had secretly killed and whose identity he had stolen. Fortunately, I didn’t need much beyond different clothing and a drastic haircut.

Parker had a fair amount of money and people to manage it so that it earned more money, thus financing his supposed activities. Jace had been careful to avoid the temptation to siphon those funds off for J. Company use. Parker’s identity was one of his most powerful cards to play, in many ways as crucial as Aranka herself.

So, now we used a tiny fraction of those funds to purchase new phones, new weapons, new computers, new cars and new suits that had to be tailor-fitted. Brandon Parker was going to suddenly develop a keen interest in Travis Bradley’s little obsession and work his networks for a seat close to the action.

By the early evening, we were physically ready to take the plunge, but instead Jace sat down on the couch with some old invoices and a pen in his hands.

Sit down, Sam, he said, using his shortened version of the undercover name I was to adopt. I’d like you to draw me a diagram of the Addin hierarchy, as our lives will probably depend on how well you understand how it works.

I sat and took the pen and one of the papers from him, turning it to its blank side and beginning the sketch. I’d heard Jace describe it enough times.

There were individual leaders at the top, quite a lot of them in fact, at least several dozen. Some were more powerful than others, but none held ultimate sway over the others at that level. I put boxes across the top of the paper to show these powerful leaders and under each of these a ring of his primary associates, the second-tier leaders like Parker, and from each of the associates a line leading to another ring of lower associates and so forth.

Fine, Jace said abruptly. But what about that top layer? How are they structured? Who holds sway and how? How are decisions made?

I stopped and reached for another paper. This I was less clear about.

I knew that some of the Addin leaders had long-term or short-term alliances, even friends perhaps, among the other leaders. The shifting of those alliances, along with the tides of international finance and the abilities of underlings to control strategically placed individuals, dictated the power of any given Addin leader and that level of power fluctuated over time.

Parker’s own leader, Edward Krieger, had become very weak in recent years due to health problems and was rarely seen socially. This was crucial to Jace’s survival, as Krieger was probably the only one who would know instantly that Jace was not only not Parker but not joined to the Addin at all. It would take his physical presence for Krieger to tell, however, and Jace in Parker’s guise acted as a very loyal supporter from a distance and had thus never had to test the issue.

The real problems would arise if Krieger died, as Jace was not precisely sure what would happen to those under Krieger’s patronage at that point but he had observed that sometimes, when a top leader died, one of his second-tier associates would take his place, by taking control of the other associates. As such, a battle of Addin-style control might well ensue, which Jace could never win.

I tried to refocus on the task at hand.

You’ve said that it is somewhat akin to political parties, I hedged. Krieger’s cronies are generally those who support the Republican Party in the US, whereas Morrison and Bloom are part of a group who usually support the Democrats.

Jace took the second blank paper back from me and thought a moment. While the Addin seems to be very hierarchical, it is different at the top level. You actually need to think less hierarchically, which is ironic, I know, he mused. Look at this.

He drew a bunch of boxes all over the paper and then started connecting them, mainly in circles of boxes close to one another but with lines connecting some boxes in one circle to a box or two or three in another circle until it was a tangle with the circles only a vague structural theme.

This is a very simplistic model with far fewer connections and individuals than you have in the real Addin elite. The circles are like the groups you are talking about. Yes, some leaders form alliances that stick for a while. The American two-party political system has been influenced by some alliances that have remained pretty stable for a long time, so that’s where those parties come in. But individuals can move back and forth and often do. Which party is in charge of uninvolved life in the United States is nearly irrelevant within the Addin, although it has some short-term political advantages.

He wrote in the names I had mentioned, plus a few more in various places on his map. So, yes, at this point Morrison and Bloom are currently in one alliance, which has US political interests, significant British and Canadian interests, and some interests in Continental Europe and some other areas. That is one of the reasons we keep running into Morrison’s hunter Bradley, although he is actually a tier removed, because a scoundrel who Kenyen ran into by the name of Cedars is directly in association with Morrison. That puts Bradley and you on a similar social tier and, for that reason, you might run into him more than I will. I’m sure I don’t need to mention that you will keep your impulses in his direction under control.

It was a weak attempt at humor and neither of us smiled.

So, that is the faction that has Aranka? I asked.

So it appears, Jace said.

But we’re not in that faction?

Not exactly, Jace said. As you already noted, Krieger’s cohorts underwrite a different political party in uninvolved life in the US. But in reality those two factions are both quite large and significantly interconnected. They compete to some degree but they also work together to maintain a strong, almost dominant, position in the Addin structure. There are other strong factions, primarily those based in other parts of the world. Krieger’s faction currently has strong support and interests in the Middle East and some in Eastern Europe.

So, if we run into Bradley and those people, we are supposed to be friends? I asked.

More or less, Jace replied. Competitive friends. Manipulative friends, who might well undermine each other for some advantage.

Have you ever tried to use all this divisiveness to sow some trouble within the Addin? I wondered.

He chuckled humorlessly. If only it were that simple, he said. There are minor things that Addin leaders disagree about but they agree completely on the most important things. They’re almost never truly at one another’s throats. They may send armies against one another’s armies at times, but they do it with little more compunction than you might spend money on a whim. They jostle for advantage, but that’s about it. The basic motivations that drive the Addin are always there and that is what controls the leaders.

I’ve heard the philosophical debate before, I agreed. What came first the chicken of the Addin itself or the eggs of the leaders?

True enough, Jace said with a grimace. And we don’t have time to even think about it now because we have a cocktail party to attend.

With that, we set out for one of the private clubs that higher-level Addin frequent in major international cities. A valet took our car and parked it, while I followed Jace inside, watching as he slipped into his role, greeting men in expensive gray suits, who he obviously knew, in such a relaxed and confident manner that I could not imagine anyone suspecting him.

Now what do you suppose a Krieger man is in town for? one of the fellows in a clump near the door chortled, clapping Jace on the shoulder.

Jace laughed easily with the man’s cohorts and replied, The same as you. I hear Morrison has got the thing zipped up but there will be crumbs left for the rest of us.

Ha, more than crumbs, an older man with an odd-looking gold watch set with what looked like diamonds said dryly. They’re promising some prime entertainment for those who can get seats.

Jace grinned broadly and moved off deeper into the club, which was decorated in a sleek metallic style and filled mostly with men but also with a few women, all dressed in the attire of international business and finance elites. My job was to stay reasonably close to Jace, look attentive, watch the fringes of the room, mingle a bit with the hangers-on and keep an eye out for Bradley or his direct superior Cedars. I had seen a picture of Cedars, but never met him in person.

As a person only one rung down from the top leadership, Jace, in Parker’s guise, outranked all but about twenty of those present at that first gathering. There were only three of the top leaders at the club that night - Morrison himself, his even more powerful ally Marti Bloom and another from Continental Europe, who had apparently been in town only coincidentally.

The mood of the gathering was distinctly celebratory, with laughter and even the more exuberant giving one another high-fives. The perfection of their endless smiles with even rows of gleaming white teeth felt distinctly eerie.

It soon became clear that everyone knew what had happened. Crude jokes about the Meikans, their Council security and Aranka herself abounded. The Addin never had reason to feel less than powerful but tonight they were drunk on the success of nailing one of the few potential threats that had ever disturbed them in any way.

I was able to glean from overheard conversations that she was still alive. There was a lot of speculation about what exactly Morrison’s people, who did have custody of her, were planning.

Do you think they’ve got any real chance to break the bitch’s Kyri resistance? I heard one of the lower-level fellows with a slight Irish accent ask his companion on the edge of a clump where Jace was mingling.

If Bradley can’t do it, no one can, his buddy, who wore a well-fitted pinstripe suit, replied with a more English sound and a smile that sent a chill down my spine. He has made a study of forced accessions, but he hasn’t had much success so far in the labs. They’ll make an effort because this one is a bit special, but I heard that they aren’t going to give it that much time, a week or two maybe. That bitch got away from them before in the States and they don’t want to take any chances. They don’t like to talk about it, but they have practically got a real rebellion going on over there across the pond. They’ve lost at least a couple of dozen Kyris to that McCoy outfit already and it all started with this chick.

They’re saying Morrison wants to make a show out of it, one of the handful of women present put in from the other side of the little circle I was standing in. If they could get her to accede in front of witnesses, they would be high on the hog then, and if they can’t, well, they’ll have some satisfied friends.

You’re with Krieger’s fellow Parker, aren’t you? the Irish one said, turning to me without warning.

Yeah, I said, pretending to be only marginally interested. Samir Bata. I put out a hand. I felt sick to my stomach but my mask of indifference was firmly in place.

I forced myself not to think of the girl who they were so crudely discussing. She would be imprisoned in a back room somewhere perhaps not that far away, probably already hurt and certainly terrified beyond imagining. I couldn’t think of that.

Burk, he introduced himself with a quick grip. You guys are going to get drubbed politically, if they succeed fully, won’t you? At least, on that side of the pond.

We’ll see, I shrugged. That’s if they can get anything out of her though.

I hear they may let Krieger’s people in on a bit of the action because you guys know how to play the fence in US politics, the Englishman said. I may see you in London next week, if that’s the case.

Yeah, is that where they’re taking the Kyri? I asked, forcing my mouth to form the Addin’s insulting slang for the Kyrennei.

That’s the idea, he replied. There’s a facility there that is equipped for everything, but it’s solidly Redmond Group turf. Morrison will be able to hand out invitations as he pleases.

After that the conversation drifted back to sports and then to stocks. I’d been undercover at such events with Jace before, both in the US and in the Middle East. I could hold my own in general conversation and I continued to circulate, moving naturally to stay within sight of Jace.

The impression I got from other conversations about Aranka confirmed that first one. The lower-level leaders at this gathering were concerned that Morrison would somehow use Aranka’s capture for political advantage.

If he could coerce her into joining the Addin, his people would then be able to use her to identify Kyrennei and Meikans, to secure areas that they controlled and even as a strategic advantage over other Addin factions. If he couldn’t, there were still advantages to be had, and everyone was jockeying for position to get what they could out of the new developments and avoid being weakened in their relative standing.

Only one other thing stuck out to me, as I casually ran my eyes over the edges of the room. Near a table laden with drinks and hors d’oeuvres at the back, I finally saw Cedars, talking to a middle-aged woman in a fashionable beige skirt and jacket and two very