Chapter Nine
“Don’t take this personally,” she said as they walked home from the police station, “but I think your authorities should have figured out your assailants were Prellim.” She was proud of the progress she’d made in her investigation but not fully satisfied.
Like a grain of sand in her shoe, something about the situation bothered her.
She couldn’t shake the feeling she was missing an important connection.
And the police certainly weren’t helping.
“Why would I take it personally?” he asked.
“I’m an outsider criticizing your government.”
“I happen to agree with you. The police should have caught it. You uncovered more in a week’s time than they did in months.”
“They didn’t act happy to get the evidence we gave them.
The commander had the look of ‘oh shit’ about him.
” After Ruyn had identified the attacker as a Prellim, she’d copied the vids, and they hightailed it to central command of the Luturna Homeland Policing Agency.
The presence of even a single Prellim posed a threat to the entire planet.
The cartel could not be allowed to gain a toehold.
Prellim was the magic word that had gotten them past the desk flunky and in to see the commander who vowed to reopen the case.
“You made them look bad; they’d screwed up,” Ruyn said. “The commander is afraid it’s going to blow back on him, so he will hold somebody, maybe several somebodies, accountable.”
It amounted to too little, too late as far as she was concerned.
While police had responded promptly to the scene, they’d then dropped the ball.
They’d saved his life but put no effort into figuring out who’d tried to end it.
They did not inspire trust. She would pursue her investigation with even more vigor.
Rooting out the Prellims was the government’s problem.
Her focus would be figuring out why they had attacked Ruyn in the first place.
Prellim… A wispy mental connection teased her consciousness again and then disappeared into the recesses of memory. What is it? Dammit! What am I not seeing?
“I don’t agree with what your brother suggested,” she said.
“I don’t agree with a lot of what he says, but what specifically are you referring to?”
“The Prellims’ motivation.” When they’d updated Korsan on what she’d discovered, he’d suggested the purpose of the attack had been to intimidate others and make them afraid to go about their business.
“I concur. I don’t think that’s it, either,” Ruyn said.
“To cause chaos and fear, the attack needs to be public. Everyone would need to know the Prellims were responsible. But they’d hidden their identities.
The authorities didn’t know. Nobody knew.
People aren’t going to be intimidated if they don’t know about it. ”
“Right.” And despite the terror they wreaked across the galaxy, the Prellims didn’t kill indiscriminately. They didn’t hesitate to murder somebody, but they killed for a purpose, to achieve something. So, why Ruyn? What did they have to gain from his death?
“I don’t know why they would want to kill me,” he commented, echoing her thoughts.
She noted how often they were in sync. We’re a good team. Her public boss, private client had become a partner. Normally, she insisted clients stay out of the investigation, but she valued his input.
He was surprisingly pleasant company. She enjoyed their conversations when they walked home from the office; it was her favorite part of the day.
She always felt disappointed when they parted for the evening and disappeared into their apartments.
He didn’t laugh often, but he had a great one—rich, robust, masculine.
His smile, slightly crooked due to his injury, lit up his whole face.
The facial scar added to his rugged handsomeness.
The Prellim…we told the commander about the Prellim… That elusive thought darted out and disappeared. Maddening! She hated not being able to remember, like when she went into the kitchen to get something and then forgot what she wanted. Except this could be a matter of life and death.
“Would it bother you to return to the alley?” she asked. Maybe seeing the area in person would jog her memory. She didn’t know how to get to the location on foot, but if he didn’t feel comfortable going with her, she could manage to find it on her own.
“I can handle it,” he said. “Besides—I have you to protect me.” He grinned.
* * * *
A hundred meters into the alley, he halted. “Right here. This is where it happened. I was headed that way”—he pointed—“and I felt a presence. I turned around, and the guy swung a pipe at my head. I ducked. It grazed my temple.” He rubbed the area over his ear.
“He kept swinging, and I killed him. Then the others—”
She snapped her fingers. “That’s it!” The elusive thought solidified.
“What’s it?”
“The body!” It’s so effing obvious. Duh. “The authorities have the body of the attacker you killed. So they should know if he’s Prellim. Us telling them about the other one should not have come as such a surprise.”
“Unless the attacker I killed isn’t Prellim. He might have been Luturnan. We only know for sure that one of them is.”
“That could be.” She nodded, unconvinced. “Tomorrow, I will find out for sure what species your dead attacker is.”
“I would hate to think he’s Luturnan, but I hope he is. I hate to think one of my fellow citizens would assist the cartel, but it’s better than if the dead attacker is Prellim.”
“Why?”
“If the body is Prellim, then the authorities covered it up, which suggests the cartel might have infiltrated our government.”
“Shit. That would be really bad news.”
But it still didn’t explain why Ruyn had been attacked. She studied his face. “How are you doing? About being here, I mean?” He was the toughest man she’d ever met. If he was stressing out, he’d never show it.
“I’m fine. Besides, there’s safety in numbers. I have two friends with me.”
“Two friends?”
“You, and…” He patted his side.
“You’re armed?”
“Have been since the attack. I don’t leave home without it.”
“How do you get that through security at the office?”
“Same way you do. Special dispensation from on high. Korsan told them to let it through. As far as I know, you, me, and him are the only ones.”
“Korsan is packing?”
“He started carrying after the attack on me. He hasn’t said so, but I think he feared he may have been the target, since he was originally scheduled to speak at the charity event. I was a last-minute substitution.”
But why Korsan? Why either of them? “That’s an interesting angle,” she said. “If he thinks that, why hire a bodyguard for you and not himself? Or both of you?”
“Who’s to say he hasn’t? His admin assistant is new. He started at the company while I was in the hospital.”
Yes, it was possible. The assistant was a very buff young man.
She returned her attention to the alley.
The narrow track cut through an older section of town predating the modern grid system.
Winding among the back side of shops, it presumably had once been used as a service entrance, but most of the businesses had their rear entries closed up now.
An indication of a crime increase? Could it be Luturna had a greater crime problem than authorities would admit?
The few workable doors had ID scanners mounted on them. There were no windows overlooking the alley; no one could have seen the attack even if the businesses had been open at all. At the time Ruyn had gotten to the alley, businesses had closed for the day.
It was still light now; dusk wouldn’t occur for another hour. She peered at rooflines. No security cams here. Solar lights were mounted on rooftops, but did they still work? Did the cells still charge? The alley wouldn’t get much direct sunlight.
With the curvature of the passage, the area wasn’t visible from the street.
She planted her hands on her hips and shook her head.
“I know what you’re thinking. Go ahead. Say it,” he said. “I deserve it.”
“Say what? For a man who professes to be security conscious, you couldn’t have picked a better place to get attacked? I wouldn’t say something like that.”
His lips twitched. “I appreciate your restraint.”
As a general rule, she didn’t believe in taking unnecessary risks. However, if the crime rate was as low as the government claimed, the shortcut should have been safe. Except he’d been targeted, hunted down. If the attack hadn’t occurred in the alley, it would have occurred elsewhere.
It still could. She shivered. Having failed to get their target, would the cartel try again? She had to assume so. “Ready to go?” she asked.
“Ready.”
They moved down the winding alley. Out of sight of the attack zone, she recognized the back of the bar from the vid. Mounted over the door, a tiny, inconspicuous camera spied on the alley. A lucky break for her.
“This is where they vanished,” she said.
“This isn’t far from where they attacked me. They didn’t waste any time, did they?” he said.
“No.” As soon as they’d gotten out of sight, they’d done the disappearing act.
The alley gave her the creeps. Aware the attackers had cloaking devices, she half expected the assailants to pop up at any time. “I’ve seen enough.”