Chapter Eighteen
“How did it go? What happened? How did he react? What did he say?” Michaela fired off a fusillade of questions. She’d been on pins and needles.
He beckoned for her to follow him into his private office. She grabbed her tech tab; she had news, too, but it could wait until after his update.
The door closed. “My brother is not involved,” Ruyn said.
“He’s not?” Her eyebrows arched, and she tilted her head. “How can you be sure?”
“He told me, and I believe him.”
Just like that? She wished she could have gone with him to hear firsthand.
Ruyn settled into a chair in front of his desk, and she took the one next to it. “I know what you’re going to say,” he said.
“What am I going to say?”
“I shouldn’t be so quick to take his word for it.”
Her lips twitched. “Why are you taking his word for it?”
“When we stand eyeball to eyeball, I can read him, and he wouldn’t lie to me. He appeared genuinely shocked by what I told him, not to mention offended, and hurt that I would accuse him of money laundering.”
“But he believed you when you said something funky was occurring with the company finances?”
“Yes. He’s going to hire an outside forensic auditor to go over everything—and he wants our help.”
“Going over the books?”
He shook his head. “No, he asked me to conduct secret visits to other SIH hotels and other subsidiary sites.”
“That’s reassuring,” she said, feeling better. “But if he’s not involved, who is? The Starlight GM is a likely suspect, but there has to be someone at the holding company level for the scheme to work.”
“That’s the question. It’s one reason why I suggested he hire an outside auditor rather than use the in-house accountant, who is in the perfect position to cook the books. He agreed and intends to have the staff vetted as well.”
“That’s the kind of work I do now—and what I’ll be doing when I open my own agency.”
“I suggested you for the job.”
“You did? That’s so sweet! You’re my first referral!”
“But he wants you to accompany me to the other sites.”
She thought Korsan was remiss not to have her investigate the staff. She was here, and he was already paying for her services. Another poor financial decision. But if that was the way he wanted it, fine. She’d rather accompany Ruyn, anyway. “When do we go?”
“Right after you see the doctor,” he said.
“Soon, then! They’re squeezing me in this afternoon.”
“Good.”
“I have something to show you. Nsia sent me a hologram of the intruder.”
“That was fast.”
“He seems very conscientious—and competent.” Not like the men who investigated the attack on you.
She connected her tech tab to Ruyn’s hologram platform.
“Nsia acquired holograms from multiple street cams and edited them together to track the intruder’s progress down the street.
” She started the holo-vid. “Here, he leaves our building.”
A man in gray and black exited their apartment complex, and, with his hands in his jacket pockets, hurried down the street.
“His head is still down. We can’t see his face.”
“Not yet—wait for it.” She’d already reviewed the hologram, and her nerves jittered with anticipation.
Walking, walking. One block. Two blocks. Nothing useful yet.
“It’s coming…”
A bright purple-plumaged bird swooped out of nowhere and landed on the man’s head. He swatted until it flew away squawking. After adjusting his ski-mask cap, he ducked his head again and continued down the street until he entered a building. The hologram ended.
“I’m going to rewind to just after the bird and freeze the action.” She keyed in the precise second needed to show the man, his face upturned, hat askew, looking directly into the street cam. “And, magnify…” She enlarged the image 50 percent.
Five bumpy nodules outlined his hairline.
Ruyn sucked in a breath. “He’s Prellim.”
“It can’t be a coincidence both of us were attacked by Prellims.”
* * * *
Michaela hadn’t been nervous, at first, convinced the allergic reaction had been a one-off, well, two-off, on an alien planet.
But after relating what had happened to the doctor, transmitting Adanna’s report, getting blood drawn, and being scanned and probed by a med-bot, what-ifs resurfaced.
What if there’s something seriously wrong with me?
She clung to Ruyn’s hand as they waited for the doctor to come deliver the verdict. Since they were dealing with life-threatening anaphylactic shock, the doc had put a rush on the test results.
“It’s going to be okay,” Ruyn said. “I can feel it.”
“Probably.” She tried to stay positive.
“I’m sure of it.”
The door opened, and Dr. Prymr entered. “Sorry for the wait, I had to check on a few things.”
“Is it good news or bad?” For god’s sake, tell me!
“It’s a puzzle. Nothing you ate on Elyxis 4 should have caused you to go into anaphylactic shock.”
“Then what did?”
He spread his hands. “I can only guess—possibly pollens. The planet has been so heavily terraformed, there’s no telling what’s been planted over there or where it came from.
You did say you went to a botanical garden.
You could have had a reaction to pollens or an insect bite.
Whatever it was, it’s not showing up anymore. ”
“I guess that’s good.”
“What is good is that nothing on this planet should cause you a problem.”
“I’m not staying on Luturna for much longer,” she said. “We have a trip planned.”
“When? Where to?” Dr. Prymr asked.
“We haven’t decided yet,” Ruyn answered.
“You might hold off for a day or two. I’m sending your blood sample to a lab at Luturna Medical Center, which has a more advanced analyzer than we do. Our analyzer detected a minute quantity of an unknown trace element in your blood.
“The Luturna Med is a testing hospital allied with Atmos Sphere, an Oberian product development company specializing in medical equipment. Before Atmos Sphere releases a new medical device in the marketplace, Luturna tests it in the field, so to speak. So, they like unusual cases. They’ll be thrilled to get your sample. ”
I’m an unusual case? That didn’t reassure her.
“What do you think it is?” Ruyn asked.
“I don’t know. You are human,” he said to Michaela. “The trace element could be perfectly normal to your species, or it could be a foreign body you acquired on Elyxis 4. It is not something originating from this planet.”
“A foreign body!”
“Don’t be alarmed. I’m not particularly concerned. Chances are, it’s common to humans. You haven’t had any adverse reactions since you got back.”
“That’s correct.”
“I think you’ll be fine. But, if you start showing symptoms, contact my office at the very first sign. Besides halting the histamine reaction and preventing anaphylactic shock, I would want to draw blood for testing immediately.”
“Hopefully, that won’t be necessary,” she said. “When will you get results from the other medical facility?”
“Possibly by tomorrow morning. When I know something, I’ll let you know.”
* * * *
“Are you okay?” Ruyn asked as they left the clinic. “How are you feeling?”
“A bit unsettled. I hoped for something definitive, a concrete you’re fine.”
“It was good news overall. He said you’re probably fine. He’s not concerned. He’s doing his due diligence. It’s better to have an overly conscientious doctor than an incurious one.”
“True.”
“And he said you can eat whatever you want here.”
“Dr. Adanna said the same thing about the food at the Starlight,” she pointed out.
“But food isn’t the culprit. Two doctors have said it’s not a food allergy.”
“Right.” She brightened. One doctor’s opinion could be questioned; two were much more credible.
“And it never happened the whole time you’ve been on Luturna or on the other planets you went to on other GAL Friday assignments,” he reminded her.
“No, it didn’t.” Ruyn was saying all the right things to make her feel better. “What should we do about our assignment?”
“We should get the definitive test results tomorrow, so why don’t we make the travel arrangements for the day after or as soon thereafter as we can book a space flight.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “Have you thought about where we should go?”
“I’d like to start at Electro Magnetic Pulse.”
“That’s a place?” she guessed.
“It’s a nightclub at Apogee, a city on a manmade satellite a ninety-minute flight from here.
Electro Magnetic Pulse is owned by Empco, another subsidiary.
Empco operates nightclubs on space stations and lunar and planetary outposts.
Apogee has about 20,000 residents, and EMP is the only nightclub.
So, EMP has a captive clientele and does a brisk business. They are doing very well.”
“Too well?” she guessed.
“That’s the impression I got when I reviewed their financials. Unless everyone who sets foot in the place drinks themselves unconscious, they shouldn’t be doing as well as they are.”
“Maybe they draw a lot of outside business. Maybe it’s a hot alien hangout.”
“That’s what we need to check out. I need to quantify how many outsiders and alien off-worlders versus locals frequent the place.”
“How long will we be there?”
“Several days at least, possibly a week. I hope you like flashing lights and electronic music.”
“Is there any other kind?” Almost all music was generated by computer. “I’m game.”
His gaze heated. “I’m glad you’re going with me.”
“I can’t think of anyplace I’d rather be.” She slipped her hand into his, and he raised it to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
“The nightclub only operates in the evening, so we’ll have time for sightseeing during the day.”
“As long as we don’t go to any botanical gardens.” Until she had a definitive answer of what she was allergic to, she’d avoid alien flora.
“I don’t think Apogee even has a park. The nightclub is pretty much its main attraction. I’m certain we’ll exhaust things to do long before we leave,” he said.
“Well, then, I’ll just have to exhaust you.”
“You think you can?” A grin spread over his face. “I dare you to try. I have great staying power.”
“Challenge accepted!” She smiled. “What do you feel like doing for dinner tonight?”
“How about our usual?”
“Mama Murtas?”
“Yeah.”
“Sounds good. Eat-in or takeout?”
“I’m leaning toward eating dinner there. We haven’t had very good luck with takeout. The first time we did that we had to eat in the booster, and the next time, our dinner ended up on the floor.”
She laughed. “Eat-in it is. Mama will be thrilled to see us.”