Chapter 14
Fourteen
Kira
Up close, the settlement looked worse than it had from afar. Whatever happened hadn’t been recent. If Harlow’s statement was to be believed, the attack could have happened at any time in the last three weeks.
Since then, the elements had laid claim to the structure. Wind blowing dirt and leaves past once-impregnable walls. Mold from water damage infested what remained.
The attackers had left the former inhabitants where they fell. All of the bodies had been stripped of valuables. Weapons. Jewelry. Even clothes in some cases.
They’d also been fed on by scavengers.
As more and more bodies were uncovered, Az and her companions’ faces grew increasingly grim.
Kira didn’t know what they’d hoped to discover here, but it was obviously not this.
“The attack happened fast. Most of them never drew their weapons,” Az said.
By this point, they’d reach what would be considered the mess hall in a human settlement. It was where most of the bodies were located.
They must have been sitting down to a meal when the attack happened.
Kira could see plates on the ground next to upended tables. The food was long gone. Likely eaten by the scavengers.
“How is this possible?” Pye asked, looking sick.
He crouched next to a pair with their arms around each other. It looked like they’d sought comfort from one another as the end drew near.
“Amal and Thair kept the enclave in a constant state of readiness. They shouldn’t have been taken unawares,” Pye argued.
“I don’t know,” Bez admitted.
The rims of his eyes were slightly red as he took in the devastation.
He was upset and trying not to show it.
These weren’t strangers to him, Kira realized. He’d known them. Well, from the looks of it.
Pye too.
Az’s face was utterly blank as she studied the signs of struggle. “Spread out. See what else you can find.”
Bez jerked his head at Pye. The two headed down a hallway together.
Az looked back at Kira once before trailing in their wake.
Jin pointed down the opposite hallway. “Kira, my spawn are picking up some interesting readings in that direction. I’m going to take Dylan to check it out.”
“Maybe I should tag along,” Kira offered, getting a bad feeling from this place. She didn’t like the idea of being separated.
“No need. Dylan is enough.”
He disappeared down a hallway. Dylan tagging along behind.
“I feel like a mother bird whose chick has flown the nest for the first time,” Kira complained.
He hadn’t even looked back.
“We should check out the living quarters,” Finn suggested, smartly not commenting.
Kira sighed and nodded. “Let’s go.”
They passed several more bodies on their way. Unlike those in the mess hall, most of them had at least had the chance to draw their weapons. Not that it had done much good since they were as dead as everyone else.
Once they reached the living area, Kira and Finn went room-to-room.
Mercifully, there weren’t many bodies to discover. Most rooms lay empty.
They were halfway through their search when that changed.
It wasn’t the woman lying face down next to her bed, a bloody hole the size of Kira’s fist in her back, her curly brown hair covering her features, that made Kira’s stomach drop and the blood rush to her head.
No, it was the tiny bed in the corner. The size a child might use.
Feeling like someone else was in control of her body, Kira crossed the room with slow steps. She reached the bed, lifting it up and shifting it so she could see behind and beneath.
Nothing.
Suddenly, Kira could breathe again. “Thank God.”
“What is it?” Finn asked, entering the room behind her. His gaze went straight to the bed Kira stood next to before shooting around the room in search of whoever had once occupied it.
His relief at not finding them was short lived as he spotted the woman by the other bed. He knelt beside her, carefully brushing the hair from her face. “Mea’Ave embrace you in death.”
Kira looked away.
For the first time, the room’s state fully registered. Unlike the rest of those on this floor, which had been left relatively untouched, it looked like a hurricane had torn through this place. The woman’s scant belongings were scattered all over the floor.
Maybe she’d put up a fight.
Kira didn’t think that was it though. Her gaze followed the trail of damage, noting grooves in the floor and wall.
“The bed doesn’t necessarily mean the presence of a child,” Finn said, rising.
“Yes, it does.”
Kira shoved the fallen dresser over several feet, exposing a hidden alcove in the process. One perfect for a small child
“She tried to hide them,” Kira said, crouching.
Spotting the stuffed animal lying on its side, Kira reached in to retrieve it.
Sewn together from old cloth and bits and bobs, it was well loved. One paw and half an ear were tattered and worn.
Finn took the stuffed animal from Kira. “It’s a diel. They’re only found on Ta Av’ba. She must have been Kashori once upon a time.”
Now she was nothing but food for scavengers. Her life fading into obscurity for a sin Kira would likely never know.
Kira couldn’t stay put. “Come on.”
There was a growing sense of dread in the pit of her stomach. The missing child put a different spin on the situation.
She recognized this method of operation.
Hit fast and hard. Leave no witnesses. Take only those young enough to not fight back.
“What are you looking for?” Finn asked as Kira quickly searched the rest of the personal quarters.
“Evidence.”
A short time later, she found what she was looking for. Two more rooms that showed signs that they’d once been inhabited by small people.
One of those rooms had the body of an adult male outside it. Zuipi still clutched in his hand. Half his head was missing and scorch marks on the nearby walls showed that there’d been a firefight.
“How many children do you guess an enclave of this size would have?” Kira asked.
“As you know, Tuann birthrates are extremely low due to our longevity. Three children in a population this size is already considered a boon. Most wanderers would try to limit the number of births as it would make them very vulnerable for the duration of the pregnancy and the decades needed for the children to grow up. Likely, the reason these three were carried to term was only because they were in a large enclave that offered a modicum of safety.”
“It wasn’t safe enough,” Kira said sadly, gazing into the last room.
The child it belonged to was older than the other two. Ziva’s age or thereabouts.
Kira looked back at Finn. “Three then.”
That’s how many missing children they had on their hands.
“You think the Tsavitee are behind this. That their aim was the children and Caius was a bonus.”
“That’s not new. I always think it’s them.”
That was why she needed his opinion. The Tsavitee and their masters were her own personal boogie man. The monster in the closet whose influence infested every aspect of her life.
She didn’t want those assumptions blinding her to the truth. If she missed something that was right in front of her face because of her bias, she’d never forgive herself.
Still—kidnapped Tuann children. Slain parents. And a conspiracy that spanned solar systems.
It read like something out of Kira’s own biography.
“The problem is Caius,” she said, thinking aloud.
He was the piece that didn’t fit. The Tsavitee had no need for Roake’s commander. They would have considered him more trouble than he was worth and left him for dead.
However, Kira couldn’t find a reason humans would have taken the missing children.
“If he really was the target, why bother with the rest of the enclave?” Kira asked.
They could have hit the enclave hard, grabbed Caius, and then beat a hasty retreat.
The perpetrators hadn’t just attacked the enclave. They’d decimated it. They’d done a room-to-room search looking for survivors and then executing them.
Kira dug her fingers into her hair, tugging lightly in frustration. “What am I missing?”
Jin spoke over the comms. “Nixxy, you should get over here. I found something you’re not going to like.”
“I’m on my way,” Kira said into her comm unit. To Finn, “We need to see if any of the other groups found the children’s bodies.”
Kira didn’t expect them to turn up, but it was best to be thorough.
“If they really are missing, what will you do?” Finn asked.
“You already know the answer to that.”
She’d find them. And then she’d kill everyone who’d had a hand in harming them.
When Kira and Finn finally tracked the others down, Jin was in the midst of a tense standoff with Bez.
“Move,” Bez growled as Kira and Finn walked up.
Jin didn’t budge from the doorway he was guarding. “Sure—if you all want to die.”
Dylan stood off to the side, his expression neutral as he made no attempt to mediate the conflict.
“What’s going on?” Kira asked, looking inside the room Jin guarded.
It was a Tuann command center. A large, round table sat in the center. Its surface as smooth and shiny as glass. The protrusion in the ceiling above likely housed the complex’s major systems.
Simply put, it was a war room.
“This—child—is preventing us from accessing the enclave’s logs,” Bez announced.
From his expression and the way he spat “child”, Kira could tell the word wasn’t his first choice. The fact that he’d held himself back was commendable. Though likely more due to Dylan’s presence than any courtesy toward Jin.
Kira couldn’t blame him for his frustration. Jin possessed the singular ability to be the most irritating entity in the room at any given time.
The thing was, Jin always had a good reason for going off the rails.
That proved the case this time too as Jin reached inside the room with the stick he was holding and dragged it along the floor before holding it up for them to see.
The tip sparkled like a frickin’ disco ball.
“Someone set off a dust bomb,” Kira observed.
“Yup.” Jin tossed the stick into the room. “If I hadn’t stopped these idiots, they’d all be dead by now.”
Pye held up a hand. “Can someone tell me what a dust bomb is?”