Chapter 15
Fifteen
Kira
“Anything else in those logs that I need to know about?” Kira asked.
She knew Jin. If there was something sensitive in there, he wouldn’t have mentioned it in front of the others.
“There might be one thing.”
Kira waited.
“I found no mention of Caius’s arrival or stay. There was no record of him anywhere in the logs. Past or present.”
“That is strange.”
During her conversation earlier, Az indicated that Caius had fairly strong ties with this enclave through his parents. That would have meant visits. Not just once or twice but going back years.
“Maybe they concealed his arrival for some reason,” Finn suggested.
“It’s possible,” Kira allowed.
They might not have wanted any record of his visits getting out should the enclave ever fall. It wasn’t a good look for a high ranking member of House Roake to be so friendly with wanderers. The omission could have been their way of trying to protect him.
“I’ll keep digging. See if I can turn up anything else,” Jin said.
“Do that. I want to know what we’re missing.”
Her instincts were telling her it was something.
“What about this worm you found? Were you really not able to identify its creator?” Kira asked.
Habits were hard things to break. Their influence so pervasive that most of the time you didn’t realize how much of your life was affected by them.
From the side of the bed you slept on, to how you put on your clothes in the morning.
Hackers had them too. It could be seen in the way they wrote their code. Every key stroke, every line, every choice. All stacking on top of each other to create a kind of digital fingerprint that could be distinguished from other hackers’ work.
Jin shook his head. “It looks like something one of the clans would create, but I can’t nail down its owner.”
“A new player?”
“Could be. Whoever they are, they’re smart.
Instead of creating something from scratch, they took pieces from other code and mashed them together to make something entirely new.
It’s part of why I’m having so much trouble identifying them.
There are traces from at least three different pirate groups.
Red Hands, Everett, and some two-bit outfit called Belladonna. ”
“Those are all groups that operate out of Titan, right?” Kira asked.
Jin nodded. “That’s correct.”
“Why did it have to be there?” Kira moaned, thankful that Bez and the rest had already left so they weren’t around to witness her whining.
Contrary to their belief, the thought of stepping foot on that station again wasn’t exactly welcome. Actually, she’d kind of hoped to avoid that cesspool for the rest of her life.
Jin patted her hand. “There, there. It’ll be okay.”
“We’re going to have to go there in person, aren’t we?”
Jin’s expression was sympathetic. “Probably.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.”
She’d thought that chapter of her life closed. Not so much, it turned out.
“What are we going to do about the children?” Jin asked quietly.
“Oh, you know, the usual. Gather information. Form a plan that takes all possibilities into account.”
“In other words—fly by the seat of our pants and hope we don’t get killed in the process.”
“Something like that,” Kira allowed.
At Dylan’s faintly appalled look, Finn smiled. “You get used to it.”
“Have you?” Dylan asked.
“Some days,” Finn admitted. “The rest have a habit of challenging my bottom line. You either accept and adapt or get left behind.”
The second of those had happened to Finn often enough that he knew what he was talking about.
“We need to warn Raider and Roderick. Pirate clans tend to leave a rear party to mop up any survivors,” Kira said.
They also liked to leave traps behind. Raider needed to know so he could plan accordingly.
“You’ll have to send someone in person. Something in the complex is blocking our comms. We can communicate within these walls to some extent but not outside,” Jin said.
Finn’s expression changed. He knew who that person was most likely to be.
“Is that original to the enclave or a surprise the pirates left behind?” Kira asked, feeling her oshota’s stare burning into the side of her face.
“Either. Both.” Jin shook his head. “Until I figure out how they’re doing it, it’s impossible to say.”
Finally, unable to avoid him any longer, Kira met Finn’s gaze with a steady one of her own. “You know what I’m about to say.”
“I would really rather you didn’t.”
“Jin has to stay here and work on the logs.” If he could also figure out what was causing the comms blackout, that would be a plus. “Dylan has to remain with him.”
“Come with me then.”
Kira shook her head. “I need to rejoin Bez and the rest.”
She didn’t like them being out of sight, doing who knew what.
The attack on the enclave was awfully convenient.
Of all times to strike, the pirates chose the exact moment that Caius was here.
That couldn’t be a coincidence. They had to have inside information.
Whether that leak was on the enclave’s side or within Caius’s own circle was a question Harlow trusted Kira to find the answer to.
She wouldn’t disappoint him.
“Your argument would carry more weight if I didn’t know you suspect them of treason,” Finn told her.
“We could trade,” Kira offered. “You take Bez and the rest and I go warn Raider.”
The sour expression on his face showed that he was even less a fan of that option than the other.
“That’s what I thought,” Kira said.
She’d known he wasn’t going to let her run through a forest possibly teeming with pirates. For all their suspicions, Bez and the other Tuann were still the safer bet.
“You’ll report straight to them?” Finn asked.
“As soon as I leave here.”
Her assurance seemed to pacify Finn.
“I’ll report back as soon as I’ve made contact,” Finn threatened.
Kira nodded. “You do that. Stay safe.”
Then Finn was gone, disappearing into the gloom of the complex at a quick clip.
“You give us some space too,” Jin ordered Dylan. When the oshota didn’t move, Jin shoved him in the side. “Go!”
“It’s my job—”
Jin cut him off with an impatient sound. “There’s no one else here and she would never hurt me.”
Dylan must have realized the truth of that statement because he relented. “Very well, but I’m not going far.”
Jin waved a goodbye. “Fine.”
True to his word, Dylan really didn’t go far, just to the opposite end of the hallway, well within shouting range.
As soon as he was gone, Jin looked at Kira. “These missing children have to be your priority.”
There was a trace of amusement on Kira’s face as she noted the way he had puffed up in preparation for an argument. “Did you think I’d consider otherwise?”
Children came first. Always.
Jin deflated. “Not really, but sometimes it’s hard to think clearly in this body. In my head, I know what your priorities are, but my stomach sometimes says otherwise.”
“We call that adrenaline.”
“Is that what it is?”
“Fun, huh?”
“Not quite how I’d describe it,” Jin grumbled. “My body doesn’t know whether it wants to faint, flee, or fight something.”
“You’ll get used to it. Eventually, it might even come in handy.”
“Doubtful.”
Kira grinned. He’d learn.
“When we get comms back, see if you can leave a message for Selene,” Kira instructed.
They might be close enough to Consortium space to access some of the comm relays.
“You think that’s a good idea?” Jin asked with a frown that was more thoughtful than troubled. “These children don’t exactly meet the profile of those she takes in.”
“That’s not necessarily true.”
Selene’s expertise lay in traumatized children. If anything was likely to traumatize a child, it was witnessing the death of your entire circle of loved ones.
Moreover, it was unlikely there would be anyone willing to take them in once rescued.
Kira had seen their rooms. They were all too young to survive on their own. Selene was their best—and possibly, only—option.
“I’ll let her know she might be getting a few new friends,” Jin said.
Dylan rejoined his charge as Kira left Jin alone to see what else he could find out from the logs.
A tomblike silence enveloped her as she traveled in the direction Bez and the others had taken. The dead might not speak, but their presence was inescapable.
Feeling whimsical, Kira bowed her head as if to pray. “We’ll finish as quickly as possible so you can get back to your rest. Don’t worry about your children. I give you my word that if they’re still alive, I will find and save them. They’ll grow up in peace and safety.”
Maybe it was her imagination, but the oppressive silence seemed lighter as Kira retraced the others’ path.
Before long, she caught the murmur of voices from up ahead.
Hurrying toward them, Kira stepped into the large chamber that had once served as the enclave’s shipyard. Dug into the base of the mountain at the back of the enclave, there was a set of untouched blast doors on one side of the bay that would have allowed their ships to come and go at will.
Someone had collapsed part of the ceiling and a good chunk of the mountain’s base to create an unsanctioned skylight. The immense weight of dirt, trees, and rock had crushed whatever was below. One side of the shipyard was entirely gone, buried under many tons of debris.
Some ships had managed to survive. They’d been caught on the very edge of the cave-in and had been pushed off to the side. A few had rolled onto their backs. Others lay half buried, their nose or tail wings poking above the debris.
Even with the destruction before her, it was easy to see that the chamber had been breathtaking at one point. The immenseness and discipline required to carve out such a massive cavern was admirable.
It made Kira sad to realize that the people responsible for such ingenuity were now gone.