Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Ines
My bag sits by the door, packed and ready.
In less than two hours, I’ll be on the transport to the station, then the transporter disk back to New Earth.
I should be relieved. I’m leaving danger behind and escaping whoever ransacked my room and wants me gone badly enough to break into a compound full of children.
Instead I’m depressed. I don’t have much family anymore.
Both my parents have passed away and my brothers and sisters have moved either off planet themselves or to different cities on New Earth, looking for better paying jobs and better housing.
Ana passed away and I don’t really have any new friends beyond my coworkers.
I look around at the women, children and Xylan filling the kitchen and front room, jealous of the life they are leading. So warm and loving. Everyone working together toward a common good.
And meanwhile, I’m leaving to go back to my lonely apartment.
I reach down and pet Lila’s darling cat. And I smile at Max, the friendliest of the cleaning bots.
Breakfast is subdued. The family is still shaken from yesterday’s break-in. Lila hovers near the children, her eyes darting to the windows every few minutes. The brothers are tense, watchful. Jana made food but nobody beside Cannibal is eating much.
Texon sits across from me, not beside me. Maintaining distance now that the goodbye is real. I catch him looking at me twice, but he glances away both times.
This is it. In two hours, I walk out of this compound.
I’m sad because even though we haven’t gone on a single date, kissed or even touched, I really feel like he could’ve been the one.
He doesn’t feel desire for me, but I certainly feel a lava flow of desire for him.
I fantasize often what kissing him would be like.
How it would be to have epic sex with this sexy Xylan miner.
During the time I’ve spent with him, I’ve come to realize that Texon is the most handsome male on the whole planet of Timbur.
He’s so strong, hardworking and ethical.
I literally adore this man. And I’m not ever going to see him again.
I pick at my food. My stomach is too tight to eat.
My tablet chimes. I pull it out, expecting a message from my editor asking for my travel details. Instead, the sender field is blank. Anonymous. I read the message and go still.
I know who killed the Fever Brothers’ parents. Meet me at the old processing station on the south edge of the colony. Come alone. 10:00. Your last chance before you leave.
“What is it?” Texon asks. He must have seen my expression change.
I turn the tablet so everyone can see and then hand it off so they can pass it around. The reaction is immediate.
“It’s a trap,” Chief says flatly. “Obviously.”
“This is how they lure beings in,” Scar agrees. “Classic bait.”
“Ignore it.” Heavy’s arm tightens around Jana. “Get on the transporter as planned.”
Cannibal growls something in Xylan that my translator chip renders as a creative threat involving dismemberment.
But I’m staring at the message. Thinking. “This could be real,” I say.
Every head turns toward me.
“Maybe this is a whistleblower,” I continue. “Someone who is afraid to come forward publicly. Someone inside Minecorp, maybe, who knows I’m leaving today and this is their last chance to talk.”
“Or it’s the same Xylan who ransacked your room,” Texon growls. “Finishing what they started.”
“Maybe.” I meet his eyes. “But if I leave without checking this lead, I never will. I’m gone in two hours. This is my only chance.”
“You could be killed,” Lila whispers. “I think it’s too risky.”
“Yes,” Roxy agrees. “We don’t want anything to happen to you. If you just leave and get on the transporter disk we’ll all miss you, but at least we’ll know you’re one hundred percent safe.”
I exhale and look around the table at all of them. These beings who have come to feel like family. “True. But your parents’ killers could also go free forever because I was too scared to meet an anonymous source. Maybe I can help save you.”
“Absolutely not,” Chief growls. “You’re not going anywhere near that location.”
“It’s obviously a setup,” Claws adds. “They ransack your room yesterday, and today they send a mysterious message asking you to come alone? How stupid do they think we are?”
“Maybe that’s exactly what they want us to think,” I counter. “Maybe someone inside their operation saw what they did to my room and decided enough is enough. A guilty conscience looking for a way out.”
Heavy shakes his head. “You’re reaching.”
“I’m a journalist. Reaching is what I do. And sometimes I grab onto something real.”
“And sometimes you could grab onto a blade,” Cannibal growls. “Which is what’s going to happen if you walk into that trap.”
“You don’t know it’s a trap.”
“We don’t know it isn’t.” Texon’s voice cuts through the argument. “You’re a target, Ines. After yesterday, that’s clear. You should get on that transporter and go home while you still can.”
I meet his burning gaze. “And let whoever killed your parents get away with it? Let them win?”
The table goes silent.
“That’s not fair,” Rook says quietly.
“No, it isn’t. None of this is fair. Your parents are dead.
Your brother was banished. Someone wiped Heavy’s memory and tried to kill him.
Someone gassed an entire ballroom just to gather intel on your family.
” I look around at all of them. “And I’m supposed to get on a transporter and forget any of this happened? ”
“Yes,” Chief says firmly. “That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. This isn’t your fight.”
I point at the front door and raise my voice. “It became my fight the moment I walked through that door.”
Texon makes a low sound in his chest. Not quite a growl, not quite a word.
Roxy reaches over and squeezes my hand.
The brothers keep arguing. Cannibal wants to storm the location now without me, no waiting. Heavy insists the risk isn’t worth it to me, or to them. Claws suggests they send a decoy.
I don’t budge. “I’m going to that meeting,” I insist.
Texon hasn’t spoken again since his warning, but I can feel the weight of his attention. He has to know I’m not going to back down.
Finally, Scar holds up a hand. The table goes quiet. “If she’s going,” he says slowly, “we do this smart.”
“Scar—” Chief starts.
“The human insists she’s going to the meeting, so we follow. Hidden. Far enough back that a real whistleblower won’t spook. Close enough to intervene if it’s a trap.”
“The message says come alone,” I point out.
“Trunk will go with you almost to the location and then he will remain back so you can appear to go in alone.” Scar almost smiles, baring his fangs. “They won’t see three more of us there too.”
Rook steps forward. Everyone looks at him. “I can rig a tracker,” he says. “Small enough to hide in her clothing. Scar’s surveillance tech plus a locator I’ve been working on. We’ll know exactly where she is and hear everything.”
Scar raises a ridge. “You’ve been working on tracking tech?”
Rook shrugs, a little defensive. “I tinker. No one notices.”
“Do it,” Chief orders.
The youngest fever brother disappears down the hallway. He’s back in less than five minutes with a device so small I can barely see it between his claws. He approaches me and gestures to my shirt.
“May I?”
I nod. He tucks the tiny tracker into the hem of my collar, quick and efficient. Then he explains how it works, the range, the audio pickup, how they’ll monitor from a safe distance.
“We’ll be thirty seconds behind you,” Scar tells me. “You won’t see us. But we’ll be there.”
I look at Texon. He hasn’t said anything since Scar started planning. His jaw is tight, his hands curled into fists on the table. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes I do.”
He holds my gaze for a long moment, then gives a curt nod. “Then I’m with you. Let’s go.”
Texon and I take the public transport to the edge of the colony.
Somewhere behind us, I know Scar, Rook and Heavy follow in a separate vehicle. I don’t see them, but that’s the point. The rest of the brothers remain at the compound to keep the females and offspring safe.
The transport is crowded with miners heading to the outlying facilities. I stand close to Texon, aware of the weight of the tracker against my collar.
We exit at the last stop and walk the rest of the way. The jungle closes in around us, thick and green and humming with alien insects. Those purple flowers I’ve grown to love bob in the humid breeze. The air smells like rain and blossoms.
The old processing station appears through the trees.
“It’s a relic, abandoned decades ago when the main facility was built,” Texon explains.
Massive rusting equipment hulks between crumbling buildings. The jungle has reclaimed everything. Vines crawl up walls, trees push through collapsed roofs and colorful flowers bloom in the wreckage.
It’s beautiful in a haunted way. It’s also the perfect place for an ambush.
My journalist brain catalogs the details automatically. The way the structures create blind spots. The multiple entry points and lack of any clear sight lines. If this is a trap, it’s a good location for one.
Texon scans the location. “I’ll stay back here,” he says, positioning himself near the entrance where the jungle meets the clearing. “You approach. But if anything feels wrong—”
“I’ll scream.”
His expression doesn’t change. “I’ll hear you before you scream.”
I believe him.
I walk into the ruins alone. My footsteps echo off the crumbling walls. Rust flakes fall from overhead equipment as I pass beneath. I stop in the middle of the clearing and wait. “Hello?” I call out. “I’m here. I got your message.”
Silence. Come on. Someone sent that message for a reason. If this is real, now’s the time to—