Chapter 16

16

Zanyr wasn't surprised to see Skye outside. She stood out of the way, watching everything with hard, unhappy eyes. He trotted over, and she nodded in greeting.

"Is this when you tell me what the fraxx happened?"

"Highlights only. Jenna collapsed. She's only alive because we gave her our nanotech, and it was a near thing." He handed her the comm. "She was holding this when we found her. We think she sent her resignation shortly before whatever happened."

He had to watch his words to avoid giving away information to anyone who might be listening, and it was frustrating the hell out of him.

Skye's lips thinned and her eyes went cold as steel. "They couldn't have responded that fast."

"Not unless they have someone local."

" Fraxx . That's not good."

"It's not. You may want to ask your mahoyen about locking down all departures until we get some answers."

That got her attention. "Who is we? Because the last time I checked, you weren't a member of the palace guard, cyber security, or the rangers. You need to leave it to us."

Zanyr raised his brow. "They tried to kill our mate. If the prince himself told me to stand down, I wouldn't do it."

"Fine. But when this is over, you can bet I'm going to use this as a hammer to knock some sense into the rest of the council. It's more than time we had some proper law enforcement in Haven."

"You'll have my backing."

"Great. Glad to hear it. Go find your answers and try to keep the damage to a minimum." She frowned. "Do you need weapons? I can authorize access to the main armory."

He grinned. "Not needed. We brought our own."

"You're not supposed to have your own weapons. Colony rules! Remember?"

He walked away and called back over his shoulder. "Too bad we don't have anyone to enforce those rules yet."

He tracked down Torren, and the two of them jogged to a relatively empty area not far from the gharshtu pens. The noise and stench from the herds of scaly, foul tempered creatures deterred most visitors, which made it perfect for their needs.

The drone had a fully programmed autopilot and enough power to make the trip from the woods where they'd stashed their weapons cache in a matter of minutes.

Torren was against the idea, but Zanyr had convinced him it was better to be prepared. It turned out that smuggling weapons onto the planet was easy. Weapons acquisition was one of the many services Hezza B. was happy to provide once they convinced her it was for the protection of the colony.

Donning the armor and arming up brought back memories Zanyr didn't want to dwell on. This was different. This wasn't about money. They were protecting their family and their home.

"I don't want to get used to this," Torren said. "But I'll admit I missed the armor. Do you think I could talk Director Firt into letting me wear it in class?"

"I doubt it. But if you're scared of a bunch of wet-behind-the-wings students…"

"Yeah. Yeah. No armor in the classroom." Torren slapped a gauntleted hand to his armored chest. "Now, where do we want to start?"

"With Jenna's judgmental neighbor. The female."

"Jenna said her name is Tani."

"Noted." Zanyr slid a second blaster into a holster near his ankle. "Let's pay Tani a visit."

With the street outside Jenna's house still full of curious onlookers and guards, they opted to fly low and take a different approach to Tani's place. They landed in her back yard, out of sight of the street, and made their way to the back door.

A sharp knock on the door brought their first target bustling over. "Whoever you are, you get out of my—" She stopped to gape. "What do you want! Are you robbing me? Fine. Take anything you want. Take it all." She backed away from the door, her hands raised and wings outstretched in panic.

"We're not robbing you. We just wanted to talk to you about Jenna. Your neighbor."

The female's voice was little more than a squeak. "Is she okay? What happened? I saw healers going inside."

Zanyr cleared his throat in surprise. Tani seemed legitimately concerned, which was unexpected. "She will be. Uh, thanks for asking. I'm curious why you're worried, though. I saw the way you looked at her yesterday. You don't like her much."

"Oh, that." The female looked down at her feet. "I probably owe her an apology. She's so… so… popular! Since she's moved in, no one gives me the time of day anymore. It's all Jenna this and Jenna that. She's got Sanjin's interest. That's for sure. He and I haven't been anything for a while now, but then she moves in, and he's all sorts of interested. Yesterday you two arrive with her, and, well." She huffed. "I was envious. Which is pathetic, I know. I mean, she doesn't even have wings! What do I have to be jealous of?"

"So yesterday's behavior was because you think she's getting too much attention?" Torren asked.

"Yes. Especially from Sanjin. I thought he actually liked me. I mean, clearly we're not fated for each other, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy each other's company. Then last winter he suddenly announces he's got an anrik , and he's not interested in spending time with me anymore. In fact, he doesn't talk to anyone these days. Hasn't in ages. It's like he's a different male."

"Sanjin is the one with the little produce stand out in front of his house?"

Tani nodded. "That's the one. He used to live a block over, but he moved this spring. Dug up his garden and all his trees and replanted them in the new place. Told anyone who asked that the soil drained better at the new place. I have no idea what that means." She heaved a sigh. "I thought maybe he wanted to start things up again, but he barely speaks to me anymore."

Tani gave them a once-over that left Zanyr feeling thankful he was wearing thick, heavy armor. "I don't suppose the two of you are… available?"

"We're not," Zanyr said so fast he almost tripped over his tongue.

"We're mated. To Jenna. In fact, we should check on her. Make sure she's feeling better," Torren made for the door with Zanyr right behind him. It was time for a tactical retreat.

The female followed them to the porch, but once they were out in the yard, she raised a hand and closed the door.

"That was…"

"Never to be mentioned again," Torren said.

"Right." Zanyr was in full agreement.

"I think we need to have a chat with Sanjin next."

"I agree. Even if we disregard the gossip and excessive sharing of information, something's off there." Zanyr thought back to the produce he'd seen. He got the feeling he wasn't seeing the full picture, but what he could see, he didn't like.

"Hey, isn't he the one who gave Jenna the fruit she was raving about?"

"Son of a starbeast. You don't think…"

Neither of them finished that sentence. They both took to the air. It was time to get some answers.

This time, they didn't bother with subtlety. Then flew straight over the road and down into the neighbor's front yard. The second they touched down, they ran for the door and started to pound on it.

No one answered. "I'll head around back," Zanyr offered. No way he wanted this male to slip away now. Even as he ran, he spotted Skye and several other palace guards headed their way.

The back door was locked. Lights were on inside, but he didn't see any movement.

"Sanjin Tav, in the name of the prince and the leadership council, come out. Now!" Skye shouted.

Still no movement. A bad feeling crawled down his spine and settled into his stomach. Was he already gone? Or was an innocent male cowering under his bed, wondering what the fraxx was going on?

"We're going in. If he bolts, he's coming straight at you. Be ready," Torren sent.

The crash of a battering ram tore through the air. Someone shouted. Footsteps sounded from inside the house. Then. Nothing.

Zanyr waited. And waited some more. This wasn't right. The bad feeling intensified.

" Fraxx ! Get a medic in here now!" Skye barked the order from somewhere inside.

Finally, the back door opened. Torren stood there, looking frustrated and furious.

"Well?" Zanyr asked.

Torren gestured for him to follow. "Come inside. You need to see this."

One look in the dead male's bedroom made it obvious why he didn't want visitors, especially ones looking to spend time in bed with him. There was no bed. Instead, there was a cryo-pod, a desk, an array of monitors, and recording equipment.

"We found our spy." Skye stood by the cryo-pod. Lights flashed across the main panel, and the viewport was obscured by heavy frost.

"He's in there?" Zanyr asked.

"He is," Skye confirmed. "It looks like he put himself into cold storage after the attack on Jenna."

"Wake him up. I want to have a word with the bakaffa ." Zanyr curled his hands into fists and stomped toward the pod.

Skye intercepted him, using her body to block his path. "Whoa. You're in no state to interrogate anyone."

He briefly contemplated pushing past her, but he'd gone up against enough cyborgs in the practice arena to know the odds were not in his favor. He was a warrior. Skye was a living weapon. He stopped in front of her and growled.

The cyborg's mouth quirked up at one corner. "I know you're pissed, Zan. But growling at me won't help the situation."

She was right. He blew out a breath and bowed his head to her. "Sorry."

"I get it. If someone went after Yardan, I'd want to tear open that pod and get some answers."

Torren joined them. "How long until we can get him out of there?"

"That depends on what I see on the scanner." A massive male entered the room, forcing several of the guards to flatten themselves against the walls to make room. Zanyr didn't need to see his face to know who it was. Only one being in the colony was that size. Denz, the half-Torski who sat on the leadership council with him. Why were they all showing up today? Had he missed a memo or something?

"Denz," he greeted the male.

He got a nod in return, but nothing more. Instead, Denz raised his voice. "Everyone not on the leadership council needs to clear the area. Now. And no talking to anyone about this until you've been debriefed."

"Come on, let's go find Yardan. He'll want to talk to all of you." Skye led the others out of the room.

Torren made to follow, but Denz stopped him. "Not you. You might as well hear it now instead of Zan telling you later."

"I don't tell him everything," Zanyr protested.

Despite the circumstances, Denz looked at him with amusement. "This involves your mahaya . If you withheld information from Torren, we'd be investigating another violent crime."

"True," Torren said.

They waited until the house was clear before anyone spoke again. In the meantime, Denz used a medical scanner to gather data from the pod and its occupant. His expression, already serious, grew increasingly grim as he read the results.

" Fraxx . I didn't want to be right about this," Denz said.

"What is going on?" Zanyr asked.

Denz sighed. "Zan, you already know some of this. Do you remember when the Shadow Men infiltrated the orbital platform?"

Zanyr nodded. "One of our shuttle pilots was offering information in exchange for a narcotic capable of affecting someone with Vardarian nanotech. His contact was hiding in plain sight on the platform."

"The suspect was actually a digitized consciousness in a cloned body," Denz said.

Torren jerked and stared at the cryo-pod. "Are you saying this is another clone being driven around by a digital ghost? So what? Right now we have the body, but whoever is operating it is not home right now?"

"That's one way to put it." Denz tried to smile, but it faded quickly. "At least this time there's no micro-explosives. Sanjin, or whoever is controlling this body, has no means to destroy the evidence."

Zanyr stood in silence as his mind worked to put the pieces together. Sanjin's sudden change in personality. The way he'd retreated from Tani. Even the fact he'd moved to be closer to what would be Jenna's new home. "We need to find out how he knew where Jenna would be living."

"We will. It will take time, but we'll figure out every place he went and everyone he spoke to."

Something else clicked for Zanyr. "The produce he's selling. Get someone to test it all. I bet you'll find he's been using banned products and techniques to grow everything."

Torren shot him a quizzical look. "Are you still thinking about fruits right now?"

"I am. Because I think it might help us confirm when Sanjin stopped being Sanjin. The original was a gardener. I bet whoever was driving him didn't know anything about agriculture, so they used shortcuts and cheats to make it look like he knew what he was doing."

"His anrik !" Torren said. "Supposedly he works on the platform. We need to get him before he gets away."

"The platform and all vessels are already locked down. We'll find him."

Zanyr slammed his fist against his thigh in fury. "And then we need to look for others. What if they weren't the only ones here?"

Denz's expression turned stormy. "Then we find them, remove them, and send a message to these bastard Shadow Men to leave us, and our colony, alone."

That was a message Zanyr could get behind.