Chapter 13

I don't go to the police as soon as I leave Zuko's boat. And I don't know why. On the one hand, I can justify to myself there's no rush. Mara's unconscious in the med pod. When she wakes, she's going to need a hospital to complete her healing. She's not going anywhere.

Or maybe I want a shot at finding Aezok on my own first without the ethical confines of a legal inquiry. Maybe, after carrying Mara's broken body through the jungle, I'm feeling a little bloodthirsty myself. I need an outlet for the rage and guilt burning in my veins after the fight with the gnaar, and a quick and dirty assassination might be just the ticket to fix the mess in my head.

Either option—I'm not going to examine which one is truly motivating me—means I'm not in a hurry. I'm still in my dirty, bloodstained trousers, so I swing into a clothes kiosk and ask the unit to spit out a new shirt and pants. It takes my clothes in exchange, plus a few Federal silvers, and I'm a new male.

Well, I'm clean, at least. I'm still very aware of my missing tusks, especially now I'm among my people again. I caught the stares on the street, the curious eyes and judgmental frowns as strangers wondered if I'm defective in some way. It's something I'm going to have to get used to if I decide to live on a Kral planet in the future.

I'm not one to run from bigots, but I can also acknowledge it would get old to constantly be judged as less than Kral. Kral aren't the most speciesist members of the United Federal Planets, but we're high on the list, especially Kral who live on the former colony planets like this one.

As I change in the kiosk, my now fully charged spare comm sends me updates on all of my accounts. I have a surprising number of messages from my mother and remind myself to find a cryptoport to call her later. I can't log into my Haven account, and there are no payments from my last job on Geshan X.

I've been erased. Or all of Haven has. Either option is a possibility. I don't have any messages from Radeel, and unless I return to Flex and penetrate Haven's headquarters again, I don't know if I'll ever find out what happened to him. I don't know any other employees I can ask. Radeel kept us all isolated from each other for deniability purposes if we got captured on a job.

I run a recent news story search for Haven, but nothing pops up in my feed.

My entire career, gone. I planned to retire after the Geshan X job, but still, the abruptness of this separation pierces my chest. I'm proud of my work, and now every trace of it is gone. And Radeel is gone—the male who supported me when I was an angry youth, missing my father, resenting my mother, and getting into trouble, and the male who hired me as an adult, taught me to fight against oppression, and trained me to take care of myself.

In the dim kiosk, I let my head fall forward for a long moment, the weight of my loss heavy on my shoulders. And that's a loss I can place directly on Aezok, not Mara. My jaw tightens as my tongue traces the holes where my tusks used to protrude.

No police investigation will make me whole or bring back Radeel. No jail term will sufficiently punish Aezok.

I straighten, decision made. I'm going to track down Aezok and kill him myself.

Leaving the kiosk, I stroll down the busy street until I find a cafe advertising cryptoport services. Déjà vu hits me as I stride inside, the scent of giva beans filling the air and making my mouth water.

After I secure my crypto connection, I start running a handful of different data searches for Aezok, Kral male; Dr. Inde, Csevadian male; and, frowning, I type in Mara, female of unknown species. I start with data limited to Hofterin and quickly discover that Aezok Brig is a well-known scientist with several labs in Flex and some of the other larger cities on different islands. I note the names and locations of the labs, but none of them are remote, so I know he has at least one secret place where he conducts his illegal experiments.

The news stories covering Aezok are perfunctory. He donates money to certain ultra conservative politicians but doesn't attend the fundraisers in person. He doesn't have any social media accounts. The one image result is grainy, and it's hard to identify which of the males on the screen is Aezok. Probably the shortest one.

The search for Dr. Inde is less fruitful. Inde is a common Csevadian name, and Csevadians are known for their intellectual pursuits. There are hundreds of Dr. Indes on Hofterin, and thousands more in the wider universe. I scan a handful of the results that include photos but can't identify the male I killed back in the lab. I don't spend too long at it, however, as I know he's dead and not a priority.

Mara's search yields zero results. I stroke my chin, a little confounded. Everyone has at least some kind of data trail, but that name is unknown on Hofterin. And when I enter the information about her physical characteristics into the general information database, I can't determine her species either. There are a few results marked "Classified," but I don't have the codes to access those.

After more minutes of fruitless searching, I take a break to order a drink and, over long sips, I consider my next steps. To find Aezok, I'll need to surveil his known labs and try to discover the locations of any more hidden ones. I need a hacker, and while there are a few who owe me favors, it's probably best to keep this job anonymous. Most likely, Aezok will be dead at the end of it. I don't need my involvement to be traceable.

I log back into my port and post the job under a burner name. I want to know everything about Aezok Brig—his public and private life—and I want to know where he is right now. Hiding in his secret lab? Having lunch in Flex at a nice restaurant?

I'm going to discover every iota of information that exists about his illegal research, I'm going to erase it, and then I'm going to kill him. In that order, hopefully.

I close out the port again, leaning back in my chair. The giva in my system is both harsh and smooth. I need to eat some food.

And I need to figure out what to do about Mara. If I'm not going to the police, I should turn her loose. When she wakes up from the med unit, I'll drop her at the hospital, and then that's it. She'll be out of my hands.

My jaw flexes. It burns me to admit I don't want her out of my hands. I want her where I can see her. Touch her. Control her. I want to get to the bottom of my splintered memories, and she has the key.

I shake my fists, trying to loosen my clenched fingers, my pulse like a drum in my ears.

This fixation isn't healthy. I need to move past my time in the lab. I need to destroy Aezok, and then never think of the last few weeks ever again. The details of my imprisonment don't matter. I'm free. I should focus on the future. And Mara's not a part of that. Whatever connection I feel to her is just my body's trauma response. And the sooner I never see her again, the better for my mental health.

WHENI return to the wharf, however, and Zuko's boat is gone, all of my new resolve dissipates like morning fog in the face of a shaft of sunlight. Rage floods my gaze with red. The sea beyond the empty boat slip rolls gently, devoid of any shapes on the horizon.

I question a handful of Krals working on their boats nearby, but no one can tell me anything. I didn't pay attention to the name of Zuko's boat, or Zuko's surname.

And he's stolen Mara. Hidden her away from me.

Wrath bubbles in my veins for a long, intense moment before I ruthlessly crush the instinct with cold will. This is better. Zuko's a youth, not a vicious male. He's not going to hurt her. Maybe she woke up, and he took her to the hospital. Maybe she woke and snuck away, and he moved his boat because he feared my anger.

It doesn't matter what happened. If I'm not turning her in to the police, there's no reason for me to try to find her now. All of my focus should be on Aezok and his labs.

I turn away from the wharf just as my comm pings. Someone's taken my hacking job. My heavy steps lighten as my lip curls. Aezok has no idea what lightning bolt is about to hit him.