The room was lovely but completely lacking in personality. I doubted that I’d find a single useful piece of information, but I rifled through everything anyway. The desk didn’t have any drawers, hidden or otherwise.
A long cabinet against the wall turned out to be a bar cabinet. I poked around inside but it didn’t reveal any secrets except that Torran kept a lot of liquor on hand for his guests.
The rest of the wing was much the same—beautiful and cold. A sitting room, bathroom, lounge, and game room were all exquisitely decorated, spotlessly clean, and completely impersonal.
By the time I was finished with the wing, the sun had sunk below the horizon. It was only late morning local time, but my body clock thought the darkness meant that it was time for sleep. The house lights tried to compensate, blazing bright, but my body knew the sun was gone and was having none of it.
My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I’d split my lunch bar with Luna. I’d forgotten to ask Torran about the meal schedule, but I would explore the other wing, then start on dinner. My team would be ready to eat, even if it was earlier than local dinnertime.
Figuring out the kitchen on my own would be a challenge—one I’d deal with when I came to it.
I moved through the house to the final wing. When I approached, I heard Eli’s voice, taunting someone. It didn’t sound serious, but I sped up just in case. The last thing I needed was another fight.
Several familiar voices drifted from the first room on the left. The door stood open, so I slipped inside and found myself in a large, well-equipped gym. Eli was giving Anja pointers—some helpful, most not—as she and Chira circled each other on the padded sparring floor. Anja taunted Eli as often as she taunted Chira.
Both Anja and Chira had donned lightweight protective gloves and didn’t appear to be trying to kill each other, so I didn’t intervene. Chira had a few centimeters of height on Anja, but Anja had several kilos of additional muscle, so they were evenly matched.
Havil stood next to Eli, but his eyes spent more time on my first officer than on the two sparring women. Of course, most people’s eyes were drawn to Eli. The man really was too damn handsome for his own good.
The rest of the room was empty. I figured Kee was still hiding with her tech, but both Lexi and Varro were missing, too.
“Care to go a round, Tavi?” Eli asked, without taking his eyes from Anja and Chira.
“I heard the terrible advice you gave Anja. I’m pretty sure that she’ll happily kick your ass for me.”
“Sure thing, Captain,” Anja agreed with a grin. She dodged a quick jab from Chira and retaliated with a flurry of light blows.
“Just keep it friendly so I don’t have to come back and crack skulls,” I warned.
They all murmured their agreement, so I left them to it and retreated to the hallway with a wave.
Across the hall, the door slid open to reveal a tropical oasis. Plants crowded the edges of the room, and the air was warm and humid. What looked like a natural hot spring had been widened into a pool big enough for a dozen people. Heat rose from the surface of the water.
I skirted around the heated pool and found another pool hidden beyond the foliage, this one large enough for swimming. I debated it for a second and then decided Torran wouldn’t have a toxic pool in his house.
Probably.
I crouched down and dipped my fingers in the water. It was pleasantly cool. I didn’t have time to swim—or a swimsuit—but I really wished I did. It had been nearly a year since I’d seen this much water in one place.
I reluctantly stood and examined the rest of the room. A sauna and a luxurious locker room rounded out the amenities. I stole another glance at the pool. Maybe if I came super early, no one would notice if I swam in my underthings.
I left my new favorite room and explored the rest of the hallway. This was obviously a shared wing where both family and guests could relax and socialize. There was a game room, a lounge with comfortable furniture, and a screening room with a huge display on the wall.
The next door I opened revealed a spacious library. Lexi was leaning against the far wall, a book in hand and an innocent expression on her face. When she saw that it was just me, she snapped the book closed and went back to searching through the shelf next to her.
I caught her eye and signed, “Find anything useful?”
She shook her head.
I kept signing. “Where have you looked?”
She gestured at a good 80 percent of the room. I laughed, then switched to speaking. “I figured you’d be in the gym showing Eli how it’s done.”
She shrugged. “The four of them seemed to be doing fine on their own, so I decided to poke around and see if I could find a book to read.”
Which meant that she had likely snooped through the rest of the hallway, same as me. “Let me know if you find anything interesting,” I said. “I’m going to look around some more, then start on dinner.”
At the mention of food, Lexi’s stomach growled. Her smile turned wry. “Food would be good.”
“Has anyone checked on Kee lately?” I asked before I left.
“I’m fine,” Kee said over the comm. “Varro brought me some food earlier, so I’m not starving. I’m working on the thing we talked about. It’s a little more difficult than I expected, but I’m nearly there.”
“Let me know if you need anything,” I said.
Kee agreed and went back to her virtual breaking and entering.
Lexi’s hands flashed. “Her and Varro?”
I lifted my hands and shrugged. I didn’t know.
Lexi frowned at me. She was only a year older than Kee, but she’d always treated the younger woman like a little sister—we all had. Kee was the youngest and the brightest of us all, and we were incredibly protective of her.
I had no doubt that by dinner, Lexi would know everything available about Varro Runkow.
I waved farewell and left the library. The rest of the hallway didn’t have any more secrets to reveal, so I decided to try my luck in the kitchen. I’d brought a lot of perishables and no pantry items, so dinner might be a little interesting.
Assuming I figured out how to use the stove.
If there was a stove.
Torran had said he’d dismissed most of his staff, and other than the people who had delivered the supply crates to our rooms earlier, I hadn’t seen a single person during my snooping. But if nothing else worked, I’d yell until someone came to see what the commotion was about.
I entered the kitchen and went straight to the butler’s pantry around the corner, where I’d found the refrigerator. I pulled out my box of groceries and looked through it. A veggie soup would be nice with the crispness in the air. And it would keep, so people could eat whenever they got hungry.