Eli shook his head. “Nothing yet. Their work is solid.”
I’d hoped that my team had found something I’d missed, but Eli was right—the investigation was solid, but there just weren’t enough leads. “Has anyone heard from Kee?”
“She was fine when I left a few hours ago,” Anja said. “We found the data store, so she’s probably still looking at it.”
“If she’s found something interesting, Varro will have to pull her out kicking and screaming,” Lexi said. She and Nilo were at separate desks, but they appeared to be working together without stabbing each other.
“Varro says they’re still in the workshop,” Torran confirmed. “Kee’s been staring at her slate and grumbling ever since she and Anja connected to the data.”
“Kee, have you found anything?” I asked over the comm.
I got a long sigh in return. “Maybe,” she said. “The vehicle logs were wiped but not completely. Recovery is slow and finicky, but I think I’ll be able to piece together the data once I’m done.”
“Are you at a place where you can stop for the night?” I cut off her grumbled protests. “It’s after midnight standard and I need you sharp. Downtime will do you good.”
“It’s still light outside!”
I turned to the window. So it was. The long shadows meant the sun was low in the sky, but it was definitely still light. My body clock didn’t care and demanded sleep. I’d been up for too long.
“Fine, you have until sunset,” I agreed, “then I’m letting Varro drag you out.”
I could hear her smirk. “That’s not the threat you think it is.”
I let my own smile seep into my tone. “If it gets you out of the workshop, I’ll call it a win. One hour, Kee. I mean it.”
“Aye aye, Captain.” The sarcasm was heavy, but then she added, “Thanks for looking out for me.”
“Always,” I promised.
I turned back to the rest of my team. “I’m going to work for another hour to ensure Kee doesn’t stay up all night, but the rest of you are free to bow out whenever. We’ll start again in the morning.”
They all turned back to their workstations. I plopped down next to Torran. “Let’s go over it again.”
We did, but the facts didn’t change. In the first video snippet, the kidnappers emerged from an underground garage in the middle of the night. No one had been able to trace their whereabouts before that, or how they’d accessed the garage. Pieced together traffic footage showed that the transport came straight to Torran’s property, dropped off a team of eight, and then took a wide, circular route that brought it back just in time for the pickup.
Then they went straight to the edge of town and disappeared into the trees.
That was it. They’d as good as vanished with the empress’s grandson, snatched from a house a stone’s throw from the Imperial Palace.
How?
How had they pulled it off without so much as a single hitch? The question followed me to bed and kept me awake far longer than it should’ve.
The sound of a door opening in my dream, where a door shouldn’t have been, pulled me from a deep sleep. My eyes felt welded shut with exhaustion, but I cracked them open just enough to see. The room was pitch-black and quiet. I was almost ready to brush it off as nothing when I heard the slightest scuff of a boot against the floor.
Someone was in my room.
I thrust my hand under my pillow and grabbed the plas pistol I’d stashed there. I rolled out of bed and landed in a crouch. “Lights!”
The room turned blindingly bright, revealing Torran in the middle of the room with his hands up. He was wearing his armor. “Don’t shoot,” he whispered.
“What the fuck, Torran?” I demanded in a harsh whisper. “What are you doing and why are we whispering?”
“I was trying to figure out how to wake you without getting shot.” He raised an eyebrow at the pistol still locked on his body.
I dropped the pistol’s muzzle toward the ground and growled, “Knocking is designed to solve exactly this problem.” I scowled at him. “You overrode the lock on my door.”
“Get dressed and come with me. I will explain, I promise, but we don’t have much time.”
I glanced down at myself. I had on a tank top, panties, and nothing else. No wonder his eyes kept trying to drift down. “What am I dressing for?”
“Wear a thin base layer with warmer clothes on top.”
I quickly pulled on a pair of leggings, then added my standard work wear of sturdy pants, a comfy T-shirt, and supple boots. I also grabbed a coat. I strapped on my plas blade and tucked the pistol into its holster. Finally, I picked up my comm and called Kee.
“What are you doing?” Torran demanded.
“I’m leaving with you in the middle of the night with no explanation. I’ll do it because I trust you at least that far, but I’m letting my team know that I’m going.”
His mouth compressed, but he didn’t argue.
Kee was not amused with the early call or my plan to leave with Torran to parts unknown. I told her to go back to sleep and then hung up on her. Once she calmed down, she’d find a way to track my comm and keep an eye on me. Kee was nothing if not resourceful when properly motivated.
I grabbed the comm Torran had given me and shoved it in my other pocket. I hadn’t had time to set it up yet, but I’d figure it out if I needed it.
Torran held a finger to his lips and then we slipped from the room. The dim hallway lights provided just enough visibility so that I didn’t run into anything. We slid from the house into a chilly night. Unfamiliar insects filled the night with soft sounds.
We took a path toward the back of the property and the building I’d seen when we’d walked the perimeter earlier. The door opened at our approach and we eased inside. Torran pulled a slim light stick from his pocket and the interior of the building became a little clearer.
Torran had called it a workshop, but it was more a workshop-garage combo. A line of small vehicles glinted in the light. Torran headed for the smallest, a two-seat lev cycle that was vaguely ovoid—as if someone had squished an upright egg mostly flat without cracking it.
The outer shell protected passengers from the elements, but that was about it. It was molded around the lower half of the vehicle, which included the engine and skid plates. Torran opened the hatch and pulled out a set of Valovian armor.
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“This was the shortest set I could find,” he said. “It may still be a little tall for you, but we should be able to make it work.”
“Are we going somewhere where I’m going to need armor?”
“Hopefully not. But it’ll disguise your identity in addition to offering protection.”
I stripped off my outer layers and worked my way into the armor. It was a snug fit, because I had more curves than it was designed for, but overall, it was far more lightweight and flexible than I’d expected.
I tucked both comms into a hidden compartment against my ribs, but I couldn’t figure out how to attach my blade and pistol.
“Leave them,” Torran said.