They knew the gunman’s identity by midnight, but not because anyone had apprehended him. The ex-infantryman—Anthony Grimes, if the military reports were correct—had once again disappeared like smoke on the breeze. By the time David had searched the stairwell, all he’d found were the bodies of three guardsmen.
No one was sure how Grimes had managed to infiltrate the building, but he appeared to have killed the stairwell guard first, then ambushed the penthouse guards during their shift change. Grimes had just dragged the bodies into the stairwell when Aelyx had surprised him. Five minutes later, and the man might have gained entry to the penthouse.
A chilling thought.
Aelyx had summoned a mental image of the gunman’s countenance and shared it with Syrine. Together, they’d composed a sketch for Colonel Rutter to scan into the facial recognition system. The search yielded a few dozen possible matches, and Aelyx had easily singled out Grimes by his jagged scar—which had resulted from the same drunk driving incident that earned the man a dishonorable discharge three years earlier.
But what Aelyx found most interesting was that Grimes wasn’t affiliated with HALO. He began to wonder if Isaac Richards had told the truth when he’d denied responsibility for the attacks.
But if the Patriots of Earth didn’t want Aelyx dead, then who did?
“I hate to say this.” David shifted forward in his seat, resting both forearms on his knees. “But I think Grimes has someone on the inside. How else would he know the shift change schedule?”
“Maybe it was a coincidence that he showed up when he did,” Aelyx said. “Sheer luck.”
David shook his head. “I don’t believe in luck.”
“Okay then,” Aelyx countered. “Call it chance. Regardless, it’s the reason I’m alive.” Because if he’d stepped out of the penthouse any later, Grimes would’ve met him in the hallway with his weapon at the ready.
“I don’t know…” David rubbed his jaw, eyes trained on the floor. “It’s fishy how that soldier wouldn’t bring up our food.”
Syrine looped an arm through David’s and clung to him. This latest attack hadn’t shaken her as badly as the letter bomb, but she’d still needed to retreat to her room for an hour of K’imsha after dinner. “I agree,” she said. “It’s like he wanted us to come out.”
Aelyx had found that suspicious from the beginning. “What’s the man’s name?”
“No clue. All I caught was Sergeant. He mumbled the rest.”
If there were a “mole in the ranks,” as the saying went, Aelyx had an idea to draw out Grimes and finally capture him. “Let’s have Colonel Rutter feed false information to the unit—tell them I’m going someplace easily accessible to Grimes.”
“And have a trap waiting for him,” Syrine finished. “I like that.”
“Me, too,” David said. “I’ll talk to the colonel about it in the morning.” He checked his watch. “Which is technically now, since it’s past midnight. Guess we should turn in.” Then he and Syrine rose in unison from their seats.
Aelyx had a feeling somebody’s bedroom would be vacant tonight. “Be careful,” he warned. The ambassador had returned from his meeting, and he wouldn’t approve of their bodyguard mixing business with pleasure. “It won’t help if you get reassigned.”
Syrine stood on tiptoe to glance toward the ambassador’s bedroom, then lowered her voice to a whisper and produced a tiny key from her pocket. “I locked my room from the inside, just in case he decides to check on me.”
“And I’m up hours before he is, anyway,” David said. “If you need anything, text me or knock twice on my door.”
As the pair strode hand-in-hand to David’s room, a familiar surge of envy churned inside Aelyx’s stomach. He did his best to tame the sensation, but it wasn’t easy. Maybe talking to Cara would help. He couldn’t share his fear that Grimes would eventually succeed in killing him, not without worrying her. But simply hearing her voice would make it easier to sleep tonight. He returned to his room, hoping to catch her between classes.
But when he summoned her, she didn’t answer—a fitting end to a terrible day. Aelyx slumped on his bed and tossed aside his com-sphere. He missed Cara more than ever, and the thought of spending another month apart made his insides feel raw.
He wondered what she was doing right now. Was she thinking of him, too?