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“Tinom’s, then.” Atlas scowls at it and glances up. “But no, none of you think that, do you? A room of Glydens, and you aren’t ready to point fingers at Tinom? Interesting. Why? Glyden has a history of hating both Tinom and Vitrom.”
This is it. There’s no more keeping our suspicions to ourselves. Richeal did that all those years ago and look where it got her. No, we have to tell Atlas, and the nation.
“It’s time,” I say. “We have a multitude of evidence against both the governor of Braesen and the scientific community of their dome going back thirty or more years. It’s a lot more than we could ever have imagined when we started.”
“Braesen? What did they develop—a new species of seahorse? One big enough to ride? Because that?—”
“No, Atlas, listen.” Holter pulls one of the dining chairs in front of Atlas and sits. “Listen, their scientists aren’t just working in the nation’s labs. They have a network of levels below their dome, full of experiments and equipment. Some of it is old and abandoned, but we’ve seen it ourselves, Eros and I.”
“You used the cloaking device to get into these labs?”
“No. I knew the secrecy of it. It wasn’t until the dome came down that I used it for my own mission.”
Atlas nods at Eros to continue.
“We have a verbal recounting from a male living in Boston now. He’s half Kraken. He says Braesen scientists took him to these labs and ran experiments on him. That he saw geminae birthing pods there too. But that’s not the most damning information.” Eros cocks his head at Michio.
“Really?” Atlas leans forward. “More?”
“Michio.” Holter waves at him.
“Forrest’s agent was given a message that something was going to happen at the Maelstrom,” Michio says. “Not what it was going to be, though.”
Atlas cocks a single eyebrow. “And you didn’t think to bring this to me?”
“Forgive me, your highness. But for the last?—”
“Yes, yes, I know. Go on.” Atlas waves him to continue. For the last year, the governors have been handling things themselves. Much of the time, they weren’t able to contact him.
“Yes, well, I trust Michio more than any other of the governors. I brought him into the loop. I thought of having an agent take this on, but... I didn’t have a way for him to get into the Maelstrom, not without using the device the entire time. I was able to get access to the Koralli’s. The information I received was that there would be a diversion. I never thought the whole dome would come down. I... I will regret that decision for the rest of my days. We used the devices and found another agent there stealing tech from the chambers. Michio and he fought. The male hit his head and died. We took the bag of tech he had and escaped. Uncertain if the agent had an accomplice who would come after us, we remained hidden until we used Eros’s equipment to figure out why they were going after it at all.”
“And?” Atlas asks.
“It’s convoluted. I wish there was an easy solution,” Michio says. “When we caught the thief in action, I believed that was all it was: a theft. But after we scanned the blocks... now I wonder if there might not be assassinations coming too.”
Atlas grips his leg.
“This is a lot, and I don’t want to steer your attention away from it, Your Highness.” Eros has his hands behind his back.
“It’s ‘your highness’ now. Interesting. All right. What more could be going wrong?”
“We had word from a half-Kraken that while my sister did promise a Kraken she would go with him, she didn’t mean to keep her word. She didn’t leave of her own free will. If you would reach out on behalf of Marina?—”
“She lied to a Kraken? Damn, that’s foolish.” Atlas’s smile lasts for only a few seconds. “What do you suppose I do? If you were me, how would you proceed?” he asks me.
“I’m not you. But they are going to want something. Resources, money perhaps, but they tend to like other things better. A trade route opened to them. But if it’s money they want?—”
“Zaffiro will pay. We have money, perhaps not as much as Glyden but enough to get my foolish sister back. Then I will lock her in my parents’ apartment and take all her tech away. She’s a menace to herself and our dome. But she is still my sister.” Apparently satisfied with that matter having been handled, he moves on to the next bit of news. “We have a ledger of Tristan Bellucci’s.”
Atlas’s eyebrows shoot up. “Now, how did you get that?”
“Eros saved him from plaster landing on him.” I grimace. “He pushed him away from it. His things were on his podium, so I told him I’d carry them for him. We called after him to stay with us, but he fled out the main doors.”
Annabelle steps into the library and returns with the ledger in hand. She gives it to Atlas. “Here it is.”
“It’s in code.”
“A simple cipher. It’s a ledger where he makes multiple payments to a Gerrard Legend and Cyril Rizos.”
