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And I draw a blank. “Windsow Winters.”
She glances at her block and back at me. “Windsow Winters? I’ve been looking at Winsor Winters.”
“That’s what I said.” I smile at her over the top of my tablet. I know this is important, and I don’t mean to be flippant.
“It’s not what you said. No, back at it.” Her knee bumps the side of my leg under my uncle’s small old table. My dick is instantly hard. “I didn’t mean to do that. It’s not some signal for you to slack off.”
“All right, Sunshine. I do like it when you get all bossy.” I dig back into Winsor’s childhood. And it’s not a great one. His parents had only two children. They were never awarded any geminae, which was a pretty good sign that things weren’t all flowering anemones and pink coral around the pod. In fact, after dear Winsor’s birth, two of his fathers died. The other two seem to have had a stable relationship with work. And when he wasn’t even in secondary school, his mother died as well from an accident where she was working near the shield.
I look up, and Sunshine has a shocked look on her face. “What do you have?” I ask.
“It’s not good. His levels are barely high enough to hold most jobs. He’s bounced around with a lot of manual labor jobs. Though now he has the best job he’s ever had. Omada driver for long-range public transport. He’s been there a few months. Why was he even there?”
“His childhood sucked rotten shrimp shells.”
“This is the kind of male that could easily be bought.”
I scroll through why he would even have had an invitation. “Found it. One of his deceased fathers was the cousin to the current governor.”
“That’s a minimal tie at best to be invited to Veneratia, don’t you think? By that standard, the whole city could be sitting in the gallery of the Maelstrom.”
“Indeed, but still, I think we have a suspect.”
Sunshine pulls her chair closer to the table. “But that doesn’t mean we can stop here. We need to keep looking at the rest of the names.”
“Agreed.”
We’re on the second-to-last name when the door alarm on my tablet rings.
“It’s Nico.”
“Nico!” Sunshine rushes out of the library into the living room.
“Let me unlock and open the front door, Sunshine.”
Atlas comes in from the kitchen as Nico steps into the apartment. Sunshine throws her arms around him and kisses his cheek. He pulls her into his side.
“You went to talk to an old crew member who you think had access to something on the Braesen?” Atlas goes right at it. But then, why shouldn’t he? The time for subtleties is over.
Nico’s eyes narrow at the group of us. “Yes. Teneric Course. Haden’s eldest brother. He had a lot to say, but he didn’t know everything. There’s still more that I have no idea about. But basically, he said his brother asked him to steal tech from the lockers. Teneric refused, and he assumes his cousin agreed since he’s on the deceased list.” Nico glares at Atlas, his face stoic. “And...”
“There’s more?” Atlas leans in, arching an eyebrow.
“Yes. Teneric confirmed the Braesen are researching mermaid fertility on their own. In a secret lab under their main dome.” Nico crosses his arms over his chest.
“These are the same labs you were talking about earlier?”
We all nod.
Atlas purses his lips. “Not sharing scientific advancement is against the law; but conspiracy to steal from other governors and bring down the government center will need to be dealt with first. This is all madness. It’s like a trident through the heart. A dome I’ve thought of as a friend and ally is keeping secrets. Do you have anything else to add?”
“I would need to know what I’m adding to.”
“He knows everything we knew since I last saw you.” But not actually everything. “But there’s more.” I turn to Sunshine.
Her eyes widen. “You’re sure?”
“What exactly did you fail to mention before?” Atlas stands to his full height.
