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“You’re right. Plarr is our link to KV, and through them, to Conii herself. We found him, we have our proof.” I clasped her face between my hands. “I could not do this without you, Emma. Stay close to me.”
Venturing once more into the lawless underbelly of Thodos Station, hope quickened our steps as we headed to the mystery address. The grim maze no longer seemed quite so bleak or endless with Emma beside me.
We slipped inside a cramped, choking bar, its smoky haze stinging my eyes. I cornered the bartender, a wizened Fanaith female playing with the latest percomm.
“We’re looking for Jaxus Plarr. Seen him?”
She didn’t bother to look up from the screen. “Sorry, never heard of him. We see a lot of people here. I don’t ask for names.”
I knew how to deal with this. People remembered a lot more after you shook them for a bit.
But, Emma interjected, pointing to a tiny red dot in the corner by the ceiling, the paint around it bright against the rest of the faded walls.
“That security camera—it’s newly installed, yes? Added after a windfall, just like that percomm?”
The Fanaith fidgeted nervously under Emma’s scrutiny. My clever mate’s intuition struck a nerve. I leaned in, teeth bared. “This Plarr. Is he worth enough to you to risk bringing the wrath of the Vinduthi on you?”
Sweating, the Fanaith gestured desperately to a heavy iron hatch built into the rear wall. “Back there! All I know is I was paid to hide him!”
I shot Emma a triumphant grin. She flashed a delighted smile in return, obviously pleased to have advanced our cause.
Then she surprised me yet again. “I’m so sorry for the inconvenience. How can we make it up to you?”
She elbowed me lightly, and I blinked for a moment before catching on.
I pulled out a handful of credits and handed them to the bartender. “For any damages.”
We burst through the hatch to find a lumpy blue Meaux clad in a filthy black and leather coat sprawled back on a cot, eyes fixed on a triD porno. I hauled him up, fangs glinting. “Why did Conii pay you? What lies did you tell about my friend?”
He squealed denials until Emma gently interrupted. “Those marks on your wrists—restraints? What made you so afraid that you’d go to such lengths to hide?”
JP’s eyes darted wildly at her second damning observation. He licked his lips, voice quavering. “S-she said she’d kill me if I didn’t testify against the Vinduthi! It was all Conii’s idea, I swear!”
Emma met my eyes, radiant with achievement. At that charged moment, I longed to seize her in my arms and never let go. But answers still remained to be coaxed from the sniveling coward.
“Keep talking,” I snarled at him. “Or shall my mate deduce more uncomfortable truths?”
JP collapsed against the filthy wall, whimpering. Emma’s gaze traveled over him clinically before catching on his left boot. Kneeling, she pointed out a strange modification.
“This custom steel capping around the toe. Smugglers sometimes use similar compartments to hide contraband from searches. What are you concealing in yours?”
JP erupted into fresh sobs at her third damning observation. “The datastick! With the evidence against the Vinduthi! She made me store it in case the Investigation Bureau had questions!”
He pried off the steel cap with trembling fingers, revealing the incriminating gap within.
But it was empty.
“Believe me, I didn’t kill anyone!”
I let him see my fangs. “Trust me, I can tell. Me, I’ve killed people. I’ve killed a lot of people, and I can tell someone who’s a killer from someone who’s a cheap crook for sale to anyone who asks. I bet you can tell that, too, can’t you?”
“She made me!” he said. “It wasn’t my idea! She said she had a job and when I met her where she told me too, there was some other guy and then they killed him! Right in front of me! And then she said she’d pay me if I took a stick of evidence to the magistrate!”
“And did you? Did you tell the magistrate that? Think carefully now.” I lifted him slightly off the ground.
“Yes! I told them what she said to tell them! I had to! She would have killed me if I didn’t!”
“Interesting. And what do you think I’m going to do if you don’t do what I tell you to do?”
