Kill by Numbers: In the Wake of the Templars Book Two (25 page)

“Things are in perspective,” Raena said. “I thought you were female now.”

“That’s all right. I’m not offended. After I left home, I learned fairly early that most people were going to fit me into a gender construct already familiar to them.”

“If it’s not too personal a question, what do you consider yourself?”

“When I was younger, I fathered children. Now I’m between genders. The translator would call it gynandromorph. You can think of it as neutral. Someday I’ll become female.”

Raena nodded. “I’ve thought of you as ‘she,’” she apologized. “I judged you on the pitch of your voice and I’m sorry.”

“‘She’ is fine,” Vezali said. “Some of my favorite people are she. I’m honored to have them count me in their company.”

Raena smiled again. Her body ached from the seizure, from Vezali’s protective embrace and Haoun’s grip on her legs. She closed her eyes, but sleep would not come back.

What if she was going crazy, like her mother had?

The thought iced Raena’s blood.

She didn’t know much about her mother’s madness. She’d been a child, trying to make sense of the only life she knew. Only after she met Ariel did she learn that all humans didn’t hate all nonhumans. Ariel actually had nonhuman friends, people she loved and trusted, people who were kind to Raena, even though she was a slave.

Inside the relative normality of Ariel’s circle of friends, Raena learned to recognize that her mother’s rages and sobbing jags, her screaming outbursts and rabid bigotry, were not normal. Something had broken in Fiana and she never—in the ten years Raena was with her—got the help she needed.

Raena didn’t know when her mother’s madness had started. Fiana’s parents were musicians. They’d lived a roaming life, performing wherever they could. Raena wondered about them now. She’d never known their names, but surely she could find them. Maybe they were still alive. Maybe, for that matter, Fiana was, too.

Raena thought that if she survived this—whatever it was that was happening to her now—perhaps she would look them up.

In the meantime, she would have to find her own answers. Whatever was going wrong in her head, it did not manifest like her mother’s madness. For that, she was grateful.

Vezali heard Raena’s breathing even out at last. Bit by bit, in twitches and tremors, the tension went out of the little woman’s body. Vezali continued to hold her closely.

She thought over what Raena had said about memories and dreams. Vezali wasn’t entirely sure what the distinction was. Her translator used the same word in Dagat for both. She’d ask Mykah what the difference was later. Raena was already too fragile to be upset by difficulties in communication.

Kavanaugh got a call as he was coming in to land. He concentrated on his flying, got his ship settled comfortably in its dock, and was glad to see the new parents were waiting when he and his passengers came down the ramp. The meeting between the orphans and their adopting parents was awkward, but sweet, and Kavanaugh couldn’t keep the smile from his face through the exchange.

He also had been orphaned by the War. Luckily, Doc had been there to take him in, with her companion, the big wolf-faced Skyler. They’d been like parents to him, but as far as he knew, there’d never been any official connection between them. He wasn’t sure how Doc wrangled the legal niceties. She might have claimed him as a slave, for all he knew, although she always treated him more like a son. He supposed he could ask her, if it really mattered. He thought of her as his parent, though not necessarily as his mother, and that had always been good enough for him.

He was interested to see that Ariel wasn’t placing the kids for whom she found homes with strictly human families either. In Kavanaugh’s admittedly limited experience delivering orphans for Ariel, at least one member of the adopting family always seemed to be human. Sometimes the families were just couples, but more often they were trios or other multiples, who may or may not have had nonhuman children, as well.

As jobs went, delivering orphans to their new homes was one of the better ones he’d ever taken. At least this one didn’t trouble his conscience or give him bad dreams.

He had planned to shut the ship down, go into town, and see if he could find someone to share his good mood. But as he moved around the cockpit, locking everything up, he saw the message light was still on. He set it to play for company.

He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but the message he heard came out of the blue.

“Mr. Kavanaugh, I’m a shipmate of Raena Zacari. She had an accident today and asked me to contact you.”

Kavanaugh stepped back to the monitor and set the message to begin again, so he could make certain he’d heard that right.

The girl delivering the message was humanoid, in that her body was bipedal. Blue fur the color of Kavanaugh’s favorite sky covered as much of her as he could see. A boxy black jacket covered the rest. Her eyes were an alarming shade of lavender. Her face had a muzzle sort of like Skyler’s, but hers was more feline.

Of all the people in the galaxy Raena could call—and Kavanaugh didn’t expect there were many—he wasn’t sure why his name would come up. Last time he’d seen Raena, she laid him out flat with a single blow to the head. No lasting damage had been done, luckily, but it didn’t inspire him to think she felt too fondly toward him. He certainly didn’t owe her any favors.

Ariel would have been easier to find, Kavanaugh thought. Whatever was the matter, it apparently wasn’t something Raena wanted to discuss with her sister.

He thought reluctantly of the shore leave he’d had planned, then reached forward to return the call. As he did so, he noticed the name of the ship. Why did
Veracity
sound so familiar?

The blue girl was picking up when Kavanaugh flashed on the documentary he’d watched about the Thallian family exploring the Templar tombs—and the avalanche Raena set to kill them. The
Veracity
was the ship that’d broken the news about the fall of the house of Thallian. These were the good guys.

“I’m Kavanaugh,” he said by way of hello.

“Thanks for returning my call,” the blue girl said. “My name is Coni Dottr Gounot. Raena Zacari is working with us on the
Veracity
, but she’s been having a hard time lately. We didn’t know her beforehand, so we don’t really know if this issue is long-standing. She said that you were an old friend, that you could help.”

“If you’re asking me if Raena is dangerous, I would say yes,” Kavanaugh said.

“We’re not to that point yet,” Coni said. “She hasn’t been dangerous to us, but we’re aware of how she can be.”

“What can I help you with, then?”

“I’m not sure exactly. Raena had a seizure earlier today. She’s scared.”

Kavanaugh leaned closer to the screen. “Raena, scared? That is
hard
to imagine. Scared of what?”

“She’s been having bad dreams,” Coni said. “They’re related to her memories. She’s been trying to medicate herself, but despite that, things seem to be getting worse. She’s started sleepwalking. The dream she had this afternoon triggered some kind of chemical imbalance and caused the seizure. Luckily, we were with her when it happened. She’s strong enough that she could have really injured herself.”

Or someone else, Kavanaugh realized. Hating himself but knowing there was nothing else he could say and get to sleep at night, Kavanaugh asked, “How can I help?”

“I’m not exactly sure. Raena asked for you specifically. Do you have medical training?”

“Not officially.”

“We’re working on getting her medical documentation so that she can get legitimate treatment. But if there’s anything you can do for her right now …”

A stubble-bearded twenty-something human came into the frame behind the blue girl. “She’s resting now,” he said. “Look, I know travel isn’t cheap, Mr. Kavanaugh. Raena has money of her own. I’m sure she will pay your expenses. Can you meet us at Tengri?”

“I’m not really sure what I can do for her. All I know is battlefield medicine. If Raena’s having a psychotic break, you’re gonna need to sedate her and get her into restraints.”

“She’s already volunteered for the restraints,” the young man said.

That chilled Kavanaugh more than anything they’d said yet. He knew exactly how long Raena had spent locked up in that tomb. If she was volunteering for any kind of imprisonment, she must be well and truly scared.

He keyed Tengri into the navcom and read the response. “You’re lucky. I’m pretty close. Thirty standard hours. I’ll see you at Tengri.”

“Thank you,” Coni and the young man said simultaneously.

After she’d signed out of the comm program, Coni asked, “What are we going to do?”

“I’ve been working with Haoun. He’s not as clever with the ship as Vezali is and she’ll have to check our work, but we think we’ve modified Raena’s cabin door so we can lock it from the outside. We can make sure she doesn’t wander.” Mykah came to sit in Haoun’s oversized chair and stared out the port at the stars. “Have you got some way to monitor her in there?”

Coni stared at him, but he didn’t look her way. Did Mykah know that she had been studying Raena ever since she’d come on board? Probably. He knew her well enough to guess that. Rather than ask what he knew about her spying, Coni said, “Yes, I can re-activate the old monitoring system that the Thallians ran throughout the ship. Do you want me just to monitor her, or to record her as well?”

Mykah shook his head, still staring into the distance. “I hate to spy on her,” he said, his voice torn, “but we should record it. In case …”

He didn’t say what it was he feared.

“I can clear some space and set the feed to record directly to the
Veracity
’s computer,” she promised.

“Hopefully, it won’t be for long.” Mykah turned to face her finally, his dark eyes alive with compassion and sorrow. Coni didn’t see love in them, though, not love for Raena, and for that she was surprisingly grateful. “How are you coming with Raena’s identity papers?” he asked.

“I’m meeting my friend on Tengri to get the final documents,” she assured. “After the money changes hands, Raena should look completely legal.”

Coni wondered if she should say, “And then we can drop her off at the nearest emergency psych ward,” but she didn’t. As much pity as she felt for the strange small woman, Coni didn’t have any illusions about what Raena had done and was still capable of doing. She might be insane and unable to sleep without company or drugs, but she was also in amazing physical shape. She could kill them all before any of them could get the gun locker open.

So busy not saying what she wanted to, Coni rushed into the next question. “While Vezali is modifying Raena’s cabin, should we have her figure out a way to gas her?”

“What?” Mykah gasped. “No.”

“Not like that,” Coni said, exasperated. “To put her to sleep. Didn’t you find some Doze gas or something in the Thallians’ stores when you inventoried the ship?”

“I think so. I’ll check again. Thank you. We’ll have to calculate the dosage carefully for someone her size, but it’s good to know we’ll have a backup if things get out of hand.”

He got up from Haoun’s chair and came over to kiss her. Coni drew him closer and rubbed her head against his chest, scenting him.

He was smiling when he stepped away.

Coni knew she was going to ruin his moment of peace, but she said, “I don’t think she can hurt herself if we knock her out.”

“Who knows what it will do to her dreams?” Mykah’s mouth twisted into a grimace. “Still, we won’t hit her with it until I can tell her that we might. She’s not a prisoner and she hasn’t endangered any of us yet. Right now, all we’re afraid of is her fear that she might hurt us. I want her to know we have a way to neutralize her, if we need to.”

Would that set her mind at ease? Coni wondered. If Raena really was going crazy, she might find a way to turn the gas on her captors.

“She can probably calculate the dosage for herself better than we can, anyway,” Mykah said.

He left the cockpit, off on his errand, so Coni turned to the computer and started to modify the system she already had in place for spying on Raena. Now she wouldn’t have to worry about Haoun stumbling across her recordings by accident.

CHAPTER 12

M
ellix caught Mykah in the galley as he was pulling out ingredients to begin dinner. “May I have some of that berry cordial?”

“Please help yourself,” Mykah said. He stood out of the way so Mellix could retrieve a bottle from the cooler.

“Is Raena going to be all right?”

“We don’t know,” Mykah confessed. “We’re not sure what happened. Apparently, she had some sort of reaction to the sleep drops.”

“I’ve never heard of that happening before.”

“Me, either.” Torn between his loyalty to his mentor and to the woman who’d given him his ship and the life he’d always wanted, Mykah wasn’t sure how much more to say.

“She is something special,” Mellix said. “She seemed extremely calm when the attack on my apartment was imminent. I’m glad I didn’t know how much danger I was in.”

“Raena’s very good at what she does,” Mykah agreed. “It’s just … she’s been suffering from some brutal insomnia. We were hoping the sleep drops could help her.”