Maxar (The Mating Games Book 4) (2 page)

“What?”

“Is she agreeable?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t got that far.”

“Wait and I will discuss it with our dad and the advisors. It’s a big decision to make because it may affect all of us.”

“How would it do that?”

“It could give workers thinking of coming here the wrong impression. Most of them are females. Another problem might be our males might think the female workers fair game.”

“I never thought of that, but I really feel drawn to her.”

“I promise I will bring it up at the next meeting I have with Dad.”

“Thank you.” It would have to be good enough because that was all he seemed willing to give. In all fairness Razar seemed distracted with all the trouble they were having with the farm equipment. Whenever something broke down Ernie always sent someone to fix it or if it was a difficult job, she often did it herself but they always lost time. No one, it seemed, wanted overtime among the farm workers. He had few that were interested in it either.

Now Maxar was stuck unable to pursue any relationship with Ernie until Razar managed to get him permission, if he managed that at all. It was time to go home. Razar’s visit was the only reason he’d even stayed behind at work while everyone else had left quickly so as not to be asked to stay. They need not have feared since there was nothing left here to do. Only that odd guy Jerry had lingered for a short while. Maxar assumed he’d forgotten something, why else would he stay behind?

Pushing odd humans out of his mind, Maxar left to go home to a house that was full of family and love. His mother would have food on the table soon after he and his brothers arrived but if she needed help, she would put them all to work if necessary. All of them had learned to cook when they were young out of necessity but none of them had minded it. They weren’t too manly to help with household chores either although he’d noticed among the few human men they had working for them a great deal of contempt for housework.

As soon as he hit the door he could smell a roast cooking. His mouth watered and he remembered he’d forgotten to eat lunch. He seemed to be the first one home for the day and he raided the tray of cookies his mom had baked earlier. They were still warm making him happy he’d found them first. Whichever poor brother came last would be lucky to get crumbs. This was revenge for last time when he had been last. He grabbed a handful taking them to his room to hide.

Maxar wasn’t sure where his mom was but she would find him if she needed him. His mom had always had a way of ferreting them out no matter how hard they tried to hide when they were kids. Since he wasn’t hiding, it should be easy to find him. Taking off his shoes, he jumped on his bed to relax a little while before supper. It was just his luck he drifted off to sleep but it wasn’t his mother waking him.

A huge weight fell on him as he woke to a fear of being smothered. Pushing against something hard as a rock it took him a moment to realize it was his brother Jorgr. This wasn’t the first time one of his brothers had chosen to wake him this way. It was almost like a game with the younger brothers to rudely wake up anyone they could. Jorgr wasn’t the brother below him that was Stevr. Jorgr was not below Stevr either but below Tylar who was below Stevr placing him firmly in the younger, beastly group that needed to learn some manners when he had time to teach them. Maxar had had his whole life to get the birth order of his siblings straight, other people had a much harder time. Just a few days ago Ernie had met Zebir at a party and was amazed to find he was yet another brother.

“I thought I had finally met them all. Now you find another one to introduce me to.” Ernie exclaimed. “How many of you are there?”

“Only ten total.”

“Only? I can see you didn’t have to give birth to ten undoubtedly big babies.”

It had given him even more appreciation of what his mother had gone through in her life. There was a year or less between most of them and Maxar really couldn’t remember much about the pregnancies his mother had after he was born. Male children didn’t attend birthing, only older females and the father were usually present.

It was his fondest wish that he would see a child born in his lifetime. A child born with him and Ernie as parents. It bothered him when he thought that might never happen. For now he supposed he should just enjoy the time with his family eating, discussing business, and teasing each other. Hours later he was tired to the point that getting to bed could not wait.

As he woke, he saw the brilliant sunrise casting the most delicious shades of pink, purple, peach, and red across the sky. Maybe this was a sign that the day would go well. Maxar could only hope as he dressed hurrying to the table to eat his share of the large meal his mother had fixed. This weekend he would work on his house which was complete on the outside but just an empty shell. Razar and Travlr had promised to help while Glendar had only committed to trying. Stevr would be leaving before then to get another group of would be mates so he couldn’t come. Most of the younger ones were committed to other activities except Cravr who had also committed to attending.

Maxar knew with that much help he could get a lot done. That was good since he hoped to be mated in less than a month if Razar would do the right thing. He felt no need to hunt his mate, he had already found the one he wanted. All he needed to do was convince her which was harder than a hunt anyway. Getting into his hover car, he headed to work.

The start of the day went almost perfectly which should have set off some bells. Just after lunch everything went to hell and it was centered on Ernie’s area. One oven sheared some part he had never heard of while another oven burned out some element that had been replaced recently.

“This isn’t right, Maxar. This is too smooth, it looks like it was cut by a laser.” Ernie explained as she showed him the part.

Maxar had to call Razar who immediately suspected Ernie of sabotage even though she had been the one to point it out to them. “Maybe she did that to avert suspicion. It certainly worked where you were concerned. Was there trouble in any other areas?”

“Yes, the usual dose of trouble on the farm that we’ve come to expect. Two of the loaders on the dock broke and a packaging machine also went down. Only the labeling area run by Jerry had no difficulties which is weird in itself because he is the worst of my mechanics.” Maxar admitted.

“We need to get everyone in here one at a time and find out what they know. Let’s start with this Jerry since he had no trouble.” Razar suggested.

“Fine.” Maxar agreed but he knew deep down to his core that Ernie would never be involved in anything corrupt. She, more than anyone else, appreciated the opportunities working for them afforded. He stepped out of his office calling to his assistant. “Favar, would you call Jerry into my office?”

“Sure. Are you finally going to get rid of the lazy jerk?”

“Not this time. It is simply to talk to him.”

“Too bad. I’ll get him.”

“Thank you.” Maxar thought about how no one seemed to like Jerry yet he seemed to be the only obviously innocent party. It made no sense but that was the way things appeared.

Maxar went back to his office where he and Razar waited for Jerry in an uncomfortable silence. Favar got him quickly so at least the wait wasn’t long. Jerry walked in the office acting closer to what one might expect from a normal human than Maxar had ever seen from him. For some reason that bothered him.

“Hey, Boss. You wanted to see me?”

“Yes, thank you for coming, Jerry. We’ve had a few mishaps with equipment and we’re trying to figure out the cause. If someone is being sloppy, we need to put a stop to it.”

“Yes, Sir. I understand that but I assure you I am being very careful to do all my maintenance and keep up all my logs.”

“I’m sure you are, Jerry. You’ve had no problems lately and we’re grateful for that. We just wondered if you’d seen or heard anything that might give us a clue where to look?” Razar guided him.

“It’s not my way to complain or cast doubts on my boss, Ernie.”

Maxar thought that was a load of shit. Jerry complained all the time and tried to make everyone else look bad. He looked at Razar but he seemed to be buying into it.

“I’m sure it’s not but if we can’t keep the lines running, no one will have a job.”

Jerry looked at Razar as if the two of them were sharing a secret. “Well if you put it that way. Ernesta has been acting funny and she’s the most likely of all of us to stay late. If she’s doing extra maintenance, then why is everything breaking down?”

“That’s a good question and we’ll be talking to her later.”

“Could you do me a favor? Don’t tell her I told you that. I have to work for her and she can be vicious when crossed.”

The man was clearly lying but to what end Maxar couldn’t figure out. Razar nodded. “I’ll keep you out of this if at all possible.” Maxar kept his mouth shut, he wasn’t agreeing to anything.

Once Jerry was gone, Razar wanted to talk. “I think we’ve found our saboteur. It makes sense since she is the best at fixing things she’d know how to break them best too.”

“It’s not her. Ernie wouldn’t do that.”

“You’re confused because she’s an attractive female and you want her. This is why dating employees is never a good idea.”

“You’ve already judged her and found her guilty. What happened to investigating and hearing all sides? You also aren’t showing much faith in my judgement.”

“Investigating is what we’re doing now. As far as your judgement is concerned I think it’s tainted by your interest in her. Call in the next mechanic.”

Maxar went to the door feeling decidedly agitated. “Favar, I need Bella next.”

“You got it.”

Again the waiting even though it wasn’t long, grated on his nerves. “Sir?” Bella came in and he indicated the seat near the door.

“Thank you for coming, Bella. You had a breakdown in your department today and we’re trying to figure out what happened.”

“I had a packaging machine breakdown. A piece wore out prematurely but it was no big deal.”

“You’re right.” Razar agreed smoothly. “It would be no big deal if machines hadn’t broke down all over the factory within minutes or hours of each other.”

Bella was a feisty young human female who had signed on from the same station Ernie had. “You think we’re responsible?” She glared at Razar.

“Not you, Bella but someone on the inside.”

“The only one I would suspect would be Jerry but he’s too lazy to purposefully break something he would have to fix.”

“Jerry didn’t have any breakdowns.” Razar informed.

“That’s amazing but Ernie probably helped him stay caught up.”

“Why would she do that?” Razar asked.

“She’s the boss, she helps anyone that gets behind.”

“So she goes all over the factory.” Razar asked.

“Yes, but only if we get behind.”

“Did you get behind recently?”

“No, I haven’t been behind in weeks.” She informed them proudly.

Maxar was getting upset. Razar was concentrating on anything that made Ernie look guilty. Every word made her look worse in Razar’s eyes. “You may go now with our thanks.” Razar dismissed her.

“You’re only listening to the things that make her look guilty.”

“So you agree she looks guilty?” Razar asked.

“No, I agree you are only looking at the few things that were said that might make her look that way. You are usually fairer than this.”

“Our whole Oison weed industry isn’t usually at stake. Someone is out to get us and right now it looks like it’s your girlfriend.”

“Let’s take a look at this from a different view. She can’t be doing anything to the equipment coming in for the farm. Ernie doesn’t see it until it breaks. Once she fixes it, we have no problems with that equipment.”

“That just means she’s working with someone else. She’s doing a good job after the farm machinery breaks so we won’t suspect her. It’s not working because we’re smarter than that.”

“It sounds to me like you had your mind made up to begin with.”

“She’s looked guilty from the start of all these problems. I’m not even looking for it but signs are falling from the sky telling me to look at her instead of anyone else. Bring in the next one.”

Maxar’s heart felt heavy. He went to the door. “Favar can you get Doxy?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Maxar didn’t have much to say to his brother. He didn’t like the way things were headed but the more he tried to head things off, the worse they got. Doxy was another feisty Earth female. It seemed to be what they got. She’d come from another space station a lot like the one Ernie had come from.

“Am I in trouble?” She asked quietly. The female had an air of resignation like she expected to be blamed for anything and everything. Ernie had explained to Maxar that females were treated poorly by management anywhere connected to Earth. Here, she had said, was different but it hadn’t taken long for them to be painted by the same brush.

“No, Doxy. We’re just trying to figure out why we are having so many breakdowns.”

“Is there anything you can tell us?” Razar asked.

“Shouldn’t you be asking Ernie?”

“Why is she doing something to cause this?” Razar asked quickly jumping on the chance.

“No.” Doxy looked at them accusingly. “Because she’s in charge of us. She should be interviewing us not you.”

It was true. The way they had started this investigation made it clear they suspected Ernie of something. Even Bella who was dense about things like this had picked up on something. “We saved the best for last.” Razar said but his attempt at humor fell flat.

Doxy left in an evil mood and Maxar didn’t blame her. Only Jerry out of the crew of mechanics had no loyalty to Ernie and Jerry was a jerk. The next step would be to call Ernie in even though it was nearly quitting time. Razar looked at him, yeah, he knew what needed to be done. Going to the door, he almost wished Favar had gone home early, but there was no such luck.

“Favar, could you get Ernie?” Watching her being railroaded while his own brother drove the train, was frustrating as hell. Maar knew it was wrong but other than vouch for her integrity, he had no proof either way. “You are aware, Razar that all you have is conjecture? There is nothing substantiated, no real proof.”