March 9, 2363 AIA

Ionu

Reyer and Vas were sitting with Tate back at the safe house when they heard the door open downstairs. Vas’s e-pistol, along with most of the other guns, had been lost in the warehouse, so he drew his sword, walked over to the bedroom door, and peered through the small opening.

When Alix saw him relax, she felt her own shoulders unbind.

Vas opened the door further to reveal Jun Fenn. The sheriff nodded to Vas, crossed over to the chair the captain had recently vacated, and crashed into it. Vas didn’t object. Fenn looked like he needed to sit down. Adan went to stand by Reyer.

“Behold,” Vas cried, “the master and tyrant of an entire planet! How’s martial law treating you?”

Fenn didn’t even open his eyes. “If I ordered you to cut off your own head with that sword, I think you’d find my power has its limits.”

“Well, I’m a rebel. I learned to challenge authority about the time it became legal for the peacekeepers and MPs to take control on a whim.”

“Adan Javier Vas—”

“It’s all right, Miss Reyer,” Fenn said. “I wouldn’t want you to stifle his free speech. That’s my job.”

“How are Wyss and Davis?” Tate asked.

Fenn forced his eyes open and sat up in his chair. “I’m actually here on Eve’s behalf. She wants to know how you’re doing.”

“She can come check on me herself.”

“I suspect she will, but for now I’ve asked her to take some time off work to rest at home. Though, I wouldn’t take any bets as to whether or not she’ll do it.”

“Is she all right?”

“She’s healing, and she’s cheerful. Considering what she’s been through, I find that comforting.” After a pause, Jun added, “She’ll probably have a few scars.”

“And Davis?”

To Vas and Reyer, the sheriff seemed to grow wearier, but Tate, who knew him better, saw the sorrow.

“He’s lost the eye for sure,” Fenn said, “and he’ll need specialized treatment and therapy if there’s going to be a chance for him to recover full use of his left side—”

“His left—” Tate bit back his own comment.

Reyer realized that whenever she saw Dr. Davis, his cane was always in his right hand, supporting his bad right leg. The man had run out of options.

The sheriff glanced at his deputy, then continued, “He also blacks out. It doesn’t last long, but it happens randomly.”

“He won’t be able to work as a doctor,” Reyer said.

Fenn nodded.

“How’s he handling it?” Vas asked.

Tate scoffed. “The man can’t possibly get any grumpier. He’s probably taking it in stride—happy to shovel it in with all the rest of the complaining he does.”

Fenn didn’t respond. He was too busy reflecting on the strange moment, back in the hospital, when Davis had looked up at him with his one good eye.

“Thank you, Jun.”

Jun had sat there without knowing how to answer.

Nathaniel looked away. “I always hated myself for not doing something. I thought the cost would be too high.” His right hand touched the patch on his face. “It was pretty high, but I’m glad I did it.”

Back then Fenn hadn’t known what to say, but now he found his voice: “I think the old man will be all right.”

“Curmudgeons are the toughest race in the galaxy, Boss,” Tate said.

“It’s true. I’d rather have one of them at my side than an entire platoon of Spartans.”

This was said with the utmost seriousness on the sheriff’s part. Reyer looked away so her smile wouldn’t ruin the moment.

“What about Gloria?” Vas asked.

Tate added, “Did you come to an agreement with her?”

“Does telling her that I still intend to arrest her count?”

Joseph stared at Fenn, then put his forehead in his hand. “No, Boss. That doesn’t count.”

“Good. I’d hate for you to think I’d make agreements with criminals. However, I don’t like to betray allies either, so I promised her I’d keep her name out of the inquiry. Thanks to your brother’s wizardry”—Fenn nodded to Vas—“I don’t think that will be a problem.”

“Then whose explosives did we steal?” Adan asked.

“Ashtell’s. From their on-planet storage. A bunch of the stuff is missing, and Captain Turay’s newest shipment hasn’t arrived. Her on-route armada is still stuck out in space. One of their ships is experiencing technical difficulties, and the others are staying with it until a fix is found.”

Reyer said, “She’s left already, hasn’t she?”

“This morning. Before it got light.”

Tate looked at his boss with a calculating expression. “You know, I think, if you’d handled things correctly, our glorious admiral might have been willing to appear as a witness.”

“Deputy, I’m frankly insulted that you assume I didn’t manage the exchange with all the grace and diplomacy at my disposal. I’ll have you know she was ecstatic about the idea of testifying against me, especially after I told her I still intended to arrest her.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Then why did she load up her ship with old explosives and leave?”

“I felt it was my duty to warn her that if she appeared for the hearing, and her story tallied with mine, there might be people who’d want to discredit her, and her business was likely to fall under scrutiny.”

“And what did she say to that?” Reyer asked.

“She flipped me off and told me I wasn’t going to find the evidence that easily.”

There was an impish smile on Adan’s face. “What do you think she meant by that, Sheriff?”

“I’m sure I don’t know, Captain Vas. Who can fathom the workings of the female mind?”

Reyer rolled her eyes while Tate and Vas chimed in with their loud agreements.

Once they had quieted down, Alix said, “How’s everything…else…out there?”

Fenn’s face had no expression to lose, and as far as Alix could see, it didn’t move at all, and yet, there seemed to be a new depth to the silence that followed her question.

It was barely broken by the soft words the sheriff uttered.

“It’s quiet.” He took a breath. “I think everyone is confused and scared. The people who were in Byrick’s organization must have figured out they weren’t responsible for the bombing, and now their leader has been taken out under unusual circumstances. They have no idea what’s going on.”

“What happened to Byrick?” Tate asked.

Fenn laced his fingers together, then put his elbows on the arms of the chair. He sat in the deeper-than-average silence and thought. Vas and Reyer both took their cue from Tate and let the man think.

At last, he said, “I don’t need to bother with warrants during martial law. Under the guise of searching for the terrorists, Tennama and I went everywhere, and we met with everyone.”

Vas muttered, “Byrick was a xeno.”

“Byrick was the only other xeno we found. I took him into custody. As Tennama and I were questioning him, Ciro came by to talk to me. Byrick used that as a chance to try to escape. When he came at me with his claws, I shot him in the head.”

The other three people in the room joined in the thoughtful silence.

“The body?” Vas asked.

“Dr. Jane arrived within minutes. She made sure it was stored quickly and properly, so at least we’ll have that as evidence.”

Reyer said, “What was his rank as a xeno?”

Fenn looked at her.

“Relative to Tennama,” she explained. “Was he more powerful or less powerful?”

“Less powerful.”

“And Tennama was asking the questions?”

“Yes. Byrick—the thing that looked like Byrick—claimed there were no xenos left on the planet and only the new-born queen had left.”

Tate spoke slowly, as if he was considering the idea as he said it: “The xeno shouldn’t have been able to lie to Tennama.”

“The xeno might not have known,” Vas pointed out.

“We’ll have to be careful,” Reyer said. “We’ll have to let people know.”

“That, at least, won’t be a problem,” Fenn said. He leaned forward in the chair. “Tate, I have to ask you something. Do you intend to stay on Ionu?”

“How dare you!” Reyer cried.

Fenn was startled by her sudden exclamation. It sounded as if she was teasing him, but unless he was mistaken, there was also some real indignation.

Tate spoke up to defend his boss: “Sarge, he’s an officer. You can’t expect them to know better.”

Jun’s eyes darted over to Vas. The captain was shaking his head while wearing a faint smile, so at least one officer had some idea of what was going on.

Reyer said to Fenn, “If you honestly think Tate would leave you at a time like this, then you don’t deserve him.”

“Miss Reyer,” Fenn said, “I’ll do my best to protect him, but I can’t promise him anything. This will require the truth”—since Fenn was essentially an honest man, he added—“or something fairly close to it.”

“He didn’t ask you for anything! He offered to be your second.”

Fenn looked at Joseph.

“I’m staying, Boss,” Tate said. “If you haven’t fired me or arrested me, I’m still your deputy.”

“I don’t think I’m going to let you off that easy. Rest for now. I’ll need you later.” Fenn forced himself to his feet. “Miss Reyer, could I talk to you for a minute? In private?”

Reyer’s eyes widened, but she refrained from asking why. Vas and Tate were equally surprised by the request.

“Certainly, Sheriff.” Alix grabbed on to Adan’s arm. He unconsciously helped her to her feet.

Vas watched as Fenn held the door open for her. He was still staring after them when Tate backhanded his leg.

“You can sit down now, Captain.”

Vas pulled the chair back and sat. A few seconds later, he stopped glancing at the door and focused on Tate instead.

Tate shook his head and smiled. “Honestly, Vas. You’re awful.”

[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]

Fenn and Reyer went down to the small kitchen. She accepted his offer of a glass of water. Jun crossed over to the cupboards while she stayed on the other side of the kitchen island. He filled a glass, passed it to Alix, then turned to get his own.

“You wanted to talk to me, Sheriff?” Reyer asked.

“I wanted your opinion.” Fenn turned off the water and turned to her, glass in hand. “Something happened, and I don’t know what to make of it.”

“I’m listening.”

“It’s about Tennama.”

Reyer’s wariness disappeared. Now she was all attention.

“Tennama’s a high ranking xeno,” the sheriff said.

It wasn’t a question, but Alix felt the need to say something. “He’s a memory-keeper. He’s one of the highest.”

Fenn put his glass on the island between them. “Have you ever seen it?”

Reyer didn’t know what to say.

Jun pulled out a stool and sat down. “When we walked into the main office, the entire upper echelon of Ashtell was there. Byrick stepped out of the crowd. I have no doubt he meant to give me a piece of his mind, but instead, he froze. He didn’t even look at Tennama, but when he turned to run, all Tennama had to do was tell him to stop. Just ‘stop.’ He didn’t even raise his voice. And Byrick obeyed.” Fenn stared off into space. “It looked…painful.” The sheriff shook his head. “I can’t explain it. I’ve never seen anything like it. We told everyone else to leave, and we took Byrick into a private office to talk to him.”

“Is that where he died?”

“I left him with Tennama while I went to the door to talk to Ciro, but I heard him start to run. My hand was on my pistol. His claws came out. It happened in seconds, Miss Reyer.”

Her voice was quiet. “It always does, Sheriff.”

“Then I looked up at Tennama.”

Reyer waited.

“He was just watching me. I’ve killed one of his people…and there’s no reaction.”

“Does that surprise you, Sheriff?”

“Miss Reyer, why didn’t he tell Byrick to stop?”

Alix gazed at the glass of water in front of her.

Jun said, “I will never know if he ordered that xeno to try to escape, but I do know he could have stopped it with a word. Why didn’t he?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“Because I think you know.”

“You could’ve said all this upstairs.”

Fenn took a long drink of water, then said, “He trusts you. I think, with good reason. I don’t know if the others would be so kindly disposed toward him.”

You were worried about him, she thought. You wanted to understand what happened, but you didn’t want the others to have more reason to mistrust him when you didn’t know what was going on.

She sighed. “Anthony Tennama believes that the only way to keep his species safe is to make sure all the human-xenos are dead.”

“We wouldn’t have let Byrick escape.”

“You know, I wonder—what would the Supremacy have done with him? A lifetime imprisonment? Alone?—except for the experiments, of course. What do you think, Sheriff?”

Jun Fenn was still for a moment. “I see.” He drank some more water. “What are you going to do with Tennama?”

“He comes with us.”

“To where? What do you do with something like him?”

“We take care of our allies, Sheriff. And he’s a person, not a thing.”

Jun tried to read her face, but she was almost as good at hiding her thoughts as he was—only she managed it with an arch smile and one raised eyebrow.

“All right, Miss Reyer,” Fenn said. “A tyrant can only do so much. I’ll leave him to you.” He finished his drink. “I hope you’ll keep in touch with Tate. I know you two are close.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Sheriff. I’ll see what I can do about keeping you informed.”

“Well, if you insist, I’d say that’s very considerate of you. Now, please excuse me. I have a planet to run.”

He stopped at the door when he heard Reyer call him. She crossed the room toward him. Her limp was much less noticeable now, but you could tell walking was still painful.

When they were close, she said, “Thank you, Fenn.”

“You’re welcome.”

“You’ll take care of Tate for me, won’t you?”

“I will, Miss Reyer.”

Alix nodded, content. With that, the sheriff left.

Reyer shut the door behind him, but she didn’t go back upstairs. She returned to the kitchen island, picked up her glass of water, and went to sit on the sofa. She wanted some time to think.