Kayla ran up the polished marble steps of the University of Rackeye, heading for the main reception area. As she passed through throngs of young men and women, she noticed that people seemed more deferential to her presence than they’d been before. Nobody blocked her passage or challenged her reason for being there.
She imagined it must be the way she walked, or held people’s gazes. The usual anxiety she felt in public spaces had vanished. Now she could get into any situation and handle the consequences. After all, she was a brand-new Ranger.
By contrast, the people around her seemed diminished. They hunched their shoulders or looked away nervously, seemingly devoid of clear purpose as they spoke and moved around. For the first time in her life, Kayla saw the insecurity that underlay most people’s behavior. It seemed so alien after the absurd confidence of the Valkyrie women she’d grown used to.
A sharp tone of voice would probably get her whatever she wanted, but Kayla chided herself. That wouldn’t be a good thing to do.
She strode up to the lobby’s main desk. “Hi,” she said brightly to the receptionist.
A young woman turned around with a scowl that softened as she caught Kayla’s eye. “How can I help you?” she asked.
Kayla beamed. “I’m looking for a post-doc who works here—Weslan Genny? We were supposed to meet in town earlier, but I was running late, and I wanted to apologize.”
The lie was startlingly easy. It wasn’t that she enjoyed misleading the other girl, but she had an objective, and she’d be damned if she let something as silly as morality get in the way of it.
The receptionist tapped away at her computer, then frowned. “Yes, office thirty-five B, but that’s an employee-only area. You’ll need to take a seat and wait for security personnel.”
“Sure, thanks for your help.”
Kayla wandered over to the seating area and sank into a chair, her eyes searching the building for details. There was a checkpoint gate leading to a corridor, at the far end of which a sign read ‘25 to 45—Biologicals’. Of course, most buildings made themselves easy to navigate, even secure ones. Deciding that she could manage without an escort, she waited until the receptionist vanished from her desk to take care of another task. Then she jumped up, walking closely behind a young man who flashed his phone at the checkpoint.
“H-hey,” he stammered as she pushed through behind him.
“Move it, please,” Kayla snapped. “I’m late for a meeting.”
“B-but…”
“Stop holding people up, young man!”
He stood aside, his jaw flapping, while she strode confidently away. Nobody questioned the purposeful woman who looked like she knew where she was going. Following the signs, she eventually came to the office the receptionist had mentioned. A small plaque said ‘Weslan Genny, PhD’ on the door, but the office looked like it hadn’t been used in months. A fine layer of dust covered the computer monitor and desk, but Kayla couldn’t see anything that might give her a clue about Weslan’s current location. As she headed back out into the corridor, she caught sight of another name—Fayel Jearsan—a girl that had been senior to her in Madam Georgia’s, and a friend of Weslan’s. The tag sat over a cubicle in a large open area, where Fayel sat at her computer, focused on her work.
“Fayel?” Kayla asked cheerfully.
The women looked around, and her expression turned to one of shock. “Kayla? Kayla Barnes? What are—My god it’s been so long!”
They hugged awkwardly, and though they had barely ever spoken before, Fayel was so surprised she accepted Kayla’s forceful small talk.
“What are you doing here?” Fayel asked eventually.
Kayla shook her head with mock frustration. “I was supposed to meet Weslan in town, but he didn’t show up, and I thought I’d find him here at his old office. I have a ton of work stuff to deal with, but he has to be a lousy communicator.”
“Oh.” Fayel seemed to deflate a little. “Well, nobody’s seen him for quite some time. To tell the truth, we’re a bit worried. It’s that classified project he was moved to. I guess they don’t let him out very often.”
“Oh, sure,” Kayla said, though she had no idea what Fayel was talking about. “Last time we spoke, he seemed really stressed. Exhausted even—I do hope they’re not draining his life away.”
Fayel shrugged helplessly.
“Do you know where he moved to?” Kayla pressed.
“Well, no. It’s a confidential project.”
“Of course, but I mean you must have heard something—” Kayla stopped, and her blood ran cold as she noticed something in the corner of her eye.
There was a brightly colored object on Fayel’s desk; a crystal, just like the one her father had given her on the day he was killed. The vision of the mud-smeared jewel drifted through her mind as the chill was replaced with a rush of heat and adrenaline.
Kayla’s smile vanished. No-one in the farms sold bilrust crystals since the attacks had begun. The hiker who collected them was presumed to be one of the first killed.
She jabbed a finger at the object, all pretense of friendliness gone. “Where did you get that?” she snapped.
Fayel looked down to where Kayla was pointing. When she looked back up, her eyes betrayed fear. “What?” she asked, almost angrily.
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Kayla’s mind raced. Fayel was acting like she’d been caught with something she wasn’t supposed to have, which meant someone had smuggled it to her. But from where?
Kayla’s eyes narrowed as she was seized by a wild hunch. “Weslan gave that to you,” she said accusingly.
The woman’s shocked expression told Kayla all she needed to know.
“Excuse me, Miss?” a voice said.
They looked around to see two smartly dressed men, one brandishing a security badge, and Kayla’s skin tingled with goosebumps.
They were too muscular for college security, and there was something in their eyes and posture that separated them from everyone else. Something that Kayla had been accustomed to seeing in the women on Tyr.
One man’s eyes ran up and down her body, not lustily checking her out, but scanning quickly for something—weapons? The other man’s eyes darted quickly about the room, and when he caught her gaze, he returned it without blinking. Neither of them approached her directly, keeping their distance, shoulders relaxed, and hands held close to the subtle bulges at their hips.
They had to be military, and only Helvet soldiers would be walking around Rackeye looking for trouble.
Kayla almost panicked. After all her training, was she giving away any subtle signals? She tried to subtly hunch her shoulders while avoiding eye contact.
“Sorry, can we help you?” she asked, smiling nervously.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us, Miss,” the first man said. “Seems there was an irregularity with your security pass.”
It was a lie, told expertly, and with a hint of a smirk. They knew, and they knew that she knew.
“Oh, well, you know I just dropped in to say hi to a friend.” Kayla laughed nervously. She was nothing but a mischievous passerby with little regard for the rules.
“All the same, miss, we just need to process it through again.”
They clearly weren’t buying her act.
“Sure,” Kayla said, and turned reluctantly to follow them.
One of the men dropped behind her while the other stayed at her side, and their steps synchronized into a steady march. Kayla forced herself not to follow the same rhythm as she cursed the useless parade ground instruction that had given her the habit.
They walked in silence while she desperately scanned around, searching for any way out. Just ahead of her was a staircase down to a fire escape door. The men were no doubt watching for her to make a move, which meant she’d only have one advantage—she could move much faster than they’d be expecting.
As they drew level with the door, Kayla jabbed her foot out, tripping the man to her side before she darted away. She moved as fast as she could, but even so, felt fingertips brush against her arm. Yelling broke out behind her as she slammed through the fire escape and found herself in a parking lot. She raced immediately to the far wall, vaulted over the top of it, and dropped to the other side. Then she ran as fast as she could into the streets around the university, turning corners and taking side streets at random.
Eventually, Kayla stopped to get her breath back and tried to think through the adrenaline. If there were Helvetic military on Caldera, hiding themselves as security guards, then she had a serious problem. They certainly hadn’t shown up to stop some girl jumping a security gate in a public university. They’d shown up, she realized with a chill, because she’d asked the receptionist about Weslan.
And Fayel had somehow received a chunk of a bilrust crystal. There was no possible way she’d journeyed down to the mountains where they formed, and there was no good reason for Weslan to have done so either. Unless the Helvets really were more involved in the attacks on the farms than anyone had realized.
Kayla’s muscles began to shake as she came down from the adrenaline high, so she sat on a bench and tried to think. She could try contacting Masey, or someone else in Valkyrie, but it wasn’t like she had any evidence. They would probably laugh at her for getting in trouble, and spinning wild stories.
But hundreds of Calderans had gone missing around the mountains. If the terrorist Rayker was known to be on the planet too, then there had to be a connection. But could Weslan really be involved? How? She had never imagined him to be the type of guy to get involved with something so dark and sinister.
Whatever was going on, Kayla’s only leads were probably still looking for her around the university grounds. Even if Masey’s team believed her, she couldn’t contact them in time to follow the men back to their base of operations. If Kayla let them go, she might have lost her last chance to get to the bottom of whatever was happening to her home.
She stopped in a clothes shop, picked up a new jacket, and put on a pair of sunglasses. Letting her hair down from her usual ponytail, she tossed it around to give it a wild look, and completed the image with a stylish scarf around her neck. She circled back to the university, where she sat in a café across the street from the main concourse, ordered a drink, and pretended to be engrossed in her phone. Her patience paid off when the two ‘security guards’ emerged from the main entrance and headed on foot into the city.
Kayla put down her drink, tapped a remote payment into her phone, and got up to follow them.
She tried her best to improvise—though she had no training in tailing suspects—and pretended to be a bored shopper. Whenever the men stopped at a crosswalk or to make a call, she stared intently at the nearest shop window, studying whatever was on display. At one point, they doubled back, and she darted inside a boutique, only reemerging once she saw them stroll purposefully past the entrance. She kept following them out towards the residential part of the city, maintaining distance as they made several turns along a confusing route. Kayla had no idea where they were going, but she had nothing better to do than find out.
Though she tried to stay inconspicuous, the men soon wandered into tighter side streets through a cluster of apartment buildings. Kayla had to let some distance open up, or she’d risk being spotted, but the tail became harder to maintain as they moved further away. She tried her best to stay with them, but after she rounded the corner of yet another block, they vanished.
It was getting late in the day, and Kayla had no idea where she was. A cold wind was blowing, so she drew her jacket tightly around herself, and tried to make her way back to a main road. A black cloud darkened her spirit. She cursed herself for losing the one link she had left to Weslan, and maybe even the truth to whatever was happening on Caldera.
She made it halfway down an empty avenue when one of the men stepped out of an alleyway in front of her, grinning slyly.
“Looking for someone, miss secret agent?” he asked.
Kayla turned to run, but the second man had appeared behind her. Her stomach tightened into knots. Both men drew guns, and she cursed herself for being so foolish, trying to tail no doubt experienced soldiers, when she had no idea what she was doing.
The worst part was that they’d want to know who she was and who she worked for. With her hand still buried in her jacket pocket, Kayla touched the cold metal of the panic alarm, and felt even more dread at the consequences of using it. The situation had been entirely her fault, and if she survived, she was going to be in serious trouble.
But there was no choice. She thumbed the button, then put on a bright smile and walked straight up to the man in front of her. He stepped back and brought his weapon up.
“Don’t worry,” Kayla said. “I surrender. You got me.”
“Let me see those hands, girl,” he demanded, as his partner approached from behind her, weapon also raised.
Kayla opened her palms and lifted her arms. “Happy?”
“Who are you?” her captor asked. “What are you doing snooping around the university?”
Kayla went for broke. She fixed a manic expression on her face and tried to bring up tears. “Weslan won’t answer my calls,” she said desperately. “I have to see him—I can’t live without him.” She stepped forward, and her voice became pleading. “I thought if I followed you, you’d lead me to him.”
The man’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.