Catalyst by Emma L. Adams

Author:Emma L. Adams [Adams, Emma L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 27279178
Publisher: CreateSpace
Published: 2016-09-20T05:00:00+00:00

11

Kay

I came to my senses when I reached the entrance hall and found Ada in conversation with Saki, of all people.

“Hey,” I said to Ada. “You all right?”

“Kay.” She gave me a tired smile. “Yeah. I’m okay. Did you get the latest message from the council?”

“What this time? The council aren’t even here.”

“Someone’s been busy denying every report you’ve ever made,” said Saki.

I rolled my eyes. “Incredible. I thought you didn’t believe me about the Stoneskins, anyway.”

“After Valeria? I saw those creatures on the news.”

“Good,” I said savagely. “That makes one person on the goddamned planet.”

“Not just one,” said Amanda, who’d just come through the doors. “I believe you. So does my sister. You’ll have support from others at Central.”

“Exactly,” said Ada. “He can’t deny what’s happened when he wasn’t even on this world. He doesn’t know shit, Kay—and you know it.”

Yeah. I did. I just didn’t want to believe it. There was something to expecting the worst of people. It took away the shock when it came true. God only knew I’d spent enough years playing mind games with Lawrence Walker.

“So a handful of people believe the truth. But who has the power here?”

“You do,” said Saki.

“I’m not on the council. I’m not authorised to make decisions on behalf of Earth’s Alliance, and thanks to Walker, the two of us are listed as unreliable and unstable.”

“I can take care of it,” said Saki. “I have… experience in falsifying records. Learned it from Walker himself, actually.”

“You what?”

“Walker wanted me to fake certain documents to hide the cause of death of operatives in an offworld mission. More than once.”

“He told you to do it?”

Saki glared at me. “If I wanted to keep my job, I had no choice.”

Ada made a choked sound. “That’s twisted. He can’t have…”

“He can.” Of course he could. All my worst fears were slamming down on me, and there wasn’t a thing I could do. “Did… did you happen to see the records of Thairon?”

I had to know. Never mind that Ada and Amanda were here, watching. Never mind that a significant part of me didn’t want to know.

“Of course,” said Saki, in tones that suggested I was an idiot for asking. “When I was an intern here, six years ago. He picked someone who didn’t dare report a superior.”

The world tilted under my feet. “You do realise his wife was killed on that world? What about the version told to the victims’ families? Was that a lie?”

“All the records say is that the team went offworld and never came back. The official records say “cause of death unknown”. Nobody else went after them.”

I took a calming breath, wishing the tight feeling in my chest would go away. She didn’t know any more than I did. I only knew my mother had died on Thairon because she’d told me herself where she was going, before she left on the mission. That was the last time I’d seen her. “Thairon’s records are entirely falsified?”

“Not entirely,” said Saki, giving me a wary look like she expected me to fly off the handle.

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