Defender (Hive Mind Book 2) by Janet Edwards

Author:Janet Edwards [Edwards, Janet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wallam-Crane Press
Published: 2017-12-06T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-three

I sat in a spare waiting room with Lucas, Adika, Forge, and Kaden. Lucas was projecting the image from Spike’s camera on the white wall in front of us. It showed an apartment door.

“Spike, enter the apartment,” said Eli’s voice.

The image jolted around a bit, and then we got a view of a standard apartment hallway. Eli guided Spike on into the living room, and I gasped.

“Now I understand what Amber meant when she said Richar had an unusually orderly mind,” said Lucas.

There was a moment of silence while we all absorbed the view of the floor to ceiling shelves that lined every wall, and the precisely arranged row of objects on each of them.

Adika stood up for a moment to get a closer look at the objects. “Everything seems to be labelled and in alphabetical order.”

“Richar is a Filing Optimization Expert,” said Lucas. “Clearly Lottery chose him for that work because he loves organizing things.”

“Richar admired Fran’s meticulous attention to detail,” I said.

“Well, this should make our search easy,” said Lucas. “If Fran gave anything to Richar, then the man will have labelled and filed it. The obvious place to start looking is under ‘F’ for Fran. Can you turn Spike to face the wall to his left please, Eli?”

“Spike, turn ninety degrees left,” said Eli.

“And there it is,” said Lucas. “A small box wrapped in gift paper, and neatly labelled ‘Birthday present from Fran’. When is Richar’s birthday, Nicole?”

“Three days away,” said Nicole.

“The ideal arrangement,” said Lucas. “Fran knew that meeting her recruits would be dangerous. She tried to safeguard herself by giving Richar what she said was a birthday present but we hope actually contains information.”

He pulled a face. “Fran knew someone with Richar’s orderly mind would never open his present before the correct day. If all went well, she could make an excuse to retrieve the present and replace its contents before then. If things went badly, then Richar would open his present. Presumably there are instructions inside about what to do with the information.”

He paused. “Things went badly for both Fran and Richar. Eli, please get Spike to retrieve that box and bring it back to us at the Fire Casualty Centre.”

“Do I have to come back through the waste system?” asked Eli’s voice.

“I’m afraid so,” said Lucas. “Please put the box in the bag with Spike, so it doesn’t come into contact with anything nasty.”

Eli sighed.

It would take a while for Eli to get back to the Fire Casualty Centre. I closed my eyes, and searched for the barely perceptible thoughts of Rothan, wanting to check on his condition. I found him, but there were two minds close by that flared with urgency.

Worried that something was wrong, I dived into one of the intensely focused minds, and found myself looking down at an open cocoon containing a naked Rothan. My hands tensed as I drove a needle into his left lung. I glanced at a scanner.

“Confirm position,” I said.

“Position confirmed,” said a woman’s voice.

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