Missing Person: A Hybrid Nation Story by Frances Pauli

Author:Frances Pauli [Pauli, Frances]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2018-12-28T05:00:00+00:00

"Hey, Warren!" The captain stood in his office doorway, one big hoof-tipped paw on the door frame and the other waving for attention.

"Yeah?" Joll paused mid-step. The files on the facility murder were tucked under one of his arms, and his selected crew already waited for him in the garage.

"A moment." The boss waved once more, and then the lion-oryx backed into his office.

"Scat!" Joll cursed and changed his trajectory. The lab reports had already set him on edge. He needed to get moving before the panic swelled any further. Stopping to chat with the boss would delay action, and after he'd read the reports, action was the only thing on his mind.

He marched into the captain's office with his tail lashing and his ears up.

"Have a seat," the boss's face spoke more to his minor than his lion. Only the huge mane gave that away, and it was subdued somehow by the twin horns poking out above the hybrid's ears. "Need to talk to you."

Joll eyed the chairs in the room skeptically. "I'm halfway out the door. Can it wait?"

"Where are you going?"

"Taking a small team back to the FDIA. New evidence threw a wrench in the statements we took."

"Leave it." The captain heaved a sigh that stretched the buttons on his uniform. He tapped his hoofed fingers against the top of his desk. "Sit, Warren. We need to talk."

"Leave it?" Joll sulked to the nearest chair, pulled it closer to the captain's desk, and dropped into it too fast, sitting on his tail and forcing himself to stand briefly again to extract it. "We found prime hair at the crime scene, captain. There was a monkey involved in this, and we both know—"

"We know nothing."

"That's a damn lie." Joll thumped his file onto the desk and made a show of opening it. The prime hair had freaked him out, yes. Not only because a prime had no damn business inside the Hybrid Nation, let alone at an atypical facility. No, he'd been hearing that little boy's voice in his head all morning.

I dreamed the monkeys came to take me away.

He'd been blind the whole time. Maybe his own childhood nightmares had colored the comment innocently, or maybe no sane hybrid would believe a prime had snuck across the border, invaded a place the whole nation trusted to guard its weakest children.

"We're off this case. No." The captain's paw came up faster than Joll could react. It blocked his unspoken protest. "No argument. I got the call this morning, Warren. From a representative on the council of alphas. This is way, way over my head."

"They can't bury this, cap. This is too big."

"I imagine that's exactly why they'll bury it, Joll."

"They can't." He tightened his grip on the evidence, as if clinging to it could change anything. As if he didn't know the outcome of this conversation.

"They already have." The captain reached for his file, reached right across the desk for it. When Joll jerked it away, the lion

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