Playing God by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-12-21T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter XI

The aerial record hasn't shown up anything." Lieutenant Ryan stood at the end of the conference table in Keale's office with his hands behind his back. Keale listened to him with a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Then again, with all the relocation traffic, you could drive an elephant under us and we'd be hard put to notice. We've had no new construction, no new military activity, no extra movement around the Parliament. We have people down in the security tunnels, and everybody who isn't stationed out on the Ur or the Cairo is in the Hundred Isles."

As Keale watched Ryan's face, something in him began to recover. The lieutenant didn't look nearly uncomfortable enough for someone whose report to his superior was a long litany of nothing.

"So, what have we got?"

"Three more missing persons."

Keale sat bolt upright. "What?"

Ryan ran a cable from the infoview on his hand to the tabletop. He touched the PLAY key on one of the keypads. The wall screen lit up and showed the playback of a set of shuttle passengers disembarking at the Getesaph departure point. Most of them were Humans in clean-suits, but a pair of Dedelphi, a mother and daughter, picked their way through the Human stream. They held hands tightly as they hurried across the concrete to the port's main building.

"Before Nussbaumer left t'Aori, she authorized travel orders for Praeis Shin t'Theria and her daughter Resaime Shin to go from t'Aori to the Hundred Isles. Nussbaumer also set them up with a room at the port."

Keale leaned forward. "Shin t'Theria? Didn't she found Crater Town?"

"Her family did. She was called back by the Queens-of-All to help out with Dedelphi-Human relations."

"That's right. I met her at a couple of prep meetings." Keale's eyes narrowed. "That doesn't look like her."

"It isn't." Ryan murmured something to his implant. The scene cut to the inside of the port building. The pair of Dedelphi, almost lost in a sea of their kindred, moved toward a comm station. "This one"--Ryan touched the mother--"is Praeis Shin's sister, Senejess Shin. A little while after Nussbaumer got here, she got a message from Praeis Shin saying that the letter that had been sent asking Nussbaumer for travel help was forged by her sister, who was traveling under Praeis's name with Praeis's daughter, presumably to spy on the Getesaph." Ryan looked triumphant at having gotten through that chain of events.

Keale replayed the sentence in his head and sorted through it until he decided he had a grasp on the main players. "Do we know why Nussbaumer didn't just haul Senejess Shin out of circulation like she should have?"

"No," said Ryan. "All we know is that Senejess Shin and Resaime Shin are missing. Apparently the Queens-of-All know it, too. They've called an emergency session of the Confederation for this afternoon."

Oh, just what we need; the t'Theria and the Getesaph up in metaphorical arms. "Did Nussbaumer have any contact with them at the port?"

Ryan shook his head. "Not as far as we know.

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