Confluence by J.W. Griffin

Author:J.W. Griffin [Griffin, J W]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Griffin

Bayhden raised his arm with an open hand. “Wait, I thought you guys were getting along famously. You’ve yet to be defeated, right?” The general gazed at her from behind the expansive dark wood flat top of his office desk.

Khattara stood in the center of the room. “Yes, we work well as a team, but…” she winced at her own words. “That’s not the point. Recently I’ve learned some things about him that raise some alarming questions. Did you know he’s the board president of a massive multi-system corporation? That he owns a Paavi cargo line?”

Bayhden looked flatly at his niece. “I wasn’t aware that was a crime.”

“It’s not a crime, but why didn’t he disclose it?”

“I dunno. Maybe he didn’t want people to know he was affluent. His kind are sensitive about that topic. Maybe he used his position and influence within the Paavi Trade Guild to orchestrate this appointment? Who knows? Have you asked him?”

“Sort of.”

“And?”

“His response was less than complete.” Khattara’s index finger pointed and bounced with her words. “He found Jheleen on Khuzu. He found a single grain amidst a desert, a desert that also happens to be a lawless, war-torn world with no central registry. Curious trick for a Paavi trader, I should think. Then he orchestrates her extraction along with a few hundred other refugees to Eitchu…hundreds. How does an average Paavi business guy orchestrate the logistics for that kind of mission?”

Bayhden nodded. “Yeah, I’d love to know details of that operation.” His eyes drifted off to an imaginary horizon. “No doubt he used his cargo line as a ruse and somehow infiltrated the planet. He must’ve leveraged his contacts to ascertain her location. That must have been—”

“Uncle, you’re not striking the proper tone here!”

“Khattara, I’m just not seeing the same red flags.”

“Tell me then, why’d he do it? What motivates a logical being to travel into a known den of death like Khuzu?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because he likes you and wanted to help. Maybe he did it because it was just the right thing to do.”

“No.” Khattara shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. There’s more to it; there’s always more to it. And why am I having to explain this to you?”

Bayhden sighed and smiled tenderly at his niece. “Dear one, every kind act isn’t a front for conspiracy or subterfuge.”

Khattara’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, and there’s another thing.” She whisked a tablet in front of Bayhden that showed a map of the campus. An animation showed a line of travel documenting the movements of a single student badge. Khattara nodded and smiled with knowing satisfaction.

Bayhden shook his head. “I’m not sure what I’m looking at here. Is this a location track for the Paavi?”

Khattara nodded with emphasis. “Yeah. Notice anything odd?”

Bayhden watched the animation loop through a couple of days. He pinched his lips together and shook his head. “Nope.”

Khattara scoffed. “You see the lapse of time here where there’s zero movement?” She pointed to the tablet. “There and…there. Those are five-to-seven-hour lapses with no movement.

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