by Allynn Riggs
“My apologies for the interruption. I need to introduce you to some people.”
Treyder froze a neutral expression on his face when he offered a high bow to the young woman at the Southerner’s side as she was introduced.
Thanks to extensive practice, he was able to keep his voice even and his face neutral as he greeted her. “You’re all grown up, Miss Chenak.” Perhaps that would throw her off.
“Should I know you?”
He pasted on a smile meant to relax his opponent even as his mind raced toward panic. What in all the hells of Teramar was she doing here? Would she remember anything about the cavern? “I think it unlikely, though we did cross paths at company gatherings occasionally when you were still in local schooling. I worked with your mother until about five years ago. She was a gifted physician and researcher. I was sorry to hear of her death. We will miss her.” He could allow her to know he had once respected her mother even though he had celebrated her death, which had come too soon for his purposes. “I didn’t get a chance to offer my condolences. Please accept them now.” He bowed a second time, more deeply.
She responded with a similar bow and thanked him. She didn’t seem to recognize his voice. Good. When he bought the contraband, he had been told that the poison would impact her memory as well as slow her reaction time. Just how much did she remember? Not even the sound of his voice seemed to set her off. But would the missing memory effect be permanent? He fervently hoped so. He noticed her eyes flicking to the two men as if asking permission for her next words. Both men smiled at her, and when she turned her attention back to him, she asked what projects he had worked on with her mother. He gave her a rather brief and vague explanation about how her mother had steered him towards mechanical design because she had noticed his expertise in that area. Then he smoothly changed the subject to avoid further disclosure. Too much information might spoil his cover.
When he asked how he might assist them, the nosy little sheriff answered, “We’re looking for Doctor Tezak Ganevek. I was told you might know where he is.”
Treyder thought a moment, trying to place the local physician who had allowed him to return to the valley not fully aware of the reasons he had left or of the reasons for his desire to return. “Ah, I believe he is ensconced in the third lab on the right, across from his office. At least, he stated he was headed there this morn.” He wondered why they were searching out the local doctor. Had he assisted in the removal of the device?
“Doctor Ganevek agreed to help us locate some notes from Miss Chenak’s mother. We may need to access some of the older sections of the building for that research. I also wanted to make you aware that Miss Chenak and Renloret will be in and out of the building over the coming weeks.”
Treyder did his best to cover his fear with professionalism. “Will you need access to all the labs?” The last thing he needed was for them to discover his little collection of machines and deduce his connection to the green-eyed Miss Chenak’s near demise.
“Don’t worry. They’re not interested in bothering anyone’s current research. It’s a personal matter.”
“I’m only just beginning to renew my research. If you are interested, I could show you.” He wasn’t sure he could keep the waver from his voice as he offered to show them his life’s work, work that Miss Chenak had unexpectedly participated in so recently. Even if she didn’t remember a single thing, the reputation of the sheriff was enough to cause some concern. Maybe if he was willing to show things to them, they would view him as just another member of the research team. After all, they were at the facility to see Doctor Ganevek, not him.
Thankfully, the sheriff declined the offer by saying they were on a tight timeline and gestured his two companions towards the door.
“Yes, yes, of course. Perhaps you will find the time later. In fact, later would be better. I will be further along and able to demonstrate its uses.”
He tried not to seem too eager to get them out of his office. When they left, closing the door behind them, he took a breath and concentrated on slowing his racing heart. He was happy that the chance meeting had provided some proof that even in tiny amounts, such as those administered through his nick to Miss Chenak’s cheek in the cavern, the poison could profoundly impact a person’s memory. His imagination began to race almost as fast as his heart. He inhaled slowly and refocused on his interaction with the trio. Though entirely too close for comfort, he had at least demonstrated just the right amount of interest and eagerness to avoid arousing suspicions. The money spent on blade training had paid off in steadying his temperament and reactions. He was calmer now than when he had faced Ms. Chenak in the caverns. He opened the door a crack and checked the hallway. Empty. Before returning to his desk, he locked the door.
He would have been delighted to have some time alone with Miss Chenak to discuss her experience with the device, even though he knew this was impossible. But how could he get the answers to his questions without involving the victim of his experiment? He needed another specimen. He pulled out a sheet of paper and began to make notes.
If the poison had mangled her memory, why wasn’t she in a coma? Had the device malfunctioned? When he’d left her lying on the cavern floor, she had appeared to be slipping into the coma as expected. But he’d left before he was sure because he had heard her friends approaching the cavern. If he had stayed longer, he would have been caught. And that was not part of the plan. He stopped writing.
Tapping his pen against his teeth, he tried to remember what the gossip was concerning Miss Chenak’s whereabouts. He’d only arrived at the research complex two weeks ago and had been busy with moving equipment into his new lab space, so he really had not paid much attention at the time. He thought that if he expressed too much interest in the Chenak girl, his connection to the young woman’s coma might be discovered. It was something about her being taken to Southern to assist with a disease. But if the device had been working, she would not have been much help. And no one had mentioned her being in a coma.
He smiled as he concluded that the disease story was more likely a cover-up by her uncle to have the comatose girl taken to Southern for care and treatment. Treyder wondered when the doctors on Southern had found and removed the device. The Miss Chenak who was in his office moments ago had exuded health. He beat down the frantic need to know. Why hadn’t Reslo come back with her? He obviously had sent the Southerner here as a bodyguard to prevent a similar attack. How had Reslo managed transporting his niece and a bodyguard back and forth between the continents? Hadn’t the senator said that the two governments were at war or nearly so? Wasn’t that why the senator wanted the long-distance delivery system?
Down the hall, the trio began perusing the notebooks Doctor Ganevek had laid out. They had divided the stacks between the four of them. Each was muttering dates and occasional partial entries when Ani finally spoke. “He’s a bit on the odd side, wouldn’t you say?” She couldn’t shake the feeling she’d met Isul Treyder before, and recently, but where and when eluded her.
“Who’s odd?” Ganevek asked, not looking up from the document in his hands.
“Doctor Treyder.” She turned a page and glanced at each paragraph’s first sentence. So far, nothing. She started to roll her bottom lip between her teeth. Grimacing, she stopped the action. Every time she caught herself doing that, she was reminded that she shared the nervous habit with her father.
Ganevek laughed. “For a mechanical genius with an advanced degree, he’s not so odd. I’ve met others who are much quirkier. While he was here, he invented a number of machines and tools that became quite useful and much in demand. He left about five or six years ago when another company offered him more income and recognition. Don’t know much about it, but your mother was upset at his leaving. There was a rumor his wife passed away a year or so after he left.”
“Why’s he back now?”
“He’d heard we were looking to rebuild and he offered to return and help set up the new labs,” Gan
evek replied. “I thought it would be good to have some of the old staff in place before bringing in new ones. We wouldn’t have a lot of training to do if we brought in people who had worked here previously, and he knew what types of machines might be needed and which ones were destroyed in the raid twenty years ago.”
The Star Valley doctor shook his head. “Oh, he may be scattered at times, like most geniuses, but once you give him a project, he works on it until it’s done and done right. Treyder’s like your uncle in that way, Ani. A bit of a loner though. He’s not much into social interactions, even when he was here before the raid on the center. He would show up at company parties for only the briefest amount of time and then he’d disappear into his lab. I don’t know how his wife managed.”
Doctor Ganevek stopped talking for a moment and looked wistful, as if remembering something important from the past. “Treyder invented some marvelous things.” He crossed the room, pulled an object with multiple joints and arms out of a cabinet, and placed it carefully on a table. “This is one of them.”
“What is it?” Renloret asked, a skeptical tone creeping into his voice.
“He called it a remote surgeon.”
“What’s it supposed to do?”
“He said it could perform certain surgeries without the actual surgeon being in the room. He thought it might be good on the battlefield as a way to keep the medical staff safe and save lives at the same time.” Doctor Ganevek pulled out a section, adjusted a few other parts, and flipped a toggle switch. “Here, look at this screen.”
They turned to see a view of the desktop with its stacks of reports. He began striking keys on the keyboard below the screen. The machine on the desk moved. Taryn, Renloret, and Ani watched in amazement as two of the “arms” reached out and, using pincher-like appendages, pulled a notebook from the middle of a stack, opened it, and turned several pages before stopping. All the while, he typed.
Ani was impressed. “Amazing. And you don’t need wires to connect the keyboard to the machine?”
“Nope. Treyder said it uses radio signals. As long as the lens is in the right place, the person on the keyboard end can make it do quite a bit of stuff. It does take some practice, though. That’s about all I can do with it. You also need someone to set it up, monitor the radio link, and lay out the supplies and tools needed for some tasks. It needs some refinement, I think, before it can be used in actual operations. But I see the potential.
“It would have been a convenience to have had something like this during the attack on the research center. It probably could have saved Gelwood’s leg. By the time we got him to the hospital in Saedi City, the damage to his leg could not be repaired, but they managed to save his life. Even so, that was a couple of years before Treyder came up with this contraption.”
Doctor Ganevek toggled the machine off and returned it to the shelf in the cabinet. “Like I said, he’s a genius. I don’t even know if he knows I have it and it still works.”
“Why don’t you take it to him? He said he was just getting started up on some projects. Maybe this will help him.”
“I’ll do that, but not now. I’ve been thinking, Ani. The notes you’re interested in may be in the research vault.”
“Research vault?”
“It’s a large room a few floors down and at the back of the building. Actually, the room is in the original building. The hallway may actually be blocked by debris from the attack. I didn’t see a need to go that far because all the information there is at least twenty years old and outdated by now anyway.”
Renloret and Ani looked at each other. Ani wondered how much of the old section was even accessible.
Taryn stood up. “I can get the original building blueprints for Renloret to use as a map. Some of the original parts of the building may have signage in Southern as well, and I think he’s the only one able to read it.” Smiling, Taryn moved toward the door. “Would it be all right with you if Renloret does this research on his own? Ani and I have our own research parameters.”
The valley’s doctor nodded. “I don’t see why not. As I said, no one has been in that section for quite some time. I’ll let the staff know he has permission to come and go as needed. He shouldn’t have any problems, other than dodging around some rubble.”
They made their good-byes and got ready to leave.
Ani stood and offered her forearm to Ganevek in thanks, and he clasped it with a smile on his face. “Thank you, again. May I take a few of the older files to review tonight, just in case the information is there? I’ll return them in a couple of days.” Maybe this would be all they needed to identify the twin.
“Have at them, Ani. If there’s anything else I can do, let me know.” He tightened his grip on her arm and smiled. “I’m glad you’re back and that you’re feeling better.”
“My thanks again, Doctor Ganevek.” She smiled as she gathered up several folders and left.
Hours later, a heavy sigh from Renloret told Ani that even he was discouraged with the lack of enlightening information in the notes she’d borrowed from her mother’s compatriot. Closing the file in front of her with a smack, she stood up and stretched. Three pairs of blue eyes watched.
“What?” she asked. “Can’t a person stretch?” She grinned at the realization that all the important males in her life had some shade of blue eyes — with the exception of her father, whose blackish-brown eyes actually reminded her of Uncle Reslo.
She turned away from the three pairs of blue eyes and pulled down the tel-com. Punching in Reslo’s code, she muttered under her breath, “Now that I think about it, I should have done this as soon as we returned.” A message box appeared on the screen.
“Hey, Taryn? Do you know anything about Southern’s Tianet Mountain Region?” Ani did not turn from the screen as she began typing a message.
“Which mountain range and why?”
She heard the chair scrape across the floor before Taryn joined her at the screen.
“You trying Reslo again?”
“Trying is the operative phrase. He hasn’t actually responded to any of my attempts from a couple of months ago and there’s notice that he was notified of waiting messages but he has yet to pick them up. His away message says he is at an archeological research station in the Tianet Mountains.”
“Well, there was a bit of news just after you left about some ancient artifacts discovered in Southern’s central mountains, but I don’t remember specific names. Archeologists all over Northern tried to get permission to go down.”
“I wonder why Uncle Reslo is there instead of at the satellite base.” She finished typing her message. “Well, I asked him if he’d heard anything about my having a twin sister. Do you think that might be enough to get a quicker response?”
Taryn chuckled. “If I were him, I would call as soon as I got something like that.”
Renloret shoved his stack of papers to the center of the table. “Well, whether he knows anything or not, I suspect he will contact you as soon as he is able. These notes and reports from Doctor Ganevek’s office have nothing. We need to get on with the search, and it can’t wait weeks for your uncle, even on the slightest chance he may know about your twin, Ani. We’ll have to rely on our own knowledge and sleuthing abilities.”
“I know, but it’s frustrating that he’s in such an isolated area and apparently can receive notification that I’ve sent messages, yet cannot read them. Sometimes I wonder if these computers are even progress. Paper may be more reliable. This time I included the fact that contact was made and the Lrakiran people will survive. You know the main reason he went to Southern was that they were building things like your star runners. He was continuing to try to contact Lrakira and get someone here to fly that last ship. Now at least I understand why he left. It was looking like Southern’s space endeavors would be his only chance to get me to Lrakira.
“As far as the plan to find my sister, I think we have it down, and I’m actually thinking that it won’t take us too
much longer. It’s not such a daunting task now that the infamous Star Valley sheriff is on the task.” She dodged the jab from Taryn and closed the tel-com.
Ani moved to the stove. “Anyone want some tea?” The nods confirmed her guess that the two men were, like her, ready to set aside paperwork, concerns about the search, and questions about Reslo. She turned on the stove and stepped out onto the porch.
Kela padded to his usual place on the woven rug between the fireplace and one of the rocking chairs. How do you feel about talking with Melli about the twin?
Ani was dragging the rocker back into the cabin from the porch. I’m trying not to think about it right now. We have a reasonable plan and each of us has a part to play. Right now I just want to relax. I want to forget about being an alien who’s looking for a secret sibling. She brushed off a couple of six-legged beetles from the cushion and ground them into the wood with a mild crunching sound. She winced once. She hated doing that but she just couldn’t abide touching them, and squashing them was her only defense against Taryn’s teasing that she, a blade ring champion, was even slightly horrified by such a small creature. She checked the underside of the cushion and finding none under it, nodded in satisfaction.
Kela rolled his eyes. You could have let me eat them. Now they are all mashed and unappetizing. He had made his way over to examine the bits of bug and snuffled loudly in disappointment.
She pushed Kela away from the remnants. “You cannot eat the beetles.”
Both Renloret and Taryn laughed. “Kela eats sap beetles?” Taryn asked.
If you lick them right off the bark, they are sweet and crunchy with a bit of zest that lingers most satisfyingly. Kela rolled onto his back and let his tongue lop over his jaw.
“Oh, for blades’ sake, Kela!” She thumped the cushion hard, fervently hoping no other crawly things were nestled in the creases.
“What did he say, Ani?” Taryn asked with a wide grin.
She put her hands on her hips. “Do I need to translate everything?”