Geldis helped me off the bed; I almost fainted in the shower while I washed myself, almost lost what I ate for breakfast and then shivered when a strange guard carried me down the hall to the elevator.
"Tell us what to add," an assistant begged later as I attempted to put the cake batter together for the dessert. More gishi fruit ice cream had to be made as well; the dessert was more popular than anyone imagined, even with the exorbitant cost.
"No, more ground chocolate," I said, shivering slightly.
"She is still feverish," Geldis stepped forward to check my temperature.
"Reah, get the cake batter together and we'll put you back to bed," Perdil snapped. I told the assistant how much chocolate to add, then watched while he stirred everything together. "That looks good," I muttered weakly. The batter was poured into the pans and slipped into the oven. "Take her upstairs," Perdil jerked his head toward the kitchen door. "Carefully, that is an investment," he ordered.
That's what I was, now. An investment. Something to be sold for money, and then likely ordered to do Perdil's and Zendeval's bidding in the kitchens from then on. Except I didn't intend to let that happen. Lendill would be watching through the cameras embedded in my skin, and as soon as we arrived at the base of operations where the sales took place, all of them were going to get a surprise from me. Meanwhile, I had to rest as much as I could and build up my strength. I was going to need it, and I cursed Zendeval and his attack silently. He'd inflicted this weakness upon me, with whatever it was he'd become at the full moon.
"There's some sort of microscopic device in the neck," Lendill indicated the spot on his own neck while Gavril watched.
"We looked," Gavril sighed. "But I beheaded both of them, and if there was anything there, it was destroyed." He spoke of his and Dee's assistants, Greta and Alphine. He and Lendill had gone through the records, and neither assistant had traveled to Stellar Winds, but that didn't mean that someone else who'd come in contact with them hadn't.
Lendill was beginning to have suspicions, and those suspicions were frightening. Ship's passengers and their baggage were checked at the point of origin, not the destination within the Alliance. Controlled guests could be sent away from Stellar Winds with anything in their possession and the controlled inspectors at the space station would allow it to pass right through.
"This is how they're getting weapons," Lendill muttered. "These two had unregistered weapons, those two kns,hat' killings on Surnath involved unregistered weapons and who knows how many others have them, too?"
"This is the worst possible scenario, isn't it?" Gavril sighed.
"If there was something there, it was removed," Karzac said after examining Tory's neck. "And it could have been small enough that a quick blast with a laser needle might have taken care of it, leaving no discernible wound. Easily disposed of, I think."
"But could that explain all this? The holes in his memory and everything? Norian says that people are being controlled." Lissa cast a worried glance at her healer mate.
"Yes. It could definitely explain it," Karzac agreed.
"Reah, you will sit there quietly while the meeting takes place." Perdil was in Zendeval's suite again while he and Zendeval ordered waiters and kitchen employees to place this or that on Zendeval's kitchen island. It looked as if he were inviting at least seven or eight people.
"I do not want this," Zendeval muttered.
"I know that, but Nedrizif was quite adamant. And he knows about Reah. One of his spies, no doubt. He insisted that she be here so he can look, as will the others. When I told him her health was poor, he ignored me, saying he was bringing a physician with him to check her over." I watched as calmly as I could—they'd placed me in a hoverchair inside Zendeval's kitchen while people moved around me. All controlled, I think, except for Perdil. He still answered to the one he'd called Nedrizif; it looked as if they all did. Who else was coming? Would I see all the major players now? It worried me that Faldin might have returned. I truly hoped that wasn't the case, I didn't want to take all of them on as weak as I was.
Faldin wasn't with them, but Darletta was. Dantel was also missing. I suppose the little wrinkle hadn't been smoothed out yet. Two others I recognized—Matiss Meldrim and Gescht Prekisule. I was beginning to get the bigger picture now. Maris Krastel may have gone crazy because she was controlled. She'd been doing the basic legal work on the antitrust case for her firm. Perhaps she'd found out that there was something to all of it and Faldin had made sure it didn't go any farther. An elaborate scheme, but then there was collusion going on and billions of Alliance credits at stake if all of them were found out.
Dantel Schuul had likely set these two up as heads of Meldrim Enterprises and Prekisule and Co., when he actually owned all of it or at least controlling interests in all of it. And it helped with whatever the comp-vids had to do with the controllers, I'm sure. Lendill, are you getting this? I asked through mindspeech.
I am. Breah-mul, this is getting more complicated by the moment. Do you know who that other one is? The one with the black hair that looks a little like a troll?
They call him Nedrizif, and they're all bowing and scraping to him, I returned.
He isn't in any of our databases, but then a lot of them aren't, Lendill said. I had to cut off the mental conversation; Nedrizif was coming toward me.
"And here's the little cook," he announced. Another male followed him. He was older, with silver hair and gray eyes. Was still handsome and probably knew it. The silver-haired one put his hands on me, doing the examination. I suppose he was Nedrizif's physician.
"We're not doing her any good by having her out on display like this, she's frightened," the man leaned back after checking my pulse. "And likely weak as well; I spoke with Geldis."
"We need her to be stronger and better in five days," Nedrizif growled.
"Then put her to bed and make sure she eats," the physician said.
"Do it," Nedrizif growled at Zendeval, who lifted me from the chair, kissed me twice on the way to the bedroom, covered me up in his bed and walked out. The fact that he seemed more lucid whenever he held me made me wonder if some residual effect from the device Nefrigar planted in my collarbone was interfering with his controller from so close a distance. Worrying over it wearied me, so I closed my eyes and slept.
"This will help," the physician was back, slipping an IV needle into my hand and taping it down before hanging the bag of fluid on a pole beside the bed. "Now, be sure to eat the broth they're bringing for you. I told them under no circumstances are you to be forced to work before the sale."