Reah? Lendill's frightened mindspeech came as I was slipping into an old pair of shoes. We're on Kifirin, both of us, I reassured him. He appeared, seconds later.
"Reah got us out, I wasn't expecting anything of the sort and was unprepared." Ry was as angry with himself as he was with whoever had bombed our room.
"This is no coincidence," Lendill muttered, watching Ry pace. "The moment my agents begin to look into this again, someone tries to kill them." I'd been thinking the same thing, and that had me frightened for Bel. Again. I was hugging myself without realizing it.
"Reah, don't worry, we'll deal with this," Ry put his arms around me. "Lendill, can you release a statement saying we got killed? And can you salvage anything inside the room and bring it to us at my chalet on Campiaa?"
"Sure. Norian is still in Quezlos and about to pitch the biggest fit, so I'll go calm him down," Lendill nodded at Ry and me before folding away.
"Ry, what does this mean?" I looked up at him. My back was to his chest and he was squeezing me gently, his chin resting on the top of my head until I moved.
"No idea. Come on, there's plenty of room at my place." Ry folded me to Campiaa.
"Is this the best you could find?" Zendeval glared at his assistant, who was as efficient as any assistant could be. Zen had just finished interviewing four master cooks and didn't like any of them. They'd cooked for him, he'd tasted the food and none of it was up to Galedaro's standards. It would do at a lesser restaurant, and Zen fumed over that.
Zendeval Rjjn oversaw the five most exclusive hotels on Stellar Winds. Galedaro's was the best of that five. That's where he had his offices and suite, in the business wing. Jerves, his assistant, kept things running smoothly for the most part, and only brought the most important decisions to Zen for approval.
"Sir, I can only bring you the best of those who apply,&quoe,&:t; Jerves was worried, Zen could tell.
"Did you contact those on Tulgalan, as I asked?"
"I did. They politely turned me down," Jerves was shaking slightly, Zen noticed.
"Jerves, calm yourself. All right? You're not about to lose your job. Go back to the ones I mentioned and offer more money."
"I will, but I don't know if that will mean anything. They're a close-knit family, and quite loyal."
"Then we'll work on that," Zen sighed. "Go. See what you can do. We need to hire someone in the next two days."
"Of course, sir. I'll let you know as soon as I have anything."
"See that you do." Zen watched as Jerves hurried out the door to his private office. He had the list of seven visitors in front of him—Nedrizif had finally sent it. The seven official owners' names were displayed on Zen's comp-vid. There were two other owners who wouldn't (and couldn't) be listed. Nedrizif was one of those. Zen ran fingers through his dark-brown hair and tugged.
Ry has a beautiful chalet, high in the mountains surrounding Campiaa City. I was leaning on his kitchen island, a cup of tea in my hands and staring out a huge window overlooking the mountain and the city below.
"Sleep well?" Ry came in wearing pajama bottoms only and poured tea for himself. If more women could see the body, coupled with the face, they'd have multiple orgasms on the spot. Ry usually worked out with someone; either Drake, Drew or their father or uncle, two or three times a week. Rylend Morphis was a master swordsman, even if he never talked about it.
"Tossed and turned," I said. My eyes felt gritty as a result.
"Yeah. Me, too." Ry went to turn on the small vid-screen that sat on a corner of his kitchen counter.
"Philis' sister, Jilis, disappeared nearly a moon-turn ago," a journalist said. "The twins did everything together, according to their parents." I turned, mildly curious as to why twins would be kidnapped in separate incidents, if they were together most of the time. An image of the twins in question, both very pretty blondes, I noticed, was displayed on the screen. The other thing that interested me was that both were wearing identical Stellar Winds logo shirts—the kind the tourists purchased. Those shirts were a status symbol and quite popular.
"Ry, do you see that?" I asked.
"See what?" I was moving closer to the vid-screen, coming to stand beside him.
"They're wearing shirts from Stellar Winds."
"Reah, lots of people have those shirts."
"I know. Do you have a comp or a comp-vid here?" I asked.
"Here." He opened a drawer at the kitchen island, handing an old one over. "That one's ancient, but it still works."
"I can see that," I said, poking him in the ribs. He grabbed me and swatted my behind.
"Careful, I have these things tied as tight as I can," I said. I was wearing some of his pajamas and they hung off me. I'd rolled up the legs a time or two, just to walk in them without tripping.
"What are you looking for?" he asked, le C hewaltting me go.
"Other disappearances," I said, scrolling through names from the past year. Actually, it was sun turn instead of year on Campiaa. I dismissed that thought and kept looking, sorting through information and images that popped up, courtesy of the ASD files I was accessing. Although they didn't investigate routine kidnappings, preferring to leave that to locals to sort out, the ASD (and CSD) kept files on all of it, in case the criminals they were tracking turned out to be involved.
"How are you picking and choosing?" Ry was mystified as he leaned over my shoulder to watch. I was busy searching through records of missing young women, setting a few of them aside in a separate file.
"I'm picking out the pretty ones," I said. After I'd collected about twenty-five female victims out of the dozens of records I'd scanned, I then went searching into their backgrounds. "Ry, look at this," I pulled up sixteen of the twenty-five records. "All of these girls visited Stellar Winds less than a year before they were abducted. And all these cases are unsolved."
Ry was now staring at me, his mouth open in shock.
"Do you think this is what Bel stumbled upon, working the other investigation?" Lendill asked later as we sat in the office he kept inside Ildevar Wyyld's palace.
"I think it's possible," I said. "Starshine certainly played a part in the investigation, and Bel may have gotten information somehow, since they only hand those brochures to the good-looking couples. They offered Ry and me half off our visit." I handed the brochure to Lendill.
He'd managed to rescue my purse and a few other items from our bombed hotel room, including the two boxed comp-vids that Pripps Electronics had given us. No pictures were shown of Ry and me, but the information Lendill released to the media said both occupants of the hotel room were dead, with two others in an adjoining room injured.
"Then I want you to go to Stellar Winds," he said. "Only not as guests. I want to get to the root of this." He pushed a comp-vid across his desk toward me. "There's a master cook's position open at the best place on Stellar Winds, and another job available in Guest Relations," Lendill looked at both of us. He'd been busy since I'd first contacted him with my hunches. "Reah, the first gishi fruit shipment from Kifirin was hijacked by pirates," Lendill added as I read the ad for the cook's position.
Raising my eyes, I stared at Lendill. "Hon, tell Garde to list the shipment as nannas next time. Both fruits need the same type of cool environment to ship, and I'll lay money on the odds that a nanna shipment won't get attacked."
"Code, Reah?" Lendill asked, frowning at me.
"If you want, yes," I said. "And tell them to seal the cartons, so nobody on board the ship can see what's inside."
"I'll do it, as a test run," Lendill agreed.
"I'm submitting my application now," I said, tapping the required information into Lendill's comp-vid. I had my master cook's license, now. Had it since I'd been pregnant with Raedah and Tara. I altered my official records on the application, using the codes I had. I now had worked for Dee's as an Eight-Day cook for three years, instead of only a few weeks.
Of course, I used an alias that Lendill gave me. I was Reah Windle, now. What Cle, size="+0" surprised me, though, was that Ry was Ryliff Windle, my husband. According to the records now, anyway. He had work experience on Le-Ath Veronis—in the palace. Let anybody argue with the Queen that he wasn’t who he said he was.
Lendill had grinned wickedly when he said he didn't want us separated on Stellar Winds. I didn't, either. I'd worry about Ry's safety, otherwise. Therefore, Lendill was sending us in as a married couple. Lodging was part of the compensation package, after all.
"You're going in undercover; I can't help with the jobs, you'll have to get those on your own," Lendill sighed. "I honestly hope you find nothing wrong, but this has me worried."
I stared at the comp-vid; I already had a reply to my application.
"They're asking if I can be there tomorrow afternoon to interview," I said, turning the comp-vid around so Lendill could see.
"Then tell them you'll be there," Lendill said. I sent the reply.
"I have one, too," Ry grinned at me. Of course he did. I'm sure they got one look at his vid-image and made the decision based on that.
"I have three interviews set up for tomorrow," Jerves was jittery with nerves as he stood in front of Zen. "Two of them look very good. One worked as master cook to the Governor of the Realm on Refizan, the other was an Eight-Day cook on Tulgalan.
"Put those two up first," Zen ordered.
"I already did, the Refizani first," Jerves nodded. "He has more experience, according to his records."
"Good. I'll see both of them for sure. We need another pastry and dessert cook, if I like both of them."
"Yes, sir." Jerves nodded respectfully and scuttled away.