With his eyes still on her, Netto answered, “Control told us.” Their gazes locked for a flickering moment before she looked away. He captured it in his mind.
“Do you think the deaths are connected?” Zeph asked.
“They have to be. All of them were workers, all of them were out on the ocean, and with each disappearance, a watership vanished as well. I don’t see how it connects with the bad crops though, or the bugging,” Janet said. “It’s been a bad year,” she turned toward Montihan. “We’ll be better next season.”
“So, we have bad crops...several deaths, and spies. What exactly do you want us to do?”
Janet rolled her eyes, “Isn’t that obvious?”
“Leave,” Rylie hugged herself.
“Fix it.” Montihan looked steadily at him and Zeph “And you’ll get your glass.”
Chapter Five
***
“We have no stones togive them,” Rylie ran her palms over her face until her fingers threaded through her hair. Exasperation and fear had taken over.
“Hush, please. Even though they’re gone, doesn’t mean they can’t hear,” Da pleaded. It was just the two of them left. Janet had stormed out, soon followed by theirguests. The entire day felt like one long, unending nightmare from which she had yet to wake.
“I hope they do hear!”
“If they fix this for us now, they’ll get their end of the bargain, eventually. It works out for us...and for them.”
Rylie turned to him, “We’re not a shady homestead! We don’t lie! You’ve made us into something we’re not. How could you do that to us? We may never be able to give them what they want. Do you want the EPED to breathe down our necks?”
“One of the missing waterships turned up.”
She stopped.
“—parts of it did, at least.”
“When?”
He sighed, “Several weeks ago. It’s what spurred all of this.” He waved his hand, his voice growing tired. “It was off the north coast between our lots and Crestalview’s. One of Charlene’s workers found it.”
