“I will.”
If she let Jin, he’d probably do irreparable harm to Bez’s ego.
“Good choice,” Jin grumbled.
“Before I answer your question, I need Jin to answer something first.”She glanced at Jin.“Did the enclave receive a visitor shortly before all communication stopped?”
One side of Jin’s lips curved up in an enigmatic smile as he dipped his chin in a yes.
Bez frowned at Kira.“How did you guess that?”
“It’s a common tactic for the clans.Send in a spy in advance.Usually someone non-threatening.In this instance, any human would have worked.”
“What do you mean?”Pye asked.
“The Tuann underestimate humans.They don’t see them as a threat.”
The enclave probably never saw the betrayal coming.
“I still can’t see it,” Az confessed, looking troubled.“I knew some of these wanderers.Leaving their Houses didn’t destroy their skill.They were highly trained.They wouldn’t have dropped their guard for anything.”
“Even if it was a human child they found?”Jin asked.
Kira shot him a sharp glance.“Are you sure?”
“It was in their records.A ten year old boy was found wandering the forest near the gate.When questioned, the child said his parent’s ship had crash landed and he was the only survivor.”
“They didn’t check his story?”Bez asked.
“Of course they did.However, their search turned up an actual crashed ship with bodies inside.”
“They were thorough,” Kira said.
That wasn’t a good sign.
It pointed to experience and the resources necessary to be able to scuttle a ship.Something the clans tended to horde like dragons did gold.
“Records cut off three days later.”
“That’s probably when the attack happened,” Kira guessed.
“At first, they reported issues with the defense barrier.They decided to stand down some of their systems to attempt a fix.They never came back online.”
“This is all supposition and hypothesis.You have no real evidence pointing to one of these so-called pirate clans’ involvement,” Bez argued.
“Now you’re just ignoring what’s right in front of your face,” Jin complained.
“All we have is your word that there was a signature.”
Jin whipped his head toward Kira as she went utterly still.“Oh fuck.”
“You will not talk to him that way,” she advised in her softest voice.She sounded gentle.Kind even.But the look in her eyes was vicious.She could tolerate a lot, but Jin was her line in the sand.They would show respect.
Az touched Bez’s shoulder and shook her head.
“I’m just saying that it makes more sense for this to be the work of Tuann rebels rather than human pirates,” Bez said.
“We’re not here to hunt rebels,” Kira warned.
