Kira fought amusement.“Sure, you are.”
“People here are scared,” Maksym said, turning serious.“They scurry like rodents and speak in hushed whispers.”
Kira absorbed that information with a pensive frown.
Maksym leaned a forearm against the doorframe.“Did you happen to notice the empty business fronts?I asked around.No one would say where their owners went.Or if they went voluntarily.”
“A lot of businesses close up shop unexpectedly on Titan.”
Places changed.Though usually not this fast.
“Maybe that’s it.”Maksym nodded slowly.“But if so, why leave behind their merchandise?I would assume they would want to sell it at a discount or take it with them.”
“You’re right.That is strange.”
Kira couldn’t think of a reason for it.When a shop closed, its contents were auctioned to the station inhabitants at a steep discount.Whatever remained was resold to the station at cost so they could recoup some of their money.
In neither scenario would the contents of the stores have been left untouched.Thieves would have stripped the store fronts of anything valuable before the hatch of the passenger freighter finished closing behind them.
“Wait here.”Maksym disappeared into the room, coming back a moment later holding a plant sprig.“Look familiar?”
Kira took it, holding it up to examine.“Atropa belladonna.”
The inspiration for the tattoo they’d found on the pirate they’d interrogated.The distinctive bell shaped flowers were missing.As were the highly poisonous black berries; but the leaves were right.Oval shaped and pointed at the end.
“Where did you find this?”Kira asked.
“Every garden we passed had a few growing.The planters of several businesses had them as well.”
Kira handed the sprig back to him, wondering what it all meant.Belladonna wasn’t exactly rare, but there was also no real reason for its presence on the station.
“It could be a coincidence,” Kira said.
Doubtful—but maybe that was her paranoia talking.
“Do humans often plant things toxic to them?Especially where children might play?”
“Actually, yes.”
Maksym would be surprised at just how many of the bushes, trees and flowers humans surrounded themselves with could kill if ingested.
“Tell Jin where the businesses that had belladonna planted in front of them were.If he has time, he can delve into their records.”
Kira didn’t hold out much hope of him finding anything.It seemed like a long shot.Their leads into the shipping yard and the Sweet sisters were much stronger.
“You want me to notify you when I find Roderick and the other three?”
Kira nodded.“Me or Jin.”
From the opposite side of the hall, Graydon called her name in a low voice.
Maksym looked in his direction.“Be careful, heir.The emperor’s youngest Face is loyal, but he’s also ambitious.Don’t get caught between the two.”
Maksym’s concern was sweet.Something Kira imagined a real big brother might say.
She nodded and left him standing in the doorway as she headed in Graydon’s direction.“Let’s go.”
Kira remembered reading a statistic once that said almost thirty percent of all cargo in the Consortium flowed through Titan at one point or another.
