They were here to investigate.Not poke the problem with a giant stick until someone tried to kill them.
“Are you sure,coli?It could be fun.”
“I’m sure it would be.”
Graydon arched an eyebrow.“What’s the problem then?”
Kira held up the wrist with the cuff.“This isn’t enough?”
Graydon gripped her elbow, bending to press a kiss on the skin right above the metal.“Very well,coli.I will endeavor to be careful.”
“I appreciate it,” Kira said dryly.“I really do.”
Solal whistled.
Kira glanced up to find the oshota standing above them on one of the catwalks connecting the upper cargo platforms.He nodded and pointed to the next row of containers.
“It seems Solal has found something.”Graydon let Kira go.“Shall we?”
Kira nodded, letting him take point as she paced behind him, opening her senses as wide as they would go in case Graydon was right and this was an ambush.
It didn’t take them long to find what had caught Solal’s attention.
“That’s the container from Jin’s holovid,” Kira said, hurrying toward it.This was where the camera had first picked up Caius and the other two.She avoided the sharp edges of bent metal to peer inside the container.“Whoa.Will you get a look at this?”
Plants.
Everywhere she could see.Trees that were far taller than they had any business being.Someone had cut away the container ceilings, allowing them to grow unobstructed.Shrubs crouched at their feet.Flowers flourished in their own little beds.
It would have been beautiful if not for evidence of the wanton destruction someone had wrought.
Some of the flowers had been trampled on.Stems broken and their petals ripped out.Others had been torn out by their roots.The tree trunks carried scars.Scorch marks and bullet holes.
Broken branches crunched underfoot as Kira crept further inside.
“How did they grow all this with no one noticing?”Kira asked, unable to help her wonder.
From the outside, this place looked no different than every other row of shipping containers.However, inside, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to customize the space, ripping out walls and ceilings to create large rooms capable of sustaining a massive conservatory.
“These are choko trees.”Graydon dropped his hand from the tree he had pressed it against and looked around.“Many of these plants are Tuann.”
“Not all of them,” Kira said, her gaze falling on the leaves of a belladonna plant.Next to it was a bush of pityrodia augustensis.Mount Augustus foxglove.Two plants native to Earth that wouldn’t normally be found together.
Amila ducked inside, only to stop short.“What is this place?”
“That’s what we’ve been asking ourselves,” Kira said.
The wonder and confusion that had filled Kira earlier was reflected in Amila’s expression as she looked around.“Why would someone ever want to hide something as beautiful as this?”
Kira’s gaze lingered on the pityrodia augustensis.She could think of a few reasons.
A harsh crackling sound came from the squirrel.
“Ki..ra…co..me…”
“Jin?”Kira held the squirrel up to her face.“Jin, can you hear me?”
There was more crackling.
