The paint only covered the front side, leaving the metal on the edges and back visible.In true synth armor, you could cut all the way through one of the scales and not see a single variation in coloring.
Kira was betting that if Isla’s partner were to do the same to the dead oshota in the hallway he’d find them wearing cheap imitations.Easily seen through upon closer inspection.
Disgusted, Isla tossed the piece away like it was trash.
“Caius is an oshota, right?Why would he wear anything other than synth armor?”Raider asked.
“He wouldn’t,” Isla said.
Raider glanced at her.“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said.Caiuswouldn’t be caught dead in that travesty.”Isla spun the severed head to face them.“But this isn’t Caius.”
A stranger stared at them.His features slack in death, eyes rolled into the back of his head and his mouth hanging open.
“Someone tell me I’m not crazy.”Raider had a spooked expression as he looked around at the rest of them.“That was Caius, right?I’m not the only one who saw that?”
“You’re not crazy,” Finn assured him.
Raider let out a shaky sigh of relief.“Oh, good.”
Kira squinted at the head, studying it closely.Although there was a certain resemblance around the man’s eyes and jaw line that could excuse a case of mistaken identity from a distance, that was where it ended.His forehead was broader than the real Caius’s and his nose narrower.
The most damning piece of evidence that proved that this wasn’t Roake’s military commander were the stranger’s rounded ears.This man was human.Though how he’d managed to pull off a deception of this magnitude was a very interesting question.
“How is this possible?”Amaris’s oshota asked.
Kira had a theory.
To confirm it, however, she needed to get closer.
She tapped Finn on the shoulder and pointed.
“No,” he told her firmly.“You’re injured.”
Exasperated, Kira rolled her eyes at him.“I’m fine now.”
The way he and Raider were acting, you’d think she was an invalid.
“You have blood coming out of your ears,” Finn said flatly.
Kira blinked and frowned.“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”Raider, anticipating her disbelief, nodded at the ears in question.“See for yourself.”
Hesitantly, Kira did as he suggested, surprised when she found something wet waiting there.
Blood, she realized a second later.
“Oh.”
That’s—less than ideal.
She sent a troubled frown in Jin’s direction as she absentmindedly rubbed the blood between her forefinger and thumb.
“Tell us what you’re looking for,” Finn ordered, distracting her as he walked over to the body.
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
