“Because of you,” Roderick admitted.
“What does this have to do with me?”
“You showed her the effectiveness of working outside the box.She took that lesson and ran with it.”
“Let’s say I believe you.Is that why you disappeared on the wanderer’s planet?”
“We had an arrangement that if they ever came under attack the information they obtained would be sent to a secondary location.I was to recover it.”
“That doesn’t explain what you’re doing in the honeycomb or how you came to look like that.”Kira pointed at the wound in his abdomen.
Or how Liara got an enclave with strong ties to Caius—and thus Roake—to work with her.
“The information the enclave forwarded indicated that there was betrayal from within Caius’s ranks.”
“You didn’t think to share that with me?”
The fact that there was a traitor among them was the sort of thing she would have liked to know.
“Why?You already knew.”At her expression, Roderick snorted and rested his head against the wall behind him.“It was the way you watched them.How you kept them at arm’s length.Always making sure one of yours was watching them.First Maksym.Then me.”
“I didn’t realize you were one of mine,” Kira quipped.
“I’m not.But you trust me.”
“You seem certain of that.”
Roderick closed his eyes.“I’m still breathing, aren’t I?”
“I guess you’ve got me there.Still, you’re dumb to have kept this from me.”
They could have been working together this entire time.
“You’re not going to get an argument from me,” Roderick said with a tired smile.
“So?Who was it?Who betrayed Caius?”
“I don’t know.”
Kira gave him a doubtful look.“How do you not know?”
She swept a meaningful look down to the wound in his abdomen.He didn’t come to his current state by accident.
“They didn’t do this to me.It was someone else.”
“Who?”
Roderick shook his head.“I don’t know.It was a man and a woman.I didn’t recognize them.I’m not even sure they were Tuann.”
“A human then.”
“I don’t think so.They usedkibut in a way I’ve never seen before.”
Kira fell silent.
Roderick didn’t notice, grimacing as he touched the wound in his abdomen.“The man did this.The fall took care of the rest.”
He nodded at a shaft above them that was identical to the one Kira fell down.
