Caius was the only one Kira knew well.Two others were Tuann she recognized in passing.The last one was a complete stranger to her.
“In addition to impersonating one of my commanders, they also impersonated an oshota and someone in the middle ranks of our House.”
“What about the last one?”Helena asked.
Kira glanced at the image of the stranger.He stood out from the rest.His clothes simple, understated.There was a gentleness around his eyes that suggested he wasn’t a warrior.
“Peri.One of Roake’s fishermen.His body was discovered shortly after the attack.”
The grief in Harlow’s admission was unmistakable, dampening some of the hostility from those in the room.
“Caius was the highest ranking of those impersonated,” Harlow continued.“We think he was taken while on a mission off world.”
“What mission?”Elias asked.
“That’s need to know.”
In other words, he didn’t.
Kira coughed, hiding her smirk behind her hand.What a polite way to say fuck off.
“We conducted a search after Kira’s oshota notified us that we’d been compromised.All of the individuals we captured died shortly after we took them into custody.”
“Convenient,” someone at the back of the room whispered.
“An autopsy revealed sub-dermal dead switches.The poison inside was a fast acting one.They died nearly instantly.There was no time for anyone to save them.They were gone in seconds.”
Graydon studied the hologram with a tiny frown.“Did the prisoners trigger them or were they triggered remotely?”
“From what we could tell, they were triggered remotely.I don’t think they were meant to survive their mission.”
Eurus had a speculative look on his face.“I wonder if they knew that.”
“None of the intruders were Tuann.Just like the one my heir took down, they were human.”
Kira’s face stayed blank despite the suspicious glances being snuck her way.
Her partiality toward the Consortium and its people was well known.The only thing that could have made the situation worse was if Raider had been there to flaunt his humanness in their faces.
“What about Asanth and Kashori?How did you fare in uncovering the infiltrators?”Torvald asked.
“Similar to Roake,” Asanth’s interim lord answered.“From our investigation, we identified two infiltrators.One escaped.The second, we captured.That person died shortly after.Our people found the first’s body an hour later.”
Torvald glanced at Helena.
The Overlord’s expression was grudging.“We came to the realization of a breach too late.This allowed the perpetrators to escape.We asked Luatha’s help in tracking them past the security net.”
Liara placed a memory stone on the table and tapped it twice.“Our sensors tracked the ship’s engine signature as far as we could.
A hologram of a star field formed over the table.A blinking line extended from a planet that Kira recognized as Ta Sa’Riel far into space.As it got further from the source of origin, the star map shifted.Out and out.Until finally the line stopped.
Liara nodded at the map.“This is where we lost them.”
Out of sight from the rest of the Overlord’s, Jin’s hand clutched Kira’s.He very carefully didn’t look at her.
Kira swallowed hard as she stared at the section of space where Liara’s sensors stopped tracking the infiltrators.She took back what she said before.Roake wasn’t safe yet.Not with someone trying to frame her as the mastermind.
Eight
