No one said anything.
Wyatt searched his mind for any possible explanation. “Wait. What if she’s been shackled?”
“What?” Diesel and Cam said at the same time.
“What if Indigo Smith found a way to shackle her? What if she’s only going along with him because she has to? Because she’s been made to. Because her will is not her own. Sort of like Daphne Charlene seemed to be when she was here.”
Every face at the table registered horror as they considered the implications of that scenario.
“Space potatoes.” Cam said the words like a curse and stood up. Wyatt didn’t know what space potatoes were, but assumed the phrase was like alien swearing. The look in Cam’s eyes bordered on panic.
Axel shook his head. “Shackle stickers aren’t available to just anyone.” But Valene’s brother didn’t sound very confident of that.
Bubba and Luther looked at each other as if they’d solved a mystery. Bubba said, “But they are now standard issue on any and all gulag transports, are they not? If there is a dirty Royal Magistrate Guardsman involved, and we don’t know that for certain yet, perhaps it would be prudent to check the prison ship’s inventory.”
“Regardless of why Valene is with him and even if her being shackled makes a lot of sense, we still don’t know what he wants in trade, do we?” Wheeler asked.
Wyatt stood. “Wait. Could it be the new ID Daphne Charlene was going to get her new friend Rowan because his house burned down?”
Diesel snapped his fingers. “That is a distinct possibility. What else could it be? But I’m not sure how he plans to get away even with a fake ID. We’d still all know and be able to look for him, right?”
Cam said, “The truth is we don’t know exactly what Indigo Smith is capable of. He’s managed to escape every single time he’s been captured, including this time. He’s rumored to be a genius across several fields of study. I doubted that, but not anymore.”
“What’s our best plan of action?” Bubba asked.
“We’ll have to get the ID from Daphne Charlene, right?” Wyatt asked the obvious question and everyone nodded. “We have to take the fake ID to the bauxite pit and trade it for Valene.”
“We should also thoroughly search Daphne Charlene’s place, if that’s where Mr. Smith has been hiding all this time right under our noses,” Cam added. “Maybe he left behind a clue as to his next earthly destination.”
Diesel rolled his eyes. “Don’t get your hopes up, but yeah, let’s all of us head over there and take a look.”
“Will she be awake from her memory wipe?” Wyatt asked. He needed to bear up if he had to pretend to like her again. “Also, how much of her memory was zapped?”
“Only to the day before the gulag ship arrived to erase her memories of Rowan a.k.a. Indigo,” Gage answered.
“Did anyone ever find a guard named Rowan registered on the ship?” Cam asked.
Diesel shook his head. “Not yet. I checked. No Rowan or any name even close to it on the gulag manifest for either guards or prisoners. Probably a fake name he came up with.”
“Note to self, Rowan is another alias of Indigo Smith,” Bubba said.
“Great. What are we doing?” Wyatt tried not to sound so impatient, but he was vibrating with the urgency to go find Valene, rescue her and put his fist into Mr. Flirty’s face. “Because if nobody has a good plan beyond wrestling the ID from Daphne Charlene and meeting this infamous prisoner later onhisschedule, I’m going to go stake out the bauxite pit’s lovers’ lane until he shows up with Valene and take him out before the trade even takes place.”
“How?”
“I’m going to take my shiny new alien purple goo splatter gun and put a pellet in the center of his white toothy grin.”
“Admirable,” Diesel said. “But only if he doesn’t use our sister as a shield.”
“Of course not.” Wyatt would never aim a gun near Valene.
“You should go to Daphne Charlene’s and get the ID, if it’s there. Maybe you’ll find more information as well,” Nova said. “Wyatt here will be able to get any and all information from her. She adores him.”
Wyatt sighed deeply. “Lucky me.”
Diesel’s phone buzzed again. He ignored it. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Gage, Wheeler, Jack and Nova go see if you can figure out how Mr. Smith escaped the gulag ship and if any of the guards or anyone else helped him. Also check the shackle sticker inventory there. Tear the ship down to the metal plating if you have to.
“Bubba, you and Luther join Cam, Wyatt, Axel and me. We’ll go search Daphne Charlene’s place for the fake ID and any other clues as to what Mr. Smith is planning.” He checked his phone for the time. “We’ll all meet back here in three hours to figure out what we’re going to do at the meeting to trade for Valene.”
