Renall gasped. Clara stepped back. Jeval stared back at them, his mouth hanging ajar and horror showing on his face. “Magna beasts? It is forbidden to fight the Magna beasts now.”
“They do though, and they bait them with the bodies of the women who do not do well in the brothels. They don’t want me to know. The government would be overthrown if the secrets I hold were known.”
Jeval asked, “What other secrets do you know?”
“I don’t know. But her, I do know. Because…because I was wiped before I was taken to the ship, but it was too hasty. I saw her there. Saw her. Knew. In my head but not—I did not know on the bottom of my brain.”
Jeval said, “I think that is as far as I can go with her now.’
Renall nodded. Jeval brought Jessica back. Clara asked, “What do we do now?”
Renall said, “You go to the hall and take your table.”
She searched his face. “You had Marik gas me so you could find out if I was a cycle spy, didn’t you? You somehow knew there was one and you wanted to know if it was me. You had my chip removed so you could test my fluid.”
His eyes dropped away from hers, telling her everything she needed to know. Ire filled her. “How dare you? Why did you simply not tell me you were going to have it done?”
“Because we had no idea if you were the cycle spy. If you were, we could not let those who were watching know that we knew.”
Her chin thrust out. “I would say that they know now.”
His eyes snapped back to hers. “Yes, they do. They also know that we are criminals now too. That means that the Federation can confiscate everything we have gained over the last centuries.”
Her eyes widened. She had not considered that. “You still should have told me. I woke up wondering if all of it, all that happened last evening, was a dream.”
“I am sorry for that.”
His words held no emotion. Just like that, he shut her out. Again. Clara looked away then from his face. She managed a deep breath. “You do know that if you had trusted me enough to tell me about all of this in the first place, maybe it would not have gone this far.”
Renall’s lips flattened. “Clara, this is not the time for that conversation.”
She had no doubt that he would never want to have that conversation with her. Why would he? He did not trust her any more than she trusted him.
She turned and walked out of the room, away from the stench of death and toward her chamber. By the time she reached the hallway, she was running as fast as she could.
