She stared thoughtfully at the lines of scars on her hands, wondering what more Donovan could inflict on her. What greater price she might have to pay.

Which was when Lea Shimodi stepped out of the lab, glanced around and fixed on her. “Kalico? Got Shig on the radio. Says he needs to speak to you. Urgent.”

Kalico nodded, stood. She glanced off at the thick forest to the south. “Damn it, Tal. Dek. You come back to me.”

Walking across the bare stone, she saw the threads and smears of metal where the overburden had been bladed off. Her boots were treading on more wealth than humans had ever known.

And she’d give it all to have her friends safe and that clap trapping Soukup back on Transluna.

She ducked in through the open door of the shipping container they’d turned into a lab and office. Shimodi, back at her lab bench, pointed to the radio where it sat on an aquajade-wood table in the back corner.

Crossing, Kalico lifted the mic, asking, “Shig? You there? This is Kalico. What’s up?”

“Ah, Supervisor,” Shig’s perfectly articulated speech carried no emotional inflection. “I thought it prudent to inform you. Bartolome Radcek was brought to the hospital about an hour ago. Vik determined that he was dead when his people wheeled him in. No cause of death is available at the moment. His valet, if I have the relationship correct, has asked that Radcek’s body be transported up to Turalon for autopsy. I thought I should clear it with you before I released it.”

“Dead?”

“That, I am afraid, is the case.”

Kalico closed her eyes, took a deep breath. Damn it, they still hadn’t found Chad’s killer.

“Does Vik suspect foul play?”

“I thought you would ask. She does not. Nor, she was most insistent to tell me, can she rule it out until she has a cause of death.”

Would the blows never cease? What the hell was Soukup going to make of this? At least, for once, he couldn’t hold Radcek against her. Unless there was more to this than she was aware.

“Yes, Shig. Clear the body for transport. Put it on the next shuttle up. Tell Abibi I want a full report as soon as her medical team can conduct an autopsy.”

“I will do so.” A pause. “I regret being the bearer of bad news.”

“Yeah, well, Shig, let’s just hope that’s the worst of what’s coming down today.”

She laid the mic down, dropped into the chair, and braced her elbows on the table. Rubbing her eyes, she tried to place Radcek’s death into context. The man’s murder, and surely it was murder, considerably narrowed the field when it came to her replacement.

And that left only two: Cinque Suharto and Falise Taglioni.

Chapter 60

  60