Page 44 of Enthraller

“Some here, half the load on Raxia. One final box on Arkhor.”

“What’s the process? Who receives it?” She had a feeling the details were important.

“I give everyone dock leave, and then I get the boxes, put them in big containers, and wheel them out. I take the load to the warehouse where we get our food supplies, leave them in the numbered bay Rhen gives me, and when I come back, the containers are full of our supplies, and the boxes are gone.”

“The same set up in Raxia and Arkhor?” Ed asked.

Masin nodded.

“Protection is here, with Customs and Excise on their heels. They want you to let them in.” Bailey’s voice came through.

Wren got to her feet. “Slow walk it, will you, Hatch? So I can get some images of the boxes.” She moved to the shelf, picked up the first box and took out the package of bonami. She flicked on her small handheld light and carefully went over every inch of the box’s surface, looking for any clue as to where it was made.

“You seeing this, Bailey?” she asked.

“Yes. You want me to try to find out where it comes from?”

“Please.” The material it was made from was a type of resin. It felt close to stone, and the patterns and glyphs molded into the sides and lid were exact matches to those found in the now destroyed alien ruins of Cepi. “Whoever created these boxes was working with images from Cepi itself. These aren’t just similar, they’re exact matches.”

“So someone likes to get it right, has pride in what they’re doing, or these glyphs have meaning.” Ed picked up the lid and studied it.

“No one has worked out the meanings.” Wren was sure of that. “So it’s probably someone who’s a perfectionist.”

Hatch stepped closer. He hadn’t gone down to let in the protection team yet. “Or they’ve assigned their own meanings to the markings,” he suggested. “As a sort of secret code.”

Wren looked over at him, and she saw Ed had done the same.

“Not just a pretty face and abundant muscles,” Wren said in the end. “You’ve got a brain, too.”

Ed laughed, and Hatch lifted a hand in a rude gesture as he turned to go down the passage, but she caught a glimpse of his red cheeks.

“Saved by the Protection Unit,” Ed called after him. “And you don’t hear that every day.”

17

Customs and Excisewere predictably annoyed by everything they had done.

Ed smiled. He hadn’t enjoyed being back walking out on the line, but he didn’t mind irritating the crap out of C&E.

“This is his second time bringing in this quantity,” he said, cutting off the officer who was muttering about the open box. “So you haven’t just fucked up this time, you’ve fucked up twice. Do you see how much bonami is here? Your inability to find this has to have led to a massive increase in bonami on Aponi.”

The officer turned, eyes hot. “Hang on?—”

Ed cut him off. “So instead of muttering and complaining, how about a thank you to us for using our special equipment to find what you were not able to find, and let us go back to dealing with the backlog that has to be building up.”

“That’s you?” the other officer asked. “You’re the team holding up the works?”

“You could put it that way, that we’re holding up the works, or you could say we’re finding massive quantities of bonami and large amounts of undeclared goods.” Wren said. “It’s interesting how you frame it. Are you on the take here?”

Both C&E officers stared at her, mouths open.

“The lady asked you a question,” Ed said.

“I’d like to know the answer to that, myself.” The Protection Unit’s team leader, Violet Fann, had been standing near Ed, observing the set up, but now her full attention was on the C&E officers.

“No,” the one who’d been muttering managed to get out. “I’mcertainly not.”

“Me, either.” The second one almost spoke over the first.

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