Page 19 of Skinwalker's Bane
Devin remained silent. There was no response she could give him that wouldn’t sound like a flat out lie or embellishment. Devin would have been surprised if Captain Owenshadgiven Bull any time. His rants against “them” were legendary.
Bull’s shoulders fell. “Won’t tell you,” he muttered. “It’s a secret.” His bald head hung.
Devin thought she understood. Keeping his source a secret gave him a sort of power that he would rarely have in his pitiful life. It made him feel important. She let him walk away without further challenging him. Later, if she ever did get to ask Owens directly about the shard, finding the source would become critical. For now, she let Bull keep his secret.
She stepped down from the little podium and headed back to her office. Bishan would want a report as soon as she could give one.
Bishan was in her office in person when she got there. He and Nichola were bent over a small screen on Nichola’s desk, watching a video. From behind the screen, Devin could see it was footage of her and Bull in the Aventine. The feed had been released already.
Bishan came around the desk, his arms out. “You werebrilliant! Ah, you were absolutely perfect!” He hugged her, surprising her, for Bishan was not a physical man. He was even less generous with his praise and now he was doing both.
Devin stepped out of his arms. “You primed me. I just took the lead and went with it. It was quite obvious what I had to do.”
“Obvious to you, maybe,” Nichola said, behind them.
Bishan nodded. “She is right. Not everyone could have read the crowd and the facts the way you just did. And suggesting you speak to the Captain…it was genius. Pure genius.”
“I’ve already put in for an appointment,” Nichola added.
Bishan hurried back to Nichola’s desk. “Did you put my name at the bottom? It will pull more weight than yours. No offense.”
“I put your Hawks title,” Nichola said calmly.
“We have to plan the interview. The questions. Build the messages to give the Captain…” Bishan rubbed his hands gleefully, already anticipating the political pay-offs and calculating how many ways he could spin the event, milking it for every kilojoule of power.
Devin moved past them and into her office and activated the sound bubble. It had the advantage of not only stopping noise from leaking out, but also shielded her from noise coming in. She didn’t want to listen to Bishan and his joy. She didn’t feel it herself.
She hadn’t stepped onto that platform thinking what a perfect opportunity it was. She hadn’t been thinking politics at all and if Bishan knew that, he would have been completely deflated. Better to let him think she had been as calculating and manipulative as he, out there.
She would never tell him the truth—that she had spoken out becausesomeonehad to. Someone had to ask the reasonable question. Someone had to quell the crowd and the growing fear. Someone had to nudge Dhaval Bull from his paranoid ramblings.
Devin sat on the edge of her desk, mulling over the last few minutes. She had only been gone from the office for fifteen minutes at the most. Bishan must have sprinted over from the arena in order to be there when she got back. Maybe he had planned to find her in the market and direct her, except it had happened far too quickly.
Her posture, propped against the edge of her desk, and the reminder of how little time had passed, brought her thoughts back to Adam and his claims about Lincoln. Unlike Dhaval Bull, Devin had no doubts that what Adam was claiming was completely true. He was a skinwalker. They were the most level-headed, self-aware people on the ship. They had to be.
Her mind coupled up disassociated thoughts. Adam. Lincoln’s secret life and the enormous debts he had incurred. Speaking up.Leverage. Leverage was what she had felt Adam had been trying to use against her.
She gasped as the odd ideas merged, her eyes widening. She moved swiftly around the desk to the controls. Before actually touching the bio-infused surface, she paused, thinking it through.
She couldn’t just reach out to Adam via the usual circuits. Skinwalkers led public lives. Everyone knew who they were. If he didn’t have a filter on his messages, she would be shocked. If she tried to reach him via the public channels available, she would have to go through those filters. It would take time she didn’t want to waste.
Besides, this was the third day that Adam Wary had clearly not been outside the ship. He had to be on one of their five day off-rotations and would only have two days left. By the time the message filtered through to him, he’d be back outside and unreachable for days more.
Devin weighed up her options. She wouldn’t go to the Beehive. There were too many watchers reporting back to Bishan and she didn’t want him to know about this extra-curricular activity.
She could always go to the Bridge and find someone who could reach Adam via shielded channels and get a message to him. His co-walkers would be discreet. Except the skinwalkers weren’t working out of the Bridge anymore. They had moved to the back of the ship and were using the engine compartment airlocks. She would never be allowed inside the engine section. No one got into the engine rooms without very good reason.
Where else could she find an indirect route to reach him? As she pondered the question, she laughed silently at her own hypocrisy. She had said she would never speak to him again and here she was, trying to do just that.
Then she had her answer. She knew what to do.
* * * * *
Even though it was his third off-day, Adam found himself back at the Institute, perched on the metal railing, watching the admin people scurry about doing their thing. He was grateful to be a skinwalker despite the risks, watching them. Their work was incomprehensible and looked utterly tedious.
Noa found him there. “Bored, Wary?” Her smile took the sting out of it. However, Adam knew Noa very well and could spot the worry in the tiny little divot marring her brow. “Should you be in the gym, lifting weights?” she added.
That he reallyshouldbe there was irrelevant, as far as Adam was concerned.
