Blood Double (God Wars #1)(29)

"You'll be inspecting the desalination plant offshore today. Try not to f*ck it up." A field trip was planned to consume my day. I did my best to dress appropriately.

*

"Is this plant large enough to handle the demand?" I asked the manager later. "For Casino City?"

"We supply Casino City, but we often have problems with the pipes going to the other cities. Those have to be repaired constantly. Some of them haven't been replaced since they were laid," the manager was almost shouting to be heard over the din of whining machinery. "Casino City didn't exist in the beginning, so this plant could handle everything. Then Casino City was built, and the demand kept growing. We can barely keep up."

I had a comp-vid in my hand, tapping in information and researching other items. Gavin stood by, being his usual, surly self. I wanted to smack him. That wouldn't do. "What about the plant that supplies the light side—what about it?" I asked.

"They have an easier job there—the city is smaller and they get fewer visitors."

"What would it take to run water two hundred miles from there—do you think they could supply Sun City and Casino City too?"

"Easily," the manager nodded as we bent over water usage tables on my comp-vid.

"Then we'll see about running extra pipe, that way you can concentrate on replacing pipes and worn-out machinery," I said. I knew the comesuli farms got water from snowmelt in the northern mountains of Le-Ath Veronis—their water supply wasn't brought from the ocean. I could tap into the newly developed rainy-day fund, too, to accomplish the needed repairs.

"My Queen, as always, you are working for your people," the manager bowed and smiled.

"Thank you," I nodded to him, mentally making a note to pass that message along to the real Queen. Whenever she decided to make an appearance, that is.

"We must go," Gavin said, pulling me away. The employees waved and smiled at me as we walked out of the facility and loaded into the hovercar waiting on the pad. I settled into the back seat, Gavin opposite me. He was angry. It wasn't necessary to tell me why he was angry, but he felt compelled to do so anyway, while the driver lifted the car off the pad and flew us toward Lissia.

"You will never be the Queen," Gavin hissed between clenched teeth, his normally dark eyes turning blood-red. It wouldn't do a bit of good to remind him that I had no choice but to do as I was told. Someone else had made my face look like Lissa's. Someone else—usually Gavin—was parading me about as the Queen. I wanted to tell him where he could stuff it. I didn't.

When we arrived, we were greeted by Teeg San Gerxon and Stellan's older brother, Astralan. Campiaa was on my schedule for the rest of the day. Joy.

*

"He's worse if Reah's gone," Celestan confided as I watched Teeg pace inside his study. "I have to pass messages from Stell, since Gavin says he can't communicate with you," he added, offering a quick grin. "Stell says if you need something, to let me or G know."

"G?"

"Galaxsan. It's simpler to call him G."

"I see."

"Need anything? Food? Something to drink?"

"Both would be nice."

Celestan must have sent mindspeech. Before long a tray of food came, all of it vegetarian. Teeg didn't say anything as I sat down and lifted a fork, but I ate as he showed me vid image after vid image of faces, all of whom he suspected of conspiracy. Most were petty criminals of some kind. Three had contacts on Theele and were certainly involved in the conspiracy to kill Ferdik and Teeg.

"Their main goal was to kill you," I said, sipping the fruit punch I'd been served. "And there's some sort of obsession there, just as there was with Eddle Cree. They didn't have contact with Eddle, but they knew of him," I said. "This means that plans for your assassination may have been connected to the plans to kill Ildevar Wyyld. Has anyone notified him, yet?"

"Norian has someone on Wyyld, and they've been instructed to beef up security for the Founder of the Reth Alliance."

"I think you should check on that yourself," I said. "I don't trust anyone in this."

"Norian trusts his people."

I'd had contact with the fists of one of those people whom Norian Keef trusted, and I questioned his judgment. I didn't say anything to Teeg, however. He could believe that lie if he wanted. Too many people around me were more than willing to believe lies when the truth not only stood in front of them, it was frantically waving its arms, trying to get their attention.

It was very late before I'd gone through all the images Teeg presented. Astralan transported me to Le-Ath Veronis after I'd finished. That's when I found the extent of Cheedas' perfidy—blood substitute had been dumped all over the rug, the bedding and puddled on the tiles of the bathroom floor. I learned the blood-red concoction didn't come out of white carpet easily, either. And then, when I attempted to wash the bedding, I found the door to the kitchen laundry locked against me.

Could I have broken the lock? Perhaps. But they'd done this specifically to keep me out. I would have to find another way to wash clothing, and I still had no bedding on the bed.

Leaving the sheets by the door for them to find the next morning, I went in search of the linen closet. Hauling sheets, pillowcases and a fresh blanket off shelves, I checked to see if the linen closet had locks on the doors. It didn't. Would they deliberately install locks so I couldn't have clean bedding? I would wait to see.