Devotion (Chosen by the Karal #5)(37)

“I think so.” And then he burst into tears. “I want to see them again. I never wanted to leave them but I had to be a big boy and not miss them, but I do miss them.”

She held Charlie close, and rocked him as he sobbed. A few minutes later she heard Okil get out of bed and come into the room looking sleepy. “What’s wrong?”

Tikki held out the tag to him and said, “I think that holds the answers to who Charlie is and why Sienna gave him to me to look after.”

“What’s on it?” Okil asked, picking it up very carefully.

“I have no idea. It was in teddy. Charlie said it was his tag.”

Okil held it up and examined it. “This is not the same as your tag. It is not designed to fit inside a person. It is a data chip.”

“Well, whatever it is, I think that is what Harri was looking for. He must have known it was with Charlie, goodness knows how he found out.” Tikki thought back to the face staring down at her from the StreamScreen and wondered what Harri had done to the man who Charlie called Funny Daddy. Had they tortured him to find out what Sienna had done with Charlie and the information he carried?

She let the small boy out of her arms, and he sat down on the bed, still hiccupping. “Don’t worry, Charlie. We will find out where your mom and dad are. And if they are alive, I will get you back to them.”

Okil raised his eyebrow in question, and then said, “I need to go to the tower to see if I can read this. Stay here.”

“You’re leaving now?” Tikki asked.

“Yes, the tower will be quiet; it’s not unusual for any of us to go in at night, but the council members are rarely there. Now would be a good time.”

“Then go. I’ll wait here for Elissa to come by in the morning. I think it might be a good time to ask her about Sienna and maybe about Harri again. She might know something else.”

“Are you going to tell her about Charlie?”

“Yes. I think it’s time all the secrets were out.” She looked at Charlie, her heart aching for him. “If she was deep in the resistance than she might have some clue as to what was happening. She may even know what happened to Charlie’s parents.”

“Be careful.” Okil came forward, kissed her head, and then went to the bedroom to get dressed. Then he left, slipping into the night. She heard the sound of the cruiser leaving, and knew all she could do was wait.

“Well, teddy, who would have thought you were the one holding all the secrets.”

“Sienna Mommy told me to hold onto him and never let him go.”

“If you knew the tag was there all this time, why didn’t you tell me?” Tikki asked

“I thought if I didn’t think about it, and didn’t tell you, it wouldn’t matter. It would just disappear. I don’t want to lose you too, Tikki Mommy, or Okil Daddy.”

“Don’t worry, Charlie. We’re not going anywhere.”

“But the bad men want to kill the aliens. I don’t want Okil Daddy to die.”

“What do you mean?”

Charlie shrugged. “My mommy used to cry, she said that the aliens didn’t deserve what the bad men were making her do.”

“What was your mom’s job?”

“She was a doctor. She tried to make medicine to help people.”

Tikki frowned, trying to see how this all fit together. She only hoped that Okil would find the answers on the chip. But until he came home, all she could do was wait. And hug a little child who had carried so much on his shoulders, or at least in his arms, in the shape of a teddy bear.





Chapter Twenty-Five – Okil


Okil had placed the chip in a small piece of cloth that was now nestled in his pocket. Maybe he had overreacted by coming here to the tower in the dead of night, but he knew that if this chip had been hidden by Sienna, whom Tikki was convinced had been murdered, then there must be something important on it. Okil wanted to find out what that information was and try to solve the mystery of Charlie before the Hier Council found out about him.

If Elissa decided to reveal the truth about her baby, then things could rapidly spiral out of control. Once he had the information off the chip, he planned on visiting Darl so that they could try to piece together what was happening. That reminded him: while he was here, he also wanted to check what message Torac had sent to Earth.

Okil had a feeling that things were going on behind his back, that the Hier Council had more information than they were letting on. What if they had got this all wrong and someone on the council was scheming with the President?

Was it possible that they had stumbled across a Karal–Earth alliance and that they were in danger from both sides? The Hier Ruler might have no idea, but there could be a leak of information from somewhere else. Some members of the council might long for the days when the females, the mothers of their children, were all shut away out of sight.

The sound of the wailing women, the mothers, from the breeding house rose in his ears. Yes. The Karal would do whatever it took to get what they wanted. His race were hard and unfeeling when they needed to be. As children, they were all trained to keep their emotions in check, to keep their colours under control.

Rushing along the corridor, he headed for the sim room. There he woke it, asking it to identify the chip.

“Earth technology. Analyse.” He would have to be quick, so talking was the preferred choice of communication with the sim. He only hoped the room was completely soundproof.