Devotion (Chosen by the Karal #5)(44)
“You may all go.” The Hier Commander dismissed them all.
Chapter Twenty-Nine – Okil
“And you don’t think it’s weird at all?” Tikki asked as Okil prepared to go to Earth.
“Why would I?” he asked. “The Hier Council unanimously voted to continue with the deep space missions; although there is no guarantee they will create a colony. But now is not the time to argue that fact. Wait until they have found a planet.”
“And you think it’s perfectly natural for the council to allow Charlie’s parents to come and live here?” she asked for the hundredth time. “I never expected them to change their minds about human males coming to Karal.”
“Nothing the Hier Council does is ever perfectly natural,” he said smiling and kissing her. “I am just pleased they have made an exception. Of course it is safer for them to come and live here than for them to be allowed to live on Earth.”
“You mean the alternative would be for them to have been killed? Murdered?”
“It could have been done. I am sure the Hier Ruler is capable of anything to protect the planet. As he should be. The fact that the President was in on this has compounded the danger.”
“And yet the President is still the President and you still have to deal with him.”
“There is no direct proof. And what if there was? We could not assassinate him. Could we?” Although Okil would have volunteered for the job.
“No,” Tikki conceded. “Although information Charlie’s parents have, may be enough to implicate him. Enough for him to be charged.”
“With what? Do you think killing an alien race is covered in your Earth laws?” Okil asked. “I expect the Karal are judged to be lower than your skims by some humans.”
“It should be the law. But I expect you are right.” She looked sad, and he wanted to comfort her, it was a harsh truth, but she needed to understand.
“We cannot live by what should be.” Okil said.
“So you just remove the people who can actually perfect the virus?”
“This way is best. I think the Hier Ruler intends to extract any information they may have about the development of the virus. The chip only held half the data. Charlie’s parents bargained with the other half.”
“Extract the information?” Tikki was shocked.
“Yes, we need to know everything.” He placed his hand on her arm; letting calm sensations run from him into her. “I know it’s hard to understand.”
“No. I get it. I just can’t see why Sienna didn’t destroy the data and end this.”
“From what I have been able to discover, she hoped that there would be a way to expose the President and the resistance. Unfortunately there was no one willing to listen.”
“And so they ended up dead. Sienna and Charlie’s Funny Daddy.”
“Yes. The corruption ran deep and once it was known she had Charlie and the data, they were hunted.” And murdered.
“And Charlie’s parents?”
“They kept the other half of the data, because the information is tradable. As you can see. It is the only reason they are being offered an escape from their life on Earth.” Charlie’s parents hadn’t taken long to accept the offer from Karal. In the details of the mission objectives, Okil had seen, there was a brief explanation of how desperate the two humans were. They were to be approached with caution. And only brought to Karal if they were considered mentally stable. If not, Charlie would be an orphan.
“You think after all they went through, being separated from Charlie, everything … that they would still make the virus viable?”
“If they were cornered, they may well have handed it over to the President.” In Okil’s mind, there was no maybe. If the President or the resistance found them first, the Karal would be in terrible danger. That is why he had to leave now.
He kissed her. “Be safe, I will be back tomorrow.”
She flung her arms around his neck and held him tight. “I am glad this is the last time you are going to go to Earth.”
“In a way, so am I. But only because the Hier Council has asked me to continue to oversee the deep space missions. That will keep me busy here, and I can at least make sure that all of Earth’s and Karal’s needs are met.”
“I’ll miss you.” She kissed him fiercely and he knew she wanted him to stay, and part of him wanted to stay too. A very large part, that was concerned that this was some trick by the Hier Council: that he was going to his death and he would never see Tikki again.
“Stay close to Elissa. Until I’m back I don’t want you or Charlie to be alone. Do you understand?” He hated frightening her like this. Never before had he mistrusted his people or its rulers. But he had to agree with Tikki, this was unusual behaviour, particularly for the Hier Ruler.
“I will,” she said, stepping back and letting him go. “We plan to clean the rooms in the breeding house where Charlie’s family will live.”
“Yes. It is one thing for them to be brought here, but another for them to be given any kind of freedom. And once the colony does go ahead, that is where they will live. This is a short-term solution. I think it is only because Lytril wishes to have people on the new planet who are scientists, and not loyal to Earth alone, that he has allowed it. After the way they have been treated by the Earth government, he hopes they will be loyal to him. If we can get them off Earth without them being intercepted.”