Starfall (Starflight #2)(25)
Even though the palace was within walking distance, they took the Banshee’s shuttle to give Cassia an aerial view of the refugee tent camp, where the outbreak was believed to have originated. On a usual day, half the displaced colonists wandered into the city to look for work or to scavenge for anything they could repair and sell. The other half milled about the market or stood in lines for rations.
But that wasn’t the case today.
“My god,” she breathed as she pressed her forehead to the windshield and stared at the listless masses slumped over on the ground outside their tents. There were thousands and thousands of them, all too tired to walk. Nearly every pair of shoulders shook from either coughing or retching, maybe both. That was why they chose not to rest inside their tents. They didn’t want to fill their homes with the stink of vomit. “Look at this, Kane.”
His fingers squeaked from tightening around the pilot’s wheel. “I see it.”
“There are so many of them.” She prayed the illness wasn’t contagious, otherwise the neighboring kingdoms wouldn’t need sticks and rocks to lay waste to her people. “Is your mom this bad?”
“Not quite, but I just called her a few minutes ago. Who knows what kind of shape she’ll be in by tonight.”
“All right, I’ve seen enough,” she said. “Take us to Marius.”
By the time they walked through the security station door, Jordan had left a message saying he and his men found a common link among the sick. They all appeared to spend most of their days outside, which was consistent with Rena’s work as a farmhand.
“Something in the soil, maybe?” Kane guessed as they crossed the lobby. “It can’t be in the water supply or we’d all have symptoms.”
Cassia nodded absently while making a mental note to talk to Councilor Markham. She wanted him to find out whether colonists in the other kingdoms were sick as well, but to do so in a way that didn’t reveal how dire the problem was at home. She had to maintain a strong front. At the first sign of weakness, the other houses might unite against her.
“Hey, are you listening to me?”
“Sorry.” She refocused on Kane, who stood with one hand on the door leading to the cell block. “Before we go inside,” she said, “I should warn you about Marius.”
“He’s locked up, right?”
“Yes, but if you thought he was awful before, that’s nothing compared with what he’s like on the truth extractor. He won’t hold back. So brace yourself and don’t lose your head.”
The impish grin on Kane’s lips reminded her of old times, when he treated her like a friend instead of a wounded bird. “He’ll have to step up his game if he wants to provoke me. I lived with you for two years.”
“And you never lost your head.” She smiled sweetly and knocked on his skull. “Not that there’s anything in there to lose.”
“Nice one.”
“I know. Come on.”
After keying open the door, she led the way to the maximum-security cell at the heart of the block. There she found Marius behind fiberglass bars, reclining on his cot and reading from a data tablet. He glanced up from his device and greeted her with an arrogant grin that fell when he noticed Kane.
“I see you reunited with your boyfriend.” Marius raked his gaze over Kane’s rumpled clothing. “You do have a taste for the fouler things in life.”
“Guards, administer the truth extractor.” She kept her eyes fixed on Marius so she wouldn’t miss his reaction. He bolted upright and dropped his tablet. “I want to question our guest.”
It gave her a tingle of satisfaction to know how much he hated the extraction process. The electrodes always made him confess embarrassing secrets unrelated to her line of questioning. He’d once announced a fetish for body hair, and ever since then the guards had way too much fun at his expense when they came on duty, lifting a pant leg to show off their furry calves. She disdained the invention itself and wouldn’t allow its use on the colonists, but she was all too happy to make an exception for her husband.
The guards followed her orders, and twenty minutes later, Marius was cuffed to a chair in his cell, under the influence of his own family’s invention.
“Perfect,” Cassia said through the bars. “Now we can begin.”
Marius clenched his fists in fury, wrenching uselessly against his restraints. “I’m going to find a way out of here, and when I do, I’ll have your eyes gouged out and every inch of your skin flayed from your bones.” He glared at Kane. “You and your filthy bastard of a lover.”
Kane snickered. “It’s working. That’s unfiltered honesty, right there.”
“My people are sick,” Cassia told Marius. “Thousands of them.”
“Good. I’m glad.”
She kept her voice calm as a vein throbbed at her temple. “It’s not viral or bacterial. We think your army launched a biological contaminant on us. Do you have a weapon like that?”
He growled through clenched teeth. “Yes.”
“Have you ever deployed it?”
“No.”
“Tell me how the weapon works.”
“If we wanted to poison you, we would drop tablets downriver. Or launch them into your lakes.”