The Significant (48 page)

      
Kailynn took a deep breath.

      
“Don’t push me away, Isa,” she said. “You
and I are both risking everything just by being together. If we can’t depend on
each other, there is no reason to be risking our lives like this.”

      
Isa sighed, lowering her eyes.

      
“You’re right.”

      
“If you do that to me again, I’m going to
call you out on your bullshit,” Kailynn warned.

      
“I would hope so,” Isa said with a smile.

      
The following day, Isa returned to work,
as did Rayal and Kailynn.

      
Kailynn never thought she would enjoy
working with the Syndicate Intelligence Agency, and she did struggle with her
limited reading and writing abilities, but she was learning quickly, and she
started to enjoy working for Rayal, even if most of the time she was only
running errands.

      
Things seemed to be returning to normal,
slowly.

      
Kailynn never asked how the other Elites
were handling Maki’s death. She did not want to bring up that night. It had
frightened her, and she could see the way Isa’s eyes darkened whenever it was
discussed. The wounds were too fresh to be immediately addressed.

      
However, a week after Maki was killed,
there was a crash reported in Trid that put the entire Syndicate on alert and
turned the attention away from Maki.

      
Kailynn came back from dropping off files
at the various desks of the other employees and saw Rayal staring pensively at
the screen.

      
“Everything okay?” she asked.

      
“Do you know the area around Raizen Lake
in Trid?” he asked.

      
“Yeah, why?”

      
“There was a drone that crashed there
about an hour ago,” he said pointing to the red dot flashing on his screen.

      
“A drone? Like a spy?”

      
“Possibly,” he admitted. “I need you to
come with me. I don’t know the area.”

      
“The lake is huge,” Kailynn said, walking
closer to the screen. “Where is the Walking District on this?”

      
Rayal pointed.

      
“So it was close to the Walking
District,” she noted. “Does that mean it
was
a spy drone?”

      
“The only way to find out is to retrieve
it,” Rayal said, standing.

      
They drove silently to the border of the
Walking District, where Rayal parked the car and the two joined the tourists on
the streets, walking with their heads down and glasses covering their faces,
trying not to be noticed.

      
Kailynn led the way into Trid, ducking
into an alley that allowed them to slip carefully past the border patrol.

      
Once in Trid, Rayal turned to Kailynn,
following her lead.

      
“Isa apologized?”

      
Kailynn dropped her gaze and nodded
slowly.

      
“Yeah…”

      
“You don’t seem to have accepted her
apology,” he noted.

      
“I have,” she said. “I just wish I knew
what the hell was going on half the time. I feel like she doesn’t trust me.”

      
“She trusts you,” Rayal assured.

      
“Then why won’t she tell me what happened
with Colonel Amori?” Kailynn snapped. “She’s dealing with Gihron again, right?
Wasn’t he from Gihron?”

      
“He was,” Rayal said with a nod.

      
“Then I feel like I should know.”

      
“I agree,” Rayal murmured. “But I can’t
tell you everything she endured, because I don’t know. She never told me
everything. She never told Remus, either. I’m sure Paul and Dr. Busen are the
only two who know.”

      
“Then what did he do to
you
?” Kailynn pressed.

      
Rayal closed his eyes briefly.

      
“He poisoned me,” he said simply.

      
“
Poisoned
you?”

      
“Slowly, over the course of four months,
or so,” Rayal said. “He was trying to take over the planet, and he knew the
only way to do that was to have complete control over Isa. So, he made sure to
manipulate everything he could to ensnare Isa in a trap. She was being
blackmailed by the time she realized what he was doing.” Rayal took a deep
breath. “I didn’t realize what was happening, either. I just started to feel
ill and it kept getting worse. I would lose hours of the day. I would just
black out. I didn’t realize until it was far too late…until the damage was
already done.”

      
“What damage?”

      
“You thought Isa was bad last week?”
Rayal said, looking at Kailynn with his eyebrows high. “Imagine her acting like
that all day, every day, for months, and you have
no
idea why. You try to ask her what’s wrong, and she just…pushes
you away. I didn’t realize that Colonel Amori was the reason until…”

      
“Until what?”

      
“Until I saw him…” Rayal hesitated,
“standing behind her as she looked into my hospital room. He was whispering to
her and I had never seen her look so afraid.”

      
Kailynn dropped her eyes to the ground as
well, looking up only briefly to be sure that they were going in the right
direction.

      
“You just have to understand that, when
she does that, it’s because she’s trying to protect you, and herself.”

      
“Can Isa feel emotions? Or not?” Kailynn
demanded.

      
“According to the doctors, no, she
can’t,” Rayal said seriously. “She’s passed every degenerate test they have. No
one has been able to figure out why she acts the way she does, like she’s…”

      
“Human?”

      
“Yes.”

      
Kailynn sighed heavily and shook her
head.

      
“I just wish she would talk to me,” she
said. “I’m starting to feel useless, like I’m just around for decoration.”

      
“No, not at all,” Rayal said strongly. “I
wish I could say something that would make you feel better, because I know how
scary and confusing it is when she’s like that. But I can only tell you that
she cares for you very deeply. And you are the best thing that has happened to
her in…who knows how long.”

      
Kailynn sighed once more and dropped the
subject.

      
It was another ten minutes before they
reached the general area where the drone crashed. Among the dilapidated
buildings with broken windows and crumbling foundations, it was hard to
determine where the drone had crashed.

      
Rayal pulled out a hand-held sensor.

      
They followed the signal into one
building and up three floors, finding the small, round drone sparking
sporadically on the ground.

      
“That’s what a drone looks like?” Kailynn
asked as Rayal pocketed the sensor again.

      
“Yes.”

      
“Those things crash here all the time.”

      
“They do?” Rayal asked, turning to
Kailynn quickly.

      
“Yes, at least four times a year,
sometimes more.”

      
“For how long?”

      
“I dunno…at least the last three to four
years.”

      
Rayal turned back to the drone, looking
it over carefully as he circled it.

      
“And they look exactly like this one?”

      
“Yeah,” Kailynn said. “Spy drones have
been in Trid for years?”

      
“This isn’t a spy drone,” Rayal said,
crouching on one side of it. “It’s a router drone.”

      
“A what?”

      
“These haven’t been in use in decades,”
Rayal said. “I’ve never actually seen one operational.” He reached into his
pocket and pulled out gloves. “They’re…something of a transmitter. They pick up
a paired signal and move to a location closer to where the owner wants it
broadcasted. This is ancient technology at this point.”

      
“Could someone change it to do something
else?”

      
“I doubt it,” Rayal said, reaching into
one of the fractured pieces and pulling out one wire. The small, glowing light
faded immediately. “We’ll take it back to the office and have it examined. We
should also tell Isa once we know for sure what it does.”

      
Kailynn had never been to the Syndicate
Building before, and her eyes continued to wander as she tried to keep up with
Rayal. The building was a towering structure of glass and metal, filled with
light. The first floor held small offices where robots were taking and
directing calls. The second floor, the floor where Rayal and Kailynn got off
the elevator, was open and spacious where a hallway led into a cavernous room
of computers, with monitors and screens that lined the walls for five stories,
different images flashing across different screens. There were three Elites in
that room, focused on their tasks as they moved around the different computers.

      
Kailynn had to jog to catch up with Rayal
as he approached an elevator on the other side of the room. Through the glass
doors, she looked over the immense control room, seeing the glass-walled
offices with walkways overlooking the large room.

      
They stopped at the top floor of the
control room and exited immediately to Isa’s office door. It opened
automatically for them and Kailynn looked around eagerly.

      
Isa’s office was mostly bare. There were
two tables stacked high with files and removable drives. One desk near the
balcony doors had a personal terminal on it that was hibernating with the
screensaver of the Syndicate crest rotating on it. In the middle of the room
was a large NCB chair, even larger than the one Isa had at Anon Tower. Opposite
the desk was a small seating area with black couches and a coffee table.

      
Isa was sitting there, Paul across from
her, and a creature Kailynn had never seen before sitting next to Isa, its
front legs over her legs. Its head lifted and turned to those who entered the
office, ears perking up.

      
“Kailynn, Rayal,” Isa greeted.

      
“What is that?” Kailynn asked, her eyes
fixed on the creature.

      
“It’s a dog,” Paul answered with a
stunning smile. Kailynn was not sure how one human could be so good-looking.
His appearance rivaled that of an Elite. “You probably have never seen one
before.”

      
“They’re very rare, now,” Isa elaborated,
motioning Kailynn closer. “They’re used for therapy only now, and come at a
very high price.”

      
“Is it safe?”

      
“Very,” Paul chuckled. “She’s mine. Her
name is Tiana.”

      
“Is this the mother of Remus’ dog?” Rayal
asked, walking forward and extending his hand to the animal.

      
“She is,” Paul affirmed.

      
Kailynn slowly walked over to the animal,
unsure what to do. She had never seen anything like the dog before. Animals
were very rare on Tiao—only birds were common. She had never even heard of a
dog before.

      
The animal was very soft, and Kailynn sat
down next to it, petting it over and over again. Tiana’s tail began wagging and
she licked the Significant’s hand.

      
“She likes you,” Paul said with a smile.

      
“Remus has one of these?”

      
“I prescribed one to him,” Paul said,
nodding. “Tiana had just had a litter of pups, so I sold him one.” His smiled
widened. “How are you doing, Kailynn?”

      
“Alright…” Kailynn said, turning away
from the handsome doctor.

      
“Yet another flustered by your stunning
good looks, Paul,” Isa teased.

      
“I have to make friends somehow,” Paul
played along. “Have you two been speaking to one another? Did you apologize, Isa?”