Page 23 of A Light in the Dark
While it ate awaythree hours of my day, I finished all my errands, installed the new doorbells, and transferred my phone number to disguise the fact the Hunters had given me a phone. Once settled at home and my leftover chili simmered on the stove, I sent Roger a text informing him I’d acquired the doorbells and had invested in full shoring of my home, which offered the best protections possible in Stonecreek.
To my amusement, he asked for a copy of the bill. Using the phone, I sent it to him, and I even included the confirmation of the downpayment I’d made for the work.
Five minutes later, my phone rang.
Smiling, I answered, “Hello again, Roger.”
“That company really likes you. These protections are stellar. Would you allow us to finish paying off the bill as part of your compensation?”
“How would we handle the taxes on it?”
“That’s a Hunters of Moonriver problem versus yours. We’ll utilize some loopholes, and we’ll inform Stonecreek we’d done some damage to your roof with our helicopter. While repairing the roof, we would handle payments for the rest of the shoring. They won’t question it, as roof damagefrom helicopters flying close is not terribly uncommon when shingles are involved. We’ll make the arrangements. They know we compensate when someone helps a refugee, and they know we rescued one from your property. It won’t rouse any suspicions. If anything, it’ll be more suspicious if we didn’t offer compensation. We have a fund for this sort of thing from the charity drive.”
I took my time thinking about it, and when I couldn’t find a reason to refuse the offer that didn’t involve a stung pride, I replied, “Okay. I can accept that. My roof should be checked after a helicopter was so close to it. I can leave that matter in your care, and I’ll put you in touch with Garth so your roofing work won’t bother their shoring efforts.”
“Excellent. I’ll give the luna moth a call once I’m off the phone with you and inform him that you have a doorbell installed and can let him in for his checks. If you plan on going up the hill near the lake, see about taking him with you. I’d rather be safe than sorry. And whatever is going on in Stonecreek is happening close to that lake. We haven’t been able to check the water up there for bodies.”
With the size of the lake, it wouldn’t surprise me if someone used it as a dumping ground for corpses. While people fished in it all the time, the waters were deep and people worried about the levees breaking at unexpected times. Magic kept the waters at bay while the rebuild of the levees happened, and I tended to stay far away from the danger zones, listening for signs of floods coming when out on the streets. “Why not?”
“Stonecreek only allows residents near the paths, and we have no way to get around those blockades right now. Not safely.”
“Are any of your aquatic shifters small enough to fit into a backpack?”
“We have a few, yes.”
“I’m game to go on a hike with the luna moth while carrying a backpack. There are a few picnic spots around the lake, so it would be trivial to set your shifter loose to check the water. They will have to be careful, but as long as they investigate quickly and came back before we have to leave, there’s no reason it couldn’t at least be confirmed if there are bodies down there. But with how turbulent the waters get up there during the floods, they probably washed down to the bottom.”
“That is a factor in our hesitancy to check. We doubt it’s worth the risk. However, if we build a case against Stonecreek, we’ll be able to gain access. This sort of crime violates planetary law, and because we have been overseeing the refugees on this world, we will get judiciary rights over the case. They might bring in some law enforcement from off world, as they have better forensics equipment than we do—and this sort of thing deserves the best the universe has to offer.”
That it did. “We can violate tech in that case?”
“We can. The analysis will take place in orbit, and we’ll use the results in our courts. I was disclosed on some of the specifics due to Gabriella.”
I worried for the woman, who had suffered through her life being turned upside down. “How is she doing?”
“She’s settling well. One of our factions has taken her in, and she’s adapting rather well. She won’t be a Hunter, but honestly, that’s for the best. She has a gentler personality. She might end up married to a Hunter, but we’ll see aboutthat over time. She required some medical care, but she’s recovering nicely.” Roger made a thoughtful sound. “Once everything settles down, you can come to Moonriver and meet with her. She regrets she could not thank you properly for saving her life.”
“I’d like to visit Moonriver. I’ve never been there before,” I admitted.
“Make sure you have your travel documentation in hand, and in a few months, we’ll issue an invitation.”
Unlike a lot of people in Stonecreek, I kept my travel documents handy, renewing them as needed. While I’d never left the city-state, if I wanted to, I could. “I have my travel documents.”
“Send a picture of your documents to me just so we can keep track of you. We’ll inform Stonecreek that we’re doing it as a thanks for your assistance. That will give you a few extra protections.”
“I’ll do that as soon as I’m off the phone with you.”
“Good.”
“What do you want me to do in the meantime?”
“Lie low, act normal, and gather what information you can on refugees in the area, especially if they’re being pursued by businesses for tech and then being discarded. We had not considered the tech angle. We’ll check the records of victims to see if they had any relevant info someone might want and be willing to kill over. From time to time, city-states decide to get ambitious and try to violate our tech levels. They’re not smart enough to realize tech is far more advanced off our world, and they think they’re developing something new and interesting. They’re really not. While some tech has survived through the ages, the rest of theuniverse is far more advanced than we are. Rather than leave and pursue tech, they think they can violate our levels and progress us.”
How idiotic. “It’s notthathard to get clearance to leave the planet.”
“Oh, it can be hard, but with our status as a refugee planet, a lot of the red tape has been removed. There are some talks about slightly upgrading our tech level and starting a new preservation planet with our current level. With Earth destroyed, planets like ours are the last vestiges of purebredhomo sapiens.”
I’d never put much thought into the other preservation planets, which were scattered across the universe, and everyone else generally treated us as elaborate terrariums with sentient lifeforms. For the most part, while aware I was one of the sentient lifeforms living in an elaborate terrarium, I hadn’t minded being part of a living experiment.
