Page 5 of A Light in the Dark
“No. The thunder did. Nobody warned me how bad the storms got here. When I first came to Stonecreek, I had a guide who showed me where to stay and shop.” She gestured in the direction of up the hill.
Interesting. Few of Stonecreek’s residents lived anywhere near the dam, where the waters were the most dangerous during the yearly flood. While the buildings bore similar protections to mine, anyone caught out on the streets died, their bodies broken and battered by the time they reachedthe base of the mountain. “Where did you fall into the water?”
“I didn’t fall. I was on the street, headed to a hostel down the hill, as I’d reached the limit on my stay at the refugee shelter. I managed to get up onto some steps for the first while, but then the waters got too high. I got swept off my perch.” She frowned, described where the shelter was at, and added, “I’d thought it strange everyone was careful to go indoors before sundown, but nobody up there had told me why. I had no idea the flooding happened this time of year. To be fair, they keep the refugees up near the lake, teaching us about the planet and helping us improve our language skills. I never thought to ask about the floods.”
My mouth dropped open, and even the moth stopped eating his breakfast, his antennae twitching while he fluttered his wings. “They didn’t tell you when the floods happened?”
The floods were scheduled. We knew the exact minute the floodgates opened. There was one reason—and one reason alone—why someone would neglect to inform the refugees on when the floods began.
There was no faster way to kill someone than to forgo warning them of the dangers of Stonecreek. Butwhy? Why invite refugees only to neglect to teach them how to survive in our city?
A possibility roused.
Moonriver had paid city-states a hefty sum per person to accept refugees. Gabriella’s life had a price tag, and if I remembered correctly, she’d brought in over a hundred thousand dollars in immediate revenue to help her settle.Stonecreek had taken in several hundred refugees in the first wave and several hundred more in the second.
Charitable donations from around the universe had paid for the relocation funds. The wealthy would enjoy tax incentives for having contributed, and the refugees would be able to start a new life.
It wasn’t possible that the powers that be running Stonecreek would deliberately murder refugees for the money, was it?
“No, they hadn’t,” Gabriella confirmed in a soft voice.
“How strange. Did they tell you about the flood response, how we clean up, and what we do after the flood waters recede?”
The woman shook her head. “They just told me there were yearly floods.”
That bothered me, as it indicated that the guide understood they led the refugees to their inevitable deaths. Worse, it meant we’d have more bodies than normal in the lakes that formed below the city. The census wouldn’t include the refugees, and the residents wouldn’t be checking the missing persons list for those we only knew existed from news reports.
With a high probability of there being no survivors, nobody would have caught on to how someone in Stonecreek had figured out how to profit off the lives of refugees—hundreds, if not over a thousand of them. Fury stabbed through me, and I needed to control my breathing to keep from sounding like a bull about to trash a china shop for the sheer joy of destruction. “I can teach you more about Stonecreek,” I promised. “I’m no guide, but I’m happy to help you get settled—or to get you to somewhere safer.”
Anyone could reach out to Moonriver regarding refugees, and I bet the instant I communicated that there were refugee bodies likely in the water, they could begin the process of rescuing Gabriella and getting her to somewhere genuinely safe. I checked my cell phone, the cheapest money could buy and unreliable most days, to discover I’d lost signal sometime during the storm. I regarded my landline, which hung on the wall nearby, and I picked it up to check for a dial tone.
While the electricity was out across the street and my cell wasn’t working, the phone was still good. I’d heard the commercial so many times inviting people to contact Moonriver if a refugee was spotted having trouble that I dialed without having to think about it.
On the third ring, a woman answered, “Moonriver Refugee Response Network, how may I direct your call?”
“Hi. My name is Valerie Chester. I’m a resident of Stonecreek. It’s our flood season, and I need to report that I assisted a refugee out of the waters. I have reason to believe that the refugees brought into Stonecreek did not receive sufficient warning about our floods or the flood schedule.”
The woman sucked in a breath. “Do you have the refugee’s full name and registration number?”
“Let me ask.” I lowered the phone, turned to Gabriella, and relayed the request for more information.
“Gabriella Espinoza, and my registration number is MR-SC-1262.”
I translated that to mean she’d initially arrived in Moonriver, she’d been assigned to Stonecreek, and the city-state had taken more than twelve hundred victims.
The potential death toll staggered me, especially ifGabriella spoke the truth and all our refugees had been building lives for themselves in the most vulnerable part of the city without any idea the floods could be so dangerous.
I told the operator my guest’s name and registration number.
“How did you come about this information?” the operator asked.
“Gabriella got lucky. She fell into the waters at the later stage of the flood, so while the waters are high, most of the debris has already been washed out to the forming lakes below the city. I heard her scream, and I saw the light from a moth shapeshifter. I have a rescue rig in my house. I got lucky. My aim with the preserver was good, and my system held while I pulled her in. Internal injuries are a possibility, though.”
“Miss Espinoza has active shapeshifter genetics, so she would begin healing immediately. She stayed in Moonriver long enough for her genes to activate, so she should recover. While she is not as robust as a shapeshifter, nor does she have any known animal genetics, she stands an excellent chance of survival.” The operator made a thoughtful sound. “She has not been disclosed on her genetics; she was welcomed to Stonecreek before the DNA tests were completed. Her genetics make her eligible to gain residency in Moonriver.”
“Give me a sec,” I requested, once again lowering my phone so I could speak to Gabriella. “I’m guessing your medical records are not exactly private because of your status as a refugee?”
“Yes, that’s correct. We agreed to have our basic informationpublic to simplify moving between the city-states. Why?”
