Demon's Revenge (High Demon 5)

"I've been checking the hits on comp-vid during meal breaks," I said. "They're only hitting high-credit shipments. Have you noticed? They let three ships go past outside Ooklarr, only to hit the fourth that carried expensive hovercraft."

"Reah, I'm getting a headache," Lendill said. "How did you come up with that?"

"My codes still work," I mumbled, thinking that now I'd called his attention to that bit of information, those codes would likely be shut down. "We have access to manifests after the fact, just not before. Isn't that right?" I looked at my half-Elf mate, who was also Vice-Director for the ASD.

"So you backtracked."

"Yes. And three other ships went through the same lane in less than fifteen ticks. Don't tell me the pirates conveniently showed up for the fourth ship to come through. Those others were carrying cotton bales and tea shipments."

"We thought they hacked into ship communications," Lendill said.

"Also a possibility. But how would they know to go there to begin with? All of those ships could be carrying raw cotton. They wouldn't know for sure until they got close enough to intercept the communications. And they've been hitting President D wi Presidrix's gishi fruit shipments. Avendor's harvests run a month or two ahead of ours, but they also export data chips and medical supplies. None of those were hit, were they?" I turned to Teeg.

"We were assuming the same as Lendill and Norian. Ship communications," Teeg said. "All the ships now keep communications to a minimum, and they've always been scrambled, but we're still getting hit. Granted it’s a bit more random, but still." Teeg knew just as well as I did that anything could be decoded nowadays, if you had the right equipment and sufficient determination.

"Somebody on the ground may be selling shipping information." Lendill whipped out his comp-vid, his fingers flying so fast over the digital keys even I had a hard time keeping up. He was sending a message to Norian Keef, Director of the ASD. Norian and I still didn't speak much. Not after my first daughter died. I still didn't like to think about that.

"I'll place compulsion myself, if it'll get me to the bottom of this," Teeg growled. Lendill got a message from Norian right away.

"Reah, I'll be in touch in a couple of eight-days, all right? Be ready to go, breah-mul." Ever since Lendill had awakened his Elvish ability, he folded almost everywhere. He was gone in a blink. His father, Kaldill Schaff, was King of the Elves and still I didn't think that Kaldill knew the full extent of Lendill's talents.

"I don't think it's going to be easy to get the information," I said, looking at Teeg.

"Why?" He came to put his arms around me.

"I just don't," I said.

"Baby, why didn't you tell me you needed money?" Teeg's lips were warm against my temple.

"Teeg, when do you have time to talk to me?"

"Baby, I was busy. If you'd sent a message, I'd have gotten back to you."

"Those floozies answer your messages."

"Reah, they're not floozies. They're qualified assistants. Let's not fight. I want to take you to bed and kiss that look off your face." That could take some work; I'm sure I was frowning deeply.

In twenty years, Teeg had never slept in my tiny bedroom. The room was neat, even if the walls needed paint and the furniture wasn't the best. I wasn't going to apologize for it. Teeg lived in a palace. Lendill had rooms in both Ildevar Wyyld's palace and Lissa's. I'd seen vid-photos of Dantel Schuul's home in vid-mags that certainly showed Tory and Darletta living in a palace, although Dantel Schuul employed false modesty and called it a house.

After being invited to join the Saa Thalarr as a Spawn Hunter, Lok had built a nice home near Aurelius' on the light side of Le-Ath Veronis. He'd brought wood in from Falchan and Adam helped put it together. Adam said he enjoyed the experience, having never put together what he termed an Asian construction project.

Radolf had taken over the house in Targis on Tulgalan, and Ilvan either lived in Lissa's palace or spent time on Tulgalan with Radolf as time allowed. Farzi and Nenzi had an expansive plantation house, something that Farzi had always wanted. Teeg built it for him and deeded much of Campiaa's farmland to the reptanoids. Farzi, Nenzi and the others were doing very well, but then they weren't expected to pay off Campiaa's debts, either.

The Crown owned the land I occupied on Kifirin. It had once belonged to the Croth and Drith, but when those twoid-en thos High Demon houses had thrown their lot in with the Ra'Ak nearly a century earlier, Jayd's first act as King had been to execute the traitors and confiscate their lands. Back then, the main crop had been sugar cane. Many worlds exported that product, and for a time, Kifirin competed against them.

Now, there was only Avendor in the Campiaan Alliance that also grew gishi fruit. Something about the volcanic soil on both Avendor and Kifirin supported the trees. Kifirin supplied the Reth Alliance with gishi fruit; Avendor supplied the Campiaan Alliance. Still, there was a larger demand than either of us could supply. I wondered what President Drix might have said earlier if he knew he was speaking with the one who oversaw the Kifirini groves.

"Where did you go?" Teeg slid into bed beside me.

"Just wondering what Drix would have said earlier if he knew I grew the gishi fruit on Kifirin."

"Reah, stop thinking business," Teeg pushed me back gently and kissed me. I didn't point out that business was exactly what he thought about, most of the time.

"But she never says anything." Jayd was angry. "She didn't tell us there wasn't enough money. And how many disabled does she have there, now?"

"I had to go back through the records," Garde shoved a comp-vid toward his brother, the King. Jayd's office was where they sat, this time. His desk was larger, the décor more opulent.

"Fifty-six? Where is she putting all of them?"

"Adam Chessman and Aurelius, with others from the Saa Thalarr, put up the infirmary and single-level apartments. They're both full, and some of those who live there are unable to work at all. Reah and the others take care of them."

"Why hasn't the Crown put something together like this?" Jayd enlarged the vid-photos of Reah's disabled quarters.

"Because it was easier to ship them off to Reah and let her deal with them. Wasn't it, Garde?" Queen Glinda walked into the room. "No wonder she always said she couldn't come shopping or go visiting. She didn't have the time."

"Glinda, most of the time I'm glad you were allowed to leave the Saa Thalarr. Now isn't one of those times." Jayd looked up at his wife.