The Healer (The Order of Intergalactic Peace #1) - Kelly Lucille Page 0,73
for it,” he said. “I physically had to restrain myself from acting when I have known him nearly as long as Tolis and Elias.”
“Tolis and Elias?” she asked softly.
“General Tolis Smoke and Elias Quinn. We came up together as children in the OIP academy.”
She made a humph sound and he raised a brow in question.
She shrugged. “It just seems strange to think of General Smoke as a child.”
“I don’t remember ever being a child come to that. We showed promise so we were sent early.”
“Do you think that was when the boxes were placed?” she asked quietly. As if she needed to be careful of his feelings. “When you were a child?”
“No way to know, unless we want to ask the council.” He squinted his eyes in thought. “Unless…”
She waited but when he didn’t finish she spoke again, even as he was pulling up his com unit. “Unless what?”
He didn’t answer because his com call beeped acceptance. “Quinn,” a smooth dry voice said over the com.
“Get Tolis and meet me at medical.”
“Medical?” Elias asked, surprised. “Why?”
“Now Elias. Bring Tolis.” He knew from the quiet that followed his words that his friend and spymaster would understand from the use of first names that he wanted to see them as friends, not OIP.
“Understood.” Elias said softly. “We’re on our way.”
Mal turned to Serenity then. “I have a few more people for you to check.”
***
Both men had the box. Both men cursed and opted to have it removed when she explained the little she knew. By the time she had divested everyone, including most of the Phoenix guard and explained what was happening to the rest of medical she was seriously in need of sleep. Flinn and Tram were all that remained to be healed but that would wait for the next day. She needed rest and food, preferably in her own room. Unfortunately Mal had other ideas.
When she explained she was going to her room to sleep he shot out orders so fast she could not get a word in edgewise.
“Quinn can you get into our files without raising any red flags and find out when and why the implants were made?”
The morpher nodded and left as if he couldn’t wait for the task ahead.
Mal sent General Smoke back to his men with an agreement that she would scan the rest of the soldiers at Mess in the morning and they would find out how far it went down the ranks.
They all agreed no one outside the room would hear about this. Not yet.
General Smoke gave her a long considering look she could not decipher and then left. Leaving her with no idea of what he was thinking. Serenity yawned and could not raise up enough energy to care. By the time she was finally out of medical and on the way to bed, she had no energy left to fight about the destination. She just wanted sleep. But again, Mal had other plans.
“You see rot?” he asked quietly as soon as they were inside his quarters with the door closing out the rest of the ship. “Do you see any on me?”
“No,” she finally said, thinking a little too long and knowing it when he turned to look at her. He was really worried about this, she realized.
“I’ve killed a lot of people.” He continued speaking mildly enough, but she wasn’t fooled. “Given the orders on even more.”
“Soul rot isn’t about that,” she explained as she headed for the bed to sit down before she fell.
“Then what is it about,” he asked. “His power is death and he’s rotten”
“The rot is not about that. His power repels me, but that has to do with my own, not that his is inherently bad.” She tried to put into words what conclusions she had come to about the Death power and the Councilman who wielded it. “Death is as much a part of balance as life is. The rot is insanity, or imbalance in the man’s mind. Not in the power itself. His power did not make him rotten to the core, he made his power manifest that way.” She shrugged. “That is the best way I can describe it.”
“Your saying councilman Gren is insane?”
“Yes.” She was positive about that at least. “And unlike the few insane people I have met he knows exactly what he is, and he likes it.”
“I won’t let him touch you.”
She gave him a long look. “Are they all like that?”