and I’m confident she’ll get to the bottom of it.
“And you set him up in a home you own? Or a hotel …?” My information on how Mannvit handled Brad visiting for his training is fairly basic. Lilibeth has stopped trying to lead the investigation, instead leaning back and crossing her arms, looking at Alisha with a strange expression.
“Oh … right. Yes. We have a few company-owned places for visitors to stay.” Folding his hands in front of him, I watch his Adam’s apple bounce up and down as he swallows nervously. “That’s quite worrisome about Brad Nixon. I mean … we as a company just assumed that all our students were in the same position as Daniel Ingolfur, quarantined and all.”
I see Lilibeth’s eyes narrow as she mouths “Quarantined?” with her brows raised.
Alex licks his lips again before asking, “Do you think it’d be possible to get a copy of everyone else in custody? Just so we can confirm no one else is missing? This is highly irregular. No one came looking for him because they assumed he was still in training. We didn’t cross reference him as missing since the information we received stated everyone at the event was quarantined and safe.”
Picking up the phone in the middle of the table, he comments, “I’ll get my secretary to bring me in a copy of what we received along with the list of who was enrolled. I feel absolutely terrible—”
“I’m really interested in checking out where he was staying. Could you get her to bring a key and the address?” Alex already has his secretary on the phone as I give him the command. I ask, “Has anyone else gone over to where he was staying?”
I give him a minute to finish with his secretary, winking at Lilibeth and her stoic expression. She’s so serious. Unlike her predecessor Julia. Not only can Lilibeth drive, but she’s also intriguing. Why does she always look so angry?
“Only the cleaners.” Alex sits forward, still staring at the phone he just hung up. “They were slated to go there yesterday, I think.” There’s a light tap on the door. “Ah, here she is.” The door cracks open, and another blond woman with a long braid stands in the doorway, holding out some papers to Alex. “Trina, did the cleaners go through the rentals yesterday?”
Alex takes the papers, and Trina pulls out a key ring, passing it over next. “As far as I know. Yesterday was Wednesday, right? Yes, they were supposed to.”
“Excellent. Thank you, Trina.”
When she starts to pull the door shut, I call out, “Wait! Have you heard from your cleaners since yesterday? I mean … since they went over to work on the rentals?”
Trina looks surprised, but answers, “No. Do you want to speak with them?”
“Is that possible?” When she looks at me strangely, I add, “Yes, please.”
Nodding, she steps back in the room, pushing one of the buttons on the phone in the middle of the table. A buzzing noise starts until she begins pushing the buttons again, beeps ringing out as she dials. We all listen as the phone begins to ring until an automated machine kicks in to take a message. “Sorry. She’s usually really good about answering … maybe she’s running a vacuum?”
“Thank you, Trina.” Alex dismisses her again, and this time I let him.
We need to leave. Alex has already passed over the paper with the address of the residence Brad Nixon was assigned. I can see it’s not far from this location, and exactly where and how long it will take to arrive is showing on my implanted mapping. But I can’t drive. I mean, I could, but technically I’m not properly licensed anywhere to drive on their planet.
That was one of the irritating things about Julia. She always took the most indirect route anywhere, even taking us back to our residence for the night. Alisha believed it was because she wanted to spend more time with me. She outright asked Alisha and me if we were a couple. I’ve learned this is a casual term for when Human males and females are seeing each other seriously. Julia then expanded on how hard it is to find a compatible person to spend your life with.
It was ironic, actually, considering how well the Sinth know the difficulty of finding a compatible mate. Relationships with any other species are out of the question since we have a tendency to phase in our sleep. Pulling someone into our