male-centered his world was and how very little of their technology ever had women in mind.
How did I miss that? He reeled from the discovery that Maisie was connected to not only Devious but also Admiral Flint, Terror’s one-time boss. He couldn’t understand how a man with as much power as Flint would abandon his innocent grandchild to be raised in a Splinter cell when he could have easily ordered a mission to retrieve her. Surely, Flint knew that Devious was her uncle. It would have been simple enough to get a message to Devious to pull her out and send her to meet another agent for pickup.
And what the fuck was Devious thinking leaving his niece there? So many horrific things could have happened to her. Death would have been preferable to being captured, raped, tortured or sold. Devious used her like a tool and then abandoned her to prison camps. Why had no one made plans to get her out when shit went south?
He thought back to all the years he had known Devious, to their time at the Academy and their early years in Shadow Force training. Never once had Dev ever mentioned a brother. Terror would have remembered. He always committed little details like that to mind.
Looking at Maisie now, he could see the slight resemblance between her, Flint and Devious. She must have favored her mother’s side of the family more. Otherwise, people would have noticed the similarities between her and Devious.
And how had Flint hidden the fact that he had thrown away his daughter? Children were a precious resource among their people, especially those of the highly ranked. Despite the fact that Maisie’s mother was a Defect, she would have been counted on the yearly census.
Unless she had been reported as dead.
A man like Flint with the power of Shadow Force behind him could make anyone disappear, even his own child. Terror had seen enough horrible shit in his life to know that some parents did far worse to their children than simply abandoning them. He wholeheartedly believed a man like Admiral Flint would be cold and callus enough to leave his less than perfect daughter at one of the homes for Defects and use a bribe to get a fake death certificate. Men like that, men who were considered the best of the best and lauded for their prowess and virility, would have no problem getting rid of a child.
But what about Devious? Surely, he must have known about his brother and Maisie’s mother. Was that why he volunteered to take on the mission to infiltrate the Splinters? To be framed and tried and sent to prison? Was that how he convinced the Splinters he had turned traitor? Did he use his brother’s membership to convince them? His dark family secret to gain sympathy?
Or was it even worse than that? Was Devious a sleeper Splinter the entire time? Had he been a triple agent from the start?
As Terror watched the interrogation, he noticed the way Maisie had tried to get a second look at the tablet screen when shown Devious’ dead body. When Keen didn’t press her on it, he huffed with annoyance. There was something there. She had seen something wrong. Why wasn’t Keen asking her?
By the time that Keen got the details about Reckless out of her, Terror had grown even more irritated. They already knew Reckless had been the one who betrayed Devious. Terror and Grim had gotten that out of him in less than ten minutes of enhanced interrogation. The master detective was playing games with Maisie and wasting precious time.
Savage had to be aware of her physical state. Why wasn’t he stopping the interview? Why wasn’t he following ship protocol regarding female prisoners?
Even standing behind a wall and watching her through the special glass, Terror could tell that she was fading quickly from malnourishment and dehydration. She looked ready to fall flat on her face with exhaustion.
“Please,” the tablet’s voice said. “Can we take a break?”
“No,” Savage said roughly and pushed off the door where he had been standing for the entire interrogation. “No,” he repeated, pointing to his mouth. “We stay here until I say we’re done.”
She seemed to deflate, her shoulders rounding and her chin dropping toward her chest. She tapped at the tablet in front of her. “Please, sir, I can barely keep my eyes open. I’ll be more help after I’ve rested in whatever cell you have arranged for me.”
Terror’s heart actually ached at