I still don’t fully trust my instincts, but I do trust yours.”
“What have you found so far?” Paine asked, reaching for the tablet.
“Not much, unfortunately. I found the jammer hidden on a field the marshal had commandeered for his own personal use,” he relayed, passing over his com tab to show the images he’d snapped of the field in question. “It was the only thing being stored there, as far as I could tell, and I’m surprised it was even still there for me to find. There were no guards, and the perimeter sensors were deactivated. Anyone could have walked up and taken it.”
“Thoughts?” Paine asked, taking his turn flipping through the images.
“Whoever was guarding it most likely abandoned their post after the marshal was killed,” Axis brainstormed out loud, having come to that as one of the only logical conclusions he could think of. “Either that or they left when they realized they weren’t going to be getting paid again.”
“Looks like altered Phaeton tech…quite a bit older than what we use now,” Paine said, studying the display. “I’m guessing it’s been refurbed by the Verge using their knowledge of our coms.”
“Same,” he agreed with a nod. “Other than taking out the jammer, the field was a dead end. I had hoped there would be something, anything, to give us an idea of where to start our search, but there was nothing. From the papers I found in the marshal’s compound, he owed money to almost everyone on this planet—the brothels most of all.”
“That’s it then?” Rowe asked. “He most likely traded the women away to pay off the debts he had?”
“That is what I would assume,” Axis said grimly, hating what was most likely the truth of the matter. “The female I saw in the market had the brothel markings of a house slave. A young fertile human female would be worth a fortune here. Three of them would completely have wiped out whatever debt he’d racked up, no matter how high it was. I’m guessing the temptation of clearing his ledger with the brothels was too much for him to let pass by. The risk was great, but the payoff large.”
“That makes sense,” Paine agreed with a nod. “The marshal was a coward, but he was a greedy coward. He would not have been able to pass up the credits a human female could have brought him, even if he did fear us finding out about his involvement.”
“Were you able to recognize the house markings?” Rowe asked him.
“No,” Axis answered with a frustrated sigh as he swiped back his hair, the strands already grimy with the red dust that surrounded them. “If I sat long enough, I may be able to recreate the design to see if it is one you found familiar, but honestly, I think it would be a waste of time that we don’t have right now.”
“What is your suggestion?”
“We start searching,” Axis voiced the most obvious course of action considering their current options. “We don’t know which house the female may be in, so we go through them all. One by one.”
“That’s going to take time,” Rowe pointed out. “Euphoria has at least twenty registered houses—”
“And twice that amount off the books,” Paine finished with a frown. “Considering I want to get back to Indigo—”
“Same,” Rowe interrupted, holding up his finger to be included in wanting to be back on Phaeton One with their shared wife.
“We need to have a better plan than that.” Paine turned in the general direction of the brothel district.
The large, sectioned-off area outside of the marketplace was where the brothels stood. Far enough to stand apart, but close enough that clients could visit between shopping and finding a bite to eat.
“We have no other options, as far as I can see. I asked around as much as possible without alerting the vendors as to what I was looking for, but so far, I have found out nothing. They know nothing here that could assist us in tracking the females. Believe me, I was here for almost an entire Earth month and didn’t see one human,” Axis said gruffly. “There is no way the vendors could have kept information like that quiet. If they are here, and we know at least one of them is, they must be in one of the brothels. It’s the only area I did not venture during my stay here. I know it isn’t the plan you want, but we must go through every house.