Page 34 of Saved By the Servali

“You can say that again,” Jade agreed, nuzzling Ardol’s arm with a sigh.

“Did you say you worked at the MWIP? The Milky Way Intergalactic Port?” Abigail turned her soft gray-blue eyes towards Nessa.

“I did! I have for a long, long time, first as a clerk at the ticket window for mass transport shuttles, and I finally made my way up to shuttle inspector and tech. I put in for a promotion months ago for Inspection Coordinator.”

Inspection Coordinator, Kamau thought, as he eased into a seat at the end of the tables they’d pushed together—and at this rate might as well leave as one long “family style” setup.My love is so skillful. Such honors await her back home.

Where her aging father is.

His conscience pricked him. I want her to travel the galaxy with me. I know I could give her a better life than the one she has—one of ease and excitement. Am I selfish for wanting her to give up everything she’s toiled for like it means nothing?

Surely there is a position with Jaxson’s crew that she could hold?

“It’s funny we ended up here together,” Abigail said with a weary smile. “For years, I said I was going to do the MWIP Observer Tour—”

“Oh, the tourist trap weekend,” Nessa chuckled. “You really didn’t miss much.”

“Well, I was saying it’s funny because my branch was the Milky Way Point branch—you know, the planet-side shuttle point to the Milky Way Intergalactic Port. We usually handle all the credit payments and transfers for the port agents.”

“Small galaxy,” Nessa smiled—but her smile became a frown. “You said you had some problem at the credit exchange office, and then you woke up here?”

“Well, I know now that what I realized is probably what led to my being here.” Abigail studied her bowl as if it were supremely fascinating. “I see what the traffickers prefer—young, healthy, beautiful women in their twenties and thirties. I’m not that.”

Marcus growled, startling everyone. “Sorry. You’re a perfect physical specimen, Abigail. Go on, what were you saying?”

“There are so many hundreds of workers at my particular credit exchange. I’m sure it would take a miracle for anyone to keep track of individual credits and names on accounts, which is what crooks count on. But that day I put in a payment for a member of the Milky Way Intergalactic Port staff from the official System of Ports Payroll. Then, less than an hour later, I got the exact same amount from a company simply called Payroll. Same employee, same amount of credits, same account. It would look like he was paid twice—and that wouldn’t raise any concerns if it was several weeks or months apart. I went back, and sure enough, there were some older transactions labeled payroll and some labeled System of Ports Payroll. No one thought that was odd, I guess, but then again, it hadn’t happened on the same day before. When I went to speak to the person making the deposit—well. I guess they figured I knew too much and that I could be more useful as ‘product’ than dead. No body to cover up that way.”

There was a horrified silence for a moment.

“Human Queens are very brave,” Kamau said in a strained voice.

“You have to be,” Layla said in a harsh tone. “The Sapien System doesn’t let any other kind survive. Abigail, I never even went into a credit exchange office in my entire life—well, other than the day I turned eighteen and was placed in charge of my‘Ward of the State’ account. I didn’t think people even bothered to handle their banking in person anymore. Everything can be done over personal and database computers, right?”

“Right, although there are some things like opening an account, transferring an account, and buying a home that require you to go to a branch. However, if someone suddenly had computer issues, and they needed to make a payment at once, going to a branch would work. That’s what I imagine happened. This thug wanted to make a payment so the deal wouldn’t fall through, and he didn’t want to borrow someone else’s computer and put his information into it. He didn’t want to go to a public computing center, either, for the same reasons.”

“Do you remember the person’s name?” Nessa asked suddenly.

“No, I... The account was called Payroll.” Abigail gave an apologetic shake of her head.

“Someone on staff at the MWIP is a trafficker, or at least helping them get their people off-world,” Nessa looked at Kamau. “I had just figured it out when you stopped by yesterday, and I never got around to telling you guys. Talos, maybe this is your thing to follow up since you’re the Security Officer.”

Talos shifted Wendy from his lap and placed his flat, thin tablet on the table, paws hovering over it. “Continue.”

“I disappeared in the middle of a shift. If that happened, everyone would go looking for me because I never miss a shift, and in all the time I’ve worked there, I’ve rarely called off sick. Someone with the power over the schedule would have to alter it to make it look like I’d never worked that day and also be able to provide coverage so that there was no backup in my section! That means it’s someone in the upper level. Management. Coordinators. If Abigail knew the name of the person receiving the credits—”

“Oh, I do... At least the last name. I’m sorry, I just can’t remember the first name at the moment. But the last name...Barry.”

Kamau watched Nessa’s serious face twist, full lips thinning, then trembling. “My Queen?” he murmured, hurrying to her side, not caring who saw.

“I gotta make a call. Excuse me.”

Talos rose, too, blocking her with a nimble leap. “Wait.”

Kamau bared his teeth at the Tigerite blocking Nessa’s path. “Talos! Your manners!”

“Do you know that person? Do you recognize the name?” Talos demanded, ignoring the smaller Felid.

“There are probably a dozen people with that last name,” Nessa said in a shaking voice. “It couldn’t...”

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