Page 35 of Saved By the Servali

“It couldn’t what?”

“It couldn’t be him.”

“Who?”

“Merton.”

MERTON. THEY WERE FRIENDS. He’d slept in her bed. Slept with her. Kissed her and promised they’d “do this again sometime.”

But he has access to schedules. Security clearances. I bet he could get to the drone footage and erase just a couple minutes of it.

But why? He’s already making more money than ninety percent of the people on Sapien-Three! He has a job that I’d kill for!

No, not literally...

Nessa was in her room, pacing. Kamau paced behind her, silent, a silky, spotted shadow that mirrored her pain and confusion.

“Ah. Mr. Manxwell. I was wondering if you had any news, particularly regarding the camera footage,” Talos asked in a grim voice.

“Oddly enough, cooperation has been unusually swift. The MIWP allowed us to speak to Nessa Kinney’s supervisor, who was relieved she was well and unharmed. He mentioned that they had to scramble to cover her shift, but that it was not uncommon for a member of the shuttle inspection staff or techs to suddenly call out sick mid-shift, and that he simply covered for Miss Kinney himself.”

“Which supervisor?” Nessa shouted, hands clasped to keep them from shaking. “Did you see the schedule? Did you see the footage from the security drones?”

“Ah, Miss Kinney!” Mr. Manxwell broke into a broad smile showing deadly-looking teeth set in his sparkling white fur with inky black splotches. “You sound much better than you did yesterday! Are the crew looking after you?”

“Better than the finest resort on Sapien-Three,” Nessa said, eyes stealing over to Kamau. “The food... I’ll be dreaming about the food here for years.”

“Excellent! Yes, the drone footage— Mr. Barry did send it to us, but unfortunately, the drone seems to have had a short. It skips every few minutes. One minute, you’re there; the next minute, you’re not.”

“And the supervisor is? He covered my shift, right?”

“Ah, yes, one would assume so. Here. I can show you...”

Nessa took the seat Talos offered her, holding it out with a courtly little bow. She almost smiled as she heard Kamau muttering, “You have a Queen! Stop flirting!”

“Any Tigerite would bow when offering a Queen his seat! What is the matter with you?” Talos hissed back.

Nessa leaned forward and peered at the footage the Leopardine began to show on the screen.

“Those are the two men!” she yelped as a segment of footage showed them walking past her station along the platform line.

“We’ll have to see if we can request footage from another sector. We can’t see their faces at this angle,” Mr. Manxwell muttered, and Nessa could hear his paws tapping as he took a note on his device.

The footage showed her moving from one shuttle to the next, speaking into her comm. Then things skipped. She was further down the line, and the crafts in her line were different—and then another skip. This time, when the footage reappeared, she was nowhere to be found.

“The position of the shuttles is different. And look at the side of the shuttle that’s advancing down the track, disappearing at the edge of the frame!” She pointed, half rising from her chair. “There’s new marks on the side that weren’t there before! Hot-beam lasers raked over it. And look at the platform. Usually, the only people up on the platform where shuttles are preparing to be launched are MIWP staff and the owners and passengers of their shuttles. There’s no one else on the platform in my section now. That means everyone else isinsidetheir shuttles or the capsules and shuttles next in line were unmanned.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t follow.”

“Someone in scheduling approved a loading list that would clear the platform for an hour or so—in case something went wrong when I inspected that shuttle.” Bile came soaring up her throat.

He planned the schedule. He erased the footage here and there to make it look like that surveillance drone was glitching.

“An inspector needs to be on the platform. Where’s this supervisor?” Talos peered over her shoulder.

“You never said which one,” Nessa pointed out.

“Right, a Merton Barry. He said he’d been your supervisor for a long time.”

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