Page 41 of Soros
“Confirmed. You said that your target kidnapped two women. Who?”
“Their names are Tania and Star. One is a resident on Earth and the other came with us. As we told you, Ko’roz is a bestial and sadistic monster. It’s urgent that we find him before he hurts our friends.”
“Tell him about the number,” I reminded Lios. “Ask him to track Tania.”
“We have the phone information for Tania. Could you locate her with that?”
“Do you mean her phone number?”
“Yes, the number.”
“If she still has her phone on her it’s possible. Give it to me and I’ll have the police run it through the system.”
Malliko hadn’t been active in the conversation for a long time, but when nudged he responded and gave Lios Tania’s number.
“Give me few minutes and then I’ll call you back,” our contact person said. Never had he or the other two members of Congress told us their names, but I guessed that was all part of the secrecy they had discussed. “Let’s hope that Ko’roz kidnapping these two women will help us find him and make your time on Earth short.”
I wasn’t sure if the man was thinking that Lios, Nerix, and I couldn’t wait to leave Earth as early as possible, or if it was his way of saying that they wanted us gone.
When the connection to him died, we stood on the street unsure what to do. “Now what?” Nerix asked.
Lios gave him a grumpy look and went to sit on a stone bench.
“Are you just going to sit there?” Nerix asked with disbelief before pivoting in my direction with his glance saying,“Are you seeing this?”
“I’m giving orders to the rest of the team. Now that we know Ko’roz is here, I want us all gathered again.”
“Good call,” I said in support of Lios, who I felt was getting a hard time from Nerix.
Personally, I wouldn’t want to be in charge all the time and I had high respect for Lios’ calm leadership. The mission we had been on together, to track the criminal Malbreeans, had so far been extremely challenging. Nerix didn’t give his captain any credit for the twelve pirates and their eight clients who had been brought to justice. Or the two children that were reunited with their parents and Sival’s rescue from being imprisoned on a pirate ship for sollumes. Overall, it was an impressive feat of Lios’ to have closed down an operation this big and caught some of the most destructive and powerful people on Markatoria.
“Zobran got the message. They’re meeting us here as soon as possible,” Lios said and stared when a jogger caught his attention. The man held his elbows to his side and lifted his knees much higher than a usual runner would. Wearing pink hot pants, a black net shirt, and a yellow neon colored headband, he blasted music from his large headphones that looked gigantic on his skinny face.
We all stared at his back when he jogged past us with his white socks pulled halfway up his calves.
“This is the hardest part. Waiting,” Lios said.
“Yes.” Nerix was pacing in front of us. “I keep reaching out to Star, but she’s not responding.”
My mind was working hard, analyzing details that I could find on Ko’roz. Everything I found either related to his shiny public image as a politician or his rotten personality as the creep he was behind the scenes. None of it gave me any answers to where he would take Star and Tania in New York.
Lios got up from the bench and stood watching the humans passing us. “Have you noticed something strange about them?” he asked us.
“What?”
“More or less all of them look down. Even on a day like today when there’s blue skies, they bow their heads forward and look to the grown.”
With his hands on his hips, Nerix agreed. “I noticed. I’m thinking they’re subservient by nature and don’t like to walk with their head held high. It must be a cultural thing.”
I pointed out the obvious. “Have you met Tania? There’s nothing subservient about her.”
“Tania is a hybrid. Her independent and feisty nature could be from her father’s Eidron side,” Nerix said.
“I don’t know.” I pointed to a group of people down the street. “Look closer. They’re all holding something in their hands. Some have books and others their phones. That must be the reason that they’re all looking down.”
“By Magda’s moons, I’m happy that we don’t rely on physical devices to communicate or find entertainment. My neck would hurt if I walked around bent forward like that.” Nerix sighed.
“I wonder if it will change them biologically over time.” Lios cocked his head to one side. “Maybe it’s just a phase. I’ve seen historical proof that we Ugons used to have a circle on our foreheads. It was some kind of technological device used to enhance our mental powers.”
