Page 27 of On A Rift's Edge
“I’m here with you and Kaveh, so I know I’m safe.” Kat blushed for some reason.
Fucking hell he was gorgeous. Lyall needed to stop thinking about that.
Remi held up the Matchmaker Rolex on his wrist, and the cyberbug inside crawled out of the watch face and buzzed up into the air, expanding in size as it did. Bug zoomed out the door as soon as Remi opened it.
Zale arrived a few moments later.
Lyall had spent years during his indentured servitude to the Boston ratkind mafia known as the Colony drawing up lists of members of the crime family he wanted to kill slowly, and Zale was close to the top.
Half-ratkind and half-kraken, Remi’s cousin could hold a human form well, provided the knobs on either side of his spine containing his retractable tentacles were covered up. His motorcycle jacket was up to that task, and also served to support the tough guy image he worked hard to maintain. His long brown hair hung behind him in a braid, and he had acquired a scruffy beard since the last time Lyall had seen him.
He was one of the best fighters in the Colony but would be a much better one if he had any patience, strategic thinking, or even common sense.
Zale, for once, came in with more caution than bluster. His eyes flickered wary glances between Kaveh and Lyall as he addressed Remi. “What’s up, little cousin?”
“We want information, and if you want to keep hiding from Ari’s wrath you’d better deliver.” Remi went back to the bar and threw a beer at Zale. A tentacle shot out to catch the glass bottle.
Beside him, Kat gave a soft gasp of surprise but recovered quickly. “We want to know if Arimanius made a deal with a hopper to become an enforcer for the Colony.”
He sounded confident and calm, not like a human who had been attacked by a hopper because his hellhound bodyguard hadn’t been doing his job. It both surprised and impressed Lyall. A lot of Kat’s actions today had done that.
“Huh.” Zale focused on Kat for the first time, perhaps also not expecting to have the only human in the room leading the interrogation. He sidled closer to the control object. Lyall waited, hopeful, for the glowing oval shape to send a crackle of electricity into Zale’s body. All that happened was that rainbow colors shimmered over its translucent surface. “I might know something, but how did you find out about it?”
It shouldn’t have pissed Lyall off that Zale was looking at Kat while he talked to him. Not to do so would have been rude.
But it did bother him.
“We went to the base to investigate a report of a human being held captive there.” Lyall didn’t bother to keep the fury out of his voice. “There was a stasis container holding a hopper inside.”
“Teo—that’s the hopper’s name—told me he made an arrangement with Remi’s father to become his indentured servant.” Kat’s words led Remi to all but fall off the chair’s armrest as Kaveh’s face darkened. Lyall hadn’t had time to get into the details of the incident, and he hadn’t heard Kat’s version of the story.
“I can’t believe you let your side piece chat with a hopper, dog.” Zale had the fucking nerve to get judgmental. “Those froggy fuckers are dangerous.”
“Lyall was trapped in the stasis container while I was talking to Teo.” Kat continued with more details of his interaction with the hopper, which sent a twist of guilt into Lyall’s gut. Kat not even sounding upset by Lyall’s failure to guard him properly made it worse.
“Teo said he wanted to leave his cadre so he made a deal with Remi’s father. He calls him his new captain.”
“I’ve never heard of a hopper who wanted to leave their military unit.” Kaveh shook his head. “The cadres are like family structures to hoppers. Exile is the worst thing imaginable for their clan.”
“Well, this one wanted out.” Zale flickered his fingers over the surface of the control object. A few teasing tendrils of electricity crackled close to his skin, but the creature inside didn’t blast him across the room, damn it.
“A hopper reached out to the don several years ago. It was all hush-hush, but I heard about it from one of the other wiseguys. The members of a cadre can track one of their own anywhere, so the boss came up with the idea to put the hopper in stasis, so the other hoppers would think he was dead.”
“Is my father seriously considering walking around Boston with a giant frog bodyguard?” Remi asked. “I thought hoppers couldn’t pass for human any more than drakones can.” He reached over to rub Kaveh’s shoulder. “Present company excluded, of course.”
“Teo or whatever he’s calling himself can.” Zale was so fascinated with the play of light on the control object, he wasn’t even drinking his beer, and his voice trailed off as the oval structure made a humming sound.
The tentacled son of a bitch had the attention span of a minnow.
“We need you to explain why and give us any other details that might help us.” Kaveh didn’t have much of an edge to his voice by most men’s standards, but the soft-spoken Azdaha drakone didn’t need one.
Zale straightened and regained his focus, such as it was. “Right. So, the hoppers bioengineer their best soldiers. This hopper was designed to infiltrate and kill humans. So he not only has human DNA, he was taught by the Earth people they took captive to teach him how to talk and act.”
“Teo wanted to take me with him for that exact reason.” Kat said that so calmly it took a second for the meaning of his words to hit Lyall.
He spat out part of his drink and felt his body convulse, trying to morph into his hellhound shape. It wasn’t easy to get himself under control, and he didn’t succeed in holding back his eye transformation.
“You didn’t tell me about that.” Lyall grabbed Kat’s arm, then remembered himself and released him.
