Page 89 of Protected By the Convicts
“And here I am a doctor, couldn’t figure that one out.”
“Watch your tone with me, doctor.”
“You know why he’s drunk?”
“I’m guessing he misses the woman.”
“We all miss her, but we’ve continued serving our time, doing our jobs. Bet you didn’t even know that was the last thing she asked of us. To do our best so we could go home.”
“Seems as though Mr. Satterley’s having trouble with the concept. Shame too because given all the extra time he worked, he’s already been upgraded to a level 3. I’m waiting to get another engineer with his skills in here to replace him before I send him home. It should be another three weeks.”
Ky’Li felt a sense of victory for his brothers. Ren would go home in a few weeks, Vaughn in two years, Sersie in three. Ky’Li still had ten years but with Foley here, he’d be a free man as well at the end of his term. They’d all be free. . . except Hannah.
Only one week had passed since Foley had sent Hannah to Veenith where the average life expectancy on the Level 5 prison world for men who could fight was two years max. A woman who only knew a few defensive maneuvers, who didn’t have a killer mentality. . . Krike, he didn’t want to think about what had happened to her when she arrived. Most likely she hadn’t survived her first night. The animals there would have. . . The pain in Ky’Li’s heart doubled. He shoved the images aside and recalled her sweet smile instead.
“So, the guard tells me you’re ready to disband your unit, Dr. Caster.”
Ky’Li dug his fingers into Vaughn’s shoulder. “We should discuss this. This is our unit. Ourfamily.”
Family. . .
“Six months ago, if you had told Ren that he’d be going home in a few weeks, he would have jumped for joy, probably even bent down and kissed your shoes. When he sobers up and I tell him the good news, he’ll probably take a swing at me.”
“Why would he—”
“Because he loves her. We all do. And today he found out that he was complicit in Hannah being shipped out to Veenith.”
“She was Level 5. All Level 5s were removed.”
Vaughn clenched his fists, barely holding in the anger. “Do you know why she was Level 5, Manager Foley?”
“She stole from the company. Major theft, too. A rare item of some sort.”
“Rescue. She stoleRescue.”
“That exists?” Foley said, surprised.
“It does, and it was her last chance to save her sister. Hannah was an exemplary employee who used all her funds and off-duty hours trying to save her sister. Nothing worked. She got desperate and stole Rescue. . . for her sister, her family.”
“That’s a shame. I’m surprised that didn’t earn her level 2 status, maybe 3.”
“And when she was sent here, she suffered abuse and threats from everyone including her manager at the port.”
“Tragic string of luck, Dr. Caster, but still—”
“She discovered that Dresden was shipping out NK171 for his own use, using Company assets and planning to flood the entire system with the drug so he could sell Salvation to all the poor idiots that he’d get addicted to NK171. Hannah ignored threats from her boss, risked her life, Manager Foley, to compile that data and store it on a datastick.
“Ren was the middleman. He delivered the datastick to a friend in communications to send to Argus. Investigate if you want. I’m guessing she sent it to her dads and they were the ones who turned the information in on Dresden. Dresden had been abusing the colonists here, destroying the fabric of this colony while scheming against and stealing resources from The Company in every way for years. Decades. Ren should know. He’s already been here twelve years, longer than anyone else.”
Foley rose from his desk. “I wish I’d known this about her.”
A smidgeon of hope rose in Vaughn’s chest. “She doesn’t deserve to be Level 5.”
Foley tapped two fingers against his desk. “Mr. Oskav,” Foley addressed Ky’Li. “Please return Mr. Satterley to your unit to sleep off the alcohol and when he’s alert again, make sure he reports to Mine 17 to start repairs. That mine is at a standstill at this point.”
“You’ll return Hannah,” Ky’Li said.
“I don’t know if I can. I have to verify what I’ve learned here today. And then I’ll see what can be done.”
