Page 110 of Freedom Mine
Kayo stared up toward the mountain. “First thing I’m going to do when my leg’s healed is go sledding.”
“Got no snow, Kayo.”
Kayo smiled at the memory of sliding down the mud slick with Alli. “I miss her.”
“We all do,” Ranth said, picking up the harness again and settling back down on his workbench. “What do you think they did with Garitt?”
“Don’t know, don’t care, as long as he’s nowhere near here.”
Once Garitt had failed the retina scan, the Office of Slave Registration had removed his chip and then sent a team over to Garitt’s property. They had found the real Hawk Garitt in an unmarked grave, estimated him dead eight years, right after he’d posed for the picture with Mac.
An audit of all the property and slave records revealed only one missing slave over the years, one that matched the man who’d killed and taken over Hawk Garitt’s chip. He’d stolen the man’s identity, but couldn’t escape the planet due to the retina scans.
In interrogation, Garitt revealed how he’d been trying for years to get Kayo’s property, to gain enough wealth from the mines to bribe someone in the Office of Slave Registration to replace his retina scans with the one on file for Hawk Garitt. It almost made Kayo feel sorry for the man, knowing he’d been a slave doing whatever he could to escape the Empire. Until Kayo had seen what he’d done to that girl who even now was hiding in the mountains, in fear for her life.
“Have you and Jace decided who’s running which property?” Ranth asked, hefting the bag of pozite onto the pallet inside the stable.
Two properties. He never quite had a handle of managing one property, and that had been with Jace at his side. When the Office of Slave Registration confirmed that the current Garitt was indeed a slave, the Department of Property and Slave Transfers had a decision to make. Undo all the transactions Garitt had made over the years—all of which were illegal since slaves weren’t allowed to make transactions—or let the transactions stand and dispense with all assets as if the legal owner had died without making a legal transfer first.
It took them one day to choose the latter, which meant evenly dividing all assets and property between Garitt’s bordering neighbors, namely Jace and Qasig. The moment Qasig had seen Kayo listed as a slave in the list of assets to be divided, he proposed he take all slaves, except Kayo and the missing female who would go to Jace along with the property. Qasig also told Jace that he and Kayo were now even. Jace had promptly accepted, paid for Kayo’s freedom, and parted ways with Qasig and the Department of Property and Slave Transfers.
“Jace is transferring this property back to me and keeping Garitt’s. That will make his search for the girl easier.”
“She could be anywhere in those mountains,” Ranth said.
“True, but he thinks she’s sticking to Garitt’s property. The records show she’s been on the property for years and Jace thinks she’ll stay with what she knows.”
“I wish him luck. He’ll need it.”
“As will we.” Kayo knew he could walk away from the mines since all of his men were free, but several had stayed on, with no real home to return to. He wouldn’t force them out. This place had become home to them, and, admittedly, himself. Though it was lonely now, without Alli’s smiling face to greet him each morning when he woke and at night, as he lay down.
“Thinking of buying more slaves?”
Kayo sucked in air and released it slowly. He wanted to. It had given him purpose, but he feared risking his freedom again, or the only place Ranth, Liet, and the others had for a home. “Perhaps, but not yet. I don’t want to fall into the same financial bind as before. You, me, and the others need to sit down and figure out a plan.”
“Shame Blue’s not here. She had a real head for solving things. She could take over the finances, I bet, and you could go back to managing the mines.”
“No sense dreaming about what can’t be,” he said.
“Incoming!” someone yelled.
A chill ran down Kayo’s spine as it did every time a landglider pulled up. The last time one had entered his property, he’d been forced back into slavery and a cage. He was breaking out in a sweat just thinking about it.
Ranth set the harness on the workbench and walked alongside Kayo as they headed toward the landglider. “Hells, what now? I thought we were finally going to have some peace around here.”
“Just Liet. I sent him for supplies earlier,” Kayo said, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. For one, Liet always landed the glider in the middle of the compound, no matter how tough the winds. He’d been a pilot in the war and often said he’d only drive the landglider through the gate if he were on death’s door. The landglider was currently making its way up from the front gate, slowly, as if something was wrong.
From here he could see Liet driving, but he wasn’t alone. Kayo squinted, trying to make out the face of the man riding alongside him. “Go stash the pozite,” Kayo said to Ranth.
Before Liet could fully power down and climb out of the landglider, the passenger jumped out and scurried around the front of the glider. Diggs stepped in his path, bringing the tall man to a sudden halt.
Kayo stood stunned, taking in the frame, the height, and the stark black hair of the man who towered over Diggs. Was his mind playing tricks on him? That couldn’t be who he thought it was.
The man dodged away from Diggs and raced to Kayo. Erlan had always been fast, despite or maybe because of his height. Kayo embraced his brother, still not believing his eyes. Erlan was speaking Bakadin, words Kayo hadn’t heard or used in a long time, not even when he spoke with Jace. He’d left the language behind with his people, his family, his brothers.
Still too stunned at seeing his eldest brother, Kayo hadn’t caught the meaning of his words.
“Forgot how to speak, Kayo?” Erlan switched to Althiran, his accent thick and his words rough, as if he hadn’t fully grasped the language. But why would he. . . unless he’d been trying to find Kayo after the war, forcing the need to learn the Empire’s language.
