Page 62 of Skinwalker's Bane
He listened to the door opening.
“Haydn!” Devin said, deeply shocked.
Adam rushed into the loungeroom before his brain caught up with his body.
Haydn nodded when he saw him. “You know, I didn’t even bother trying the Beehive first. You are a stubborn man, Wary.”
“And there’s my taxi,” Devin murmured. She walked over to Adam, lifted her chin up and kissed him briefly. Her smile said everything she would not say in front of Haydn. Then she moved back to the door. “It’s nice to see you again, Haydn,” she told him as she stepped past. “And now I am very late for work. Please excuse me.”
Haydn moved out of the way, then turned to watch her walk out through the moldy rocks. Then he turned back to Adam. “We’re starting the interviews on the Bridge this morning. The Institute is responsible for finding out who leaked the information about the shard to the Cavers and now we have to look into what happened in the locker room last night as well. Noa is going to take care of that because it doesn’t involve confronting people. I get to be the hard-ass instead.”
“It’s a natural fit,” Adam replied.
Haydn shook his head. “Seeing as you’re the reason we’re spread thin, you can come and help me on the Bridge this morning.”
Adam stifled the impulse to protest that it was his off day. Haydn knew that, yet he was still insisting Adam go to the Bridge with him. Which meant this was some sort of retribution for upsetting everything last night, or Haydn had another purpose in mind that he would get around to revealing eventually.
“I’ll get my coat,” Adam said simply.
* * * * *
As the last Bridge Guard moved out of the boardroom and shut the door behind him, Magorian sighed and sat back, pinching the skin over the bridge of his nose. “Ihatethese damn interviews. They always feel like an interrogation and everyone goes around glaring at me and looking at each other sideways, wondering who the leak was.”
“That was the last of the Guard personnel,” Haydn said, checking the screen he had up in front of him, which he had turned opaque so interviewees couldn’t see through it. He looked at Magorian. “There’s just Bernice Daly left.”
The two men exchanged looks.
Adam sat up, his curiosity roused. “Why do you look like that?” he asked. “Isn’t Daly so pro-skinwalker, she’s almost one of us?”
Magorian sighed and waved at Haydn, telling him to go ahead. He got to his feet. “I need water,” he murmured and moved out of the meeting room and shut the door.
Adam looked at Haydn expectantly. He still wasn’t sure why Haydn had dragged him here. There was very little he had been able to do during the actual interviews. He’d stayed alert and listened actively, anyway.
Magorian’s analysis that everyone was looking at everyone else, wondering who had leaked the information, was correct. Everyone who had sat in the chair inside the circular, hollow table had been nervous, although some of them had done a better job of hiding it than others. So far, though, there had not been a single hint about a potential leak.
Haydn worked his shoulders, loosening them. “Daly has had…issues lately.”
Adam just looked at him.
“She’s been a sergeant for nearly twenty-five years,” Haydn explained. “Hell, she was a veteran sergeant when we first started walking outside the ship. That’s a long time to not be promoted and it’s starting to show.”
“How?”
Haydn worked through the screen in front of him, checking facts. “Discipline issues. Coming in late. Stupid shit, mostly. It’s the pattern that’s telling. Magorian figures she’s the one. I think he’s right.”
“Then why did you interview everyone else, first?” Adam asked. Then he held up his hand. “Wait. I’ve got it. To make her sweat, right?”
Haydn smiled. “She’s just come off night shift, the same as you, only she didn’t spend her shift in a warm bed.” His voice was dry.
Adam rolled his eyes.
“She and her crew broke up a riot at the tankball arena, then had to process everyone they arrested. She worked three hours over the end of her shift, so she’s only had about four hours sleep. She’s had less-than-adequate sleep all week. Magorian arranged that in some way I really don’t want to know in detail. The man is ruthless.” He shut the screen down. “Bernice has been sitting out there watching every guard go in. By the time she sits in the chair, she’ll already be half-worn down.”
“This was your idea?” Adam asked, not sure whether he was horrified or not. For the sake of the ship, he reminded himself, sometimes corners got cut.
“Noa’s actually.” Haydn grinned. “She’s harder than Magorian about this sort of stuff and she promised the Captain she’d get to the bottom of it. Don’t ever get between her and theEndurance, Adam.”
“Is that why you brought me here today?” he asked curiously. “An object lesson about my personal priorities?”
