Page 23 of Stars on Fire

Selene fell back against the couch and she cursed silently under her breath.

She vaguely remembered her father speaking of the Edenites. He’d described how laid back the moon’s residents could be, aligning with what Kainan had also told her. Perhaps that was the reason for how slowly things were progressing.

She glanced at the massive man on the couch, the rise and fall of his chest, and felt the heat rise in her face.Damn! He was a beautiful man.

She dragged her eyes away from him.

Minutes passed, and still nobody.

Meanwhile, Kainan seemed to have drifted off to sleep. Restless, Selene rose to her feet and circled the room a few times before deciding to read up some more on the people she was meeting.

Rina had sent her a report and a list of links for some background reading. Resigned to waiting, Selene sat on the couch, tabbing through several pages, and noticed a side note and link that Rina had added to the report. She clicked on it. The memo outlined what the author, Laila Dexora, a prominent Rhesian researcher, had written in a paper a few months ago analysing the latest research and innovation in the Pegasi System’s security sector.

She’d stated that after an in-depth investigation, she’d found that the true power of Eden II was not the Chamber but a group of shadowy individuals known as The Sable Group.

Confirming what Rina had told her,Selene thought.

Intrigued, Selene read through the detailed report. Laila Dexora had found that The Sable Group and its leaders, originally from Eden City, operated the best shipbuilding facility in the Pegasi system and beyond. Holo film actors, racing pilots and even entire armies ordered the mysterious group’s fastest, sleekest fighters, interceptors, gunships and racing pinnaces. Their builds were legendary and renowned.

Selene even recognised a few of their mentioned airship designs as those commissioned by Dunia’s official interstellar line in a recent deal. The paper also alluded to The Sable Group’s ownership of manufacturing plants, supply chains and extensive asteroid mining facilities.

Their reach extended beyond the Pegasi system with shipping lines that extended even to the farthest known systems of Segundo.

They’d brought legitimacy to Eden II by employing its people and keeping tight control of the economy. They were slowly erasing their reputation as a crime-riddled poverty-stricken backwater and improving the lives of its residents.

The Sable Group had also helped to quash piracy from the System. They’d established a security wing of their corporation to protect their ships and those of Eden II’s traders from raiders. They’d also voluntarily rid their airspace and the planets close by of the spate of attacks, murders, and widespread atrocities. These had been regular for Pegasi a decade ago along its System’s fringe, especially on the borders close to Alloria.

Reading between the lines, Selene could tell they were deeply revered and respected by Edenites, foreign states and planets alike.

More importantly, Laila Dexora’s research found that while they were the true power of Eden II, they stayed away from the public eye. Rarely showing their faces and leaving all civic facing duties to the Elders.

Then, nestled deep within the long paper was a link to a few images on Sysnet that purported to have captured the faces of the shadowy leaders of The Sable Group.

She tabbed slowly through the grainy, unclear shots until she stopped with a gasp at an image captioned with a name she recognised, followed by the name of the group’s chief lead.

Her mind spun and dipped, groping the past few hours for sense and reason.

She looked up with shock.

HIM?

A rush of blood heated her face. She tossed her comm tab aside and surged to her feet. Stepping around the coffee table, she snatched away the pillow resting on the slumbering man’s face. She leaned over and tapped his large chest with a finger.

‘You?!’

He languorously opened a sapphire gold eye and lazily looked up at her.

‘Naam. Me,’ he drawled after a long beat.

It took everything she had not to kick him in the balls. She was furious.

‘All this time?’

‘Took you long enough,’ he murmured drily, knifing upright to swing his massive feet to the floor.

She suddenly realised she was standing between his thick thighs and stepped back. Their eyes met in a clash of heat which did that snaking thing again straight to her core.

She wrestled her mind back to present reality. ‘You’re The Sable Group’s leader?’

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