Page 101 of Caged By the Ruthless Thief

“Look at that,” Dad says. “The tarnished hunk of metal wasn’t lying to me. This is fantastic. And rather rare. You know that, right? Tarpon, this is fantastic. Are you courting a fourth?” Dad’s eyes twinkle.

“No,” I grunt out.

“Well, that’s for the best. That turd of metal junk was Richeal’s fourth, and look at the years... Pardon me. I don’t mean to wish darkness upon your pod.”

“You’re not, Dad. We understand, and I think you kind of like Muster.”

“I love the clump of sand. Doesn’t mean Richeal didn’t deserve better than either of us. But that’s fine. Take your time, make it the right male.” Dad’s looking pale. He wrestles with straightening the blankets on his bed.

“Sit down.” I motion to the chair next to the bed.

“We can go out to the lounge.”

“Here is nice.” Annabelle smiles. “You can lie down, and we’ll sit here.” She pats the sofa next to the bed.

He nods and lowers himself to the bed. Holter tucks his sheets around him, and Annabelle and I settle on the sofa.

Holter hands the book to Dad. “Do you know what language this is?”

“No. Your mother had gone beyond the levels of language. But where did you get this from?” Dad glares at Holter. “You can have whatever you want from my closet, but I would like to know before you take things.”

“We didn’t take this, Dad. Eros found it in a bookstall in the shops.”

“Nonsense. I would never have given away a book that had her handwriting in it.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Dad,” Holter says, but Dad’s already untucked himself from his bed and heading for the closet. We follow him.

He moves piles of books and boxes of what I know are clothes from one side of the closet to the other, counting. “They’re all here.”

“So maybe this found its way to the bookshop before the accident.” My forehead raises.

“Maybe.” He shakes his head.

“That still doesn’t tell us what it says.” Holter holds it up.

“No, it doesn’t,” I say.

We stay and have lunch with the two of them. Alder and Holter cook, the two of them chattering, while Holter tries to keep Dad from standing. But he pushes Holter away. Muster and I clean up, and before long, we’re back in the elevator.

“I think I know of a way to get this translated.” Annabelle raises her eyebrows.

“How? We’ve loaded all known languages into our blocks.” Holter has his hand on our door.

“I... I think Eros might have something that would help us.”

“Really?” We’re two steps into the house, and I’m yelling like Muster. “Eros? He’s not here. Where is this thing he has?”

“In his dome apartment.”

“Right, well, I think it’s about time we move some of his things into the pod apartment. Don’t you?” I wiggle my eyebrows at Annabelle.

Theomadaride over to the Zaffiro dome is quiet. Annabelle hasn’t told us anything else about what this device Eros has is, but she hasn’t stopped us from going to his garden dome either. We dock in guest parking and file out. If their biometrics work as ours do, the second Eros registered her as a mate, she was given access to his properties. We were too. Or I was. Holter hasn’t registered yet. He will. But we’ve all agreed that for now it would be best for us to fly under the radar.

I hold the lobby door open for Annabelle. The air is scented with mint here. It’s not the crisp apples of home. I’ve been here, and to Eros’s family’s apartment, but not for a long time.

“Which way, Little Krill?” The others have been here before but I haven’t.

“Down here, I think.” Annabelle leads us through the mostly empty corridor. The passageways snake around the first floor, long arms to the individual domes. “Here.” She points down the corridor.

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