Chapter Twenty-four
Detective Adam Rast was a big, imposing man with dark green eyes and golden brown hair, cut short and neat. From his image on the viewscreen, he looked to be in his early to mid thirties. If Liv hadn’t spent so much time around the Kindred, he might have intimidated her. But though he was nearly as tall as Baird and built like a linebacker, she was used to big males now. And besides, he was back on Earth—there was nothing he could actually do to them.
Though it certainly looked like he wanted to try.
“I’m sick of these evasions and half answers.” His deep voice was a menacing growl. “Your aunt hired me to find your cousin and I know you know more about her disappearance than you’re telling me.”
“What makes you think that?” Liv asked coolly. “My husband tells me the Kindred have cooperated with you fully.”
“He’s also not telling me everything he knows.” The detective gave them a frustrated look. “Look, I know you girls have never met your cousin but she may be in real danger so—”
“She is in danger,” Sophie said quietly, looking up at the viewscreen.
“What?” He frowned at her. “What do you mean?”
Liv sighed. Here we go. But if Sophie had decided to let the truth come out, she had to support her. “We believe Lauren was taken by the Scourge,” she said clearly.
Detective Rast glowered at them. “Why wasn’t I told this immediately?”
“Because there’s nothing you can do about it,” Liv said. “Hell, there’s nothing we can do about it.” She pointed a finger at the viewscreen. “And don’t think for a minute that we don’t care just because we’ve never met Lauren. Both Sophie and I have been held by the Scourge and we’re well aware of what a horrible experience it is.”
“Which is why we didn’t want to tell you—or Aunt Abby,” Sophie added. “We thought it would be better for her to go on thinking that Lauren was just missing rather than actually knowing that she’s a prisoner of that…that…” She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. “Poor Lauren.”
The anger in Rast’s face faded to be replaced by concern. “And you’re sure they took her?”
“Not positive, no,” Liv said. “But the way she was taken—with all her clothes left behind—is consistent with the way the Scourge kidnapped Sophie here. They have this device called a molecular transfer beam that can only transport living tissue—that’s why the clothes get left behind.”
“And she has a mark between her breasts,” Sophie added, sniffing. “We saw it on the pictures Aunt Abby showed us.”
Rast frowned. “What does that have to do with it?”
“We’re not completely sure,” Liv said. “But the Scourge have a prophesy that seems to have something to do with an Earth girl who has a special mark between her breasts. They checked both me and my sister for the mark when they kidnapped us. Lauren is related to us and she has it—we’re pretty sure there’s a connection.”
“What can we do? How can we get her back?” Rast asked.
“We can’t,” Liv said bluntly. “I’m sorry, but we’re not even sure where they’ve taken her. Although we do have some Kindred warriors who are going to go to the Scourge home planet tomorrow,” she said, wanting to give him hope. “They’re going to be looking for any traces of Lauren and also, they want to find out exactly what the Scourge prophesy says.”
“What good is that?” Rast demanded. “Isn’t it more likely that they have her in their ship?”
“The Fathership? Possibly,” Liv said. “But it’s practically impregnable and the Kindred High Council has determined that they can’t make an attack on it and risk the safety of the entire Earth just for one girl.” She sighed. “I’m sorry, Detective Rast.”
“Please don’t think we don’t care about Lauren,” Sophie pleaded. “She’s all I’ve been thinking about lately. I feel so bad for her because I know what she’s going through.”
“And that’s all you can tell me? You’re not holding anything else back?” Rast looked back and forth between them.
Liv nodded. “I’m afraid that’s it. I hope you can see why we’ve been hiding it. We thought not knowing was a better option for Aunt Abby than telling her that her daughter had been abducted by the Scourge.”
“It’s a tough call, all right.” Rast blew out a breath and ran a hand through his short golden brown hair. “But I need to let her know. I can’t keep taking her money when there’s nothing I can do.”
“Hold off on telling her just a little while longer,” Sophie pleaded. “Maybe Deep and Lock—the warriors that are going tomorrow—will find out something about where she’s being kept or…or what they want her for.”
“We might even be able to arrange for you to come up here to the Mother ship and talk to them after they get back in person,” Liv said, having an inspiration. “I could ask my husband to ask the Council for a special dispensation.”
“I fail to see how taking a tour of your ship will help me locate Lauren,” Rast growled. “But I would like to conduct interviews in person rather than over this damn viewscreen.”
“Let me see what I can do,” Liv said smoothly.
“And in the mean time, can you hold off on telling Aunt Abby?” Sophie pleaded.
Rast sighed. “I’ll think about it. As I said, I don’t like taking her money without doing my job.”
“But you are doing your job,” Liv pointed out quietly. “You didn’t quit until you got answers about where Lauren is.”
Rast got a stubborn look on his chiseled features. “Your aunt hired me to find Lauren and bring her home safely. Until that’s accomplished, my job isn’t done.” He nodded briefly. “I’ll let you go now, but I’ll be in touch. If you find out anything, the communications officer I spoke to has my contact information. Call me any time of the day or night and I’ll come straight down to the Human/Kindred Relations building to talk on the viewscreen.”
Sophie nodded. “All right, thank you, Detective.”
His face softened slightly. “Thank you for telling me the truth. Now we just have to hope to God that the warriors you’re sending find something.”
“I’m sure they will,” Liv said, making a mental note to talk to Lock about it. Just because he and Kat and Deep were mainly visiting the Scourge home planet to get their “soul-divorce” as Kat called it, didn’t mean they couldn’t also dig for clues. She knew the light twin would take the assignment very seriously if she asked him to.
Rast nodded once more and then the viewscreen flickered and went blank.
“Wow, he’s really dedicated,” Sophie murmured.
Liv nodded. “I can see why Baird respects him so much.” She sighed. “Well, the cat’s out of the bag, now. I wonder how long he’ll wait to tell Aunt Abby.”
Sophie looked troubled. “Maybe…maybe we should tell her. It doesn’t seem fair to put that decision on him. And we are family.”
“You were the one begging him to wait,” Liv pointed out. “And besides, I think you were right. Kat and the guys might find something worth knowing. If they could even get the exact wording of the prophesy, we might have a clue about exactly what they want Lauren for and where they might be taking her.”
Sophie nodded reluctantly. “All right. I just feel so bad that we’re keeping it from Aunt Abby. But it still seems worse to just come out and tell her that the AllFather has Lauren without being able to offer her some kind of hope.” She looked at Liv. “Do you think if we can somehow prove she is aboard the Fathership the Council will approve an attack or some kind of rescue attempt?”
“I don’t know.” Liv sighed. “That would mean full scale war which would probably have some serious fallout effects on the Earth. It’s one of those “the lives of the many are worth more than the lives of the one or few” kind of things.”
“But Lauren is blood! She’s our cousin.” Sophie’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, poor girl. I wish I knew where she was right now.”
“Me too.” Liv gave her sister a comforting hug. “Me too, Sophie.”