All became pretty damned clear the moment I spied a sobbing omega, the only one in the crowd well dressed and wearing an ornate earring, no less, cuffed and being escorted out under guard, followed by a body under a sheet.
“That’s Councilman Ackroyd’s Bonded,” I said, nudging my husband to gain his attention.
“The one we were told supplied Roe with his piloris and talked to the stableboy’s father about a new settlement, convincing him to leave?”
“The very same,” I nodded. I halted the group and lifted a corner of the sheet to see if it was the councilman beneath as I suspected.
“Uh, sheriff, I wouldn’t,” the deputy escorting the body said.
Too late, I remembered one of the fatalities had put his pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
“You traitor!” Bondmate Ackroyd shrieked. “It’s your fault he’s dead!”
I leveled a glare at him. “I’m the traitor? I’m not the one illegally occupying part of a city outside of our territory, I’m not the one selling illegal drugs, nor growing them, nor smuggling them. I’ve not participated in the owning of slaves, neither.”
He screamed and lunged at me, only to be yanked back by the Hunter escorting him.
“I’ll take that as a positive ID on the body,” I announced.
Bondmate Ackroyd howled. “Just you wait! The rest of the Council won’t stand for this!”
“And now we have confirmation that they are all in on it,” I added gleefully.
The Hunter ended up hoisting the screaming man over his shoulder and carrying him the remaining few feet to the awaiting shuttle we were loading the prisoners onto. The omegas and children were going on the other one.
“It does appear to be quite likely,” Pilar agreed. “I don’t think we will get them all to admit it or find the proof tying them all to it directly, though. He’ll be able to claim he was making a threat, seeing as he and his Bonded claim friendship with the other Council families.”
“Blood related, too,” I added grimly.
“I’m sure we’ll get them all eventually,” he reassured me, “and for right now, we’ve ended this operation.”
“And the crude earrings on the dead match those we’ve released from here.” It was no small thing, I knew that, but it still stuck in my craw that we couldn’t go arrest them all.
“Yes, they do, and Peter told us most of them were born here, so this has been going on for at least two generations. We will need to step up observation on this and other past remnants waiting for reclamation,” he said. “I hope there aren’t more such places.”
The notion of that sent chills through me. “Fuck, I sure hope not too.”
“It’s not likely,” Miljack said, overhearing our conversation as he joined us. “But it will not hurt to take extra precautions.”
“I wonder if we’ll ever know who they were?”
“The dead omegas?” Pilar asked me.
I nodded.
“Our techs are sequencing their genome. With any luck they’ll match with someone here and we can get an ID,” Miljack replied.
I ran a hand through my hair, frustrated. “It just doesn’t feel like enough, somehow.”
“You have the chance to change things,” Miljack reminded me.
I blinked. In the midst of it all, I’d managed to forget, for just a few moments, about my change of status. I mentally slapped my forehead. “Yeah, that’s true.” I smiled grimly, already forming a plan of what I wanted to see changed and how to do so. The Council would be suspended, pending elections, for one thing. I’d point to the traditions of our ancestors, who’d even named our primary settlement Freedom Rings. It was time to make that true. What was that old saying?
Oh, yeah. “The truth shall set you free.” We might not be able to expose the truth of the entire Council’s involvement in this operation, but unveiling the truth of our shared history here? That I could most certainly do. That would give me grounds to petition the Scions, my husband and brother-in-law, to suspend the current governing arrangement and call for elections for representatives to work on the local level, and for us to merge our populations by setting up trade opportunities like the proposed clothiers. Fishman’s trial for murdering Roe would provide plenty of fodder for my campaign to get people to accept the coming changes.
Just one question remained. Why had Jeddah been killed? And where the hell was Bondmate Roe and his other son?
I frowned, unhappy at not having these answers presented in a neat little bow. Still, someone knew the answers to these questions and there was no doubt in my mind that once we began questioning the alphas individually, someone would spill the beans, hoping to barter for clemency. Once they did, I’d be there. If they were alive, we’d bring them back. If they weren’t, we’d Hunt for their bodies, to give them proper burials and see they got justice.
“That’s everyone but us loaded,” Miljack said.
I looked at the third shuttle, waiting for the three of us to board with our team and head back.
“Eight days,” I said.
Pilar tilted his head. “Until we go?” he asked softly.
“And I rain down hell upon the Council, setting all of my people free.”
“Together,” Pilar said, lacing his fingers with mine, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.
Miljack clapped me on the shoulder. “Together.”
I nodded. “All of us, together. Me, and you two, and Richard, and my deputies, working together for change. Your people and mine, together as one society.”
It was going to be a lot of work, but if this case had taught me anything, it was that it was something worth fighting for. And it wasn’t without its personal rewards, I thought, kissing my Bonded’s cheek. He was worth everything.
“I love you,” I said.
He stilled, his steps faltering. Eyes shining with pink-tinged tears, he replied, “And I you.” Together we then stepped into the awaiting shuttle, into our future.
The End