Lost Change

Chapter 98

We didn't have to wait nearly as long this time. Another Ilrivian came into the corridor just a few minutes after our escorts finished their call, and he quickly opened the door.

I caught a shift in the expressions and postures of each of the Kymari. After more than a week of delays and pointless arguments, they could all tell something unusual had happened. The Ilrivians were more than happy for me to spend all day searching a room with a ktari in it, but they wanted me to leave this room as quickly as possible.

I fanned my wings out and prepared to search the room, but Minna's father held up a hand before she could give me the go ahead. "Hold on. Let me look through it first."

Minna nodded and stepped back while her father went into the room. He disappeared out of sight for several minutes, and I heard him rummaging around... but after a minute he came back into the hallway and shook his head. "Nothing obvious. It looks safe."

My ear tufts fell a little at his words. I had been half hoping he would find a cage full of crawlers stuffed underneath the bed. Still, the Ilrivians were practically radiating unease as they watched us, so there must be something. Right?

"Okay Nate. Go seek." I jumped into the air at Minna's words and flew into the room.

I spent the next fifteen minutes climbing over every bit of that room. And I spent the next fifteen minutes finding absolutely nothing at all.

This room was perfectly normal. It had basic furnishings, but that was it. It didn't even have the simple refrigerated cabinet that I had seen in the rooms with the ktari; there was no food kept in this room, so there was no need to take up space with a machine to keep the food cool and fresh. The space under the bed was clear, the simple closet held nothing but clothes, the tiny bathroom held nothing but the odd alien plumbing, and so on. There was nothing to find.

There were no scents of crawlers. Not even the scent of ktari, other than what wafted in through the open doorway.

But the Ilrivians had gotten even more nervous the longer I searched. The three of them had all given up trying to stand still after the first five minutes and now fidgeted and paced in the hallway.

I dropped down to perch on the back of the simple chair in the room and took another long look around the room. There was nothing. But there had to be something. Didn't there? I finished looking around the room and settled on glancing at the simple vent covering near the top of the room. Come on, Nate, think. What's in this room that they don't want you to find?

I inhaled deeply and tried to search for any other scrap of scent to give me a clue. But there was still nothing.

A noise came from the hallway and I jerked my head, turning away from staring at the vent to look at the source of the noise. Two of the Ilrivians had bumped into each other. Their aimless fidgeting must have made them clumsy.

I narrowed my eyes and took a closer look at them. Or... had it? The third alien was standing off to the side with his hand very close to the weapon at his side. The one that had bumped into the other had his hands up, while the one he had bumped into had his hands at his side, like the other. Near his weapon.

Hrm...

Had one of them just tried to go for their weapon? Had the other one bumped into him on purpose, to keep him from overreacting?

But... what would have spooked him? Why was the third one still so nervous? I hadn't actually found anything. I had just been staring at... what had it been?