“How is that even possible?” Emily demanded, trying to control her anger, “We must know something about them? How is it even possible we have no idea who’s behind this? That none of the governments could?”

  Entiru looked frustrated with himself as he shook his head with gritted teeth, “I don’t know genemother. I… The Immortal attackers are not in our databases. They’ve been blaming… Enforcer Malketh for the attack. But he’s completely disappeared somehow, and reports have him working against the terrorists. It doesn’t make any sense…”

  Emily opened her mouth and closed it. That… Malketh? Gah, his name was always so hard to remember, hardly seemed the type to do something like this. And why? What did he have to gain? No, it had to be someone else. Knight Entiru was right, the pieces just didn’t fit.

  A worming suspicion took root in her mind, “Entiru, did you say that you found nothing on the attackers? Just like how we never could find anything on Mal– Malik something’s past?”

  “Yes, genemother. Completely unknown to us.”

  “What… What if whoever it was had people on the inside?” Emily asked cautiously, “Erasing the files? What if… it was one of the Immortal Council behind it? Only they’d have high level access like that.”

  “It… It is possible, Genemother. I will look into it right away. We’ll make sure the people behind this pay for what they’ve done!”

  “Thank you, Entiru. Let me know if you find anything. I have to go comfort poor Michael and the rest of my family. I never thought I’d see so many of their lives cut so short again. They had so much more living to do before I should have to mourn them…”

  “I… I will leave you to it, Genemother,” Entiru said, looking emotional and like he was beating himself up internally, nearly in tears. He pounded his hand to his chest and bowed slightly before walking down the hospital hallway off to do his work.

  Emily sighed and turned back around and walked back into the hospital room. Inside young Michael was rasping as he lay on the hospital bed with heavy bandages wrapped around his bullet wound.

  She sat down on the chair next to the bed and grabbed his warm hands as he looked at her silently.

  “We don’t know yet. He’ll let us know as soon as he has anything.”

  Michael sighed and slumped back onto the pillows in disappointment. Emily squeezed his hand comfortingly.

  “I’m here. I’m right here, Michael. I’ll always be here for you.”

  Michael nodded jerkily and slumped back onto the bed.

  “I, just… Reese too?” he asked, “It just doesn’t seem fair…”

  “I know, Michael. It’s not fair. Not at all. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

  “How do you deal with it? Just living on after they’re gone? Everyone before us?” Michael asked her.

  “I find more people to care for,” Emily said and tightened her grip on this hand for a moment, “It’s worked alright so far. But it never gets any easier. I don’t want it to, because then… then it means I’ll stop caring. Be all alone again. That would be worse than how painful it feels right now, losing them.”

  Michael shot her a surprised look and a complicated expression flashed across his face for a moment.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to bring it up like that,” he said softly.

  “It’s fine. I loved Reese too. But Knight Entiru will find out who’s behind this. We’ll get justice for her and all the others.”

  — — —

  “Entiru, you promised me answers!” Emily shouted and put her finger on the knight’s chest, “What have you been doing for the last month?! How is it possible that you have nothing to report? Why do I have to take time from my family and hunt you down to get answers?”

  Entiru flinched and looked like a scolded dog as he stood there stiffly.

  “Genemother,” he said in a strained and stressed voice, “I’m doing everything in my power. Called mortal governments and combed through their records. Hunted for Malketh tirelessly wherever he’s hidden himself away. But I can’t find information on any of them. Especially not after the escape…”

  “And what about that? We’ve never had an escape before, and they just slip out of our fingers?” Emily said, “Bore a hold directly into the floor and have them gone for hours before the guards notice anything. Completely filling in the hole behind them with dirt as they tunnel away to God knows where! I thought you told me you were having strict security on them?

  “I was, Genemother,” Entiru said, “It seems that my subordinates were slacking. The Enforcers are a voluntary position and they seemed to think that it was fine to ignore their duty because it was too boring…”

  Emily felt her anger rise at the statement before with a sharp breath she controlled herself and forcefully calmed down. She lifted her finger from Entiru’s chest and sighed and just felt tired all of a sudden.

  “What about the internal investigation? The members on the Immortal Council who might have done it?”

  “I have no conclusive evidence, genemother.”

  “But…”

  “Well, it’s only a theory with no evidence…”

  “Spit it out. I need something here. After a month I don’t believe you have accomplished literally nothing.”

  Maybe Emily was being too harsh on the Knight, and she did feel bad for her sharp tongue. But it bothered her more that he had avoided her. All this time she had thought that he had been making progress in the case while in reality he’d just been spinning his wheels fruitlessly this whole time and scared to contact her because of it.

  “It could be one of the other nine. Immortal Clara or Sanje more specifically,” Entiru said, “They’ve been trying to gain influence in the Immortal Council aggressively for a while now in these last few centuries. Maybe they’re doing this to have you off balance for whatever ploy they have ready next. They resent the influence you have over the Knights and the planet in general.”

  Emily considered the theory for a few moments. Everything he said was true, and she had a harder time dismissing it than she thought she would. Sanje had always been unpleasant, but would he really go that far to hurt her?

  Clara was many things, but Emily didn’t think the woman would be involved in something like this. Despite their on and off friendship, Emily was sure that at least some of their connection was real. Even if Clara wanted to fit in with the other eight and so didn’t end up being outwardly friendly when other people were watching them.

  Clara wouldn’t do this, but Sanje… Emily shook her head. Sanje wouldn’t do it either. She was letting her dislike for the man color her perceptions.

  No, it couldn’t be either of the two of them.

  She had a sudden flare of suspicion and squinted at Entiru closely. How well did she really know him? They’d only spoken a couple dozen times at most, most of them within the last month. Emily tried to not be involved with the Immortal Council matters too much and stayed at her museum. Besides that they had communicated over professional short notes and texts to clear up smaller matters that didn’t need a face to face conversation.

  What if he was the traitor, and that was why the investigation was taking so long? Was that why he was trying to deflect blame onto Clara or Sanje?

  Entiru sensed her sudden piercing look and shifted uncomfortably in place.

  “Well, keep working on it,” Emily said after a moment and relaxing her squint into a more normal expression, “But let me know updates you have. And don’t avoid me next time when I want to talk to you.”

  “Yes, Genemother. I’m deeply ashamed of my cowardice,” Entiru said with some emotion, put a fist over his heart, and then left.

  Emily stared after him before sitting heavily in a nearby chair.

  She couldn’t trust anyone. Any of them could be in on it.

  It could be all of them, a grand conspiracy.

  It could be no one.

  Only a few.

  Some of them had worked with those terrorists to kill her family.

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  The terrorists hadn’t cared about the money, they’d just been trying to hurt her with the money as an excuse.

  It could be all of the Immortal Council.

  All of them could have been behind it.

  But for now she had her mortal family to take care of.

  She could afford to fly into a rage and turn everything upside down when Michael and his little siblings had recovered and didn’t need her with them as much anymore.

  Then she could take the time to go to the palace and start interrogating the Immortal there to try to suss out who the traitor was.

  That was for later though.

  She and the other nurses and caretakers would have to start dinner for their large family soon.

  A few more empty chairs now…

  But they would still be eating together.

  That counted for something at least.

  — — —

  The new information washed over the rapidly growing ant colony through the link to the originator. The six direct attackers who were Immortals were in the feeding chambers and grew the colony’s numbers and power with every passing day. This Malketh human was strange. It remained to be seen if he was involved with the attackers or not. If he must be declared an enemy or be ignored like others not relevant to the ant colony’s mission. But it was unknown as of now which he would be.

  It could be all of them.

  The ant colony gained the faint sense of an entire nest of Immortals working together. And that one or all of them was an enemy.

  The Queens could only ponder this information. Even with their most recent rippling distortion a few days ago increasing their intelligence further, they still did not understand most of the information that they had available to them.

  It could be all of them.

  Or it could be none of them.

  The ants and their Queens didn’t know how to tell which was which or how they would go about identifying such things. They had so much knowledge rushing through them, but it was all so strange and unfamiliar, none of the pieces coming together in a way they could understand. Only the slightest glimmer of understanding for every massive torrent of information passing by them.

  The colony refocused on the six Immortals that provided the fuel for its growth. It kept trying to find ways to eliminate them, to accomplish its mission… But nothing worked. The Immortal’s regeneration never slowed no matter what the ant colony did.

  The Queens would just have to create some more specialized variants of forms for their offspring. Given enough time one of them must be able to overcome the Immortals and finally become strong enough to kill them.

  And keep gathering strength here deep underground for the moment when the originator discovered who else was involved with the plot.

  — — —

  It had been four months, and Entiru’s investigation was still fruitless. He’d traced every last root and association of the mortals amongst the attackers on the museum. Every person they ever talked to or worked for was interrogated. But they were all mercenaries. Anonymously hired three years ago simultaneously and disappearing from all surveillance and records simultaneously. The Immortals who had escaped from the prison through the tunnels in the ground hadn’t been seen in all of this time. Malketh was still missing.

  Entiru now believed that Malketh was the mastermind behind everything. Partial files and plans had been found in his personal datapad in his personal Enforcer quarters at the Palace.

  But the files while highly suspicious, and didn’t actually explain how he had managed to wipe out the records of his supposed subordinates. Or why he had done it, or disappeared afterwards.

  And why he had tried to stop it at the last minute if that was true.

  Entiru believed it, but Emily didn’t. It had been long enough, and her family situation was relatively stable by now. She could afford to take some time off to investigate fully.

  She walked to the front gate of the Palace and the two guards at the front called out to her as she stood there in a sweatshirt and a deep hood. An attempt to go under the radar as she traveled.

  She pulled back her hood to show her face and the two Enforcers immediately paled and started bowing and apologizing for inconveniencing her. They quickly opened the gate and let her through while bowing her heads.

  Emily sighed slightly but thanked them for their help, which seemed to make them feel better as they stared at her like she was a superstar.

  Well, she was a superstar. She was used to people treating her this way now. So strange what you could get used to given enough time.

  She tried to not abuse the trust and respect almost everyone had for her, to order people around.

  It was half the reason she’d let the other Immortals from Earth form the Immortal Council in the beginning. The other Earth Immortals been struggling to make it for centuries as the other Immortals chafed against their demands and regulations. But Emily had taken over and put in some rules to make sure that the other Earth Immortals didn’t smother the younger Immortals too much.

  It was a good idea, to make sure that none of the Immortals would go out there and set themselves up as rulers or hurt the mortals unchecked by anyone who could stop them. Staying separate from politics was a part of that, to prevent them from hurting the mortals.

  Only a few Immortals had followed Emily’s example and lived among the mortals while avoiding involving themselves in government affairs when they could. It was a hard balance, but Emily thought that it was worth it for her. Her family had always kept her going on even when everything else in her endless life seemed gray and pointless.

  And of course the rules over them owning businesses were part of the Immortal Council too. It would be just as bad if all the wealth was funneled to the Immortals through corporations while all the mortals were left without any real way to compete. Businesses run by Immortals were heavily taxed and regulated so they wouldn’t stifle their competitors despite their advantage from having an Immortal as a supporter and as their head.

  All of those rules were good things, Emily had seen how much good they’d done since the chaotic times when everyone was running free. Back when she had to go on television and scold the people doing wrong so everyone mortal and Immortal alike mobilized to catch and punish them… Punished often in excessive ways before Emily could step in and make things more reasonable as the people were swept in a religious fervor to punish the heretic.

  All it had taken was a few speeches from Emily, and the Immortal Council had formed. All the others pushing hard for centuries for no success and met with skepticism from all sides, but such little effort from her and it formed in no time. Her version had some basic rule changes and actual input from the mortal governments what the future rules should be. But otherwise it was the same as what had always been discussed.

  The Immortal Council was good. It had worked, and kept almost everyone happy. So why did she have a sinking feeling in her chest as she walked through the walls of the Palace? The place that should represent a place for Immortals to group together and form lasting friendships with one another.

  A place where they could be happy and secure without dealing with all the pain that came along with an Immortal life. All that pain and loneliness that Emily had to deal with back on Earth and on the long ride through space to Gaia. She wouldn’t wish something like that on anyone.

  Emily shook her head as she stopped in front of Malketh’s old room. She was getting lost in her thoughts and hardly even remembered walking here. Her deep hood had kept anyone from giving her more than a quick glance before walking by in the hallways.

  Her nerves were getting to her. It was probably just one bad egg in the Palace who was behind this. There was no reason to spin wild conspiracies in her head just because she was scared about what she might find.

  Emily reached into her pocket and retrieved a key and placed it into the lock. Entiru had given her a copy a few weeks ago, but she hadn’t told him when she was coming. He could be a traitor too for all she knew.

  The door clicked unlocked and Emily slipped inside and closed the door behind her after making sure that no one was around to observe her actions.

  The room was left untouched from four months ago when it had been searched, and a thin layer of dust coated the room.

  Emily walked over to where Malketh’s datapad sat untouched on his side table, carefully placed back where it had been found after the initial search months ago.

  She quickly brushed it off and plugged it into the wall to recharge the drained battery. The tension built and built in her chest as she watched the blank screen until with a loud buzz that caused her to jump and swear, having been charged enough to activate.

  Emily took a deep breath and sat down with the datapad in her lap even as it remained plugged into the wall and increasing its charge. She typed the override password into the device and it opened to the main menu. Another thing that Entiru had given her from the team before that had first cracked into the device to investigate Malketh.

  Emily hunted through the device and inspected the source files of everything carefully. She saw why the tech team had believed what was presented. Whoever had done this was skilled. But everyone made mistakes, and Emily had always been good at solving puzzles like this.

  She put her backpack filled with the proper equipment on the floor. It should help her scan programs individually and highlight anything inconsistent from what it should be.

  The documents about Malketh’s involvement with the attack weren’t fake, at least not totally. Emily saw a few patterns of distorted pixels in her scans that showed that at least some of it had been altered. But it was difficult to tell exactly what had been changed or how much had been changed just yet.

  Her scans showed that the files were unnatural. They’d been installed on the device nearly four days after the attack and been backdated to appear as if they’d been received and created earlier than that. Someone on the investigation team must have done it…

  She’d deal with that later. She worked hard to reconstruct the original files. The distortion patterns were regular, likely some advanced program used to subtly alter the original document. If she worked hard enough she might be able to isolate the distorted sections and maybe get some basic details even if it wasn’t perfect…

  Emily went through the whole process that lasted hours, before sitting back and staring at the blurry and distorted sets of documents in front of her.

  Nothing much had been changed at all. A paragraph here and there. A few isolated sentences and words here and there. But Malketh’s name was blurred across all of the documents. Every instance of his name was blurred and distorted.

  Emily’s heart pounded as her programs refined the search and tried to cross reference and determine the original name. With so much data it should be able to find something.

  She waited as pixel by pixel the word began to come into focus.

  Emily’s hands tightened around the datapad and she gritted her teeth as she finally recognized the name that was appearing.

  Sanje… That bastard! Of course it would be him behind this! He’d always hated her ever since the beginning, always bad mouthing her around the Palace and not caring what other people thought of it…

  Always acting so high and mighty, like he was above everyone else but Clara because he was one of the Earth Immortals. He seemed to make a special exception for Emily when it came for that bit.

  She stood to her feet and took a step towards the door before restraining herself and after a brief internal struggle sat back down. She couldn’t go storming off. He had at least one mole in the investigation team to get access to the datapad. And someone to help him with the tech, Emily knew that Sanje would never be able to accomplish something like this by himself.

  She had to find out who else was working with him.

  She packed up her equipment back into the backpack and put away the datapad. Time to go to the central Enforcer database computers. She’d track down whoever was working with Sanje and make them pay…