Page 25 of Warrior’s Mate

She gave him a flat look.

"Of course you do."

"You're about to tell me they're wrong."

"They're not wrong. They're slow."

She showed him the gap between official residence records and the exchange's daily activity system: seasonal workers, elderly relatives staying with family, children assigned to different schools during harvest, temporary medical placements, and farm crews sleeping near remote fields.

"If we have to move people, addresses aren't enough. I need to know where they actually are today."

Kaiven studied the data.

"Can you compile it?"

"Yes."

"Do it."

The word came out as an order. Maelis's eyes narrowed. He caught himself.

"Please."

"Better."

She turned back to the display, and they worked for another hour, then another. The delays worsened.

At 1126, an outlying cooperative stopped answering. At 1143, it came back online and claimed nothing had happened. At 1208, a school message arrived with a timestamp from forty-three minutes earlier. At 1231, Maelis found a distress packet embedded in routine agricultural traffic.

She opened it. The message was incomplete.

...unidentified craft... eastern approach... no authorization code... requesting...

Then nothing. Kaiven read over her shoulder.

"Origin?"

"Small settlement near Rethan Valley."

"Distance?"

"One hundred eighty kilometers."

"Contact them."

She tried the civilian channel and got no response. Kaiven switched to military frequencies, but those returned nothing either.

Then the message disappeared from the queue. Maelis stared at the empty line.

"I didn't delete that."

Kaiven's voice had gone quiet. "I know." She searched the archive. No copy. No receipt.

The distress packet seemed to have vanished as completely as if it had never existed. Kaiven opened his terminal, only to find the secure military network refusing the connection.

He tried again and failed. On the third attempt, regional command appeared for less than two seconds before the screen dissolved into static, and Maelis looked toward the window.

The sky was still blue.