Sacred Trust

by Roxanne Barbour

  The guard took us to the campus security office. We found Kikess sitting behind a desk. He motioned at a couple of stools, implying we should sit. So we did. The guard stood behind us.

  “Tata, when did you last see Ruen?” Officer Kikess asked.

  “Yesterday, during incident,” said Tata.

  Kikess sat up a little straighter. “What incident?”

  I decided to answer his question. I might be a little easier to understand than Tata. “Ruen had joined us for lunch. Afterwards, we took a walk outside before returning to class. Suddenly, we were surrounded by BSU students. They wanted to have a confrontation about the presence of Tata and me on Basili. Ruen ran off to get help and brought back security.”

  The guard behind me said, “Yes, explanation is correct.”

  “Ruen saved our bacon. I mean, she saved us from an ugly incident.” I really needed to watch my human expressions. Sometimes they just popped out of my mouth before I’d thought better of them.

  “And then what happened?” asked Officer Kikess.

  “Tata went back to class, but I didn’t want to—the situation had upset me. So Ruen and I went to the Art Museum. We didn’t go near the Space Museum.” I sure hope the Art Museum is okay with him.

  Kikess didn’t respond.

  “We studied some of the exhibits and then Ruen and I left to go home.” I studied his face. It had an unhappy expression, I thought.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. Officer Kikess, although a police officer, had been pretty friendly, up to now.

  “Ruen is missing. She never returned home last night.”

  My heart started pounding. “But we left the museum together. We walked, and we came to my building first, and then she continued to hers, I assumed. Where is she? Has this ever happened before? Has she ever gone missing?” I began to sweat.

  “I will ask the questions,” he said.

  I didn’t know what to do. I hugged myself, and Tata patted my shoulder. I think he tried to calm me down, but it didn’t work.

  Kikess made a call. From what little I heard, I suspected he talked to my father. Then Kikess handed his com to me.

  “Nara, what’s going on?” asked Dad.

  “Ruen is missing. And since I was with her yesterday, I think Officer Kikess thinks I had something to do with her disappearance.”

  “Okay. Just take some deep breaths. Kikess is going to escort you to police headquarters, and I’ll meet you there. Don’t say anything further until you see me. Okay?”

  “Okay.” Dad had tried to reassure me, but my hands started to shake.

  Officer Kikess ushered Tata and me to his vehicle. We could have walked—Kikess’ office was nearby—but I guess he needed to get his vehicle back to headquarters.

  We waited in a conference room for Dad to arrive. Shortly, he and Ambassador Tata joined us. But much to my surprise, his assistant, Kevin, accompanied them.

  “As far as I know, Nara was the last person to see Ruen,” said Kikess. “I would like to administer the truth serum to Nara to confirm the details of our earlier conversation at BSU.”

  I looked at Dad and Kevin.

  Kevin said, “As far as I can tell, the serum should not affect you. At the most, you may feel a little nauseous. And I have a bag full of medicine, if necessary.”

  “And we have a medical facility on the premises,” added Kikess.

  Like Basilians know anything about human physiology.

  “Nara, Eonus and I are also here,” said Ambassador Tata.

  Sweet and comforting of her to say that. I sighed and tried to smile, but I wasn’t totally reassured. I nodded to Kikess to go ahead anyway.

  At least I felt a little more relaxed, after the shot. Although, having all these people watching me made me uncomfortable.

  Kikess started asking questions. “Remind me how you and Ruen decided to go to the Art Museum.”

  I sighed. “After the lunchtime incident, I needed to get away from BSU. We knew you wouldn’t like us going to the Space Museum again, so Ruen suggested…

  When I opened my eyes, there was no one within my line of vision, and I was in a different room. “Where am I?” I decided to ask. “Is anyone here?”

  “You’re in the police infirmary,” said Kevin, from behind me. “You had an allergic reaction to the truth serum.”

  My head hurt. “But you promised me I would be fine,” I objected, my eyelids wanting nothing more than to close again.

  “My apologies. Really I’m quite upset, too. There must be something in the serum I wasn’t told about. Not to worry—I have given you a shot to combat your reaction. I know you’re probably enduring a headache, but you should be feeling better shortly.”

  Missing bits of memory—a long hallway, the smell of antiseptic, the feel of strong arms around me—began coming back to me, making me uncomfortable. “How long was I unconscious?”

  “Perhaps fifteen minutes. As soon as your reaction became obvious, I gave you the shot, and we brought you here. By the way, Tata insisted on carrying you.”

  “He did?” I was shocked, and then an odd tingling warmth settled in my chest.

  “How do you feel now?” Kevin asked. “Any problem breathing?”

  “No. I still have a bit of a headache though, and I’m a little sleepy.” Other than that, I actually felt okay.

  “I can fix that.” Kevin gave me another shot of pain killer, I assumed. “Your headache should go away almost immediately.”

  I took a couple of deep breaths, and the headache did indeed start to fade.

  “Are you up to some visitors?” asked Kevin.

  “Yes.” I sat up. “I want to get out of here.”

  Kevin went to the door and motioned to someone outside.

  Someone turned out to be Dad, Tata, Ambassador Tata, and Officer Kikess. With all of them in the room, it seemed a lot smaller.

  “How are you feeling?” asked Dad.

  “Actually, quite well. But I don’t remember what I said.” And that bothered me.

  “You confirmed your earlier answers, before you started to pass out,” said Kikess. “And, assuming the truth serum works the same way with humans as with Basilians, I believe your account.”

  Dad bristled at Kikess’ implications. However, he settled down when Ambassador Tata put a hand on his arm. What is this with Arandi patting everyone?

  “Nara, we accompany home? Up to walking?” asked Ambassador Tata.

  I slipped off the bed, and stood still for a couple of moments before I took a few tentative steps. “I seem pretty steady, so I think a walk is a good idea. I need to get out of this building—it smells.”

  “Thank you for your patience, Nara. I must get back to looking for my daughter. At least, I know some of her whereabouts yesterday, thanks to you.” He escorted us out of the infirmary.

  Our walk home involved little conversation. At our building, I motioned to the ambassadors to go ahead and told them I wanted to have a talk with Tata. As they disappeared inside, I turned toward him.

  “We need to start looking for Ruen,” I said.

  Chapter 10

  “Now?” asked Tata.

  “Yes, now. We need to find Ruen before something bad happens to her. She’s already been missing since yesterday. Every day is a day too many. She could be lying somewhere hurt, or the bad guys may have gotten her. Let’s go find her,” I said. I needed to find Ruen; I was worried sick about her.

  “Eat. Rest two hours.” He brushed back a strand of stray hair the breeze had blown into my face and then took hold of my shoulders to peer sternly down at me. “No argue.”

  “But…” The breath whooshed out of me. Tata was right. I did feel tired after the incident at police headquarters. “Okay. Call me in two hours and then we’ll go looking for Ruen.”

  He gave my arm a pat, and we both left to go upstairs to our apartments.

  Dad watched me while I made a quick sandwich. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Tata
and I are going out to look for Ruen, but he convinced me to have some food and a short nap before we go.” I glared at him. Just try and make me stay home.

  My father shook his head, I thought, over concern about Ruen. “Sounds like a good plan. Just let me know where you are at all times. I’ll keep Ilandus informed. And be very, very careful. We’re not the most welcome people on this planet.”

  Dad had taken my ultimatum reasonably well, so much so it actually surprised me. I knew he’d tried to scare me into being observant, but I definitely had no objections to that.

  I set my alarm and fell into a deep sleep, punctuated by dreams of albinos and scientists, in some unknown landscape—very strange.

  Tata called before my alarm sounded. I quickly gathered my things and met him in our lobby. “Where do you want to start?” I asked.

  “Art Museum.”

  His answer surprised me. “Why there?”

  “Last see Ruen.”

  “Good idea.” I rummaged in my day pack to confirm I had my necessities. “Let’s go.” I grabbed Tata’s arm and hustled him out of our building. I didn’t want either of our parents having second thoughts and refusing to let us look for Ruen.

  At the Art Museum, I explained the index to Tata, and how it lit the floor so we could find the right room in the building’s maze. I took him to the room depicting the laboratory of Tirest, so we could snoop around for a while.

  Then we decided to scour the museum from top to bottom, as Ruen and I had done. I knew it would be an immense task. This time we found more rooms we couldn’t get access to, which troubled me. This was not unexpected in a museum, but I hoped Ruen wouldn’t be discovered incapacitated behind one of the locked doors.

  As time progressed, I started to get discouraged, but then I noticed someone. “Tata, look to your right without attracting attention,” I whispered.

  Tata knew how to be stealthy. He examined a display and walked around it to see all sides. Then he walked back to me and said, “Chief priest.”

  “Yes, the chief priest from The Temple of Enlightenment. Why would he be here? Doesn’t he have enough to do at his own place? Is he following us? Does he suspect us of the murder of the Basilian?”

  I knew I babbled and my questions weren’t particularly brilliant, but it still struck me as odd the chief priest would be at the Art Museum.

  We didn’t find any albinos on our journey through the building so, after a couple of hours, we started our walk home. It had gotten late, and we were tired.

  I decided to stop at the river bed park for a few moments to gather more stones. Meditation was on my agenda for the evening.

  “Tata, why don’t you collect some too?” I held up my recent acquisitions. Today my theme turned out to be green, or the Basilian equivalent.

  He shook his head.

  I didn’t have a clue what he meant by his head movement, so I changed the subject. “Where should we look for Ruen next? Where do you think the police are looking? Should I call Officer Kikess and see if Ruen’s appeared?”

  “Dark. Go home,” said Tata.

  The sun had set and, although the sky had an amazing number of pinkish-purple stripes, it didn’t lift my spirits. “Okay, let’s go home and make our plans for tomorrow. Let’s include our parents.”

  “Agreed,” said Tata.

  I called Dad and explained where we had been, and that we would like to have a two-family powwow. Dad said he would call Ilandus and have her meet us at our apartment.

  When we arrived, Dad and Ambassador Tata were sitting on the couch together drinking tea, so Tata and I joined them in a cup. Ilandus wore another gorgeous gown. I don’t think I’d ever seen her in anything casual.

  “Have you heard from Officer Kikess?” I asked Dad.

  “No, he hasn’t called. And I didn’t want to disturb him—he must have a lot on his mind.”

  “Missing child upsetting,” said Ambassador Tata, taking a look at her son.

  I could only imagine his grief. We needed to find Ruen for him. “Well, Tata and I spent a few hours in the Art Museum. We went from top to bottom looking for Ruen. There were some locked rooms we couldn’t get into, but we didn’t find her anywhere else in the building.”

  “You’re trying to find her, which counts for a lot,” said Dad.

  “I don’t know about that; we need to find her. But we did see someone we knew. The chief priest from The Temple of Enlightenment was in the building. I don’t know what he was doing. It seems a little strange that he would be at a museum.”

  “I don’t think that’s something to worry about right now. Our main objective should be to find Ruen. What’s your plan?” asked Dad.

  Plan? What plan? Tata and I looked at each other. “We really don’t have a plan. We were just going to pick another place to look for Ruen. Maybe the Space Museum.”

  “I think the four of us should be able to come up with something more concrete. We need to think logically,” said my father.

  “I thought Tata and I were thinking logically. We went to Ruen’s last known whereabouts,” I protested.

  “That was a good idea. However, now we need to come up with a plan for tomorrow’s activities. I think the first thing we should do is talk to Officer Kikess, and see what he suggests. He would want to be kept in the loop. And this way we can find out where he’s had people searching.”

  Ambassador Tata smiled at my father, so I nodded in agreement.

  Dad pulled out his com and called Kikess. He explained who was present and what Tata and I had been doing. Then he listened for a moment.

  “I don’t think that’s going to sit very well with the children.”

  Children! I needed to have a talk with my Dad.

  He listened for a moment more, and then turned to us. “Officer Kikess believes they have the search for Ruen under control. He suggests you go back to school tomorrow.”

  “Let me talk to him,” I said, gesturing at Dad’s com.

  “Officer Kikess, this is Nara. Have you checked the security recordings at the Art Museum?”

  “Why would I do that? Ruen left the museum with you, so we know she was accounted for at that time. What are you implying?” he asked.

  “Ruen and I were at the museum to look for albinos,” I said.

  “Albinos? What are albinos?” Officer Kikess’ voice rose.

  I cringed at the tone in his voice. “People with white hair and pale skin.”

  “No Basilian has those characteristics,” he said. On the com, his face showed annoyance.

  “Well, Ruen and I have seen them in two places – the Space Museum and the Art Museum. Both of us saw them.”

  “What about Tata?” asked Kikess.

  “Tata was either not with us, or looking at another exhibit, so he didn’t see them,” I said.

  “Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”

  “Because we had no proof we saw them, and Ruen said they didn’t exist on Basili.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Office Kikess asked. Exhaustion infused his voice.

  “I think we should meet at the Art Museum early tomorrow and I can show you where we saw the albino, and then we can look at the security footage and maybe we can see someone watching Ruen and me or something. I don’t know. I’m sure you have the police out looking for your daughter, and I’m sure you haven’t slept. So why don’t we meet you there. You can arrange for someone to let us in, and we can all get a few hours’ sleep, in the meantime.”

  Telling the police what to do was perhaps a bit brash. However, Officer Kikess agreed with my plan—much to everyone’s surprise.

  Chapter 11

  “By the way, Dad, we’re not children,” I said. My arms were crossed; his statement had annoyed me. I studied his face—he did look a little contrite.

  Ambassador Tata intervened. “Always child to parent.”

  I smiled at her, and nodded. Always calm, I wouldn’t have minded a mother like her. Tata appeared embarrassed, but I belie
ved Ambassador Tata had correctly called the situation. After all, she had offspring too.

  “We’d better get some rest,” I said. “We have an early start tomorrow.” And I needed some quiet time and, perhaps, meditation.

  Before the Tatas left, Ambassador Tata put her arm around me and said, “Find Ruen tomorrow. Call me Ilandus.”

  She’s so sweet. Tata had lucked out in the mother department.

  After the Tatas left, I grabbed a bit to eat. It’d been a long while since my earlier sandwich. I didn’t bother with any homework, but went straight to bed. The day had tired me, in more ways than one, and I needed some rest before tomorrow’s potentially nerve-wracking day.

  The four of us arrived at the Art Museum a few moments after Officer Kikess. Standing beside Kikess was the museum’s curator, who let us in. And then I led the way to the room of Tirest.

  “I remember this fellow from my studies,” said Kikess. “He had quite the intellect, for his generation. It fascinated me the way he combined art and science.” Kikess studied the room. “Where did you see your albino?”

  I pointed to the far wall. Kikess and the curator walked over to the spot I’d indicated, and looked around. Kikess noticed a camera high on the opposite wall—almost at the ceiling—and had a quiet conversation with the museum official.

  The curator left, and Kikess rejoined us. “Senior Teena left to set up the security footage so we can view the recordings from this room. Now, tell me what you did after seeing the albino.”

  “We followed him when he left this room. However, we soon lost track of him in the maze of rooms. This is a very confusing museum. Perhaps I don’t think like Basilians, but Ruen also lost track of directions—once or twice. Then we tried to search for the albino by starting from the top floor and proceeding downwards, but we never saw him again.”

  Kikess gestured for us to exit the room. “Now, which way did you go to start your search?”

  I pointed down the corridor. “We took the elevator up to the top floor.”

  Before we had a chance to leave the room, the museum official returned. “The requested recording has been made available in one of our workshops. Please follow me.”