Page 39 (1/2)

"Jane, if I’d had any inclination you were such a genius, I would have gone right ahead and kidnapped you the first day we ht about what he’d just said "Wait, what did you think of hed "Honestly? I thought, ‘Nice rack,’ and then, ‘Really nice rack’ In that exact order"

I can live with that, I thought, perversely pleased that he hadn’t been thinking about the essence inathan hih, you are aht to look for this connection"

"Well, you don’t do human science," I said "Why would you think to look for what happened to the bodies?"

"It’s so obvious, but so outside of our fraed

What Ryu and the others had failed to notice was that every single one of Jimmu’s victims had their bodies donated to science And none of theht before they wereout the piece of paper I’d been working on since we had gotten back to Ryu’s and I’d seen "body donated to science" at the bottom of the first and second victian said to me at the Co huure out their fertility issues It has to be so pair, and who’s closer than Jarl?"

"Jane--"

"Ryu, please just hearI say, but hear me out" After a few moments, he nodded But he still looked unhappy

"The next thing we knoe’re discovering that Jarl’s own second, Jis that Peter Jakes was sent out to catalog Did you ever get an official reason for why Jakes was sent out?"

Ryu shrugged "Orin and Morrigan don’t answer tohalflings to try to understand just how many there were in the Territory, hoerful they were, and why they hadn’t been brought into the fold, so to speak"

I thought hard, chewing on a hangnail as I stared at my jumbled notes

"Well, what if they didn’t really have a point to sending out Jakes? What if they did it just to placate Jarl? " As I said it, iton what they found"

Ryu nodded slowly I knew he didn’t like where I was heading, but I also knew Ryu loved a challenge, loved figuring out the gaht not entirely believe what I was saying, but heto join in the fun of speculation

"I’ I believe you, yet, but if Jarl was the sponsor of that lab, heJakes so that Jarl could take advantage of the situation He’d have Jakes wandering around the country, cataloging halflings eren’t integrated into the community--which means they’d be weak, vulnerable, and off our radar"

I nodded "So Jimmu follows Jakes about until he leaves, and then Jis to donate their bodies to science using his reed, he later kills them The bodies are funneled to a special laboratory Either one Jarl’s set up, or one that has sooes s has beco about, and puts two and two together That’s when Jiht about that "I don’t see how he could be directly involved… except," I said, getting excited again, "as an inspiration Like I said, what if Jarl caught wind of soets involved by taking over the lab Later, he decides to expand operations"

"Now you’re just shooting yourself in the foot If Conleth is the inspiration for Jarl, then why is he killing the halflings and using their bodies? Why not kidnap the with Conleth?"

I frowned That was a good point But good points are like pencils; they wear down eventually

"Well," I replied, "let’s think this through First of all, Jarl already has a live halfling in his clutches There are tons of experis, presumably, but there also have to be tons of experiments you can do only on dead ones Plus, look at all the resources it took to keep Con prisoner There was, like, a full roster of e that lab, which must have been really expensive Granted, Conleth is really powerful, but still It’s gotta be a pain in the ass to kidnap and hold people, right? Plus, most victioBut nobody notices a body funneled to a laboratory They’re already dead; you don’t have to feed or guard the the ical snake-man trained to sneak and kill--it’s sort of a perfect way to get test subjects, isn’t it?"

"I’ve thought of so else," Ryu said, after a second I could tell he was nervous about voicing too aot sloppy and was caught by Jakes If he hadn’t as were doing What if there have been other kidnappings, or deaths, but they’ve not been discovered or connected?"

I shuddered, horrified at that thought And yet, at the sa we’d speculated on It wasn’t nice, or pretty, but I’d always thought there was ht not have every detail correct, but e’d talked about made a lot of sense, on a lot of levels That said, I could tell Ryu was about to try to thron the old kibosh