Ronan: Ziva Payvan Book 3 by EJ Fisch Read Free Book Online Page B

the spaceport moon had given them a second glance; they fit right in with the merchants, smugglers, mercenaries, and thousands of other people traveling to and from all corners of the galaxy.                            
    Aroska continued down the hallway and found the next five rooms to be, yet again, empty. This was of course the closest anyone had ever gotten to Ronan’s people, other than Kat Reilly herself. He had no idea if they were simply using this warehouse as a storage space or if it was a prison and lab like the building Kat had found on Chaiavis. The information she’d entered into her data pad had been so thorough. She’d interviewed her friend about his time in captivity and had documented all the stages of his horrible symptoms right up until his death. She’d kept detailed records of her own struggles with this mysterious disease Ronan had given her and had written out a lengthy description of her findings in the warehouse she’d searched. Aroska imagined it wasn’t much different from the one in which he now stood, and after reading everything Kat had compiled, he was confident that he would recognize evidence of Ronan’s presence if he saw it.
    He still found himself wishing she would have shared her story with the entire group before they’d returned to Argall. If her theory about the seizures was correct, it had been too late to save her anyway, but it bothered him that she’d chosen to confide only in Ziva after they’d all become a team.
    Oh Ziva. She’d kill him when she found out he’d taken the data pad and syringe from the strongbox while putting her kytara away. For a moment he’d debated over whether to take the items at all, but as soon as he’d realized they belonged to Kat, he’d decided investigating further was the best way to honor the young woman after she’d sacrificed herself to save all of them. Several weeks had gone by before they’d understood the full magnitude of the situation, and now here they were finally closing in on some answers.
    Aroska paused a moment and glanced back the way he had come. “Anyone having any luck?” he said into his earpiece.
    “Everything’s still quiet,” came Skeet’s voice.
    “Looks like the area ahead of me is opening up a bit,” Zinni replied. She hesitated a moment. “Nothing’s registering on infrared, but I’ve got some containers I want to check out. Stand by.”
    Aroska was beginning to wonder if they were even looking in the right building when he came to a storage unit whose door was shut. Every unit was equipped with a sturdy metal door that unfolded and sealed the opening, but all the others had been open. A locked door likely meant the room actually contained something important, and he was greatly curious as to what that might be.
    The door control was crusty and obsolete, probably dating back to the original establishment of the warehouse complex. A bit of fiddling with the wiring behind the control board was all it took to disengage the lock. Aroska lifted the door, wincing at the abrasive metallic scraping sound it made, and repeated the process of stepping inside and sweeping his eyes from corner to corner. The room itself was identical to all the others, but the carefully-stacked pyramid of shipping crates it contained was new.
    Aroska approached slowly, studying the ground for any form of booby trap before looking over the stack in the same manner. None of the crates were marked with any sort of identifying logo, but it appeared they had all originated from the same place and held the same goods.
    “I’ve got some shipping containers here,” he said quietly, receiving affirmative responses from both Skeet and Zinni. He carefully reached out and flipped one of the lids open. Inside he found rows upon rows of plastic packages, each of which contained a fine yellow powder. He lifted a package and gave it a quick sniff – xanix, a narcotic popular among the Fringe Systems, unless he