Harem Assassins : King Sekton's Harem Planet, Book 2: A Space Opera Harem Adventure Baron Sord (good books to read for adults .txt) 📖

Syx in front of me and the enlarged video face for comparison. “I can’t tell from the video. It’s too blurry.”

“Try checking gait patterns,” Sergeant Kane suggested.

“Good idea,” Colonel Sadys nodded. Using her finger, she circled the shadowy figure in every floating window in red, then said, “Hydra, please compare gait patterns of the circled figure in all windows with those of Corporal Syx from her duty files.”

“Must I?” Hydra said, glaring at me.

“Please, Hydra,” Sadys said patiently.

“If you insist,” Hydra pouted.

“Think of it as a favor to me,” Sadys smiled.

“In that case… I guess I’ll do it.” Again, Hydra glared at me. “But I won’t like it.”

I stifled my annoyance to keep things moving along.

On every screen, the video jumped back to the beginning of the clip from the time the shadowy figure appeared, then it started rolling forward while running a complex analytical algorithm. Flashing on and off were hundreds of marker points that seemed to correspond to limb length and anatomical joints on the figure. I couldn’t follow any of it, but Hydra was tracking every nuance at blinding speed.

Seconds later, a new window popped up with the title COMPARING MOVEMENT PROFILES at the top. On one side, images labelled MRS CAMERAS showing the shadowy figure moving flashed by. On the other, images with the label CORPORAL SYX DUTY LOG also flashed by. These showed video of Syx moving in a variety of situations and locations: on patrol in the purple shadows of the Zalaxian jungle, walking guard duty in the sunlit red dirt clearing outside the outpost, sparring and working out in some kind of training gym indoors, and running or crawling through an outdoor obstacle course.

“Finished,” Hydra said.

“That was quick,” I chuckled appreciatively.

Hydra almost smiled, but quickly compressed her lips into a thin, defiant line.

“What did you find out?” I asked.

Hydra said coldly, “There is a 42% correlation between the two data sets.”

“See, my king?!” Dyna cheered. “I told you it was her! Once a Xeno spy, always a Xeno spy.”

I glared at her, “42% correlation hardly establishes causality.”

“What?” Dyna frowned in confusion.

“Stop calling her a Xeno, and stop calling her a spy,” I growled, not bothering to explain the difference between correlation and causation. “Corporal Syx, what’s your alibi?”

“My alibi?” Syx snorted. “What’s an alibi?”

“Sorry. Old Latin word from my planet. Where were you last night when the video was recorded, and what proof do you have to support your version of events?”

“Check my ring transponder,” Syx said definitively. “It’ll tell you where I was. Hydra tracks us everywhere we go.”

“Wait,” I chuckled in disbelief, “Corporal Syx, are you saying we could’ve avoided all this back and forth if Colonel Sadys—” I paused long enough to fire a blistering glare at the colonel, “—had bothered to check with Hydra first as to your whereabouts last night?”

“Yup,” Syx said like she was ready to drop the proverbial mic.

—: Chapter 61 :—

Dyna blurted, “Corporal Syx could’ve taken her ring off and left it in her bunk! Then snuck out!”

I smirked, “Sounds like you speak from experience, Lieutenant.”

Dyna’s eyes popped in surprise. You could practically hear the sound of her eyelids echoing off the Mess Hall walls.

Syx said, “If you’re an officer, you can. But if us grunts take our rings off, Hydra tracks that too. Check the logs.” Another mic dropping moment from the ever-impressive Corporal Syx.

“Is that true?” I asked Hydra.

“Yes,” she sniveled.

I took a stab in the dark and said, “Hydra, where was Corporal Syx last night from zero hour to oh-six hundred?”

“In her bunk.”

“The whole time?” Dyna demanded.

I glared at her, “I’m the one asking questions.”

“My humblest apologies, my king,” Dyna smiled an ingratiating porcupine smile. If you don’t know what that means, picture the ass-end of a porcupine where the quills are locked and loaded.

“You need to apologize to Corporal Syx, Lieutenant,” I said with enough venom to poison a rattlesnake.

Dyna grimaced, “Why-ee?”

I sneered, “Lieutenant, do you know what a false accusation is?”

“Yeah,” Dyna snorted. “Who doesn’t?”

“Okay,” I said shrewdly. “What does it mean to be falsely accused? How would you define it?”

Dyna frowned, “It’s… um… That’s when… it’s… uh… it’s when you accuse someone of being false, of being a liar. Just like her,” Dyna sneered at Syx.

“No,” I snorted. “That’s exactly the opposite of correct, and therefore completely wrong. Falsely accusing someone is when you claim to have evidence proving someone did something wrong, when you in fact do not have evidence of any wrongdoing. It is literally lying to get someone else in trouble.”

“Oh. Wait.” For a second, Dyna’s eyes fluttered around like a caged bird. Then they lit up with gleeful superiority aimed at Syx. “That’s what she did! She lied about not snooping around to get me in trouble! That’s what she’s trying to do! She’s falsely accusing me!”

I tried not to scowl as I said, “Did you look at the evidence, Lieutenant?”

“What evidence?” Dyna frowned.

“The evidence we just saw with our own eyes.”

“That’s not evidence,” Dyna snorted. “Are you gonna take Hydra’s word over mine, my king?” She offered another porcupine smile.

I shook my head in frustrated futility.

Remember when I said earlier you can’t judge a book by its cover? Well, sometimes you can, especially when the book cover on the hateful bimbo with the porcupine smile said Evil Bitch Barbie. Apologies to Barbie. I had no doubt that doll wouldn’t throw someone under the bus like Dyna was trying to do to Syx.

Smirking, I said, “No, Dyna. I don’t need to take anyone’s word. I have plenty of evidence I can rely on, evidence you are blatantly ignoring to cover your own ass while falsely accusing Syx of a crime she didn’t commit. What’s the traditional punishment for that, Colonel Sadys?” I arched an eyebrow in her direction. “I imagine it involves whipping?”

“I thought you decreed an end to all whippings, my king,” Sadys said uncertainly.

“Yes,” I sighed impatiently. “I meant before I changed the law. What was the punishment?”

“Definitely whipping,” Sadys said with