Green Desert - Chapter 6.3.6 - Bhanar

We walked around the helicopter only to find ourselves face-to-face with a good-looking woman with stylish, rumpled clothes and a microphone. A reporter. How in Pétíso’s hell had a reporter gotten here so quick?

She nodded at Umo and walked right past us. She was shorter than Séara, with a fancy haircut much the worse for wear. Sweaty makeup streaked her face.

Umo and the other guy waited for me. What was his name, anyway? “What is your name?”

The greasy one pointed a thumb at his chest. “Me?” He scowled. “Lango.” Lango the non-royalist-who-hangs-out-with-royalists.

I resumed walking, headed towards where I last saw that bastard Zhíno. A cameraman trotted at us, following the reporter. He paid us even less attention than she had. We had no injuries, after all.

I stopped near Pí‘oro’s body, but didn’t look down. “I last saw Zhíno over there.”

“Hiding behind the deputy, yes, Your Majesty.”

A guy dressed that suave should not be acting subservient. Lango muttered something that I couldn’t fully hear.

Umo snapped, “Shut up, idiot.” He saw my gaze and held up a hand. “Apologies, Your Royal Majesty. My friend is a bit stressed at the moment.”

“Whatever.”

I walked over to where Zhíno had been. A lot of disturbed sand, but those might be recent footprints there.