Seconds later the officer stopped moving. The beetles continued to crawl over his body. Zak was too horrified to go near another beetle-covered body, but from a distance, it looked like the insects were biting into Lieutenant Tier’s skin. He remembered something Vroon had told him: The drog beetles would eat anything. No, not anything-everything.
Hoole and Sh’shak knelt beside the body, flicking beetles away, but it was useless. The officer was dead.
“How-how did he die?” Tash asked unsteadily. “Was it… Is it? I mean…”
“It seems quite obvious now,” Thrawn said. He studied the air, looking for signs of danger. “When we found the first body, we naturally assumed that someone had murdered Lieutenant Wolver and left his body lying on the ground, where the drog beetles found it.”
“But that is not the case,” said Sh’shak.
“No,” Hoole agreed. “It is far worse than that. The drog beetles are killing people.”
Hoole’s statement hit Zak like a blaster bolt. The beetles are killing people. Vroon had said that the beetles became more aggressive in large numbers… and their numbers had grown because he had killed a shreev. In a way, he had killed the two Imperials.
“It’s all my fault!” The words burst out of him. “Everything is all my fault.” He felt a hot tear spring into his eye and he tried to squeeze it away.
All eyes turned to him. Hoole stood up from the body and said, “Zak, what are you talking about?”
The confession that Zak should have made days ago poured out of him. “Uncle Hoole, I really messed up. The first day we got here, I went for a walk. A shreev attacked me. It was probably only hunting a drog beetle that had landed on my hand, but I didn’t know that. I thought it was after me, and I hit it with a stick. I killed it. Then, when I found out it was against the law to kill shreevs, I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t want to get into trouble.”
“I see,” Hoole said.
“I thought I could fix the problem myself,” Zak moaned. “Just like with the ship. I should have known better, but I figured that if I could just kill as many beetles as a shreev every day, I wouldn’t upset the balance of nature. But then the Imperials showed up, and we found the body, and I didn’t follow my plan. And now the beetles are everywhere. It’s all my fault.”
“Ridiculous,” Thrawn snorted.
“What?” Zak asked. He was expecting everyone to be angry. Instead, Thrawn scoffed at him.
“Your theory is simply wrong,” the Imperial stated. “This garden covers dozens of kilometers. It’s probably home to thousands of shreevs and even more thousands of beetles. The idea that the loss of one shreev could cause such a drastic increase is simply ridiculous. It does not calculate.”
“No, it’s true!” Zak insisted.. “That’s how delicate things are in this place. Sh’shak, even you said so.”
Sh’shak’s wings fluttered thoughtfully. “I said that was the legend. I am not sure the truth is quite so clear cut.
“One thing is clear,” Thrawn said as he holstered his blaster. “You are not the murderer, Sh’shak. You are free to go.” He removed the binders from Sh’shak’s arms.
“Now what?” Tash asked.
“I do not think we are in any immediate danger,” Hoole guessed. “We have dealt with the drog beetles before. We should get back to the ship as soon as possible, but I think we should stop by Vroon’s workshop first. Maybe the caretaker can explain the population increase.”
“This garden is his responsibility. He has some explaining to do,” Thrawn growled. “Two of my men have died here.”
They walked quickly. The idea of being smothered to death by beetles made them hurry-even Thrawn moved with a quick step. They kept seeing small clouds of drog beetles take flight and buzz through the air. Each swarm they saw was bigger than the last.
“I’m surprised Vroon would have let things get so out of control,” Sh’shak commented. “He has been taking care of this garden for years.”
“How could he know?” Zak said miserably. Despite what Thrawn had said, he still felt guilty.
They arrived at Vroon’s workshop a few moments later and burst in without knocking. Startled, Vroon looked up from his work. He was leaning over the container of beetles, and Zak had a weird feeling that, seconds before, Vroon had been whispering to them.
“What’s the meaning of this?” the caretaker demanded. “You can’t just barge in here. I am working.”
“We have no time for pleasantries,” Thrawn snapped. “Two of my men have died in your garden, and I think those beetles had something to do with it.”