Taken away, or was dead.
“Drop your weapon, Commander.” Hal raised his own.
Dai gave a nod, started to lower his shockgun, and then got off another shot at her.
He rolled away, and both the ricochet and Hal's shot missed him again.
Hal moved behind him, making it almost impossible for Dai, from his position on the floor, to aim at him, and Fee, as he'd just found out, was impervious.
“You have the reflector.”
She heard the shock in his voice, realized he hadn't understood that earlier. Perhaps he thought she was shooting back before. With her invisible gun.
“I already heard from the officer that captured you that you were wearing the camouflage silk from the Bukari Union.” He sounded like he was slowly putting it together. “I knew you'd been onboard, but to get the reflector . . .”
Fee looked him straight in the eye. “I made myself quite at home.” No need to let on that Eazi wasn't dead. That could be a nice surprise for them to have much, much later.
“But, how?” He spoke slowly. “There was some panic, a month ago, about the other woman. Rose McKenzie. The rumor was she freed the Class 5. Freed two of them.” He put his shockgun out to the side in surrender, so Hal could take it, his eyes still on her. “You freed my one.”
“It was never yours,” Fee said. “It was never, ever yours.”
35
They were stuck.
Hal didn't think Fiona appreciated that yet, but they now had two prisoners, the soldier he'd hit earlier on a high stun and Commander Dai, not to mention the bird with the loud voice and the sharp beak. The drone was too small to take them all. And he wouldn't trust it anyway, as there was no navigation system on it. They needed a fully engaged Eazi to pilot it.
Dai's runner had burnt out, so there was no using that.
Fortunately there were emergency supplies in the drone, and he'd taken them out, given everyone some rehydration gel, some high-energy paste bars, and had lit a small fire to heat the water rations. There was even a portable grinabo maker.
Fiona, to the untrained eye, was behaving like a madwoman. She was sitting a little away from the Tecran, singing and talking to herself. Or to the bird, which she'd caged in a rough structure of poles and shade meshing from the emergency tent in the drone.
She wasn't talking to the bird, or to herself. She was talking to Eazi. Trying to rouse him from whatever place he'd retreated to when his world had blown up.
Hal liked the sound of the song she was singing now. When she was finished, he walked over to her and crouched down, handing her a mug of grinabo.
“This is about the only Grihan speciality I've had so far that I really like,” she said with a smile, taking a sip.
“What was that song?” He sat beside her with his own cup, enjoying the way her shoulder touched his, the casual intimacy of her thigh rubbing against his own.
“Just something that applies to me and Eazi, a song about survival. I hope he's listening.” She rubbed at tired eyes, leaned onto his shoulder a little as she yawned.
From the other side of the fire, Dai and his soldier watched them with interest.
“I'm worried no one has come to see what's going on here yet.” He decided it was better she had the full picture. “It doesn't make sense. An explosion like the facility, I can understand maybe no one noticed because this place is so remote, but the Class 5 exploding? Surely someone saw it. It had to be visible from a huge distance.”
“Maybe whoever saw it is too scared to come look. And anyway, they wouldn't expect to find survivors on the ground, so it would be more likely they'd fly over Kyber's Arm to see what they could see.”
She had a point. But his own crew knew he and Fiona were missing, that the Tecran might be behind it. He would expect them to come looking. It worried him that they hadn't.
He wondered if Battle Center had ever come back online. Whether the original dead zone was Eazi setting up his plans to snatch Fiona or something more sinister.
“Did Eazi create the comms dead zone before we reached Larga Ways, do you know?”
Fiona nodded. “He didn't want to give Battle Center the chance to order you back with me. He needed you to take me to Larga Ways.”
Hal relaxed back against the warm rock. That was good. Really good.
Fiona's hair blew across his cheek, and he brushed it behind her ear, resisted rubbing it between his fingers. Dai was staring at them, his eyes sharp and intense.
Hal sipped his grinabo slowly, staring right back, and eventually the Tecran looked away.
Fiona swallowed the last of her grinabo and started talking softly to Eazi in her own language again. He guessed it was easier for her to persuade him in her mother tongue, and it had the added benefit of being incomprehensible to the Tecran watching them.
They would hopefully never go home to Tecra, but the UC would allow them access to family and representatives of Tecran High Command. No sense letting them know any of Eazi and Fiona's secrets.
Fiona started singing again, keeping her voice low and gentle, but the song had a catchy beat and she was smiling as she sang it.
“Another funny, tragic song?” he murmured and she grinned wider and nodded as she sang, raising the volume, and then stood up, lifting one arm and throwing herself into the moment.
The Tecran sat, open-mouthed.
Fiona finished on a long, pure note that closed his throat. He curled a hand around her calf, and she crouched down, using a hand on his shoulder for balance. The warmth in her eyes pierced him through. Light from the small fire gilded her cheek and caught copper lights in her dark hair.
He lifted his hand to her shoulder, and then slid it deep into her hair. He felt too much, was uneasy with the strength of his need to touch her, please her, keep her close.
She must have seen some of that in his eyes, because she looked self-consciously toward the Tecran prisoners and then went very still.
“There are some people in camouflage creeping up on us.” She said it softly, but didn't whisper, as if she was merely in quiet conversation with him.
“Where?”
“Directly behind Dai. They're hiding behind the destroyed runner.”
“Can you tell how many?”
“I can see three outlines.” She suddenly sang another short line or two in her language, and he guessed she was asking Eazi to use the powerful lens on the runner he hopefully still had above them to give them some information.
She waited a beat, looked across at Hal and shook her head. Then she casually rose up and stepped in front of him. Shielding him.
Hal brought his hand up again, gripped her calf a little tighter. “I can't shoot them through you.”
“I have a feeling they're your guys. But if not, if they do shoot, they'll get back exactly what they dished out.”
His team.
He slowly got to his feet, stood behind Fiona. It was easy to loom over her, and he lifted a hand, made the signal for all is well.
“Captain? You secure?” It was Rial.
“We are.”
A figure stepped out from behind the Tecran's runner, and then touched his uniform. Rial shimmered into focus.
Behind him, Carmain and Pila, her old guards, did the same.
“Glad to see you're all right.” Rial walked forward, his gaze falling on the Tecran prisoners, and then Hal and Fiona, standing close together. “But how did you know we were there?”
* * *
“What happened?” Rial waved in the general direction of the facility, then looked up to the skies.
Dai's face took on a blank expression, and Fee guessed the Tecran commander wanted to find out what Hal had to say just as much as Rial did.
She watched him for a beat, and then saw two more camouflage figures step out from behind the runner. She held back a cry of surprise with difficulty.
Why didn't they all declare themselves?
She tried to decide if they were merely being cautious and checking thi
s wasn't a trap, or whether it was something more sinister. Like traitors in the ranks.
Hadn't Jasa said a Grih officer had tried to kill Rose McKenzie, and had admitted there were others like him scattered through Battle Center's command?
“The Tecran had a secret facility. Six floors, five underground.” Hal looked over at her, and Fee stepped toward him.
Did she tell him openly? Would she be ruining some plan his team had going to protect them, or was she helping the bad guys?
He tilted his head. “Fiona?”
From behind her, the macaw clicked its beak. “Bee-oo-tiful plummage,” it cackled.
One of the invisible soldiers lifted a shockgun and took aim.
Fee jumped in front of her, arms wide for maximum shielding. “No. It's a bird, not a threat. Why are you still skulking about in camouflage?”
The soldier's gun was pointed directly at her. In fact, Fee thought it lifted a little.
“Go ahead,” she said softly. “Go right on ahead.”
There was obviously something a little off in her expression, because the soldier took a cautious step back.
“Rial. Explain.” Hal's voice was harsh.
“Tobru, Favri, stand down.” Rial blew out a breath and Fee saw him rub the back of his head uncomfortably as Tobru and Favri powered down their uniforms.
She recognized Favri as the soldier who'd found the strange mask Captain Tak had made her wear on the Fasbe, and had presented it to Hal while she'd been questioned, but she didn't recall ever seeing Tobru. The woman was short for a Grih, not as short as Fee, but half a head shorter than her colleagues. Her spiky hair was dark brown, lightening to chestnut at the tips.
The macaw whistled, sounding like a teakettle, and then whispered: “Bastards.”
Fee turned to it and grinned. “You tell them, clever bird.” She spoke in English.
“You want to explain?” Hal did not sound likely to accept the explanation, whatever it was.
“We were initially afraid it was a trap, sir.” Tobru turned to Hal at an angle, so Fee was still in view, although she was pointing her shockgun down.
“And when you realized it wasn't?” Hal asked, quietly.
“We decided to do a final recon, sir, to make sure the area was secure.” Favri's voice was tense.
“Fiona?” Hal was looking straight at her, and Fee realized he wanted her side of things.
“I saw them creep out from behind the runner, and I didn't know whether they were the traitors Jasa told me Battle Center thinks are still in the ranks, or whether they were doing exactly what they've just said they were doing.” She shrugged. “But when that one took aim at the macaw, I decided I didn't much care, either way.” She turned her gaze back to Tobru.
“I was about to tell you, Captain,” Rial said, eyes down. “I was just trying to make it unobtrusive, in case this was some convoluted trap.” He looked across at Fee. “I didn't know she could see through our camouflage.”
“Well, now you, and our Tecran prisoners, do know.” Hal clenched his fists, and Rial, Tobru and Favri winced.
Fee looked over at Pila and Carmain, but Carmain, at least, looked interested, and almost as if she was enjoying the show. Pila had a carefully blank expression. Lower down the totem, she guessed. Not in trouble because it wasn't their idea, and who didn't like to see someone higher in rank than you get a good dressing down? She caught Carmain's eye and they shared a grin.
“Glad to see you alive and well,” Carmain said. “Pila and I don't like losing the body we're supposed to be guarding.”
Fee saw Pila's whole jaw clench at that. Taking it quite personally, by the looks of things. He was the one on duty when she'd been snatched, she remembered. “You were up against a very wily opponent,” she told them. “He would have gotten me one way or another.”
The macaw, obviously tired of being ignored, started whistling the chorus of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, and Tobru half-raised her shockgun again, caught Fee's look and lowered it.
“What is that thing?”
“It's a bird from my planet. The captain and I rescued it from the Tecran facility.”
“You were in there?” Rial looked up, mouth open in shock.
“I suggest I debrief everyone in better surroundings, without two enemy combatants listening in. I'm assuming you came here by runner? Where is it?” Hal did the short-tempered captain really well.
Fee smiled at him, and he frowned back at her. It only made her smile wider.
Rial tapped his earpiece and then proceeded to speak in code. No one mentioned it, so Fee guessed they all knew what he'd said. “Five minutes,” he said.
It was actually more like three.
It landed in a blast of sand on a flat stretch of rock nearby.
Hal directed Pila, Carmain and Tobru to get the Tecran prisoners onboard and secure, and the others helped her and Hal gather up their things, stripping everything they could from the drone.
Hal grabbed the macaw and Fee dismantled the poles and netting of its temporary cage.
They were the last ones onboard, and Fee saw the amazement on the Grih's faces when they finally saw the bird.
It was a little ruffled, but its colors gleamed, almost unreal in the lighting inside the vessel.
As soon as she stepped inside, Fee realized this was like the fighter vessel that had come to her rescue on the Fasbe, not a runner at all. The whole skin of the ship was transparent once you were inside, affording a view of the dark landscape, and the still smoldering Tecran runner.
It was like riding a magic carpet, without the wind buffering.
The macaw bit Hal's wrist again, and taken by surprise, he let it go on an exclamation. It swooped to Fee's shoulder. Invited her to sing by whistling the familiar chorus.
She'd thought it was wild, taken from some rainforest in South America, and it probably was, but in this strange new place, it was sticking to the one thing it recognized. It had been with Imogen Peters for months, given what she'd taught it. Fiona guessed she must be the next best thing.
She sang the line the macaw was looking for, let it whistle, sang again.
The Grih watched her so intently, she stopped.
“I thought I felt sorry for you,” Favri said at last. “You were an orange, an alien, in a new place. But hearing you, seeing you healthy and in a calmer state, with that beautiful thing on your shoulder, I realize I didn't feel sorry for you. I thought you were better off with us, the kind Grih from the amazing four planets, even if your journey to us was hard and unfair. But the picture you make, the sound of you singing with that . . . bird . . . makes me realize there is more in this universe than I can comprehend, and that maybe, it's the other way around. We are better off with you.”
There was silence.
“Perhaps we each bring good things to the table,” Fee said at last, because, heaven knew, Earth was no endless paradise.
And she wondered, maybe, if there was at last a place for her here.
36
“Larga Ways is in panic.” Rial stood in the passageway just outside the Illium's launch bay. He kept looking over at Fiona, as if unsure how much to say in her presence.
Hal looked over at her himself. She was standing a few steps away from him, and he didn't like the dark circles under her eyes, or the way she was swaying.
As they'd arrived back at Larga Ways and slid through the Illium's gel wall, three urgent calls had come through on his new earpiece, requesting a debrief. One from the station chief himself, one from the Battle Center office, and the last from Councilor Vilk.
He wasn't 'debriefing' anyone until he'd spoken to Admiral Hoke.
Fiona was still holding the bird, and stared blankly at his explorations officer, Suto, when he came to take it from her.
“Officer Suto just wants to make sure it's healthy. He'll keep it safe while you sleep,” he said to Fiona, cutting Rial off mid-sentence.
She focused more intently on Suto. The exploration of
ficer was trying not to look as if he was about to explode with excitement.
“It would be my honor,” he told her gravely.
She glanced over at Hal, and then gave the macaw up. At her obvious trust in him, the feeling he'd had down on Balco just before his team arrived washed over him again; hot, prickly, and too big for his body to contain.
Jasa arrived at that moment, took one look at Fiona and shook her head. “I'll look her over and then she needs some sleep.”
“The Tecran shot Hal twice with a shockgun,” Fiona said, rubbing at her eyes and then yawning. “The second time on the neck. He was out for over two hours.”
“The captain didn't mention that,” Jasa said, and the look she sent Hal should have frozen him in place. “I'll make sure he comes to see me after I'm done with you. But I saw the lens feed of you being shot on the dock by that Tecran, and it looked as if you were taken down with a high charge.”
Hal swore.
“I just remembered Cy,” he said as everyone stared at him.
Fiona drew in a sharp breath and lifted her hands to her mouth. She'd obviously forgotten him, too. “We can look for him, but even then, without Eazi, we're not going to get into that runner.”
At the mention of Eazi's name, she seemed to droop, and Hal wanted to touch her. Give her support. He forced himself to hold his ground, though, contenting himself with watching Jasa draw her away toward the med chamber, sandwiched between Pila and Carmain, both with weapons up and hot.
“Pila offered his resignation,” Rial said, watching them as well. “I told him it was up to you to accept it or not. That you've assigned him to guard her again will mean a lot to him.”
“Fiona was right. Eazi would have gotten her, no matter who'd been on guard.”
“Who's Eazi?” Chel asked, striding toward them.
Hal was pleased to see his second-in-command looked completely healed after his skirmish with the Krik.
“Set up a conference room and get Admiral Hoke on the lens feed, then I only have to tell this once.”
“Already done.” Chel gave a formal bow, but Hal could see the emotion in his eyes. “We're glad to have you in one piece, Captain. And Admiral Hoke insisted on having a permanent comm line open since we've been able to receive comms from Battle Center again. She's been waiting for us to find you.”
Dark Deeds (Class 5 Series Book 2) Page 25
