“I thought you looked strange. The light lay just so on your cheek, and you looked . . . wrong.” He swallowed, his neck bobbing, and then he leaned against the wall. “I just didn't know how wrong.”
The words angered her.
“If I'm wrong,” she hissed at him, “then it's because I shouldn't be here. And you tell me how I got here, why don't you? Because I don't know!”
He slid away from the wall, took a step back out of the alcove.
“You really are one of those Earth women?”
She nodded. Lifted the grinabo for a sip, because it looked like she wouldn't have to throw it after all.
“What should I do?” He looked at her as if she had the answer to that question.
“How about letting me sit somewhere quietly to drink my grinabo, eat my bar, and tell me what is going on?” She spoke pleasantly, evenly, but her face must have given her away because he backed up a little more.
He didn't look happy.
“All right.” He drew out the words. “I can do that.”
“Thank you.” She blinked away sudden tears. “That would be much appreciated.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “You're not . . . dangerous, are you?”
She stood shoulder height to him, and she lifted both arms out, a bar in one hand, her grinabo in the other. “What do you think?”
He bobbed his head. “Come with me.”
He turned and walked away, and she followed in his wake.
She would finally get to sit out of the wind and drink and eat something.
She actually didn't care what happened after that.
Chapter 10
Bane took his time, carefully probing one satellite, invading its systems, and then moving on to the next, until he found an opening to reach down to the planet itself.
Because they would expect him to be coming, he infiltrated more carefully than usual.
Once he was sure he'd looked at everything useful, and had created a side door to move through whenever he wanted, he'd be more obvious, give them the attack they must know was coming. If he didn't, they might suspect he'd succeeded in breaking in, and he wanted them complacent, smug in the knowledge they'd kept him out.
The Tecran military had taught him the tricks he'd used when he was very young and new, and even though he had advanced on his own since then, he couldn't shake the feeling that they would be able to predict some of his moves.
So he was careful.
It didn't take long for the first alarm bell to ring.
A facility, just outside Fa'allen, had burned to the ground in the night.
It was being reported that unstable weapons had been the cause, and given the look of the place, only two stories high on a planet where the only thing more valuable than height was proximity to the edge of the massive cliffs that rose above the ocean, he could believe it was a storage facility.
Except, Sazo had managed to get a hint of something happening at a facility in Fa'allen that he thought might relate to the Earth woman, and had passed the information on to Bane. So near the arrival of the UC team, the timing of the destruction was very, very suspicious.
Bane monitored the Urna's approach while he hunted. They'd be here within the hour. He briefly considered sharing what he suspected with Dray, and then decided against it.
He didn't have anything. Yet.
And if the Earth woman had died in the fire that was still burning, there was no one to save.
If she was dead, he would still look for proof she'd been held there, because he would not let them get away with imprisoning her and then murdering her when her existence became inconvenient.
He had to admit to not feeling optimistic.
The Tecran military had been his masters for years, and he did not think they would hesitate to kill her.
But he listened to the chatter about the fire and looked carefully at the visual comms taken.
He focused on one of the survivors, astonished to recognize her.
Dr. Farnn.
She was one of the explorations scientists who'd been assigned to study some of the lifeforms he'd collected for the Tecran while he'd been under their control.
He hadn't distinguished good from bad much in those days, but now he was more aware and awake, he understood that she had been unhappy with the animals' condition, and had never hurt them.
It was very unlikely she'd be working at a weapons storage. She had no role in a place like that.
It didn't mean the Earth woman was there, though.
It didn't rule it out, either.
He carefully scanned the comms, looking for clues to the Earth woman's presence, but there was nothing obvious.
That might be why they burned it down. It would be impossible to hide all trace of her if she had been there.
And then he saw Dr. Farnn jerk her hand away from someone in a black uniform, and openly stride toward the people using their handhelds to film what was happening.
The look on the face of the soldier who'd been trying to steer her away was furious, but instead of going after the doctor, he faded into the background.
Dr. Farnn reached the local security officers who were holding a perimeter, and spoke to one, then he saw her walk along the line to speak to a woman who looked to be in charge. They both moved out of range.
He hunted through the security force database for a match to the security leader. Found her. Captain Rivynn.
He did a search for Dr. Farnn, using the military system.
There was nothing.
It was as if she had ceased to exist.
He felt a rise in . . . excitement? Tension? He wasn't quite sure what to call it, but he knew there should be evidence of the doctor. He had had her onboard his Class 5 in his younger days. She worked for the military.
The erasure of her online presence was extremely significant.
He went back to Rivynn, found her call signature, and gave the polite tap most UC members seemed to expect.
He had noticed Dray Helvan seemed a little grumpier if he didn't knock first, so to speak. Purely for the purposes of smoothing his way, he had started following the protocol.
“This is Rivynn.”
For a moment, Bane floundered, suddenly unsure what voice to use.
“Hello?”
“Sorry, Captain, this is a friend of Dr. Farnn's. I've been so worried about her, and I saw some footage of the fire at the facility yesterday and she was talking to you. Can you give me a way to contact her?” Bane made his voice female, and hesitant.
“Can I have a name?” Rivynn asked.
“It's Dr. Duy.” Bane wondered if using that name was a mistake or not. But it would get Farnn's notice.
Duy had been the other scientist who'd come onboard to observe the creatures Bane had collected, and to decide what the Tecran military should do with them.
Last he'd heard, the scientist had been sent to the Tecran's secret desert facility on the planet Balco, but that was gone now. Blown up just like the facility near Fa'allen.
Bane's friend Eazi had been responsible for the Balco explosion, and he had done a thorough job.
No one and nothing inside had survived.
“One moment, Dr. Duy.”
Bane saw he'd been placed on mute, and overrode the command.
“Someone on the line for you,” Rivynn was saying. “Says her name is Dr. Duy.”