Page 1 of Enthraller

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“Why mustyou be so damned stubborn?” Guttra tapped a heel against the hull of the petral, managing to do the impossible—get even more on Ed’s nerves than he already was.

Ed tightened the last screw on the petral’s porthole window and looked sideways at the shoe doing the tapping.

It was made of the polished skin of some poor animal from Guttra’s planet, Themis—so black and shiny you could probably see your face in it. Ed bent closer, and sure enough his face, weirdly distorted, looked back at him.

He shuffled his own scuffed boots on the top step of the ladder, put the laser drill back in the toolbox beside him, and carried it down.

Guttra used the scaffolding to swing down from the deck he’d been dangling his feet over and landed lightly beside him.

Ed scowled. “Get out of my workshop and leave me alone. This petral is due for pick-up in two day’s time.”

Guttra lost the annoying smile and the perky attitude. “Things are happening, Ed. Things you used to be interested in.”

Ed raised a brow and said nothing.

He’d heard this before. And not just from Guttra. Although it had been a while since Special Forces had come knocking. He’d thought they’d finally given up.

“This isn’t one of those bait and switch attempts to entice you back. This is a real, current case.” Guttra shuffled on the spot, uncharacteristically graceless. “And given we’re at the very end of the Verdant String, hanging off the back, as they say, there isn’t exactly a large number of agents with your expertise or heritage available.”

“Where’s Lily?” His former colleague was the only other agent working on the Verdant String planet of Aponi with his particular skill-set, and the genes to match.

Guttra shifted even more uncomfortably. “In prison.”

Everything went still inside him. Ed slowly lowered the toolbox and finally gave Guttra his full attention.

Guttra twitched under his scrutiny. “She got sent off-planet to deal with a situation for the Hathr, and they claim she participated in anti-government sedition while executing her duties, and they’ve arrested her.”

Ed crossed his arms over his chest. “We are talking about Lily?”

“Yeah. And don’t worry, you’re not the only one who doesn’t think that flies.”

“What’s really going on then?”

Guttra pursed his lips. “Word is she caught someone’s eye. There are so few of you Halatians, and you’re so pretty with that blue hair.” Guttra mimicked chucking him under the chin, careful to keep his hands out of grabbing distance. “Lily stands out—just like you do. Too unique for your own good. We think maybe someone really, really high up on Hathr just wanted her. Trumped up a charge of sedition to have her transported, maybe hoped they’d have some say in what happened to her if she was found guilty.”

Ed frowned. However far-fetched that sounded, it was possible. Lily was . . . striking. And Halatians were so few as to be almost extinct as a people.

Guttra fluttered long, elegant fingers. “Thing is, the VSC insisted they be the ones to try her, and the reaction wasn’t happy. You could hear the Hathr howls practically all the way to VSC Headquarters on Arkhor. Especially when it came out that the evidence against her doesn’t appear to exist.”

Ed rubbed his temple. He liked Lily. “Where’s she now?”

“The VSC hired the closest Verdant String affiliated private transport crew to bring her and the others accused with her to Arkhor, so she should be safe soon. They didn’t leave her in the lurch, Ed.”

Unlike they’d done to him. But that was two years ago and water under the bridge.

As if he realized the place he’d led them to, Guttra winced. “Sorry. That wasn’t bright of me. I need you, Ed. Yes, an incompetent, bent Defense administrator hung you out to dry back in the day. I know Special Forces have apologized, and compensated you. And that idiot is still rotting in jail.”

“What’s the job?” Ed leaned back against the smooth metal of the petral hull and crossed his arms over his chest.

Guttra lifted his hands in hope. “A transport came in yesterday. Scanners clocked it in as having one occupant. Sure enough, only one occupant stepped out to register.” Guttra paused. “Problem was, the traveller was a Verdant String woman, average height, slim.”

“What’s the problem with that?”

“The occupant the scanner clocked coming in weighed three tons and was the size of a light travel pod. Which was why they were watching what got out at the docks.”

Ed cocked his head. “A shape changer?” He whistled. “Thought they were all gone over a hundred years back.”

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