Page 74 of Enthraller

“What’s wrong with him?” Bartam didn’t automatically reach down to grab him.

“Whoever these people are, they found a new planet, and this one apparently picked up something bad for his health there,” Ed said. “I’d be very interested to learn where that place is.”

Bartam turned to stare at their prisoner, and gave a slow nod. “I’m sure everyone will be. Where are you two going?”

“To the—” Before Wren could finish her sentence, the warehouse blew, a sheet of blue-green flames shooting up into the sky like a geyser.

Everyone on the roof turned to look at it in stunned silence.

Their prisoner had been wrong. The building they were in was out of the blast range, but only because the explosion had gone straight up, rather than sideways.

The noise it made was indescribable, and Wren put her hands over her ears to dull the sound.

Their prisoner stared at the sky, face slack.

Bartam ran to the edge of the roof, shouting into her comms unit.

Wren couldn’t see how anyone who’d been inside could have survived. These people had taken yet more victims.

“What’s in the second warehouse? More weapons?” Wren asked him, stepping back to his side and crouching down. She grabbed his wrist—strange infection be damned. She would get a truthful answer.

Her nanos agreed.

He swallowed. “Yes.”

He suddenly looked up at her, horror in his eyes at his own answer. “I need some water, I’m not well.”

Wren stepped back as Bartam pulled out a water bottle and handed it over. Pontia took it with trembling hands. He took a long drink, and then knocked it over as he went into a seizure.

“He’s taken something. He’s trying to kill himself.” Bartam slammed him down on the ground, forcing his mouth open, but it was too late.

He curled up, made a strange, guttural sound, and then died.

Wren stared down at him.

Had she done that? By forcing him to answer, had she frightened him so much he’d taken his own life? Or was he more afraid of his former colleagues?

“These people are prepared to take their secrets to the grave,” Ed said, his gaze serious as it met hers.

Bartam took out a small device, pressed it against Pontia’s neck and then let out a sigh. She slowly rose up and turned to look at them, her lips a hard line. “He said there was another warehouse?”

“Then killed himself before he told us where.”

It was almost impossible to imagine there was another cache this big, but one thing Wren was done with was underestimating their enemy.

“Casualties from the explosion?” Ed asked Bartam.

The lieutenant hesitated, then shook her head. “None. They tried a high pulse frequency before they entered, and it just went up. No one entered.”

“We did,” Ed murmured. “We had a look around.”

Bartam gave a nod. “That’s not lost on me. You’re lucky to be here.”

“Lieutenant, any word about Bailey and Hatch?” Wren asked.

“They’re still unconscious, but stable.” Lieutenant Bartam’s tone was stiff.

She didn’t know Wren, and she didn’t trust her yet.

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