Page 81 of Enthraller

“Is that Captain Linao?” Renard’s voice came from close by.

Wren shivered at the sound of it. She had hoped never to see or hear from him again.

“It is. Lower your weapons.” Linao moved forward, and Wren wondered whether she should continue to pretend to be unconscious or not. She didn’t like the thought of Gy Renard standing over her while she lay bound on the ground.

He had hit her, starved her, and had threatened her with worse if she tried to escape.

She had escaped anyway.

But the feelings of helplessness had left a deep impression. She never wanted to feel that way again, and yet, here she was.

Not quite, her nanos said.

You’re right.She immediately felt better.Not quite, at all.

“You’ve got my little escapee there, I see.” Renard’s voice rose a little as he must have caught sight of her.

She couldn’t quite read the tone of his voice.

“Open your eyes, Thorakis.” Linao put the cold end of a laz against her throat, and Wren opened her eyes. “You, too, Zeneri. I know you’re awake.”

Ed stirred beside her, and she guessed he had also decided it was better not to be seen as helpless right now.

Although being conscious only made them slightly less helpless than they’d been before.

“I’m not happy to be back on Ytla.” Wren kept her voice flat as she sat up, looking around to locate Renard and his twohenchmen. She’d never caught their names when she’d been held by Renard in the ill-maintained hut, but she recognized them well enough.

“Bad memories?” Linao studied her face, and she must have seen more there than Wren intended to show. The captain turned to Renard. “What did you do to her?”

Renard’s sneer held for a moment, but his eye contact with Linao finally cut away and he gave a one-sided shoulder shrug. “Nothing. She’s fine, isn’t she?”

“She wasn’t fine when she got to the SF base,” Navar said, his gaze flicking from Wren to Renard.

“We’re supposed to be a crazy cult. We had to rough her up a little,” Renard said. “We needed to be believable.” He flicked a hand. “And she was out in a storm for days, as well, remember. Not all of it was us.”

Linao watched him for another beat, then seemed to shake her disgust off. “This wreckage is somewhere close?” she asked.

“Apparently.” Renard narrowed his eyes at Wren. “My people stumbled on it while trying to recapture her, but then they had to leave it to chase after her, and when they came back this way, they couldn’t find it again. That’s why we argued against the plan to eliminate her in Demeter, and why we requested that someone bring her here when we were told she’d been captured.” He glanced over at Linao. “Of course, I never dreamed she would be brought to us by such an exalted leader as yourself, personally.”

“I read the request.” Linao chose to ignore his sarcasm for the moment. “But what I can’t understand is how that can be.” She shook her head. “You honestly can’t work out where it is, when you’ve had months to do so?”

“My people found it in a raging storm. They took a quick look around, then went after our escapee again, and all the landmarks were gone when they came back later.” Renard tiltedhis head. “We aren’t able to use tracking devices, remember? It was forbidden because it could lead the Aponi military or the SF teams to the site.”

Linao’s expression told Wren she felt nothing but contempt for Renard’s incompetence. Then she turned her ire on Wren. “Let’s hope you remember the way.”

It was hard not to take her words and tone as a threat.

She exchanged a quick glance with Ed, but that was the wrong thing to do, because Linao suddenly turned to study Ed. “You’re very quiet all of a sudden.”

Wren had noticed that herself. He’d shut himself down, tight as he could. She couldn’t read him but he didn’t have nanos to help him recover, and maybe he was letting them underestimate him into the bargain.

“I was hit with a laz strike.” Ed’s voice was hoarse and choppy, which made her sure she was right. He was sitting slightly stooped over on the hover, hands bound behind his back like her, legs bound at the ankles. He looked like he was still in pain.

It reminded her she could probably act a lot more injured than she felt. At the very least have them think her too weak to run.

Could we give Ed a boost?she asked her nanos.Transfer some of you across?

The response was so visceral, she couldn’t help but wince.

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