Page 98 of Enthraller

He was outside. We hope he is unharmed.

He would think she was dead, though.

She put herself in his shoes and forced herself back to her feet. She needed to get back there.

She started walking, joining the stream of people walking to the hover port, the stiffness and nausea making her slow, but as she got going, she felt her muscles loosen and she began to breathe easier.

She wondered why the Cores had risked their Razor to shoot at the freighter, knowing Evette Linao was a prisoner. And then she staggered a step or two, as she remembered what she had discovered just before the laser strike.

She came to a stop.

A strange file had caught her eye as she was shutting down, and she had opened it. Had sat in astonishment as she processed the contents.

There was raw trivolun stored in the mystery warehouse, along with the rest of the weapons. The desperation to find the location that Pontia had hidden was as much because the Caruso wouldn’t risk a full-on confrontation with the Verdant String Coalition without some trivolun as proof of goodwill between the parties, as a need for the weapons themselves.

The Caruso wanted to test the ore, to be sure it was the grade necessary for their needs. The file mentioned that they had threatened to leave the Cores to deal with the fall-out if they didn’t get it soon.

She had just started to copy the file onto her comms unit when . . .

They were monitoring the systems?They had to have been, to react so quickly to her discovery of the file.

They wouldn’t have struck unless they’d known Evette Linao was no longer in the freighter, though. So someone at the military base was in their pocket, and had confirmed she was clear.

That wasn’t a shock, she admitted to herself as someone bumped her in passing where she stood on the footpath, and she began moving again. But it was a good reminder. She would be better served going into the base quietly, and keeping out of sight until she found Ed.

No sense letting the Cores and their spies know she had survived.

Ed letthe soldier steer him away from the wreckage and from Linao. He looked down at his hands, and realized they were fists.

That woman had called down death on Wren, and he had to fight the instinct to inflict even a small measure of retribution on her.

A med tech began patching him up, cleaning his wounds and sealing the cuts on his arms and face.

“You were lucky,” the tech told him.

He didn’t answer. He wasn’t lucky at all.

When the tech moved away, Ed turned back to look at the wreck, and then frowned as something was jammed into his side.

He looked down, and saw it was a laz, pressed against his rib.

“You and me are going to walk out of here, nice and slow.” The soldier who’d taken him away from Captain Darnell pattedhis shoulder. “And you’re going to look like it’s completely voluntary.”

“Another one,” Ed said. The anger he felt, the white hot rage at these people who kept selling out Aponi, penetrated the fog he’d been in since the freighter was destroyed.

“Another one,” the soldier said, grim-faced. “How many have you met?”

“Way, way too many,” Ed told him. “It’s getting ridiculous.”

“Well, that’s too bad.” The soldier steered him toward the building behind the launch pads. “I’d rather not be doing this, but I don’t have a choice.”

“Sure.” Ed let himself be led. He was feeling nihilistic now. He had nothing to lose, and it would be interesting to see what this asshole wanted from him. “Looking for the warehouse, are you?”

The soldier slowed, glanced over at him. “I don’t know why they need you, and I don’t want to know. Let’s just keep things quiet, all right?”

“Right.” Ed sent him a sidelong look. “The fact they can’t find the warehouse with the weapons they need to take control of Demeter is not relevant. Got it.”

“What do you mean? They blew up the Gate and almost took the hover port.” The soldier’s voice rose a little.

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