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.Central Command didn’t hurt me at all when they kidnapped me.Well, except for a few bruises, but they’re not deep.”“Just humor me, please.”Laura peered at Marianne with a doubtful expression.“As long as they don’t stick the Tolari equivalent of leeches on me, I suppose it can’t do any harm.”* * *“Explain this to me, Major Russell,” demanded the voice.Angry.Adeline stared at the blank monitor and swallowed, reminding herself that he could see her.He does this to be intimidating, she thought.Be calm.“We sent two long-range scouts to Beta Hydri,” she said aloud, keeping her voice business-like and even.“One carried Laura Howard—”“The widow of the admiral who got us kicked out of Tolari space?”“Yes, sir.”There was a mollified grunt.“Good choice.Go on.”“As I was saying, sir, we had Citizen Howard and one of our pilots on one ship, and Michael Gould and his crew on the other.It looked like all was going according to plan, until Gould’s ship lost power to the engines as well as to its phase platform.At the same time, they lost contact with Howard’s ship.” She paused, letting that sink in, before continuing.“Gould had to accept a tow from the Kekrax – they’re the only race the Sural will allow to operate in his system, and they’ve got a station just a few light years away.We picked up Gould, his crew, and his ship there.“Before the Kekrax towed them out, they had a chance to scan the planet.There was no sign of Howard’s ship.There should have been traceable debris, but there was nothing.Literally nothing.There’s not a single piece of high-tech material on the planet.” She stopped and took a breath, pushing down a sudden upwelling of apprehension.“Laura Howard and the pilot are missing and presumed dead.”“This has turned into an expensive bungle, Russell.You agreed to recover Marianne Woolsey without attracting the attention of the Trade Alliance, and now you’ve done just that.”“Sir, the Tolari are primitive – and I’ve seen for myself just how primitive they are.They still use chamber pots, for God’s sake! But whoever is protecting them can disable a Kline-Thompson-Nishida engine from a distance.”A fist hit a desk.“With respect, sir, I think we need to wait out the interdict and then see what information we can coax out of her.If she doesn’t have the information we need, she’ll still be in a position to find out.If we pull her out, she’s out, and it will be the devil’s own job trying to get a replacement in there.”Chapter TenCena held her scanner over Laura, lingering at her head.Marianne, still half-naked from her morning exam, lay on a nearby bed with Cena’s tablet, absorbed in watching the display of her baby.“Well, Doctor, do I pass?” Laura asked as Cena studied the readouts from a console.“You are in excellent health,” she answered in a preoccupied tone of voice.“What’s wrong, then?”Cena looked up, flashing a reassuring smile.“Nothing is wrong,” she said.“I am seeking a physical reason for your empathy.For us, it is the nerve bundles in our foreheads.I wondered if you had vestigial traces of them.”“Do I?”“No, none.”Marianne propped herself up on her elbows.“We need to talk about your locater chip.”“Everyone in Earth Fleet gets one,” Laura said.“I’ve had one since they started using phase tech to implant them.But they’re harmless unless someone tries to tamper with them.”“We have to get it out of your head.”Laura made an unhappy noise and leaned back on the examination bed.“Laura, if a Central Command ship picks up your signal, they’ll know you’re still alive, and they won’t stop trying to get to you, just like they haven’t stopped trying to kidnap me.You’ll be safer if they think you’re dead.”“Can’t the Sural just keep them from getting close enough?”“We don’t even know how close that is.”“Three AU.”Marianne stared at her.Laura looked guilty.“My husband was an admiral,” she explained, shrugging.“I heard things.Sometimes I remember them.”“Be that as it may,” Marianne said, “they’ll figure it out sooner or later.Right now, Central Command doesn’t even know what happened to that ship.”“What did happen to it?”“The Sural had it destroyed.”“Wasn’t there anything he wanted out of it? It was state of the art.”Marianne laughed.“The Tolari aren’t as primitive as Central Command thinks they are.”Laura glanced at Cena’s medical scanner for a moment.“So it seems.” Her eyes went back to Marianne.“Let us get that chip out of your head, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” Marianne added.Laura growled.Then she heaved a sigh.“Doctor, are you sure you really can get it out without killing me?”“I am certain of it,” Cena replied.“Well – if they catch me they’ll kill me, so I’m dead anyway,” Laura said.“I guess it wouldn’t be any worse to die on the operating table instead.”Marianne laughed.“That’s one way to look at it.But you won’t die.You’ll just wake up with a headache that’ll make you wish you had.”“The voice of experience?”“Oh yes.But I had other things to keep me from thinking about the pain.”“Really? Is it anything I can try?”Marianne sputtered a laugh.“Not exactly,” she said.“That was – um – when the Sural and I were bonding.He distracted me.”“I was not pleased with them for initiating their bond before the surgery,” Cena added.“But it was an effective method of pain control afterward.”Marianne laughed again, and then pretended innocence when Cena glanced her way.She cleared her throat.“No, she really wasn’t pleased,” she agreed, stifling her mirth.“Take a walk in the gardens,” Cena said.“When you return, I will have my team assembled and prepared.”* * *In the garden, Marianne angled toward a gazebo and sat in its shade.Laura sat next to her.“I don’t know where to go.”“You can stay on Tolar,” Marianne said.“You’ll be safe here, and I could use the company.”Laura looked toward the huge stone fortress.“I don’t know that I want to live with the Sural.It’s going to take me a while to forgive him for killing John [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]