“Sylvester wanted to see them. And he wanted information about them before we met up with him.” Ritter flicked a look at the box, and then away.
“Sylvester.” The Caruson soldier seemed to know who Ritter was talking about, but Ethan didn’t. Velda didn’t either, by the look on her face. “Well, he will have his wish, then. That’s the next stop.”
He said something that sounded harsh to Ethan’s ear, and the soldier who’d opened the box closed it and wheeled it back into the dispensary.
He gave an order, and the two guards who’d brought them here began to move them out of the med bay, behind Ritter and his guard.
Instead of taking them back to their cell, they followed Ritter down the passage into the mess, where everyone who was still alive onboard was being held.
It didn’t look as comfortable as their cell, Ethan thought as his gaze swept the room, but they certainly wouldn’t be bored.
16
Velda relaxeda little when they were led into the mess and even more when the guards withdrew to block the doors.
The main Caruson had been eyeing Ethan since he’d observed them in their cell, and she’d tried to keep the attention on herself, taking the lead when it came to talking.
Since he’d stretched this morning, she’d seen he was bigger. She’d put a hand on his back to tell him, but ended up too afraid of being heard.
It was a subtle thing, she hoped, but he was bulkier. More muscular.
And the Caruson had seen him as a threat. No question.
She had a feeling she was more muscular, too. She’d noticed in the shower this morning.
They were becoming super soldiers.
The electric zing that shot through her at the thought wasn’t fear, though. Not this time. She’d take any advantage that would get her and Ethan out of here, and pay the price later.
There is no price.
The words didn’t seem like they came from her, but they came from somewhere.
Maybe the price was no longer being alone in her own head.
She stopped in the middle of the room and took note of who was there.
Brink and Linao were seated together. The captain was nowhere in sight. Ritter had preceded them in, and had stumbled across to sit in a corner on his own.
One of the Cores guards who’d previously taken them to and from the med bay and the mess was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, blood caked on his arm. Some of the people they’d seen eating at the mess the few times they’d come in were seated together at a table, silent and glassy-eyed.
Nine people, she realized. The crew hadn’t been big, but they had definitely lost members, unless some were being kept elsewhere.
Ethan put a hand on her lower back and steered her to a small table to their left, and they ended up close to Linao and Brink.
“You were right,” Ethan said to Brink. “The Caruso do seem unhappy about their ship being blown up.”
Brink looked up at him slowly, and extended her finger in a rude gesture.
“What did you tell them when they got you out of the cell?” Linao asked.
“That we didn’t really know what was going on,” Velda said.
“Did you tell them who you were?” Linao asked, and there was an edge to her voice, as if she was taunting them. “Because I’m sure they’d be interested to know who they have in their hands.”
Velda was very aware that she and Ethan would be considered very useful hostages to the Caruso, which is why she’d introduced them by their first names only.
Linao was threatening them, and she wasn’t trying to be subtle about it. Unfortunately for her, she was playing against the Head of Planetary Defence for the whole of Aponi.
