“Comms inside a ship before it exploded,” the leader said.
Ethan heard Velda gasp. If it was Wren, could she be dead?
It sounded like that’s what they were saying.
The leader looked to the right and gestured. “Bring the other prisoner.”
There were at least three other Caruson in here, Ethan realized, as well as a member of the Cores crew. The woman had probably been working in the bay when the Cores attacked the ship.
“Which one of these people is Linao?” the leader asked her, pointing to him, Velda and Linao. “Your life depends on it.”
The woman pointed to Linao. “She is.”
“Interesting.” The leader moved to the door. “You can go.”
The woman didn’t look as if she trusted her luck, so her movements were hesitant until she reached the door. As soon as it opened, though, she shot out.
That should confuse the soldiers down the passage for a bit, Ethan thought. It was a clever ploy.
They might even think it was Linao coming back until the bay worker reached them.
And now, Ethan realized, the Caruson were in a conundrum.
Because they wanted Linao. They obviously thought she was responsible for the destruction of their Raptor and the loss of their people and ore in the explosion. They felt misled by her, as well, regarding the progress the Cores had made in taking control of Aponi.
But the Cores had told them who he and Velda were, and they were valuable prisoners, too, especially if the Caruso had to negotiate with Aponi at all.
And if they didn’t give Linao back, they had been told they would face heavy fire when they tried to get off the ship.
Tricky, tricky.
He wondered which way they would go.
20
Velda thoughtfrom the way the Caruso in charge took a long, thoughtful look at his three prisoners, and then began barking orders to his crew to load up the runner, that he was going to take all three of them, heavy fire from the Cores be damned.
That was bad news for Linao, because it meant they were holding a serious grudge against her, enough they were prepared to accept some trouble to keep her.
Linao had insisted to Brink and Ritter that the accusations were untrue. She hadn’t done what she was accused of and it looked like maybe she was right, that either Wren wearing a disguise, or someone who looked a lot like Wren, had assumed her identity and done some damage to the Caruso in Linao’s name.
Although how and why that had happened, Velda had no idea.
The leader left two soldiers to guard them, and it didn’t escape Velda that one of the guards was casually resting the end of his massive laz against Ethan’s back.
There was something about Ethan that worried them.
She wondered what was different about the Caruson perceptions that they so easily recognized the danger he represented when Ritter and the Cores guards did not. Although, that perception didn’t seem to extend to her.
The other guard stood right beside Linao, and while he wasn’t resting his laz against her in the same way as his friend was doing to Ethan, it was pretty close.
Velda kept getting a pass.
That was interesting, because whatever was going on with Ethan was also going on with her.
She didn’t have the same sheer strength as him, but she brought other skills to the table.
Maybe those skills just didn’t register in the Caruson mind as dangerous, for some reason.
