Velda shook her head. “I had been hiking through the mountains for days and didn’t know what was happening in Demeter. We saw what looked like an attack on the city from the trail, but we couldn’t reach out to anyone because our comms were down.”
“The Head of Defense of Aponi was hiking in the mountains during an invasion?” Mr. Black asked.
“It wasn’t by choice. The Cores shot down the runner I was on while I was traveling from Nanganya to Demeter, and we crashed in the mountains. I’ve been out of touch for over a week now.”
“We?” Uniform nodded slowly . “Your companion is Ethan Hyt of Demeter Special Forces?”
“Yes. He was with me as we traveled back.”
“And you were taken prisoner in the mountains how?” Mr. Black sounded slightly derisive.
“We came across the mine and tried to steal one of their hovers to get back to Demeter faster. We got caught.” Velda shrugged.
“And they ran some . . . tests on you?” Uniform asked.
“They said they did. We were blindfolded the whole time.”
Mr. Black gave a slow nod. “Before our people were injured and killed by the Cores, we were told about these experiments, and the scientist showed them what they entailed.”
“How many times did they put the balls in and then take them out of you?” Uniform asked.
Velda tried to keep her face neutral. “Three times?” she said, as if unsure. “I think three times.”
“Were they planning more?” Black asked.
“Ritter said he was, but he was despondent. He thought it was a waste of time.” She wondered if that part of the conversation had been shared with the top guys.
Uniform grunted. “Why are there are only four, when there is space for ten?”
Velda shrugged. “I can only guess. They found the box in an ancestral wreck. Perhaps that was all there was inside, after all this time?”
She hadn’t realized until this very moment that the Caruson had taken Ritter’s little demonstration to mean he had put theballs in and taken them out of her and Ethan each time. That the sum total of balls had always been four.
It is good to have the element of surprise, the voice inside her said.
It was.
“You say ancestral wreck. You mean from the convoy that brought your people to this part of the galaxy?” Mr. Black asked.
“That’s what Linao said. She mentioned that is how the Cores had found Garmen. From the signal the wreck was emitting.”
“I didn’t know that.” Mr. Black’s face was difficult to read, the Caruson features much stiffer than a Verdant Stringer’s, but Velda thought he seemed astonished.
“Linao knows a lot.” Uniform shared a look with Mr. Black. Then he walked around her to the door, careful not to get too close or touch her in any way, which Velda found interesting, and then opened the door to call the guard to escort her back to the cell.
They had a brief conversation, and then Velda was taken back.
The whole thing had taken twenty minutes or so, and was much easier than she’d thought.
They probably saw her as an asset who could be useful when dealing with Aponi. She hoped they saw Ethan the same way, even though they were far more wary of him than they were of her.
Linao, on the other hand . . .
She hoped for her sake that the Caruso saw her as a bargaining chip with the Cores. Otherwise she was in trouble.
23
“They like her, for some reason.”Linao leaned back on the bed, looking at the now-closed door.
