Maybe his changes were just obvious to her? Maybe Linao wouldn’t notice anything.
“Give us a minute to use the bathroom, and we’ll be ready.” She waved back toward the facilities, and Linao sighed and gave a nod. “I’ll even give you five minutes, not just one.” She stepped out and the door closed.
She sensed Ethan rise up behind her and she turned to look at him with a critical eye.
“Shit,” she said with feeling, then lowered her voice. “Can you pretend to still be dragging a bit from your laz hit?”
He looked down at himself, looked up. She thought he looked surprised and a little freaked out.
“Sure.”
They took turns in the bathroom and as Ethan stepped out, Linao was back.
“Still not yourself?” she asked, and Velda thought there was more than a touch of suspicion in her voice.
Suspicion was better than knowing, she decided. Much better.
“Have you forgotten how it feels to be hit with one of those big laz?” Velda asked, stepping forward with her hands on her hips.
“No.” Linao turned to look at the weapons in the hands of the Caruson guards outside the door. “I remember how much it hurts.”
Ethan’s face had gone a paler shade than usual, and Velda assumed it was the balls at work.
She approved.
They walked with Linao down gloomy passages to the canteen, and Velda wondered why they had a Caruson guard and not a Cores unit.
It looked like Linao planned to eat with them, because she sat down at the table with them.
“My father and some of his team went back to his ship, but they sent back some food and one of the cooks to feed those of us who aren’t Caruson.” She glanced at the Caruson guards standing behind them. “The rebels need to preserve their own food because there’s more than double the people in this new Caruson crew than there were before.”
“When are we leaving this ship?” Velda asked. Surely it should be soon? She didn’t understand why some of the Cores were still onboard.
“That’s a good question.” Linao glanced at the Caruso again, and Velda wondered if she was worried about it. “Nirro wanted some of us to stay here while he and my father negotiated the terms of their deal.”
In other words, they were hostages to the Caruso until Nirro had what he wanted.
And once again, Sylvester had left his daughter in a dangerous situation, while he got himself to safety.
Food came out of the kitchen, carried by two Cores staff, and then a Caruson came out with food as well, set it on a nearby table, and the guards around them moved off to sit and eat their breakfast.
It made things far less tense, no longer having four large laz pointed at them.
“So what’s the story?” Velda asked, keeping her voice down. “I didn’t know the Caruso had any internal conflict, but obviously they do.”
“Looks like Raxia and Arkhor are keeping secrets from their allies,” Linao said, and there was such a layer of smug in her tone, Velda realized her hands were clenched.
“Raxia and Arkhor know about an internal power struggle among the Caruso?” Ethan asked.
“Well . . .” Linao shrugged. “Maybe not the specifics, but they know all about the incident that sparked the issues.”
“And what incident was that?” Ethan asked.
Linao smirked again and bit into a piece of toast.
“Veltos,” Velda said, and the look on Linao’s face made her think she was right. “That’s the only incident I can remember where the Raxian and Arkhoran military had some kind of incident together with the Caruso.”
“Veltos?” Ethan took a sip of jah. “I vaguely remember the VSC had a run-in with the Caruso. I thought it was just the same kind of low-level incident that’s been happening more and more these last few years.”
