“Your med skills are better than mine,” the director said, handing the kit to Girard. He looked across at the pilot. “You should sit down, Elyan. That was a hard hit.”
“Didn’t expect the rockets,” Elyan Gould answered. His voice might sound calm, but he was very far from calm, Hallie realised. He was whiter than she would have believed possible and his hands, when he ran them through his hair, were trembling.
“There’s a chair,” Peredur answered and pointed to the heavy chair behind the desk. There were glass shards on the floor around the chair, but the chair itself seemed to have escaped damage. With a grimace, the pilot moved across to it and sat down as if every part of him hurt.
Hallie turned back to Girard, watching as he ran his hands over the co-pilot’s body from the neck down. Searching for obvious injuries. Seemingly satisfied, he gently and carefully removed the helmet. Mourant’s cool, mid-brown skin had a pale over-tone that didn’t look healthy, his dark hair plastered to his head, eyes closed.
“Is he alive?” Elyan asked, voice rasping.
“Yes. For now. Looks like he took a bad hit to his head. The helmet probably saved his life,” Girard said. “I’ll give him some pain relief and anti-inflammatories, but we should see if we can get a proper medic to do an evaluation.”
“A couple of the tac team have advanced training,” the director said. “We’ll call for more assistance if we need it.” He cast a critical eye from Girard to Hallie and back. “Looks like you’ve had a rough couple of days.” He bent to his backpack again andpulled out something else, holding it out to Hallie. “These might help.”
Hallie took the offering, startled when her fingers closed around something soft and yielding. “Socks,” she said, a reverential note in her voice. “Oh, thank you.”
“Always carry a spare pair,” the director answered, a brief glint of humour in his eyes.
“I had to ditch the packs,” Girard said, a hint of defensiveness in his voice. His colour rose as he looked at Hallie. “Although I should have thought to offer you my socks before now. Sorry.”
“I didn’t think to ask,” Hallie told him, with a wry smile. She pulled on the socks the director had handed to her and almost cried as feeling started returning to her toes. With the greater part of her discomfort taken care of, she had time to notice a very important detail that had escaped her.
“Where’s Rhodda?”
Chapter twenty-five
“Who?”Peredurasked,eyesand voice sharp. Wary about a potential threat, Hallie realised. She didn’t blame him.
“Local woman, sir,” Girard said. “I can try to find her.”
“How critical is she?” the director asked. Another fair question. And one Hallie would have taken offence at only a few months before. She would have assumed that thehochlenwas asking whether thekarlenhad any worth at all. Now, knowing the director, she knew he was not trying to dismiss or overlook Rhodda. He was simply asking for information, trying to understand the situation.
“She might be quite important,” Hallie said, glancing at Girard. “I don’t know if you remember Devin, from low city? Yes. Well, Rhodda is his daughter. And she has a son, Brock, who seems to have been playing her.” Hallie rubbed a hand across her face and grimaced when her head pounded in response. Her fast healing was working, but she’d taken a hard hit out inthe forest. “Sorry, not making much sense. But Brock is one of Jonah’s men. Jonah is a bad man, and involved in smuggling.”
“Rhodda thought she was coming here to rescue her son,” Girard said quietly.
“Ah.” The director frowned, apparently understanding a great deal more than Hallie would have believed possible from her garbled explanation. “This is Jonah’s base?”
“Yes. We haven’t cleared the house or outbuildings, and there’s a harbour down below which Hallie has seen.” Girard sounded calm, but there was tension in his shoulders. Very aware that they were not safe. Far from it.
“Findo Trask was here, too,” Hallie said, and wondered why the room was spinning.
“Careful.” Girard was suddenly next to her, hand under her elbow. “I think you need some painkillers, too.”
“That would be nice, actually,” Hallie said, taking a seat on the arm of the sofa as Girard guided her to it. The shapes and muted colours of the room swirled and she winced as a phantom knife stabbed through her head. “I didn’t realise my head hurt that much. Got clocked by someone working with Findo,” she said for the director’s benefit, her earlier disgust at herself for being caught returning.
Girard held up an injector, silently asking for permission to dose her. Hallie nodded, pulling up one of her sleeves. She barely felt the pressure of it, the mild sting nothing to the grinding agony of her skull.
“Findo Trask was here, on Paradise, the human-only island? Working with Jonah, I assume?” The director’s surprise was clear, but he was not a stupid man.
“Yes, but they don’t like each other much,” Hallie said and sighed in relief as the painkiller took effect. The stabbing and grinding pain faded down to almost nothing. Then thezauberasserted itself, chasing away the last of the pain in her head.There would still be swelling and bruising, she was sure, but her head was clear. She sent a silentthank youto thezauberand it purred slightly in response. Still not at full strength, but giving her what it could. “I think the weapon boat was Findo’s. Or, at least, he was using it.”
“Findo Trask. Weapon boat. And a smuggler named Jonah.” The director shook his head slightly, frowning again. “And here I thought this was going to be a simple fact-finding mission.”
The firm tread of heavy boots drew everyone’s attention to the door. Commander Rojas appeared, helmet tucked under his arm.
“Sir. We’ve cleared the immediate area and the team are sweeping the house. With your permission, I’d like to retrieve my men from the forest before we go further. We haven’t been able to get them on the comms, and I don’t want them stumbling into one of the traps Miss Talbot warned us about.”
“Of course get your people. I don’t need to tell you to exercise caution, Rojas,” Peredur said. Hallie saw a grim smile lift the commander’s mouth as he took in the warning. “Could you leave one of the medics here? The co-pilot needs attention.”
