“I haven’t seen the human,” the Fielden said, then gestured to something behind them. “Roller tickets are purchased through the kiosk over there.”
Miran thought the Fielden might be male, but he wasn’t sure. If Nova were here, she’d know.
“Do you have anything recording this area?” Lazil asked.
“Do you have access to the purchase records from the kiosk?” Nerin asked at the same time.
The Fielden jerked a little and took a step back. “Why would we record this area? That’s ridiculous,” he said to Nerin, thenspoke to Lazil. “I have access to the purchase records. If I give you access, will you leave me alone?”
“Why is recording a public space ridiculous?" Lazil grumbled. They all ignored him.
“Yes, of course,” Nerin agreed. “We won’t ask you for anything else.”
The Fielden came out from the alcove they were standing in and strode to the kiosk with the three of them right behind him, then ordered it to a display purchase mode, then rushed away and pushed through a door.
Miran was sure he heard the door’s lock click in place. He couldn’t blame the Fielden, Nerin and Lazil were being aggressive with their questions in a way Fielden culture didn’t like.
Miran could see the negative response they were getting, but Lazil and Nerin were oblivious. Was that because he’d spent time with Nova? Probably. She’d opened his eyes to a lot of things he’d been blind to.
“Here!” Nerin said, pointing to several purchases made together. “These are the ones she bought.”
“How do you know?” Lazil asked, leaning in closer so he could follow the line of data about the purchases.
“They were bought with credits instead of Fielden exchange units,” Miran said, unsurprised to see the purchases.
“But why are there four?” Lazil asked, then answered his own question. “She’s trying to make it hard to find her. That’s smart.”
“You have no idea,” Miran mumbled under his breath. His teammates hadn’t stopped teasing him for drinking a sedative, and they were sure he’d done it to himself, no matter how many times he insisted Nova planned it as part of her escape.
Nerin turned to face them. “We need to eliminate one of the routes and then the three of us can go to the other three destinations to find her.”
“That’s not necessary," Miran said and reached past Nerin to select the four tickets and have them displayed as a destination map. “Three of the tickets go to cities with ports. One ticket is to a small town deep in the desert.”
“Then we can eliminate that one,” Lazil said.
“No, that’s the one we go to,” Miran countered.
Both men turned to stare at him. He could feel the weight of their gazes but kept his focus on the map and explained his reasoning.
“She can’t have many credits. Even if she did have enough to buy a ticket off the planet, none of the ships are able to leave yet. It’s going to take them a full day to de-sand all these ports. She knows this. She also knows we’re going to chase after her. Any logical chase is going to start here at the port, why else would she buy four tickets? All she has to do is wait while we exhaust ourselves searching. She is counting on us giving up and leaving.”
The men remained silent so he told them the part he hated. “She thinks we’re buying her for exploitation. She’s sure that what I’ve told her about life on Hissa can’t possibly be true. She’s sure that I’m being lied to.”
When he looked up, Nerin was giving him a sympathetic look, but Lazil was obviously annoyed.
“You didn’t try hard enough to convince her,” Lazil accused.
Nerin made a shocked sound. “Lazil! That’s uncalled for. Nova wouldn’t be the first Decanted woman who didn’t believe us until they got to Hissa.”
Lazil stalked off. “You can do what you want. I’m going to search the ports.”
“You will not,” Miran said, assuming his role as commander of their unit despite his sense of guilt. “I’m in charge of this retrieval team, and you will abide by my orders!”
Lazil stopped in his tracks at Miran’s order. Body stiff, he turned and scowled at Miran. “What happens when your hunch is wrong?”
Miran didn’t hesitate. “Then I’ll hand over command of our team to you.”
Lazil’s scowl went to a brief look of surprise, then acceptance. “When this is over, I’ll make sure the council knows you did your best.”
