Nojan stared hard at him, shaking his head. “Do you remember anything from science class?” As his fingers flew over the console keyboard, he lectured his older brother. “First, ‘celestial Celsius’ is not a temperature measure. It’s utter bullshit. And I’ve never heard of a ‘quadroton’ before. And according to my databases, no such being as ‘Illegal Elwind’ exists.”
Zelup’s jaw hit his chest.She lied to me. “Are you sure?” he asked, not wanting to believe that Dawn could have deceived him, not after the night they’d shared.
Nojan frowned. “Yeah. What kind of person would advertise their store as illicit? Sounds like a way to get the interstellar cops on your ass.”
“But why would she do this? It makes no sense.”
“To get you out of the lab, clearly.” Calabez’s tone was neutral, but his face showed a hint of disquiet, unusual since he generally kept a cool head.
“You need to get back there,” Nojan said. “Whatever she’s doing, something has gone wrong. She’s in danger, a danger that is somehow connected to the Guardian. Kara and Mayra are sure of it.”
“Right,” Zelup said, trying hard to keep calm. His fists were so tightly balled that his nails were cutting the inside of his palms. At least it kept his hands from shaking.
“I’m coming out there, and I’m bringing Juston with me,” Calabez stated.
“No,” Zelup replied automatically, not wanting to burst the bubble between himself and Dawn. If his brothers showed up, there was no way he’d keep from blowing his cover story.
Your story is blown already, an inner voice reminded.She sent you off to find something that didn’t exist. She doesn’t want you around, and she certainly doesn’t trust you.
“Sorry, bro,” Calabez replied. “Marek’s orders. He wants you to have backup, so he’s called in the cavalry.”
“You’ll just get in the way!” Zelup wanted to deal with his deceptive little doctor himself.
Calabez shrugged. “Orders are orders. We’ll see you in three days. Try not to get into too much trouble before we get there.”
With a growl, Zelup broke contact, almost crushing the communications console in the process. “Fuck!”
Nothing had gone right since he’d set off on the damn mission. Well, nothing except the night of exquisite passion he’d spent with his little doll. Now he realized exactly what that night had meant to her.
“She set me up.” Dawn had used sex to distract him, to wind him around her little finger so that he’d buy the “emergency mission” she and Ladee had cooked up to get him out of the lab. There was no telling what he’d find when he got back there.
But she’s in danger. And that thought was enough to have him changing his ship’s course and setting it for maximum speed. Traveling at this velocity was exceedingly dangerous, especially in the badlands where the radiation could cause engine problems, and in some cases, the dust particles could ignite, quickly engulfing a ship in flames. But the risks he ran didn’t matter. He had to get back to Dawn.
It would take twenty-seven hours to get back to Pallas at his current speed. One thousand six hundred and twenty minutes. Nine thousand seven hundred and twenty seconds.
And every one of those seconds would be filled with anxiety.
Zelup sat at the console, his muscles stiff, his brain numb. Every one of those seconds, he would be asking himself, “Why did she lie to me?”
