“Some came. Some didn’t. Some didn’t want to be part of the Empire like that. They left the Empire as soon as they could.”
“To go where?”
“Wherever they could find, I would expect. Become mercs, bounty hunters. Whatever. I hear one is a bartender on Disguised Serenity.” She hadn’t been to the space station to see for herself, but that was a first stop for many who left the Terran Empire. And if her childhood friend was there, then good for her.
“Reba,” he said.
She stopped. “How did you know her name?”
He tapped his brow. “Stored memory of everyone met on the outposts.”
Veta blinked.
He knew everyone he met?
Wow.
She thought of her friend. Reba. “She is well, then?”
“She is.”
Veta smiled. That soothed her heart in a way she hadn’t expected. The idea that one of the kids she’d spent time with was alive and doing well, that lightened her heart.
Wrathin nodded. “Your people have much need for spies among their own.”
“You have no idea. I stay very busy.”
“You still did not answer my initial question.”
“I know,” she said. “It is personal. And I don’t share personal very well.”
“I apologize for the intrusion.”
A small part of her training kicked in—to give whatever was needed if only to close the deal. What that deal was, with Wrathin, however was to survive and get off the planet.
It wasn’t personal.
Even if she passed on personal information, it wasn’t personal. It was just information. And he couldn’t use the information against her—because nothing he could say would be worse than what she had already endured to toughen herself to be a spy for the Empire.
She glanced at him, taking in his profile. Emotionless robotic automatons were what she’d always been taught. Cybernetic armor on their faces. Machines in every way that mattered.
Yet they weren’t.
If it weren’t for the circles on his back and the gauntlets, he’d just be another humanoid. She wouldn’t think he was a cyborg. He didn’tfeellike a cyborg.
He had emotions. He pulled away from her, his pace picking up. Just watching the way he moved, she wondered if she’d hurt him by not answering.
Damn.
She increased her stride to match his. Which almost made her trotting after him.
“Wrathin, wait.”
Wrathin stopped and faced her. He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off before he could.
“Yes,” she said, panting a little. “Yes, they did. A few times.” She took a couple of deep breaths.
He touched her arm. “Are you all right?”
