"--ell--hell--"
"What was that?" Khalzin asked. "Is that your communicator? The one you got from before?"
She nodded. "I didn't ever take it off." She pressed the reply button. "Hello? Are you there?"
More crackles. "Help us! We're down--"
Janae gasped. "Graecey?"
More static and crackles.
Then the communication went dead.
She turned to Khalzin. "They're alive down there! We must go down there and get them! Right away!" She started reaching for the driver to tell him to take her down to the lower levels to find them.
Khalzin grabbed her hands. "Wait. Breathe."
"No, they're my friends. If Graecey is alive, then your friend probably is too. And who knows who else is down there. No, we have to go get them!"
"We will. But it is no good to retrieve them if there is an assassination plot here for them. They're safer where they are for now."
"But!"
"Trust me. We must stop the attacks. Then we will go after them."
She nodded. She didn't like it, but she was going to have to agree to it. He was right. They would have to stop the potential attacks before bringing them into danger.
She tapped the communicator. It crackled once. "Graecey, we'll get you soon. I hope you and whoever else is down there can hear this."
There was no response.
* * *
Janae followedKhalzin up to the tall doors. Carved out with illustrations of Kantenans in warrior poses, fighting and looking large and powerful, she couldn't help staring. The doors seemed to go on forever.
He glanced at her. "You don't have to go in here."
She shook her head. "I am not leaving your side. I have this feeling that you will need me just as much as I will need you in there."
They stood before the doors, and they didn't move. Not at first.
"Are they expecting us?" Janae asked.
About that time, the massive doors opened.
The chamber was dark, stone everywhere. She could see the light from the half-moon structure around the room, with a center chair that was higher than the others.
Khalzin took a deep breath and walked in, holding Janae's hand.
As they walked in, she noticed the floor seemed worn smooth in the center between them. They each walked on either side of the smooth row. It was strange, but it felt like they needed to for some reason.
Like they walked their paths.
Outside of the required one.
They had not gotten to the arc of the members when one started shouting.
"What is the meaning of this? How dare you barge into a closed Coalition meeting!" The member had red-brown skin, different from Khalzin's. She didn't know him.
