Chapter 6:
Renall stormed down the hall and into the large office whose wide windows looked down onto the floor of the hall. Instead of seeing a packed house and money, all he could see was Clara.
Kissing her had been foolish. He had just risked everything he had planned. Everything, and not just for himself, but also for his family. Talon, Marik, and Jeval would be furious if they found out.
Then again, they didn’t have the same restrictions upon them that he had on his shoulders. Their betrothals were of massive importance, of course, but their bride families were not of the same mind about purity that his bridal family was. They were free to do whatever they liked while he was bound by a restrictive and archaic belief system that often left his flesh aching.
But until that moment when Clara had stepped into his line of vision, he had not had any true regret over that deal. Now he did, and plenty of it. He was also having trouble recalling exactly why that pact he had made was such a necessary thing. The longing to kiss her again, and far more, was so sharp-edged that he had nearly taken her into his arms there in her chamber.
The only reason he had not was because he was not sure how she had felt about his kissing her. Oh, true, she had responded, but humans could kiss and have sex as they liked, with little thought to lifetime mating. They lived too short of a life to care about those things. They were hasty and rash and driven by impulse.
Much as he was just then.
That he could be so lacking in control of his body irritated him. The erection straining the front of his suit made it very clear that he was, indeed, losing his grip on his emotions and body.
He tensed as an interface call came on. He hit the toggle and barked out a harsh greeting. Talon appeared on the screen. “Renall, bad news.”
Just what he needed. “What is it?”
Talon said, “We’re on the way back. We came too close to getting stripped and then we somehow had to outrun the Gorlites.”
The Gorlites? Renall’s teeth clenched. The Gorlites were without a homeland; their planet had been imploded centuries before. They wandered; taking over whatever ships they could when the one they were on was failing. That they’d tried to take Talon’s had likely been a fatal mistake on their part, but it was a safe bet that now Talon would have to fly stealth all the way back or risk running afoul of any of the Gorlites who were aware he had taken out one of their pilfered ships. They were a vicious race, forever parasitic and outlawed, and they fiercely protected what they thought of as theirs, and they sought revenge like some sought oxygen. “Be safe.”
Talon said, “I will.” He paused, “Renall we may have a larger problem too.”
“Oh?”How could they have a problem larger than the Gorlites?
Talon said, “I found something on the ship. A crypto file.”
“So?” Renall frowned.
Talon’s face took on a look even grimmer than the one it had worn a second ago. “Renall, it was a file that got caught in one of our sweeps. We were sorting, on the day before the Borgites showed up. This file, it doesn’t match any of the women we found or rescued. In fact, according to the women on this ship, there were only twelve women aboard.’
Uneasiness filtered through him. “Maybe the crew hustled one aboard in secret.”
Talon’s face darkened. “It’s worse than that.”
“How so?”
Confused and on edge, Renall stared at the interface while Talon chewed at his lips. Finally, Talon spoke. “The crypto file is for a high-ranking government official’s daughter. One who had not just a mind wipe, but a complete remake of her memories.”
Renall said, “So where is she?”
Talon said, “I don’t know. She could be any of the women we have or the ones who died. We have to do a spinal match, take fluid. There’s only one way to do that.”
“Remove their chips and use the fluid. So do that.”
Talon hesitated. He glanced around the empty chamber in which he stood. His voice dropped even lower. “Aside from running the risk of having them run away, there’s a larger risk.”
Now he was far past uneasy. “Oh?”
Talon said, “Whoever she is, she was sent for a reason. There’s a circuit notation in the file.”
Renall recoiled. His antenna went up. “You’re saying she’s transmitting information back to whoever sent her.”
Talon said, “Yes, and it may be too late to halt it. Or whoever is pulling her strings.”
Talon signed off. Renall stood stock still, his feet rooted to the spot.
