The Balcoans were still standing in a line up the steps, looking down with shocked faces, and Crin ran past them and joined her on the landing.
“What did you do to him?” she asked.
“Surprised him, more than anything,” she said. “I hit him with this and then shoved him back out.” She lifted her silver rod.
She saw Crin dismiss it as a weapon, nod, and then wait for her to keep going down.
“I’ll take the rear,” Crin said.
“Thanks.” She’d broken Kilmar’s leg, she knew. And she still couldn’t put her finger on why she hadn’t been more forthcoming with Crin.
They ran through the maintenance area and Fee found the way back up the air tunnel uncomfortably hot and steep. The Grih were in better shape than she was, though, and Crin moved ahead, taking point with her shockgun in case of frien, and Fee found herself taking up the rear.
She thought she heard the scrabble of sand behind her, but when she turned, there was nothing but shadows.
“You can come with us,” she whispered to the darkness. “I can get you home.”
The grahudi didn’t show itself, and Fee realized she was being fanciful, because it was extremely doubtful the grahudi could understand her.
She turned back and ran to catch up. The team were stopped, adjusting something on the stretcher, and Crin stood guard over them.
There was something off about her stance, but Fee couldn’t put her finger on what.
She moved past them, finally catching sight of the gate.
“Is the gate still open?” she asked Eazi in English.
“Yes. You can go straight through.”
She turned to let the others know, and found Crin watching her, shockgun raised in a way that only made sense if?—
She stood, still with shock, and Trayla, noticing her expression, turned and made a sound in her throat that had everyone spinning around.
“So now we know who was leaking,” Fee said. “It was you, Lieutenant Crin.”
“Crin is a traitor?” Eazi’s voice was flat in her ear.
“So what’s your plan?” Fee asked.
“I don’t know.” Crin lifted a shoulder. “I was trying to think of a way to stop Baruke being taken from the med bay, but I hoped we’d run into someone on base who would stop us, and that would allow me to keep my cover. Unfortunately, I’ve just run out of tunnel, and options.”
“You must have been very disappointed when I got rid of Kilmar,” Fee said.
“I don’t even know who Kilmar is,” Crin said. “I only know the Distani plotters and I couldn’t contact anyone forinstructions because I had to damage our comms so I had a justifiable reason to ignore HQ orders.”
“Wait. Were you behind my abduction and torture?” Natta’s tone was shocked. “And when Trayla and I were grabbed at the market and drugged?”
Crin’s mouth twisted. “I was told you were in the field and couldn’t make contact, but I saw you in the city with Fiona Russell and followed you. I might not have been able to ask you questions without creating suspicion, but our group’s city team didn’t have the same restrictions. And the other time, I just needed an excuse to stop buying parts that were going to go straight back to Paxe.”
“Why were you involved in this, though?” Fee tightened her grip on the silver rod.
“I was part of the original group Councilor Fu-tama put together to study the blueprints for the Class 5s. I still believe we’ve held ourselves back with our refusal to consider using thinking systems since the wars. And this was an opportunity to recreate one in the original spirit of what Fu-tama was trying to achieve. The Tecran did something wrong, something that allowed the thinking systems to get away from them, but we were going to make sure we didn’t make the same mistake.”
Fee gave a nod. “So you were all for building a Class 5 that would be the Garmman’s to control. To show what a utopia that would be, if they pulled it off. And you thought I was an obstacle to that, because I was trying to help a Class 5 that was very much not within their control.”
“Well, you were,” Crin said. “Although I was later given some yurve shit story about a possible assassination plot as the reason they assigned Natta to watch you. So we decided to use that. We tried to kill you a few times.”
“And yet, here I am.” Fee smiled. She needed to find a way to get in front of the others, because right now, they stoodbetween her and Crin. She took a step forward but Crin lifted her shockgun a little higher.
