“Watch them for as long as you can,” she said to Fee over the ear piece.
“Can you follow them?” Fee asked Eazi.
“I got a good look through your lens feed. I think I can lens hop and follow.” Eazi’s voice sounded a little more mechanical than usual.
“Good.” Fee stepped into the street a little way to try to see which way the runner was headed. They went right and were gone, and moments later, Trayla pulled up in the runner.
Fee jumped in and she took off.
“Why did they take him?” Trayla asked.
“Because he took the brackets away,” Fee guessed. “That’s the only thing he’s done that would have drawn attention.”
“Why didn’t they grab us?” Trayla asked. “We bought them.”
“Good question. Maybe it was too risky to do it inside the marketplace and they were going to get to us later?” That made sense because as far as the mysterious ‘they’ knew, Natta was just the transporter.
“Hopefully he plays dumb long enough for us to get to him.” Trayla turned right where Fee indicated, and then leaned back, astonished, her hands held up and palms forward as the runner accelerated and drove itself.
“That you, Eazi?” Fee asked.
“Sorry, yes. It will be easier for me to operate this runner than give you directions.” Eazi didn’t sound sorry at all.
“Where are they going?” Fee asked.
“Toward the port authority. To get the brackets back, do you think?” Eazi asked.
“Why sell them, then, if they didn’t want them bought?” Trayla asked.
“Another good question.” Fee wondered about that, too. “Was someone watching, and they got nervous when I asked about other items?”
Maybe she’d piqued someone’s interest, and not in a good way.
She just hoped whoever it was didn’t hurt Natta until they were able to get him back.
CHAPTER 9
“Tell me what we have.”Hal moved toward where Yiko was standing in the launch bay, hands on her hips, watching her team hook the runner up to the tow vessel.
“Standard runner, standard repeaters.” She shook her head in admiration. “Absolutely available to all members of the UC. The highly polished surface is an add-on, and interesting, but I’m sure if we put our minds to it, we could achieve the same results. The tech used to transmit the lens feed of the surrounding area onto the surface is still a mystery, but it’s not an insurmountable technical issue we won’t be able to work out.”
“Talk to Eazi, or one of the other Class 5s. Or Fiona, Rose, or any of the Earth women. They might know.” Hal was even more sure now that they were looking at Earth tech.
Yiko turned to look at him, mouth slightly agape. “This is . . .” She went still, then slowly nodded her head. “Right. This is treasure from the Tecran hoard. Payment to the Garmman for the Class 5s.”
“That’s my guess.” Hal moved toward the runner and ran his fingers down the polished outer surface.
“They’ve attached some kind of metallic wrap,” Yiko said, getting out a thin metal spike and running it down where Hal had touched. “See, it’s really robust. No sign of a scratch.”
“We had a good look at it at least.” Hal moved back as the runner began to move toward the launch bay entrance. “They didn’t expect us to grab one.”
“No.” Yiko’s hands were back on her hips as she watched the runner float out of the launch bay and disappear.
“Was there anyone inside?” Hal asked her.
“We couldn’t get in, but our scans said no. It was on autopilot and I think that’s why it came too close to our position.”
“Lucky for us.” Hal wondered what Battle Center would have done if it looked as if an entire fleet of Garmman battleships were bearing down on a Grihan position.
