“Lucky? Yes and no. Now we won’t be able to trust our instruments. We won’t know if we’re being tricked or not.” Yiko turned to him.
“Unless we can work out a way to tell just that,” Hal said. “Which has to be possible.”
“True. I better get working on that.” Yiko frowned and looked down at her comm unit. “It says I’m being hailed by Battle Center.”
“The admiral mentioned she’d have some of the top Battle Center engineers contact you.”
Yiko shot him an exasperated look, but tapped her unit and walked away, talking softly.
There was a polite ping in his ear, and Hal activated his ear piece.
“The Garmman have met the tow vessel,” Chel said. “They send their thanks.”
“Tell them we are always happy to help our allies,” Hal said.
Chel chuckled and signed off, and Hal walked out of the launch bay.
He needed to talk to Fiona. Tell her to take even more care than she already was.
He didn’t know why the Garmman were playing games with their friends, but if they were trying to trick the Grih, then it gave even more weight to the rumor that they were planning to assassinate Fiona.
The Grih would find out the reason eventually, but whatever it was, Fiona was clearly not safe.
They weredeep in the industrial area now, Fee guessed.
There were no more offices or storefronts, only warehouses.
It was still the afternoon, and there were plenty of people around. Some were loading or unloading items in loading bays, and she could see runners sitting outside warehouses in parking areas. Most of the buildings had landscaping of some kind around them.
“There’s the runner.” Eazi slowed down as they passed in front of a neat white warehouse. “Look to the left, it’s parked to the side of the building.”
They kept straight on, but both Fiona and Trayla looked out the left window and saw the runner that had taken Natta tucked up close to the building and deep in the shadow cast by the afternoon sun.
“Why didn’t they hide it inside?” Trayla wondered.
“They’re either sure they got away with it, or they aren’t able to, for some reason.” Fiona hoped it was the former. She wanted cocky, reckless enemies.
All the better to defeat them.
“I’m going around to the road that runs parallel,” Eazi said. “There looks to be a way through on foot from that side.”
Fiona fiddled with her bracelet, centering it on her wrist even though it didn’t matter how it sat—it would work no matter what.
“Maybe you should stay in the runner, Fiona,” Trayla said as Eazi turned the corner and headed for the next street over. “I’ve got a small shockgun, you don’t have anything.”
Fiona shook her head. “No. I’ve got better protection than you. Get behind me if anyone starts attacking. I’m wearing Cargassey cloth under my clothes, and if someone shoots me with a shockgun, or with anything for that matter, this bracelet will send it straight back at them.” She lifted her wrist for Trayla to see. “And if I need to attack someone, this silver pendant becomes a flexible hitting stick.”
“Maybe let me do the attacking from a distance with the shockgun,” Trayla said. “But if you have to defend yourself up close and personal, the silver stick is better than nothing.”
“Try to aim away from me so I’m nowhere in the line of fire, or your shockgun blast will come straight back at you,” Fiona warned.
“Got it.” Trayla shook her head, and Fee couldn’t work out if it was in astonishment or because she was insulted to be cautioned against friendly fire.
Eazi pulled into the car park of a small warehouse, and turned the runner around so it was facing outward.
“Is this place open?” Fiona asked as she got out, looking at the covered windows facing the street.
“It looks like they’ve already closed for the day,” Eazi said. “There’s a path along the side of the building. It should bring you out one warehouse down from where the runner that took Natta is parked.”
