“I did.” Fee glanced back at him.
“There was one other person, a man who let us in the side door when we arrived at the warehouse, but I only saw him that once.” Natta closed his eyes. “The other two were the ones who took me up the stairs into that little office and questioned me.”
“What did they want to know?” Trayla asked as she carefully pulled out into the road and headed back to the house.
“Firstly, and most urgently, where I’d sent the parts.” Natta’s eyes opened. “They were very nervy about that.”
“What did you tell them?” Fee twisted again in her seat.
“That I didn’t know. I was asked to hand them off to another courier, and that’s what I did. I played the clueless facilitator.”
“You said firstly, what else did they ask you?” Trayla asked.
“Who you two were, and how you knew me.” Natta winced as they turned a corner, and Trayla eased up even more on the speed. “And they didn’t like the answers I gave them to those questions, either.”
Fee pressed her lips together in sympathy. “I’m sorry you took the full brunt of it. We learned a lesson today.”
“I’ll be all right,” Natta said, pushing up on an elbow. “The doc says I’ll be able to get back to work day after tomorrow.”
“Really?” Fee eyed him. He didn’t look like he’d be okay in a day and a half.
“The head injury’s been sealed, there’s no skull fracture or bruising to the brain, other than some concussion, and I have what I need to treat that.” Natta stretched out a little.
“Well, you’ve got tomorrow in bed, then,” Fee said. “Trayla and I have to go out, so you can recuperate in peace.”
Natta stiffened, pushing up a little more. “You shouldn’t do anything dangerous without me.”
“We won’t,” Fee assured him.
“What will we be doing?” Trayla asked, glancing over at her.
Fee shrugged. “Shopping.”
CHAPTER 12
“I don’t likethe sound of any of it.” Hal’s voice was quiet through Fee’s ear piece.
She was sitting on the balcony off her bedroom again, watching Larga Ways pass overhead in a purple haze of light.
“No one does,” Fee told him. “Natta and Trayla’s handlers are downstairs right now, getting a debrief.”
“Admiral Hoke tells me that Natta was seriously injured,” Hal said.
“They beat him up to get information, and I honestly don’t understand it.” Even though he couldn’t see her, she waved her hand as she spoke. “The parts they were so concerned about were for sale on an open table in a warehouse market. We didn’t steal them from a top secret location. I don’t know why they went from being available to anyone off the street who wanted them to worth kidnap and torture.”
Hal was silent for a moment. “That’s a very good point.”
“They took Natta back to a warehouse that contained Paxe’s laser cannon. So they definitely knew what those parts we bought were.” She tapped at her lip. “Unless this morning was the first opportunity they’d had to buy those specific parts.” She drew her knees up and hugged them. “Maybe they weren’t ableto get them at the auction where the trader we bought them from obtained them. What if whoever took Natta didn’t know what had happened to the parts? What if they were forced to go to the market, trawling the tables to see if they might be there? We got to the market as it opened, and I let Paxe and Eazi identify items that might interest them. We must have reached the table first, and had already bought the stuff by the time the other interested parties arrived. They maybe thought they could follow us and steal them, but when Natta took them out to the courier that Eazi had arranged, and they were whisked off, they panicked.”
“That sounds logical.” She could hear Hal moving, the creak of his chair, the drumming of his fingers on his desk. “I wish I could be with you.”
“Same.” She thought of how little time they spent together as it was, and wanted nothing more than for him to be sitting across from her right now.
“So what next?” he asked.
“Baruke is being difficult about setting a date and time for a meeting. I sort of anticipated it, but Eazi found out he’s going to be at a dinner tomorrow night and so we’ve managed to get ourselves invited to the same dinner as VIPs.” She wondered how Baruke was going to react to that little ambush.
“I don’t like you poking him, Fee. He’s in charge down there, and you’re in his sphere of influence.” Hal’s voice got deeper.
