Hal rubbed at his forehead, because that actually may well be true. She had been more concerned for what had happened to Natta than anything that might have happened to her. “Maybe.”
“It was definitely Paxe’s cannon, as it turns out.” Hoke shook her head. “They had his cannon in an empty warehouse, along with plenty of other things he’s missing. And we don’t know who they are or what their agenda is.”
“I want to go down there.” Hal felt the first lift of weight off his chest as he spoke. “I know we need a presence up here, but I need to be down on Balco with Fee.”
Hoke stared at him. Leaned back. “That might be tricky, politically.”
Hal returned her gaze.
Eventually, she sighed. “All right. I’ll make it happen, but there will be some dancing with the politicians first. But you can start coming back toward Larga Ways.”
Hal pushed back from his desk. “Thank you.”
“She’s going to a dinner tomorrow night. That might be a way to ease you in, without raising too many eyebrows.” Hoke moved her head from side to side, as if her neck was stiff. “I don’t know if you can get there in time.”
“I can,” Hal said, even though he wasn’t sure of the exact distance theIlliumcurrently was to Balco.
However far it was, he’d make it.
CHAPTER 13
Fee glancedbehind her as the runner pulled away from the river-front house.
Trayla’s boss, Lieutenant Grogan, stood on the pavement beside the gate, watching them leave, and then began walking at a fast pace in the same direction of travel.
“He doesn’t look happy,” she said.
“He’s not.” Trayla lifted her shoulders—more of a hunch than a shrug. “He feels like we don’t know enough about what’s going on to be blundering around, looking into things. And if the Grih get caught by the Balcoan government doing something that exceeds our authority down here, it’ll set relations back years.”
“He’s not wrong about not knowing enough. But hopefully Eazi and the admiral will be able to get some information for us by the end of the day.”
Eazi told her he would be eavesdropping on the security officers who’d arrested the Balcoans from the warehouse, as well as those who’d searched the premises; and the admiral was contacting all the spies and well-placed informants she had access to, trying to see if they had heard anything that seemed strange.
“Maybe we don’t know enough, but that’s notmyfault,” Trayla said, a little aggrieved.
“He’s putting it on you?” Fiona glanced across.
“Not exactly, but he’s being very short and snappy with me.” Trayla gave another shoulder hunch. “And now he’s going to spend the day watching us.”
Fee glanced back again, but they had left Grogan far behind. Or it looked as if they had.
“Was it my imagination, or was there tension between him and Natta’s boss this morning?” Fee had come down to the kitchen for breakfast and thought there’d been a distinct chill in the air.
“Yes. Lieutenant Crin wanted to go in Natta’s place and watch us today, given it was her spy who was down, but Grogan pulled rank—he’s been a lieutenant for longer—and she wasn’t happy about it.” Trayla eased into the heavier flow of traffic as they got closer to the city center.
“And do you think he’s watching us now?” Fee wondered what vehicle he’d taken to follow them after they’d left him on the curb.
“He’s probably ahead of us,” Trayla said, lips twisting. “I told him where we would start the shopping spree, and I’ve been going relatively slowly.”
“Well, we can just pretend he isn’t there, and we’d be doing our jobs,” Fee pointed out, and Trayla laughed.
“I suppose.” She pulled into a small parking area for runners, stacking their one into a third level slot, and they took the charming spiral stairs down to the ground.
Trayla consulted her portable comm unit. “The first place is a couple of buildings down from here. A large boutique with plenty of choice. I thought we might get lucky and find something there, but if not, there are more exclusive places we can go to afterward.”
Fiona had entered the brightly lit store with its neatly arranged racks with a sense of optimism, but they’d struck out there, and in the two other places Trayla had on her list. She ended up defeated two hours later, sitting in a restaurant, glad to be off her feet.
“I thought this would be fun,” Trayla said.
