Fee could hear her asking someone the question and then there was silence for a few minutes. It felt like forever.
“We can’t get hold of Grih Battle Center headquarters on Larga Ways, either.” Fee could hear a chair scrape back, as if Olna had shoved herself away from her desk. “It’s been over five minutes without a response.”
“A little longer for us, but not by much,” Hal told her. “We’ll be heading up to Larga Ways immediately.”
“There’s chaos on approach, apparently. With no comms, there’s no entry and exit instructions, and so there seems to be a lot of milling around,” Olna said.
“General, it’s Fiona here. Baruke’s daughter Kavisha came to see us. She says her father and his security detail have disappeared. She wanted Grihan help because she doesn’t know who on her father’s team to trust.”
Fiona heard Olna swear under her breath. “Did she say where he went missing?”
“He went to a meeting with an unknown person,” Fiona said. “He hasn’t been heard of since.”
“I’ll get some of my people to look into it. He replaced the Grihan soldiers guarding him with a new Balcoan team first thing this morning.” Olna sounded grim. “Larga Ways comms going down and the Balcoan leader disappearing around the same time is not something that’s making me feel very good.”
No. It stank. And Fiona couldn’t help but worry about Eazi and Paxe. A lot of people considered them the biggest, baddest monsters in the galaxy, but it was possible to destroy them.
Eazi had always looked out for her, and she would look out for him.
They needed to get to Larga Ways as soon as possible.
CHAPTER 24
Hal could seeFiona was almost jumping out of her skin with worry. He was sure Eazi had many layers of security in place to keep himself safe, and Paxe probably had security safeguards that were downright murderous before anyone got close to him.
Still, the lack of comms was concerning, and as the little runner Fiona had taken from Larga Ways down to Balco broke free of Balco’s atmosphere and headed toward the way station, he kept a sharp eye for any signals coming in.
The way station was close to their exit point, and as they approached, Hal could see what Olna meant about milling around. They had lost connection to Grih headquarters in Distani as soon as they were in Balco’s nearspace, which made sense if satellite comms were down. It meant he couldn’t ask for an update, but from the chaos surrounding the purple dome of light that encased Larga Ways, comms within the way station had obviously not been restored.
“Head under the way station,” Fiona said, coming to sit beside him as they approached.
Hal lifted his brows. “You have a secret way in?”
“Always have more than one way in,” Fiona said, and for the first time since she’d been unable to contact Eazi, she smiled.
“Good strategy.” He wondered what she and Eazi had built for themselves, especially as his instruments were telling him he was about to hit a wall.
He allowed himself to be impressed when he piloted the runner through the enviro barrier that wrapped itself beneath the way station, and found a neat little docking station waiting for them. “Have you ever used this?”
She shook her head. “But Eazi and Paxe ran quite a few trials with various sized runners after it was built, so I knew it would work.”
“Who actually built it?” he asked.
“Paxe got the motley crew involved.” Fiona stood as the runner clamped into place. “No one knows anything about it, I hope. As you saw, the sensor disruptors will show a solid wall, in case anyone gets the idea to look for themselves.”
Hal realized the motley crew was the perfect solution. The small group of miniature thinking systems who Paxe had found in his travels for the Tecran would have been more than capable of building this hidden dock.
They were helping Paxe rebuild his Class 5, but with no parts to be had, they probably had the time and inclination to take on another project.
When he stood himself, he saw Fiona had pulled out bags stored in hidden cupboards, and she’d opened them up.
There were various weapons available.
“Given this is a safe place to hide things, I’d suggest we leave whatever we aren’t going to use right away here.” She adjusted her bracelet. “I’m keeping what I have, but help yourself.”
Hal had his shockgun, but he looked over the offerings. He wasn’t familiar enough with what was available, though, and ended up only taking a second, much smaller, shockgun with an ankle holster, and securing it under his clothes. “Ready?”
Fiona was wearing her disguise, which they’d agreed was best if there were still assassins actively looking for her on Larga Ways, and she’d changed into a standard ship’s uniform of close fitting pants and top, with a loose jacket over the top.
