Hal couldn’t help his flinch. “You know I am.”
“I know where she is, but don’t leave Jaden to his own devices. He’s in this plot up to his eyeballs.” Eazi didn’t sound at all friendly.
Hal stepped back. “Rial. Take Tris to Tean Lee. We’ve got confirmation he’s guilty of assisting the insurgents who took down the comms.”
Rial’s eyes widened. “We do?”
“Comms are back up. I’ve just had word.” Hal moved out of the way. “Got to go. Don’t let him get away.”
He jogged out of the office and then began to run when he hit the stairs. He’d started off politely with Jaden Tris, asking him where Fee was, and had known immediately there was something very wrong.
Now he was in panic mode.
“Eazi.” He didn’t make it a question.
“She’s in a runner, already off the way station. They threatened that a Garmman battleship would take a shot at Larga Ways and do some damage if she didn’t cooperate.” Eazi’s voice was soft.
“A Garmann battleship?” He almost missed a step in surprise.
“It’s apparently hiding behind a moon.”
He would be ordered to deal with that first. He could already feel the twist in his gut at the way his priorities were pulling him in two directions.
“Where are they taking Fee?” he asked.
“Not sure, yet. But not behind the moons, unless they’re taking a really long way around,” Eazi said. “My guess is down to Balco.”
“Do you have eyes on her?” Hal asked.
Eazi gave a low chuckle, and Hal wondered if he’d ever heard Eazi make a laugh like that before.
“I do.”
“You know Hoke is going to make me deal with the Garmman first.”
“That’s logical. If they’re out of the picture, no one can threaten Larga Ways anymore, and they lose a way to pressure Fiona.” Eazi didn’t sound as if he blamed Hal. That was something, at least.
If Eazi opposed Hoke on this, Eazi would probably win.
“How did they get hold of her with all her protective gadgets?”
“They physically grabbed her, they didn’t shoot at her or try to hit her.” Eazi sounded thoughtful. “That needs to be addressed for the future.”
“Is she safe, though. Right now, is she safe?” Because if the answer was no, he would resign and go find her.
“She’s unharmed, and I’m pretty sure she’s being taken to where they’re building the new Class 5. It would help to know where that is, so she’s not too unhappy about it.”
Of course she wasn’t. Hal knew her all too well.
“They think they have me contained, by the way,” Eazi said. “Fee told them I couldn’t connect to the system even with the comms up if they put what they think is me in a silver cylinder. To keep them thinking she was telling the truth, I’m sneaking around my own system, pretending I’m not here for the moment. They’ve threatened to shoot at Larga Ways if they find out she’s lying.”
“What about Paxe?” Hal suddenly remembered they had someone around who was a lot less reasonable than Eazi.
“Paxe is fine. He’s used to not having comms after his time on the Tecran moon station. He doesn’t need it to communicate with his drones, and through one of them, he noticed Fiona being led to the Balcoan’s runner. Fortunately the drone was able to attach itself to the runner unseen. So Fiona has some help traveling with her.”
Hal let out a breath of relief. Scary, strange and otherworldly were all good descriptions of Paxe’s little drones, but another word for them was dangerous. And loyal.
Fiona would have a fighter on her side.
