“Hello. I’m the Paladin Courier, Madelaine Archer Grey.”
The man’s body straightened even more, as if he’d been slouching before. He hadn’t been.
“Warden Marcus Draven,” he said curtly.
Jack filed the name away immediately, surprised the man didn’t lift up slightly and click his heels together as an exclamation point to announcing his identification.
Draven offered a hand and Madelaine shook it.
Then the warden turned to Jack.
“And you would be theescort, is that correct?” His tone suggested he found Jack’s role here unnecessary.
“Jack Grey.”
Their handshake felt less like a greeting and more like a test.
They kept a tight-clenched handshake for several beats longer than a typical greeting. Jack was absolutely not letting go first.
The corner of Draven’s mouth twitched. Eventually, he let go and their contest of wills was at an end.
“I was informed you would accompany her,” Draven said, as if it was foolish for Jack to accompany the only woman visiting the worst gulag in all the known galaxies.
“Good.” Jack smiled pleasantly. “Because I go wherever she goes.”
For some reason, his response seemed to amuse the warden.
“Yes. I’ve heard that.” The warden didn’t seem inclined to move from where they stood or to get this party started.
Jack decided it was the appropriate time to further clarify his relationship to Madelaine. “I’m her husband.”
The warden stared at Jack much like he’d stared at Madelaine.
“Good to know,” he said.
Madelaine glanced between them as if just realizing there was a silent battle of manly man strength going on.
The air suddenly felt much colder than the icy side of the planet. Then, Draven dropped his surly gaze and stepped aside, lifting his arm in invitation for them to head down the marked path to the nearest building.
Jack took it as a small victory.
The building was plain, but fortress-like in its construction. Jack glanced at the closest tower once more. It rose well above the rest of the gulag’s general construction, that being a line of connected buildings no higher than three stories, all along the odd equator of this hot and cold planet.
“The arrival of the Paladin Courier has been anticipated,” Draven said off-handedly as the three of them walked side by side.
“By whom?” Madelaine asked.
Jack almost huffed in surprise, but took hold of himself. It was an odd question because she’d never asked before. Usually, when they arrived somewhere new, she simply told the person in charge who she was and waited for a response.
They always acted like they’d been expecting her for some time and were surprised she had finally arrived.
The warden’s expression remained neutral. “People above my pay grade.”
Jack didn’t like the answer. Not because it was evasive—because it was—but because it sounded like the warden had rehearsed it. As if he’d given that answer to any question asked of him countless times before like some auto response he uttered without thinking too much about it.
Draven nodded once and walked a few steps ahead of them to reach the door to the building.
He spoke briefly to the guard there, who nodded and came to attention. Draven used a key to open the door and the three of them walked into an open receiving area of sorts.
