“Great. We go in, buy three cubes, leave, and never speak of the place again.”
She glanced at him.
Jack narrowed his eyes. “Why did you glance?”
“I have a Paladin Courier emergency credit device.”
“That sounds expensive.”
She shrugged. “It is essentially unlimited.”
“That sounds delightful.”
“Unfortunately, it may not work there.”
Jack looked back at the star map, where Crooked Halo Station blinked like a bad idea waiting patiently for company.
“Of course it may not work there. Still, I believe this is our only option, so let’s get going.”
“Yes.” Madelaine said. The worry creasing her brows had abated. Her overall frightened attitude regarding this latest challenge had subsided.
The ship turned hard, further leaving Verdara’s wind-torn atmosphere and fertile orbit behind. Ahead, the stars thinned toward the outer dark, where charted space began to fray into rumor.
For the next five hours, they flew toward the edge of the galaxy in the opposite direction of their next package retrieval.
Chapter Eighteen
The Observer barely returned from the Valewind Fruit District Cooperative in time to get off Verdara before the terrible windstorm hit. Being stuck on the planet and unable to follow the Paladin Courier would have been very problematic.
Calamitous, in fact.
Madelaine and Jack lifted off the planet just as the Observer quietly left the planet from a secret location near Hearthvale. No one on the planet knew the Observer had left or even arrived, for that matter, and the side project had not involved speaking to any person, simply observation, once more.
The Observer quietly vowed not to do any more side tasks for the duration of the Paladin Courier’s journey, no matter how convenient they might be.
It was clearly too dangerous to chance getting left behind and unable to record Madelaine’s important task in full.
The Observer, while racing to the hidden ship sequestered nearby, had seen someone quite unexpected on Verdara.
A rare curse had slipped from the Observer’s lips while climbing into the craft, closing the door and silently leaving the planet with no one the wiser.
No one from Verdara. Not Madelaine or Jack.
And, thankfully, not Dirk Zandis, who should not have inserted himself into this journey Madelaine was on.
On a good note, at least Dirk was stranded on Verdara until the storm blew over. However, the Observer knew wellDirk’s reach extended far beyond what was good for the overall mission. Dirk Zandis and anyone working with him was going to be an added difficulty for Madelaine and Jack.
The Observer might well have to break the cardinal rule of only being a witness in this process if Dirk Zandis further inserted himself into Madelaine’s important task.
The Observer would be prepared for such an eventuality, with plenty of trusted friends and associates who would be willing and able to help.
Dirk’s machinations had more to do with a long-sought power grab and the shifting of how the Paladin Cabal operated. He was foolish in the extreme, not giving any consideration to the dilemma their galaxies faced.
Madelaine and Jack needed to succeed in their task in order to save both the Tri-Spiral Galaxy and Alpha-Prime’s Caldera Forte Galaxy.
And time was running out.
