46

Tirian froze. His mouth worked. He needed several tries to reply, “I don’t remember anything.” But the truth was evident in his flickering gaze and the tension that stretched his dark features tight as a drumhead.

Sean replied, “I know you do.”

“You know nothing.” But Tirian could not draw up any scorn. Not now. “You’re accusing me of lying?”

“I know there was an instant between your normal life and your period of being under the aliens’ power. I know this because we were almost taken as well. I need to know what happened next. What we did not experience.”

But Tirian was not listening. He twisted his wrist against the plasti-steel bracelet clenching him to the table. “I am ready to return to my cell.”

“The aliens could be attacking Cyrius next. It’s crucial that I—”

“Guards!” He struggled harder. “You can’t deny me my rights under the planetary convention!”

But as the prison security stepped forward, a disembodied voice said, “Hold as you are.”

“This is outrageous,” Tirian said, but his snarl was toothless.

The door opened behind Sean. Carver and Ambassador Anyon entered, accompanied by a stout woman with features flat as a cooking pan and eyes hard as agate. The woman said, “As Justice assigned your case, I hold the power to release you to house arrest while your fate is determined.”

“I’m innocent,” Tirian said. “I’ve done nothing to deserve—”

“But first you must answer the young man’s question,” the Justice said. “That is your choice.”

“Take me back,” Tirian insisted weakly.

“You are so eager to face further imprisonment? Even when the court recognizes you may have done nothing more than be used by our enemy?” She pointed to Sean. “Answer his questions and return home. Refuse again and go back to your cell. That is your choice.”

When Tirian remained silent, Sean softly repeated, “I need to know what happened in the moment of your capture.”

Tirian’s head went down, his features slack. He kept tugging against his restraint, but it was the feeble efforts of a defeated man.

Sean could taste the man’s fear. “They lured you in.”

Tirian muttered, “You know nothing.”

“Actually, I do,” Sean replied. “They did the same to us. And now you know I’m speaking the truth. The attack at the Charger was real. It almost succeeded.” He leaned across the table. “Tell me what I need to know.”

The act of drawing his next breath caused Tirian’s body to spasm. Then he confessed.

It was a sordid and shameful tale.

“I . . . met a woman,” he began.

The image of the three beautiful college girls waving at them from the bus stop caused Sean to shudder.

Tirian must have taken Sean’s movement as assent, for he went on, “She was young. Beautiful. Vibrant.”

Sean knew a bitter shame at having undergone the same temptation. He did not like the former Examiner any more now. But he felt for him. Deeply.

“She had such a delicious laugh.” Tirian’s hand trembled as he wiped his mouth. “I can still hear it. She . . .”

“Wanted you,” Sean said softly. Remembering.

“She drove me mad. The more I had of her, the more I wanted. Only it left me hollow and wasted.”

Sean studied the man seated opposite him. Tirian’s empty flesh was nothing more than a dull wrapping that encased old rage and bitterness at the core of his being.

“She consumed everything.” The tremors fractured Tirian’s words. “When I finally accepted what was happening, she lost her physical form and swept into me. I know that sounds impossible.”

“No,” Sean said. “It doesn’t.”

“I was utterly helpless. She devoured me.” Tirian became wracked with shudders so tight his words became almost unintelligible. “She feasted on my life with a delicate bliss. And I could do nothing but watch.”

Sean gave him a minute to recover, then asked, “What happened next?”

“When she had gorged on me, when I was truly empty, she reached out,” Tirian replied. His eyes carried the feverish quality of returning to that dark hour. “It felt like she touched a switch. And I lost consciousness. The next thing I knew, I was being arrested and brought here.”

Sean turned to the Ambassador and said, “I have what I need.”

Anyon was clearly a man coming to terms with the restructuring of his family’s core. He viewed Sean through this dual lens, a young man who possibly held the key to the empire’s safety, and yet the same man threatened to steal his youngest daughter.

Every eye in the room save Tirian’s shifted to Anyon, and still he struggled to fashion the simplest question. “Will you tell us what is happening?”

Sean replied, “We need to get back to the station and start putting things in motion.”

Tatyana protested, “First we must have a clearer sense—”

“The aliens are coming,” Sean replied. “Right now that’s all you need to know.”