Chapter 15

Truths

Pilvi pushed me back into the room, and wordlessly, Seventhirtyfour followed. He closed the door behind them.

For my own part, I’d forgotten all words ever, unable to frame any kind of response.

“And before you start with the clever lies that you do so well,” Pilvi said, “you should know we just listened to every word of your conversation with your mother. Except she isn’t, is she?”

Against the vastness of the question of my identity, this one was a smaller, easier question. I found the word “No,” and retreated further into the room.

“Stop, come on, Grey. Stop and talk to us. Help us understand why you’ve lied to us so long?”

I stumbled and all but fell into my chair.

“Talk to us, or I’ll have Seventhirtyfour rip the truth from your mind.”

Seventhirtyfour loomed over me, stone-faced, half cast in shadow. It had been a long time since I’d last seen the Brontom as scary, but in the right light, he was terrifying.

For a moment. Until he sagged in on himself. “Come on Grey, you know I wouldn’t do that even if I could,” he said. “You trust me, right, so, trust me, you know?”

I nodded. Held up one hand to ask for a moment to assemble my thoughts. I could tell them a half-truth, tell them that I’d always been an agent of the Gravane family, here as cover for Mirabor Gravane... but I was struck by the idea of how freeing it would be to be totally and truthfully honest.

And so... slowly at first, I told the story. Just like I’m telling it to you now. Well, perhaps a little less polished, that was the first time, after all.

They listened, kept reactions to a minimum, though I could see several points that Pilvi wanted to blow her top at, particularly during the Bantus field trip. When I finally caught up to their knock at the door, we all just kind of stopped, and looked at each other.

At long, long last, Seventhirtyfour was the first to break the silence. “So, all of this was just a joke to you, you were laughing at us and the Academy?”

I started to shake my head, but no, complete honesty. “For the first few hours. Yes. But hearing Pilvi talk about how she wanted to use what she knew to help people. I realised then I was being an ass. And okay, I may have lapsed on occasion... I mean, come on, the Avenging Spider? Lady Psion? Captain Turtle? You can’t tell me there’s not something just a little bit ludicrous about what goes on here. Some of what we do. But the heart, the soul of this place is amazing. The galaxy needs more space alien superheroes. Maybe I could be one, someday.”

“Using your superpower of lying?” Pilvi’s voice was hard.

“Do you know what? Yes. If that’s what’s needed. What’s that line in the advert again, Seventhirtyfour?”

Grudgingly he quoted it. “’It’s a big galaxy. Somewhere in it, whatever you can do, whatever you are, is special.’”

“Exactly. And tomorrow, I know where that place is for me. It’s the planet Nymanteles because somewhere on it is a guy about my age, who’s in trouble. He needs my help, and if lying my ass off helps him, that’s what I’m going to do. It’s what I have left, maybe it’s all I ever had.”

Pilvi ran her hands through her hair. “But you still haven’t said,” she said, sounding anguished, “who are you? What’s your name, even?”

I paused. Shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m nobody. Everybody here eventually has a new name they choose. I choose mine. Just call me ‘Grey’. I’ve been more me as Grey than I have with any other name. So that is who I am.”

I could see she wasn’t happy, but she let it stand.

“Look, I’m sorry to let you down. Truly. There is a burning pit of shame and embarrassment in the middle of my chest that may never go away. But it’s what happened. I can’t unmake it. Before I leave tomorrow, and I can’t imagine I’ll be back, not now, but before I leave, I just want you both to know, I’m sorry. And it has been an honour to know you. I hope as friends, despite the pretence.”

Seventhirtyfour’s brow creased. “You sound like you’re saying goodbye.”

“Yes. I can’t stay, I must go to Nymanteles, and I need to go tomorrow. My mo... Mrs. Gravane will be arranging it with Captain Hawk in the morning, and I have to go as soon as it’s settled.”

“Yes, of course, I understand that. But... we’re coming with you, right?”

“I... what?”

Pilvi growled. “Well of course we are. Avrim probably wouldn’t go, Dez still isn’t ready for fieldwork, and Gadget Dude won’t share a flight that long with Sunbolt, he never forgave him for killing that mechanical bird at the start of term. But you need me to keep you straight, and Seventhirtyfour to keep you honest. He saw through you.”

I was stunned. Lost for words for the second time in the same conversation. I’d never imagined they would still be on my side.

“I told you,” Seventhirtyfour explained, “I’d become sensitive to people’s emotions, you know? And when Dez mentioned Nymanteles, your reaction was weird, I sensed a lot of excitement, quickly buttoned down. I knew you thought it was important, but I didn’t know why. I told Pilvi.”

“And I dropped one of Gadget Dude’s bugs in here before we left,” she said, positively daring me to call her on the breach of privacy.

I didn’t. Couldn’t. I was still amazed. “But after all this, you still want to help me?”

Pilvi rolled her eyes. “Of course, stupid. You may have lied about your name, convinced us to take on three mob families while still untrained and then stuck a target on our heads so big that some of us almost got blown up... but despite all that, you didn’t lie about our friendship, did you? That wasn’t an act?”

“No, of course not.”

“Well then. We’re your friends. We help each other. Right, Seventhirtyfour?”

“Right.”

“Right,” I echoed. I truly didn’t deserve friends like these.

# # #

I don’t know what Mrs. Gravane said to Captain Hawk this time but there was no private meeting or briefing. Just a note in my inbox that the Metropolitan was at my disposal. Fair enough. It’s not like me and the headmaster were close or anything.

I packed my belongings; everything that I had bought with money I’d earned, not conned people out of. Everything which belonged to Gravane got left behind. I’d miss the top of the range kit and designer clothes... but I didn’t think I’d be this way again, and besides, it didn’t feel right to save a guy while wearing his jeans.

And I was going to save him.

This deal I’d cut with him had been a joke, a diversion, quick cash when it started out, but the Academy had taught me a lot, and not just about being a superhero. I owed Gravane. More than the money I’d taken in his name, more than that shirt of his I’d ruined in Parkour class, more than his education I’d co-opted, I owed him for finding me, even when I hadn’t known I was lost.

My only regret was leaving the mystery of the bomber behind me. I sent what information we had to Avrim, Dez and Gadget Dude if they wanted to follow it up at this end they could, and maybe we’d turn something up on Nymanteles to help. I also sent them my confession, told them I wasn’t Gravane after all, just a chancer nobody. I couldn’t face the conversation again. But they deserved to know, too.

Pilvi, Seventhirtyfour, and Sunbolt joined me at the dock. Seventhirtyfour gave me an encouraging squeeze on the shoulder, Pilvi gave me a quick hug. It really felt like we were saying goodbye somehow, even though they were coming with me.

Sunbolt just sneered at me. “I knew you weren’t anyone important.”

We boarded, Sunbolt went straight to the back row. I took the corner at the front furthest from him. Pilvi and Seventhirtyfour sat on the front row, across the aisle from me. Close. But distant.

We passed the journey in awkward silence.

# # #

Nymanteles was a long way out, right on the very southern edge of explored (or at least inhabited) space. A good place to hide from your parents, I guess. It meant we’d have to change ships four times, and it would take us the better part of two weeks to get there. Of course, the first stop on the flight, and where we had to leave the Metropolitan behind, was Meanwhile Station. The place where Gravane struck his deal with me. It was odd to be back like I was unravelling the life I’d made this last year.

We had a few hours before our next flight. Sunbolt said he had stuff to do and would see us at the departure lounge. I was sure he was lying and just wanted to put some distance between us while he could. Technically he was still my bodyguard under Gravane’s employ, there to make sure that I stayed safe while conducting my search. I didn’t push the issue.

I remembered a suggestion Gravane had given me, a long time ago. “We have time for breakfast. I know a place, want to join me?”

Pilvi and Seventhirtyfour looked at each other and then, to my great pleasure, fell in behind me.

The station seemed smaller than I remembered, the corridors narrower and almost cramped after being used to the Academy. I still liked the yellowy-brown walls though, some things never go out of fashion. I took us up through the station to the nicer part of town, and the three of us stood looking out of the picture window at the planet. The clouds boiled for our pleasure.

“Those flashes is that a storm, or...?” Pilvi asked.

“I don’t know, never found out.”

She nodded.

We found a table at the restaurant and I ordered the continental breakfast. It was okay, but I needed something more filling, so I ordered a bacon sandwich to follow. Seventhirtyfour filled up too, his usual impressive order of cereal. Pilvi took coffee and toast.

In fits and starts, conversation began. Awkwardly at first, we were still finding the edges of our newly minted relationships, but slowly the remember-whens and the can’t-believes wore away at the sharp corners. It was good to hear Pilvi laugh again, properly.

As the waiter cleared the plates away, the conversation hit a lull. Into the gap, Seventhirtyfour asked, “So, what happens when we get there? What’s the plan?”

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I can’t really offer anything except some old-fashioned detective work,” I said. “I got some hits on this place for a Kayda Buchanan, she was an associate of Gravane’s, possibly a girlfriend, who seemed to vanish from the social pages about the same time he did. We hit the streets, show some pictures, see if anyone knows or has seen Buchanan, Gravane or Hauberk.”

Pilvi nodded. “Sky Diamond described it as a small outpost, right?”

“Lucy? Why would she…?”

“She’s from there? She told us that night in the bar. Don’t tell me you didn’t remember?”

“I was very distracted, that was the night of the ransom call.”

“Well luckily, I remembered and spoke to her before we left. You owe that girl an apology and a thank you.” She flicked us some files from her wrist pad. “Her notes. Anything she thought might be useful. To sum up, there are no more than a couple of million residents on the entire planet, and most of them in a town around the spaceport.

“I was looking at the environment specs, looks like they’d have problems expanding, there’s been no terraforming to speak of, and the soil samples don’t suggest good farmland. It’s the sort of place I could do a lot of good. I have some ideas...”

“One act of heroism at a time, Pilvi,” I said, paging through Lucy’s notes. “But, after we find Gravane, any help at all you need on the farming front, I’m there.”

“Thanks.”

Seventhirtyfour had his pad out checking maps of Nymanteles city. “Are you going to be okay here Grey? That’s a lot of small, single-storey buildings and a lot of wide-open spaces.”

I shrugged. “It will be what it is. I’m not looking forward to it, but I’m not letting it put me off either.”

“Do we know for sure where the last sightings of any of them were?” Seventhirtyfour offered up the map for me to look at.

“I don’t have a last sighting for her, but Buchanan’s old address was, let’s see, yeah, over here on Library Street.”

“So that gives us a starting point?” asked Pilvi.

“For one of us. We’ll cover more ground more quickly if we split up.”

“Not a good idea,” she replied. “We don’t know if we’re on the right track, but if we are, there are some dangerous people around here. And it’s not like Bantus where you’re an unknown quantity and can talk your way out of anything. If the bad guys here were responsible for the attack on you, they know you and us. Splitting up just leaves us vulnerable.”

“We can’t just go around as a group though, we’ll cover ground too slowly and besides, we won’t be questioning people so much as mobbing them.”

“Fine, so we split into pairs,” she said, then paused. “I guess that would have to be... me and Sunbolt? Me and you, Grey?”

Seventhirtyfour said. “Dibs on not teaming up with Sunbolt. Plus, I don’t want to get all powers snobby, but we should probably have one powered person in each pair.”

“Fine,” I said. “I see where this is going, I’ll team up with Sunbolt, you two get to work together.”

I tried not to feel too hurt that they high-fived at that point. I knew it was mostly about dodging working with Sunbolt. Mostly.

# # #

I could bore you with descriptions of space travel at this point, but we all know how it goes. The next two ships were fair size commercial liners, pleasant enough, particularly when you’re taking them as a passenger and not cleaning toilets like I might have in the good old days. The next ship was a bit more run-down. Functional, but not comfortable.

The final leg was on a mail ship down to Nymanteles itself. The sort of thing held together with optimism and spot-welds. The pilot, the sole crew, met us at the airlock with a grin. “Four arms, glowing hair, a sweet girl and a cute but unreliable boy. You four must be the ones Lucy told me to look out for, surely? From the Academy? How’s my little sky diamond doing?”

Now I remembered. Lucy said that her mother ran the postal service on Nymanteles.

“That’s right, Mrs. McKenzie, I’m Pilvi, this is Seventhirtyfour, Sunbolt and… Grey. Nice to meet you.”

“Please, everyone here calls me Lady Jane, no matter how often I tell them to stop. Might as well join in. And this is Grey, is it?” She looked me up and down. “Hmm.”

“Very nice to meet you, Lady Jane,” I said.

“You can call me Mrs. McKenzie.”

“Right.”

She turned back to Pilvi and Seventhirtyfour. “Welcome aboard The Beast. She may not look like much, but she’s tough, and she’s mine, and that’s enough for me. We have a full load today, so it’ll be a bit of a squeeze. You mind your head in there, big guy.”

Seventhirtyfour bobbed his head. “Pardon me, ma’am, but this is an old Hyperflex Patrol Cruiser isn’t it? We Brontom used to run a fleet of them as combat support vehicles.”

“You have a good eye for quality machinery. You’re right. Long since decommissioned, so no weapons or shields anymore, of course, but you could run her into an asteroid, and you’d need a new asteroid.

“But time we were pushing on, we have some post to deliver. Make yourselves comfortable. As friends of Lucy, we’ll take the special route into town.”

The Beast rattled our bones on the descent, and Lady Jane skimmed us unnecessarily close to some satellites on the way down, spinning us as she whooped with glee. The ground came up terrifyingly quickly, and deceleration drove us deep into our seats, but touch down, when it blissfully arrived, was light as a feather.

Lady Jane laughed at our slightly grey expressions, but it was a joyful, not mocking, laugh. “You kids can fly with me any time,” she said. “You think coming down is bad, wait until I take you back up!”

I didn’t like to think, and the four of us grabbed our gear and made a hasty retreat.

# # #

My first ground-side view of Nymanteles was almost enough for me to turn back around and take up Lady Jane on her offer. The whole place was tinged with amber, a consequence of the orange hue to the local stone, reflecting a sky painted in shades of red.

I’d known, from the pictures and maps, that the world was under-developed, sparsely populated and had wide empty streets, but the reality was harder to deal with. The entire planet seemed to be made of open sky, with just a few ceilinged havens dotted hither and yon. I wasn’t worried about Gravane’s kidnappers, not really, perhaps I was being stupid, but I thought we could handle them. But all that empty air... how did anyone get anything done? I started to panic, just a little.

Pilvi reached out and took my hand, gave it a squeeze. “Come on Grey, let’s get you inside.”

Gratefully, I let her lead, over the road to a taxi rank, where we hired a car to take us to our hotel. Inside the car was much nicer, despite the smell and generally uncleaned and sticky feel of the back seat.

The hotel was a bland corporate thing. Clean, well-appointed and comfortable, if a little soulless. We took residence in a suite of rooms arranged around a central communal space aimed at the conferences market. The central room came well equipped with console and conferencing equipment, even its own small kitchen area. The roof, I particularly enjoyed.

Still, I couldn’t cower undercover all day, much as I was tempted. We stowed our things and headed out.

The whole city was quiet. Not empty, you understand, there were plenty of people about, but there was no comparison to a world like Bantus, say. Roads were used by vehicles here because the pavements were plenty wide for the pedestrians. The place was designed to give you maximum access to the wide-open sky as if that was somehow a good thing.

And being paired up with Sunbolt wasn’t helping. He was taking perverse delight in floating a few inches off the ground. I hissed at him to stop, partly because we were supposed to be keeping a low profile, but mostly because it was freaking me the hell out.

He was surly, but he complied.

Frankly, his whole attitude was starting to get on my nerves. “Look, I get that you’re annoyed with me, that I’m not some golden ticket, after all, just a loser stand-in.”

“Got that right.”

“But seriously, of all the people to get pissed at me, you have the least right. Did you never once look at a picture of the guy you were supposed to be looking after, compare it to me and go ‘hang on a second’?”

“It was an old photo.”

“Sure, and it’s nothing to do with you being gullible and lazy.”

He let himself rise from the ground again, pantomiming flailing arms. “Oh no, the gravity has stopped working again!”

Foolishly, I looked up at him and had to fight off a wave of the familiar reverse vertigo. “Get down here,” I shouted.

He landed again but was looking very pleased with himself.

“Ass.”

We decided that I should be the one to approach Buchanan’s old residence. As the team’s frontman, and with our strongest fighter to back me up, we were the logical pair. I braved the outside, again and again, going door to door, working our way along Library Street towards Buchanan’s house. Seeing who was in, showing the photos we had of Gravane, Buchanan and Hauberk. Most of the people who would talk to me—and that wasn’t everyone by any means—had no idea who the people in the pictures were. One of them did recognise the picture of Buchanan. I was told she was a planetary explorer by trade, though that seemed an odd fit for seeing her on the social pages of the news sheets. How did a woman like that cross paths with someone like Gravane anyway?

After the first dozen or so places, Sunbolt sidled up to me to whisper, “Have you seen we’re being watched? “

“Yeah, I spotted him a couple of houses ago. He’s not great at hiding, but he’s definitely watching our progress.” I paused. “Do you recognise the species?”

“No, I thought he was a Frantium, but...”

“Yeah, the nose is all wrong. Is it my imagination, or is he armed?”

Sunbolt looked over at our stalker. “I don’t see... wait... yeah, I see it. Looks like a pulse pistol of some sort, though I don’t recognise the make.”

“Shall we go and talk to him? He might have seen the people we’re looking for, after all.”

For the first time in over two weeks, I saw Sunbolt give a genuine smile. “It would be rude not to.”

Our stalker backtracked when we turned towards him. For a moment, I thought he was going to run, but instead, as we crossed over the road, he pulled out his gun. He aimed for a beat at Sunbolt and pulled the trigger.

Sunbolt sidestepped at the last moment, judging it to perfection, just like he’d shown us dozens of times in class. He rolled his shoulders, leaning back, and the blast passed by harmlessly. “Idiot,” he growled and leapt into the air, sunbolts blazing from his eyes.

The stalker tried to dodge, but he was too slow, taking a hit full bore to his chest. It lifted him off his feet, pushed him back down the road. But otherwise, it just seemed to annoy him. Now he fired continuously, and it was all Sunbolt could do to dodge and weave through the pulse fire, he managed a few return shots, but they were weak and unfocused.

Keeping my gaze firmly down, focused on our attackers’ knees, I crossed over and ran forwards, I had no weapons to speak of, I’d trained in unarmed combat, and was good enough to impress Professor Red Ninja, but this guy was standing up to Sunbolt, I wasn’t going to make a dent. I wished I had one of Gadget Dude’s micro-grenades handy. Or a Power Ball stick, even. Still, perhaps a distraction would be enough. I lunged at his gun arm, letting my dead-weight drag at it... the gun barrel dipped, barely.

He pushed me away.

But the distraction was enough. As I was thrown clear, Sunbolt stared at the pistol, directing a precision strike at the gun. It exploded in a flare of sparks.

Our attacker yelped in surprise, and hopefully pain. With his off-hand, he grabbed my ankle and heaved. I felt the pain of my ankle breaking, and the terror as I was launched into the sky.

I’m not sure if I was thrown at Sunbolt, or if he swooped to catch me and set me down safe, I’d like to think the latter. Either way, by the time we’d untangled ourselves and looked about for our attacker, he was long gone.

“Well,” said Sunbolt, “I don’t know about you, but I think that suggests we’re on to something.”

Tears of pain stinging at my eyes, I had to agree.

# # #

I tried to soldier on with my ankle, but in a show of uncharacteristic compassion, Sunbolt insisted we head to the med centre to get it looked at.

“Carrying on with you in this state would be idiotic,” he said. “We need to get your idiot ankle to the emergency room, idiot.” It may not have been compassion; he may just have enjoyed calling me an idiot.

We called Seventhirtyfour and Pilvi to let them know what had happened. They were going to come and join us at the med centre, but I told them to stay away. “Your work is more important. I’ll be fine. But you should be careful. Keep an eye out for someone who looks like a Frantium but with a broader, flatter nose. If you see him, try and get a picture, but don’t talk to him. Better if you just get the heck out of there.”

Pilvi said, “Actually we saw someone like that earlier, a couple of them. Seventhirtyfour said he got a strange vibe off them, so we steered clear. We haven’t seen them for an hour or so though.”

“Great, so there’s more than one? That’s useful to know. Okay, keep us posted if you see them again. But keep them at a safe distance.”

“Roger that.”

We sat together in the treatment room, waiting for the med tech to arrive. Sunbolt fidgeted in his chair.

“Come on, out with it,” I said, the pain in my ankle making me cranky. “You clearly have something to say.”

“Yeah. Look, I… You did okay back there, in that fight.”

“Sure, and now I have a broken ankle.”

He shook his head. “You could have hidden from the fight, let me deal with it. Perhaps you should have. But you stood up beside me. He was bigger than you, tougher than you, it takes a special kind of idiocy to head into a fight like that. But it’s a kind of idiocy… well I guess, I can respect that, or something.

“You did well. No shame in taking a hit. What we do is dangerous, nobody gets through unscathed forever. Take this pain, learn from it. Be better next time. But don’t let it stop you. If you really want to be part of the Life, once all this is over? Come talk to me, Grey. I’ll help you.”

“Sunbolt, I… thank you.”

“Idiot,” he said, but with a smile.

The med tech came to have a look at my ankle at that point. Sunbolt wandered off to chat up some nurses, while the med tech scanned my foot.

“Well the good news is it isn’t actually broken,” she said “but you’re going to have an impressive bruise, and it’s going to pretty sore for a few days. How did it happen?”

“Door got slammed on it. How long before I can walk on it?”

“I’d stay off it as much as possible until the end of the week, at least. I can give you something to take down the swelling, ease the pain, but rest is the best healer for something like this.”

“That’s probably true, but I need to be mobile right now, I can’t just sit still at the moment.”

She stepped back, folding her arms. “Frankly, Mr. Grey, you should have thought about that before getting it caught in a door.” She gave me a look. “What colour was the door?”

“Blue. Look I appreciate the concern, and I promise to get lots and lots of rest and recuperation, soon, but right now, is there nothing we can do?”

She gave a moue of disapproval. “We can strap it up. I can give you a shot, but I’ll need you to sign a release form to say you’re going against medical advice. And even then, it will get you walking, but don’t go running any marathons or you can do serious and lasting damage.”

“Thanks, right you are. Give me the thing to sign. I appreciate it.”

Sunbolt nodded at me as I hobbled out. He passed his number to a nurse, and then floated over to me, his white-light hair shining. “Bet you wish you could fly about now.”

“Thanks for that. Look it’s too late in the day, let’s go back to the hotel and meet up with the others. I think we know we’re in the right place now. Something is happening here. We just need to figure out where and what and... do the superhero thing.”

“An intricate and sophisticated plan. This is going to be Bantus all over again, isn’t it?”

“Let’s hope. That plan basically worked.”

# # #

I spent a good hour fidgeting at the hotel waiting for the others to get back. The rendezvous time passed with no sign of them, and I began to fret even more. I tried calling Pilvi and Seventhirtyfour, and neither answered, which didn’t help my calm.

When they did arrive, only fifteen minutes late, I felt like I’d waited a week. They both showed signs of having been in a scuffle, I leapt up to see if they were okay... and then I collapsed back into my chair again, as my ankle complained at the mistreatment.

My only consolation, despite their somewhat battered appearance, Seventhirtyfour was wearing a triumphant grin.

“You have news,” I said. “Tell me you have news.”

“We may have just broken this case wide open,” said Seventhirtyfour.

“We know who those people watching us were, and where they are based,” added Pilvi.

“That’s brilliant! How?”

Seventhirtyfour gestured to Pilvi. “You tell it, it was your idea.”

Pilvi demurred. “Which wouldn’t have worked without you, you should tell it.”

Sunbolt growled. “We aren’t very interested in the comedy routine. What did you find out?”

“Well,” said Pilvi, “when you told us about your stalker, we started asking around about them, as well as Gravane and the others.”

“That was Pilvi’s idea,” added Seventhirtyfour.

“Yeah, well people recognised the description. They’re called the Vadram. And they’ve been a problem here for the last couple of years. A problem that’s been growing. The first contact with them was... quite violent. Said first contact, so rumour has it, with a team of scouts led by one Kayda Buchanan.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Thought you’d like that. What’s less good news is there are at least a dozen Vadram on Nymanteles now, possibly more, they’ve set up a small colony in a cave system a hundred clicks north of here.”

I shook my head in admiration. “That’s really good work, guys. Though it doesn’t explain why you look like you’ve been in a fight.”

“Ah, yes, that,” Pilvi looked embarrassed. “You know how you said if we saw a Vadram we were to steer clear.”

“Distinctly.”

“Well, we had another idea...”

“But it turned out to be a really good one,” said Seventhirtyfour. “It’s a little trick I’ve been developing in class, with my powers, you know? I can’t read minds, Professor Mindlord thinks I will never be able to, but I can project images into people’s heads, and get a sense of how they react to them. When a Vadram showed up, we thought we’d try it.”

“Honestly, the fight would optimistically be described as a draw,” admitted Pilvi. “Neither side came out of it covered in glory... but...”

“He knew Gravane. He’d seen him recently,” concluded Seventhirtyfour. “I don’t know what sort of state he’s in, but Gravane is definitely being kept in the Vadram base.”

“About freaking time,” said Sunbolt. “Let’s go kick some alien butt!”

My first reaction was to counsel caution, to plan, to investigate further. But now the Vadram knew we were here. No telling what they’d do in response. They might move Gravane, or he might not live until the morning. There really was only one choice.

“So. Are we doing this?” I looked around the group. “No lies, this is going to be dangerous. We don’t know how many of these things we’re facing, but one of them held off Sunbolt. If we win this, it has to be together. Sunbolt, you ready for a rematch?”

“No question. They caught me by surprise last time. Not going to happen again.”

I nodded. “Pilvi?”

“I’m not coming all this way to drop out now. We aren’t going to leave Gravane there one day longer.”

“And Seventhirtyfour?”

“This is why I came to Justice Academy, Grey, to help people in need. I am absolutely in.”

“Okay then. Let’s do this.”