CHAPTER THIRTEEN

 

“I was hoping you’d join me for dinner again this evening, Ti’ann. On our last night.”

Ti’ann tried smiling at Samuels, hoping it didn’t look like a grimace. It was an effort to keep from touching the disk hidden in her pocket just to make sure it was still there.

“I’m sure Dr. Freemont and I would be happy to join you.” There, that should make it a more comfortable meal. She didn’t want her dinner sitting like a lump in her stomach again tonight.

Samuels gave her a charming, almost boyish smile. “I was hoping we could be alone.”

Her heart started to hammer. Fear and panic vied for attention. Okay, you can do this Ti’ann. You can make it through another meal with him without giving anything away. She was going to have to hand the disk off to Krin first though. Thoughts of his and Nathan’s suggestion that Samuels might try to seduce information from her made her mouth go dry. She couldn’t afford to be the one carrying the disk tonight.

“Well, Dr. Freemont and I usually share our evening meal so we can talk about the day’s work, but I’m sure we can make an exception tonight.” Was that stammer in her voice obvious? She was sure her cheeks were bright red.

“Great. I’ll meet you at your tent this evening. Around seven?”

“Fine.” She nodded and walked away, her body shaking. First things first, find Krin! She searched the entire site before she found him at the landing pad talking with Monroe.

“Hi. How’s your ship?”

Monroe nodded to her, his smile slight. “Still giving us trouble. Nathan’s been over it twice and he’s found three malfunctions which haven’t solved our problem.” He raised his hands in surrender. “We won’t be leaving before the inspectors now. Which means we won’t bother leaving. At this rate, we’ll probably have to call in another ship when we are ready to go.”

“We’ll arrange something. Krin, can I talk to you a minute?”

“Sure.” He nodded to James and followed her toward the woods. “What’s up?”

“Samuels wants to have dinner with me again tonight. Alone.” Okay, there was definite panic in her voice now. What if she gave something away? What if she slipped up? She was a bad liar. She knew it. She’d bet Samuels knew it too. That’s why he’d targeted her.

Krin’s look was hard. “What’d you tell him?”

“I kind of had to say yes, didn’t I? What excuse did I have?”

“Maybe you can come down with a sudden bug of some kind. Something that forces you into bed for a few hours.”

“Would that work?”

Krin looked doubtful. “Maybe. Our med-kit is pretty sketchy just now. Maybe we don’t have the right herbs to heal you and our med-scan is malfunctioning?”

“That’s an awful lot of malfunctions, Krin. Molecular scanning equipment does not malfunction that much.”

“I know. I know. It was just an idea.”

“Well, one thing’s for sure. I can’t carry these files tonight.”

“I’ll take them. I’m supposed to keep them tonight anyway.”

“Where will you put them?”

Krin thought a moment then grinned. “I think we should take Longfeather up on his offer. They’ll be safe in his ship.”

She sucked in her lips and took a deep breath through her nose. “I’d rather not, if we can do anything else.”

“Why?”

Why? That was the question. It wasn’t that she distrusted Nathan exactly. She already trusted him with the information. No reason she couldn’t trust him with the disk. Was there? “These are the only files we have of the original scans. I’d rather you or I kept an eye on them. It just feels safer that way. If we loose them, we won’t have the comparison of the structure before and after the change. I don’t want to risk losing that.”

“You think Longfeather might take off with the disk?”

“No. No. Not anything like that. I don’t know. I’d just feel safer if you or I had it.”

Krin cocked his head to one side, considering her. The gesture reminded her strangely of Val. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll find somewhere to keep it. It’s small. I can put on a pair of loose trousers with pockets for dinner. Not too obvious?”

“No. The evening’s supposed to cool off a lot. That should work.”

“We’re going through an awful lot of effort to conceal something Samuels doesn’t even know about.” He sighed.

“Do you want to take the chance he’ll find out?”

“No. I don’t. So I know we can’t be too careful. I’m glad Longfeather called in backup. The inspectors are just the first wave. They won’t be the only, or even the worst.”

“Yeah. I guess your initial gut instinct to hire security was right. Devin will be so disappointed.”

Krin grinned. “I can’t wait to tell him. So does this mean you’re glad I hired Longfeather?”

“Sure.” She couldn’t help smiling back when his grin turned sly. “I thought you didn’t like him?”

“You’ve stopped acting scared of him. Or I guess intimidated is a better word. That was the only reason I didn’t like him.”

“I’m still intimidated by him, you know.”

“I’d have never guessed the way you were yelling at him this morning. You were more intimidating than intimidated.”

“Hmm. That was unusual. You know me. I wouldn’t normally do something like that.”

“Outside of the department meetings, you mean?”

“Those don’t count. That’s part of the job.” She was grinning now, her panic under control. Krin had a way of doing that for her. Probably why they were such good friends—he kept her from hyperventilating and she kept him from jumping in without thinking. Most of the time.

“So you want to hand that disk off to me now? We can go to my tent. Probably not a good idea to do anything out in the open.”

“Are you coming back to work on the ship?”

“Yeah. Glen and Nathan are combing the thing, but they can use all the extra eyes they can get. Nathan’s even enlisted Clare to search some of the auxiliary systems. That’s where he discovered the sabotage earlier.”

“Clare? I didn’t know she had any mechanical skill?”

Krin shrugged. “Nathan seems to think she’s capable.”

“Oh.” When Krin’s eyes narrowed, she knew she’d let something slip in that one seemingly innocent word. “What?”

“Nothing. Just wondering why that bothers you.”

“It doesn’t. Why would it? It’s her transport too, right.” And the fact that Nathan might have decided he wasn’t interested in Ti’ann after all when there was the gorgeous Clare O’Malley on hand—even if she was in a relationship with Mike—wasn’t a fear she was prepared to admit to Krin.

She had no basis for her jealousy anyway. Nathan wasn’t hers. She was just his client. A few conversations here and there that felt like more to her didn’t mean he was actually interested in her. Even if it had seemed like he wanted to kiss her last night. Maybe he had. But then again, maybe he acted that way with all women and would be as likely to hit on Clare if the opportunity arose.

“Right,” Krin said, watching her too closely. “Except Clare wasn’t going to leave.”

“It doesn’t bother me that she’s working on the ship, Krin. That’d be stupid.”

“Then it bothers you that she’s working with Nathan.”

She stepped back. “Why would it bother me?”

“Because I’ve seen the way you look at him when he doesn’t know you’re looking. You want him. You want him so bad you actually yelled at him. And Clare O’Malley is sexy and vivacious and you think she’s competition.”

“I don’t think she’s competition.” You had to be able to compete to be in competition with someone, and she damned sure couldn’t compete with Clare. “Besides, just because I may be a little interested in Nathan doesn’t mean the feelings are returned so there’s no reason for me to be jealous of Clare. He can do as he pleases. I’d be more worried about Mike’s reaction than mine.”

Krin stood there staring at her. He’d always been able to see past her defenses. It was comforting at times, but this wasn’t one of them.

“You’re not very observant for a scientist, Dr. Jones.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means if you paid any attention at all, you wouldn’t be the least bit worried about Clare.”

“I’m not. So I must be paying attention to something. Listen, I don’t want to talk about this. We have a lot bigger things to worry about at the moment. Like who’s sabotaging Monroe’s ship and why.”

“We’re not done with this discussion,” he warned.

She rolled her eyes. “But for now, please? We do have bigger worries.”

“I’m not letting you get away with avoidance for long.” He blew out a breath and glanced toward the landing area. “But I do want to get back to helping with the ship.”

She swallowed a sigh of relief. “Do you have any guesses on the saboteur?”

“No. I’m sure Nathan suspects someone, but he’s not talking.”

She thought about it a moment, weighing up the people in camp. “Do you think Samuels might know something, even if he and his men aren’t directly involved?”

“He might. Why?” Krin’s expression darkened. “You’re not thinking of doing something stupid are you?”

“I thought I told you earlier, I don’t do stupid things.”

He didn’t look convinced. “If you’re thinking of asking Samuels questions, don’t. You’re a crappy liar, and we don’t need Samuels any more suspicious than he is.”

“I wasn’t going to lie. I’ll be perfectly honest with him. We’re afraid someone’s been tampering with James’ ship and I was wondering if he’d heard anything during his questioning. I’m not supposed to suspect him, right? So why wouldn’t I ask?”

“Ti’ann… That’s not a good idea. Leave the investigating and digging to Nathan and BinRal. It’s what they do for a living.”

“It’s what we do for a living too, Dr. Freemont. We investigate and dig.” She grinned at his exasperation.

“Don’t. Just don’t.”

She didn’t answer. She wouldn’t take chances, but if she had to eat with Samuels, there was no reason for her to pass up the opportunity to pick his brain. Maybe he had some insight the rest of them didn’t. Or maybe he’d give himself away. Okay, that wasn’t likely to happen, but you never knew. “I’ll see you later. Meet in your tent about six.”

“Ti’ann…”

She walked away before the lecture got rolling. She’d had enough lectures already. She suspected she’d hear a few more before the day was out.

*****

Nathan studied the tiny pinhead sized chip in the micro-tongs. He and BinRal exchanged a look. They didn’t have to say a word. The chip was so new, such an advanced piece of technology, neither of them had seen a real one before. In fact, it was only theory as far as most people were concerned. He’d heard rumors a few had been made, and he understood how the devices were supposed to work. But this level of technology had to be extremely expensive. Not something just anyone would carry around with them. Not when cheaper methods were available.

“What’s it do?” Glen leaned in close to the tongs.

“It hazes electronics,” BinRal said. “A bit like a miniature electro-magnetic pulse, but timed and focused. It doesn’t burn out all electrical systems in one pulse, it actually hits specific areas at a specific time.”

“It can be focused and controlled,” Nathan said, “unlike a real EMP. This pulse can be set to a degree that limits the damage to temporary blowouts. Easy to fix. Set to a higher limit, it can fry a system. Set higher, it can vaporize the system.”

“Holy shit. And it’s that size? You could plant one of those anywhere.”

“That’s the real nasty part. They can be a bitch to find.” Nathan leaned back on his haunches. “We found this on accident. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even know what we were looking for.”

“Even if we had, it’d have been difficult to find. It has a camouflage film covering. It can blend into any system it’s planted in.” BinRal rose to his feet.

They’d been crouched beneath a panel in one of the storage hatches, scanning for more add-ins. They’d found the little device when its film caused a minor blip in their readings, the sort of blip that usually went unnoticed. They only noticed this one because they hadn’t been able to find anything else to explain the malfunctions.

Nathan climbed to his feet, careful not to loosen the micro-tongs. “I think we need to hang on to this.”

“Be useful to study,” BinRal agreed.

“Hey, can I help? I’ve never seen anything like it. I’d love to know how it works.”

Nathan resisted the urge to look at BinRal and gage his reaction to Glen’s request. He couldn’t usually read the Binnean’s expressions anyway. “We’ll have to go over it first, to check for traps,” Nathan said. “Once we’re sure it’s safe we might be able to arrange something.”

He put the chip into the small safety container BinRal handed him and sealed it up. “Glen, could you get Monroe to run a test of all systems? We should be able to fix the problems now that this is removed.”

“Shouldn’t we check for more?”

“One of these can disable a village and they probably cost a fortune. I doubt more than one would have been wasted on the ship. But keep your eyes open for that tiny blip we noticed. If the electronics continue to give you problems, we’ll search for another one.”

He and BinRal returned to his ship to lock the small chip away. “That’s a very sophisticated trick,” BinRal commented as Nathan sealed the secured safe in his cabin. “Something less costly would have been sufficient to disable their ship for days. Seems overkill, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. It does. Someone must really want Monroe to stick around.”

“Samuels is the only one with a motive. Probably the only one with access to this type of technology.”

“I know. The add-in could have been a decoy. This chip could have been placed at the same time as the add-in, so the saboteur didn’t need to make a second trip. That would explain a lot.”

“You’re not convinced.”

Nathan shrugged. “I don’t have any other ideas. I’m still suspicious of Clare and Glen, but I seriously doubt either of them could have rigged this. There’s no indication in either of their records that they might have access to this type of equipment. Samuels is the only real choice.”

“But…” BinRal grinned his toothy, disturbing grin and raised his brows.

“But something doesn’t feel right. I can’t place it. I just feel like there’s something we’re missing.”

“Possibly. I’ll check the perimeter sensors again.”

“Yeah. And we’d better check the monitor records around the camp as well.”

“I’ll put more in place around the landing pad.”

“Can you do that tonight?”

“You have something else to do?”

“I thought I might toss Samuels’ ship before they leave tomorrow. See what I can find.”

“That ship isn’t going to be any easier to get into than yours.”

Nathan grinned, waited for BinRal to glance at the safe then back again before he said, “Might as well test it, see how it works.”

BinRal nodded. “That could backfire on you, you know. What if you short out their entire drive system and they can’t leave? Alex would suggest you try something else.”

“Alex isn’t here, and I’ll take my chances. He was always too cautious anyway.”

“Almost always.”

“Don’t remind me.” He didn’t like to be reminded how similar Alex’s fall was to his own situation with Ti’ann.

“You’re in trouble, aren’t you?”

He scowled at the Binnean. “I don’t think it’s fair you can read my expression, and I can’t read yours.”

BinRal chuckled. “I like her. She’s smart.”

“Yeah, she’s smart.” And irritating, and stubborn, and beautiful, and sexy. “Don’t you get distracted too.”

“She’s not Binnean. Besides, I wouldn’t want to get between the two of you.”

“Don’t start with me. Please. Nothing’s happened between us.” Not recently anyway. And not for lack of wanting. “I learned well from Alex’s fuck-up.” Not well enough to keep his hands off Ti’ann. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell BinRal that.

“I doubt Alex considers his marriage a fuck-up. And if nothing’s going on between you and the good doctor, why am I here?”

“I need your help.” And he left it at that. He knew BinRal was going to give him a hard time. He’d known it before he called him in. But he didn’t have to take the ribbing gracefully.

A proximity warning alarm sounded from the sub-console near Nathan’s bunk. He punched in a code and brought up a holo-display of the exterior of the ship. “Dr. Freemont.”

“Looking perplexed.”

Nathan glanced at BinRal to see if that was humor or indifference in his voice. He shouldn’t have bothered, since BinRal’s face didn’t give anything away. “Think we should let him in?”

“Probably.”

He deactivated the external shield and lowered the ramp to let Krin in, then set it to reactivate as soon as the young man’s weight was off the ramp. They found Krin standing just inside, frowning. “What can I do for you, Dr. Freemont?”

“I think I need your help with something.”