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“What news?”
“Here.”
He pressed a series of buttons on his holo-monitor and turned it so it was facing me.
Floating red letters proclaimed:
RIOT AT IKMAL PRISON
It took a moment for the words to process.
Riot. Ikmal prison.
And still, they didn’t completely make sense.
“Pretty wild, right?” Frana said, chuckling to himself before it proved too much for his lungs and he hacked an ugly cough.
I ignored the words and looked at the images. Grainy footage from security cameras of flashing lights and screaming voices and guards under attack.
I recognized those hallways, those prisoners. There really was a riot happening at Ikmal!
The blood fell from my face. My initial reaction was horror.
Lily’s in there! She’s in danger!
And here I was, outside, working! I immediately wanted to leave, to get there, to take action to protect her…
But how could I?
That was the second overriding emotion. Panic that I couldn’t do a damn thing. And then another thought occurred to me.
I had needed a disturbance to enact my most dangerous plan to get Lily free. Could this be what I was waiting for?
It was big… but was it big enough?
My insides twisted in that sensation I always got when I felt things were coming together. Yes, I thought. This was it. This was how I got Lily out of there.
“I have to go,” I said, turning to leave.
I had to call my contacts, say the plan was a go, that I needed for everything to happen — and happen now. I felt excited that I might just get to see Lily again — and soon!
“Whoa there, partner,” Frana said. “I’m getting a message from Thillak. He wants to talk to you.”
I waved a hand dismissively as I had no time to waste. “I’ll speak to him later,” I said.
“You’ll speak to him now,” Frana said, pressing at the holo-buttons.
I growled and bent over the desk as the image snapped into place, revealing Thillak in the darkness of his cell…
Except it wasn’t Thillak. It was someone else. Someone I knew only too well.
He grinned around a mouth full of bent and broken teeth. “Hello, Ohara,” he said. “It’s been a long time.”
It was Druin and he was sitting in Thillak’s seat.
What little blood I had in my head fell to my stomach. I felt unsteady and could have collapsed. “Druin?” I said. “What… what are you doing? Where’s Thillak?”
“Thillak? Haven’t you heard? He’s old news. I’m in control now. I’m the one who calls the shots.”
