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Garin pressed his palms into his eyes, then dragged his hands down his face to cover his mouth. Shit, shit, shit. Why was it all so complicated?
Garin’s mother pulled his hands from his face and squeezed them. “Chase him.”
Garin thought of Alistair Turner waiting for him in a fancy ship with his contract lined up. “But the money…”
Garin’s mother shook her head. “We don’t need it. We’ll be fine.”
“But I can’t just…” Run off? Be happy? Do whatever he wanted? Follow his damn heart? Garin had never in his entire life done anything like any of those things. Just thinking the thoughts thrilled and terrified him.
Garin’s mother turned him toward the door. “Kevin, he leaves soon.”
Garin took a step forward, then hopefulness overflowed his chest, and he hesitated. Uncertainty gripped him, a sense that it was all too good to be true.
“Is it…?” Garin looked back at his mother, finding her there with him, really with him. “It’s really okay?”
His mother smiled at him. “Sweetheart, I would hazard to say it is the only okay thing for you to do. Go.”
Urgent certainty burned away the dregs of Garin’s doubts.
He rushed from the apartment. Flying down the steps at precarious speed, he pulled his tablet from his pocket. Squad M could leave at any second. They could have already left.
He called Sazahk as he raced down the street. They’d been running a little late that morning and leaving a hangar after a conference was always a crapshoot. Other ships trying to leave could have gummed up the shipping lanes.
They could still be on the station.
Garin’s tablet dinged as his call went unanswered.
Did that mean they were on the runway?
Were they already in space and en route to Qesha?
Garin called again, dodging pedestrians giving him dirty looks as he almost bowled them over.
Again, no answer.
Shit, what could Sazahk possibly be doing?
Garin called Fal’ran.
No answer.
He called Patrick.
No answer.
He didn’t even have contact info for Bar’in and Tar.
Irrational panic setting in, Garin broke into a run.
He knew nothing was wrong. There had been no explosion. There had been no attack. There was no chance that Sazahk or anyone else from Squad M was in any danger.
There wasn’t even a chance Sazahk would elude him for long. Squad M wasn’t flying straight into the Dead Zone. They were going to the compound. They’d be there for at least a day before Sazahk and Fal’ran set out. Someone would pick up one of his calls before then, either while they were en route or once they got there.
Hell, Garin might even beat them there if he got hold of a ship.
And if he was proposing forever to Sazahk, then a few more hours apart wouldn’t kill him.
But it damn well felt like it would.
