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No, Sazahk did not want any help packing. Yes, he was sure. He was perfectly capable of packing his own bag and he didn’t need or want other people poking and prodding and bossing him around in his own bedroom about his own bag.
“Right. Have fun.” Fal’ran shook his head with a crooked grin, and he and Tar filed past Patrick and out into the hall.
“We’ll see you at dinner, Sazahk.” Patrick sent him one last smile before closing the door and leaving Sazahk to his own peace and quiet.
Sazahk slumped into his desk chair and rubbed his eyes. He’d become incredibly fond of his teammates. And he’d gradually allowed them to help in his lab and to carry things for him occasionally. He’d even let Bar’in braid his hair. But sometimes the pressure of their care, their pressing, and their pushing made it hard to breathe.
He wanted to be out in the fresh air, under the sun, with a burning question and the freedom to find an answer. And soon he would be. And if all went well, he’d have a lot more than that. He’d waited a decade for this opportunity. He stood up and pushed the hair that had come loose from his braid out of his face and smiled to himself.
Even the thought of Garin grumbling at his heels wouldn’t dampen his mood.
Chapter Two
Garin surveyed the supplies arrayed across his bedspread. Déjà vu nibbled on the edge of his mind, the strangest sense of otherness and familiarity.
He’d felt it first on his call with Beaty an hour ago. It had been years since he’d told her he’d be unreachable for the next month and given her a number to call instead. Of course, she’d already had Dom’s number, but he’d still given it to her again to be safe. And unlike when he’d been running covert ops with his Vanguard unit for the Human military, this time he’d told her exactly where he’d be, what he’d be doing, and why.
Now, packing a bag for a trip on foot into the dangerous wilderness, the feeling struck again. Water tablets. Tarps. Ropes. Hell, a sleeping bag. Since becoming employed by the Turners, he’d stayed nowhere without silk bedsheets, the present research station excluded.
He hated leaving Dom while the young man had the biggest target yet painted on his back and he didn’t like being out of contact with his family while his mother transitioned to yet another medication, but if he was honest with himself, touching the warm, rough flannel of the sleeping bag’s interior grounded him.
Footsteps out in the hall were followed by a subdued knock and Dom’s voice. “Hey Garin, you got a minute?”
Garin quirked a smile. The Turner boys. They’d toss their chins and huff and puff and snap orders one minute, but creep back with their heads down and their tails wagging, hoping you weren’t still mad at them the next. Dominic more than Oliver. He’d always been the more sensitive one.
“I have five minutes.” Garin opened the door and stepped back for Dom to enter. “By then, the sun will be up enough to give us some light, and Sazahk and I will be on our way.”
“Right. I, uh—” Dom turned his tablet around in his hands, then held it out to Garin. “—Pulled some strings, called in some favors, and got you a parting gift.”
Garin accepted the tablet with a raised eyebrow and watched Dom shuffle his feet before looking down at it. His second eyebrow rose to join the first. “Topographical maps.”
“Sort of.” Dom nodded his head vigorously, his excitement overtaking his reticence, and pointed at a few places on the screen. “Except these are mostly mapping a subterranean cave system. Look at this. All through here. Right next to where Squad M discovered that Insect outpost.”
Garin tried to follow the flashing images as Dom swept his fingers across the screen, but they moved too fast, and he shook his head and leaned back. “This is the Dead Zone? How did anyone get this? No one’s been in the Dead Zone since the Qesh killed it themselves.”
“Physically been? No.” Dom took the tablet back. “Secretly spied on? Plenty. With some very impressive ground penetrating sensors, too. These were taken from orbit. Before the Insect invasion, though, so we know the caves aren’t from them.”
“Ah.” Garin returned to his bed and began packing away his supplies, ticking each item off his list as he went. “They’re from the Human military, aren’t they?”
“They are.” Dom tapped his screen a few times, sending the maps to Garin’s tablet, which buzzed in his pocket. “So maybe don’t mention how you got them to Sazahk.”
“He with the Qesh or the Klah’Eel?” Garin knew next to nothing about the qeshian scientist he’d been assigned to escort. He’d have liked to have done more digging in the half-day since he’d saved the man from being run over by a cruiser, but between preparing for the trip and getting a good night’s sleep, there hadn’t been time. All he knew was that the man was clearly qesh, but also clearly affiliated with a Klah’Eel squad.
“He’s with himself, from what I can tell.” Dom leaned back against the small desk. “He comes from a politically powerful Qeshian family. He’s the younger brother of Emissary Serihk, if you recall the name.”
“Yeah, I remember him.” Garin straightened in surprise and glanced at Dom to check he’d heard right. “The Resistance targeted his ship on Tava before they started the war. Almost killed Oliver in the explosion. That man is Sazahk’s brother?” The silly scientist with the colorful test tubes was the brother of the face of Qeshian diplomacy?
“Yup.” Dom nodded, mirroring Garin’s bewilderment. “But something happened and somehow he ended up embedded in the Carta Cartel.”
The silly scientist was a criminal, too? Garin shook his head and returned to his packing. None of that tracked. “Was he exiled?”
“Apparently.” Dom shrugged. “I don’t know if the exile was personally or legally imposed, though. Either way, the Qesh wanted him back as soon as the Insects became a threat.”
Garin stowed his medkit in the easiest to reach pocket and packed a few extra knives and lighters to be on the safe side. “And what’s he to you?”
Dom hesitated. “To me?”
“Yes, to you.” Garin checked off the last item on his list, the portable atmospheric water generator, hauled the bag’s strap up over his shoulder, and fixed Dom with a stern look. “Why are we here? Why are you sending me off with him?”
