Page 118 of Alien Burn

She sat. He poured water without asking a question she would have answered out of habit.

The glass was cool enough to hurt her palm.

“Roemary?” he asked.

She nodded.

He stayed standing until she looked up at him. Then he took the other chair.

“She said a name.”

His expression didn't change, but his attention settled more closely on her.

“One she shouldn't have said?”

“One she knows frightens me.”

“Where?”

“The gallery. Quietly. There were other people there, but I don't think they heard.”

“Was your guard with you?”

“At the door. He couldn't have known.” She gripped the glass. “Please don't blame him. It sounded like nothing.”

“I won't.”

The certainty of that loosened something in her chest.

“She knows Vessik came here.”

“Yes. He contacted her when the packet failed to arrive.”

Sereya looked up.

“She told him I was coming?”

“The acknowledgment came from the address on her request. Before she gave you the packet. He let us preserve the conversation.”

“Did he know what was in it?”

“He expected a relocation form. He says he meant to forward it for approval, which is what his office normally does. He couldn't explain why it needed your personal delivery. The commander is checking what he would actually have sent on.”

“And now he's angry with me.”

“He has been told you made no such arrangement.”

“Did he believe you?”

“He was more interested in knowing why we had the packet.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That I had ordered it held.”

She rubbed her thumb along the glass. “She'll say I've made a fuss about nothing.”

“Then she can explain why she needed information she had no authority to request.”