Page 285 of Commander’s Mate

No.

Too convenient.

Too perfect.

I forced myself back.

“Show me.”

Nera lifted her right hand slowly.

With one finger, she drew three shapes in the air.

Crooked.

One larger.

Two smaller.

My skin went cold.

Deyan stopped pretending not to listen.

“Where?” I whispered.

“Sector Four transfer room.”

“When?”

“Twenty-eight days before the rescue. Maybe twenty-seven.”

The registry said Meya had been transferred twenty-six days before the raid.

Close.

Not proof.

“What did the woman look like?”

“Uatu. Yellow hair cut short. Thin. Angry.”

That described half the Farseek women I had met.

“Age?”

“Older than me? Younger? I don’t know. Captivity changes faces.”

Yes.

“Did she say anything?”

Nera looked at Deyan.

Then at me.

“She said if anyone got out, tell Commander Maktu that the stars still looked terrible.”

My hands stopped working.