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“You were right about the storm.”

His expression remained admirably controlled, though she saw the beginning of satisfaction around his mouth.

“Yes.”

“And about the stalkers.”

“Yes.”

“Do not enjoy this too much.”

The smile escaped.

“I am enjoying that you are alive enough to admit it.”

Kesta tried to remain annoyed. It was difficult. She reached into her medical pouch instead and removed Nara’s wafer. The humor disappeared from Dreven’s face. Keth came closer while Kesta placed the damaged identifier on the table.

“Nara Seth,” she said. “Human. No sentence code. H-Prime.”

Keth’s mechanical eye focused on the wafer. Dreven stood beside Kesta now, close enough that the heat from his body reached her shoulder without touching it.

“She survived the landing,” he said.

“At least long enough to leave footprints.”

“And someone took her.”

“Yes.”

Sera looked between them. “How long ago?”

Kesta glanced at Dreven. This time she did not pretend she knew the planet better than he did. He understood the question in her expression.

“Several years,” he said. “Possibly more. The storm will make exact dating difficult.”

Kesta nodded.

“We go back when it clears.”

Dreven’s brows rose.

“With a patrol,” she added.

His mouth curved.

“Agreed.”

The concession did not feel like surrender. Neither did hers. Kesta looked down at Nara Seth’s dead identity wafer and understood that the difference mattered.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Hidden Signal

By the time the salt storm stopped battering Ash Camp’s walls, Kesta had acquired three fresh scratches, a bruised hip, and a deep appreciation for Sera’s ability to express disapproval without raising her voice.

The older healer stood beside the infirmary table with both hands planted on her hips while Kesta sat beneath the examination lamp. Someone had washed most of the rift-stalker blood from her clothing, but dark stains remained around the torn fabric at her thigh. Sera had already cleaned the claw marks twice and declared them superficial, which apparently had not improved her opinion of the expedition.

“You have been on this planet less than a week,” she said as she arranged several fine probes beside Kesta’s wrist. “You have already been abducted, struck, nearly eaten twice, walked into a salt storm and brought back evidence of a woman who disappeared years before you arrived.”