“I'm sorry?” said David. He'd heard her say something about Lynn, but…
She looked up. Her brown eyes were worried behind her spectacles. “Dr. Lynn Nussbaumer is missing. No one on her staff has seen or heard from her for over twenty-six hours.”
David sat there, doing nothing but listen to his heart hammer against his ribs. Lynn missing in the Hundred Isles. He had spoken to her two days ago, and then she'd gone missing and he hadn't known…
“What are they doing about it?” he heard himself ask.
“Keale's got a search going on. They're interviewing everybody they can find, doing flyovers, combing the threads, everything possible.”
Lynn? It was ridiculous. He should know where she was. He should have felt that something was wrong. He shouldn't have just been going about his job, moving into his new apartment, worrying about lab facilities and…
“Dr. Zelotes?” said Captain Esmaraude gently. “I've known Kaye—Commander Keale—for years. He's very good at what he does. He will not let them keep her.”
David's hands opened and closed reflexively. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to lash out, pound the table, holler at the top of his lungs. He wanted to cry. He wanted to storm out to the hangar and demand a shuttle back to the planet immediately. He wanted to tear the Hundred Isles apart with his bare hands until they told him where she was.
Lynn.
“Commander Keale wants to ask you some questions. I told him I'd go get you. Do you feel up to talking?”
“Yes,” David lied, and got to his feet. He couldn't see straight. His heart raced out of control, but at the same time he felt thick and stupid. Shock, probably. It would wear off in a while, he assured himself distantly.
Captain Esmaraude also stood. “Kaye will find her, Dr. Zelotes.”
David lifted his gaze and focused on her. He didn't know what his expression was, but he watched Esmaraude's ruddy face turn pale as she looked at him.
When he did speak, his voice was nothing more than a harsh whisper. “He has to.”
Chapter XII
Lynn blinked heavily. She was sitting up. The chair felt hard under her thighs and back. She lifted her head. The world outside her left eye was a blur of color. She squinted. Her right eye saw a bare, concrete room and four pinkish grey Dedelphi. Getesaph, or near family to the Getesaph. After another few seconds she could see the deep blue clothing they all wore was military issue. These four were soldiers. She looked down and saw the bands that clamped her forearms to the chair arms.
“Record,” she subvocalized to her implant.
Their faces looked wrong. Lynn blinked again. All four of them wore bulbous filter masks over their mouths and noses. Two of them had gun belts around their waists.
What… ?
One of the four glanced toward her and saw she was awake. Lynn tried to speak in a normal voice, but couldn't make her throat work. She swallowed painfully and tried again. Still nothing.
A second Getesaph walked over to her chair. Gloved hands found the catches on her helmet and lifted it off. Lynn felt suddenly naked.
“Which eye is your camera?” the Getesaph asked. Her breath steamed against her facemask. Then, Lynn saw the small knife in the soldier's hand.
Lynn's tongue froze against the roof of her mouth. Her heart fluttered in her chest. She considered lying. She could always get another eye grown, but the information and assistance from her camera were invaluable. She looked at the Getesaph's grey eyes and knew if she told her the wrong thing, she'd just take them both and leave her blind.
She swallowed, coughed, and managed to croak, “The right.”
The soldier's hand rose out of her line of vision. A moment later, she felt thick fingers pull her right eyelid open. The curved blade drove straight toward her. The soldier's fist blotted out the room a split second before the scarlet cloud swirled in front of her.
She felt the blade curve around her eye. It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would. It was the sight of the glistening orb and its trailing ganglia in the soldier's hand that brought the blackness back down on her.
A voice cut through the swaddling darkness.
“Lynn? Come on, Lynn. Don't do this to me. Wake up.”
The words entered her skull, making a counterpoint to the vague pulse of pain in her right temple. She did not want to open her eyes, but couldn't remember why. Her left eye twitched under its lid.
She remembered. All her muscles contracted until she pulled herself into a little ball, cradling her wounded head in her still-gloved hands.
“Lynn, stop.” She felt hands and yanked herself away. “You're making it worse. I just got you bandaged up…”
Arron. What was Arron doing here? Where was here? What was happening?