Page 129 of Bride of the Enemy Alien

Rhazek answers before I can. “I am not under command.”

Penr blinks. “That was not exactly what I asked.”

I point at Rhazek. “See? This is why I usually do the talking.”

Rhazek looks at me. “You expect me to be truthful.”

“This is deeply inconvenient timing.”

More warriors crest the ridge. Rosalind comes with them, Visidion at her side. Her gaze takes in Rhazek, me, Syin, Renn, the broken service opening, and the way the ground is still trembling beneath our feet.

“What happened?” she asks.

“The short version?”

“Yes.”

“Rhazek broke the leash. We stopped their clean proof. Then someone tried to send whatever scraps were left, and a zemlja objected to the entire building.”

Rosalind’s expression changes at the word send. “Tried?”

“We cut it before the receiver went down.”

Visidion looks toward the ridge. “You saw the path?”

“Into the wall.”

He and Rosalind look at each other. I hate that look.

“What?”

“Emergency uplinks do not always use one conduit,” Rosalind says.

Of course they don’t. A runner farther down the slope shouts.

“Light!”

We all turn.

A thin green glow leaks from a crack in the ridge thirty body lengths away. Not from our service opening. Farther east, where a narrow metal conduit pushes through the stone and disappears beneath the sand.

The receiver had another path out.

I climb to my feet and run. Rhazek comes with me, limping badly enough that I want to hit him and moving fast enough that I save the argument for later.

Rosalind and Visidion are right behind us.

The conduit is cracked along one side. Green light pulses inside it, weak and uneven. It’s not the clean pattern from before. Broken pieces trying to become a message.

Rosalind drops beside it. “You killed the packet.”

“Yes.”

“This is residue.”

“Can residue tell them where we are?”

“Maybe.”