Page 67 of Bride of the Enemy Alien

“I did not ask.”

“I know. That’s also infuriating.”

“I can offer information.”

“Great. While you’re at it, here’s an idea. Try not to make it worse.”

He nods, accepting the blade I hand him because at least one of us understands what anger is for.

“The tracker tested blood response, heat response, and proximity response. It did not read your thoughts. It did not learn you. It recorded patterns. Your voice near me. Your hand signals moving the group. Your route choices after each pulse.”

“Recorded,” I repeat.

“Mapped,” he says. “Sampled. Triangulated. Not thought. Not will. The danger is not that the device wants. The danger is that someone who wants will read what it sent.”

That is worse. Worse, but cleaner. I stand and look south.

The route forward is ugly. Broken shelves of red stone. Heat pools. Old white salt lines where water once lied about staying. Plenty of places to hide a dead drop. Plenty of places to lure fools who think broken metal is finished being dangerous.

The pulse under Rhazek’s bandage gives a thin pulse.

Once.

Pause.

Again.

Not toward the tracker.

South.

Toward the receiver.

My mouth dries.

“It has a direction.”

Rhazek rises slowly. “Yes.”

Syin steps in front of him. “You are not leading.”

“No,” Rhazek says. “She is.”

Everyone looks at me. That would be flattering if it didn’t feel like being handed a burning map I don’t want. I’m not the one to take on the weight of our literal world. This isn’t… me.

I blink hard, frustration is trying to break through in tears and I will not cry. I will not. Not in front of these people. Not in front of him.

I take a breath, hold it and tighten my grip on my route slate.

“We follow south,” I say. “Wide spacing. No blood near the wrapped tracker. No one says my name if Rhazek starts glowing like bad festival jewelry. Lio and Maro, you stay behind Orek. Renn, you watch Rhazek’s wing because he won’t. Syin, you watch everyone because you already do that for recreational reasons.”

Syin’s expression doesn’t change, which is a tiny mercy that I’ll take. Of all of them he’s the one I expected to argue.

We move.

14

Rhazek