Page 143 of Alien Burn

Sereya sent him a message.

I managed to get some sleep last night.

Did you bother?

I got some.

Truly?

The couch is not comfortable.

You must sleep. You do no one any good if you’re not rested.

I will try.

Good.

He put down his comm and managed two hours on a couch in the operations room. When he woke, there was food beside him and the recording examiner's signed return. The original and its secured copy matched. He sent both to the duty authority, with another demand for a decision.

He forwarded Sheira's message about Tivek's attestation to Ruthak, with a copy to his brother. His father could take the union record to Havent. Dhomhes returned to the custody request.

By the time the lamps changed for the evening meal, the detention authorization had arrived. His lead brought it with the relay supervisor's checked return: the block held on both the ordinary route and the Alliance fallback connection.

“Take Roemary quietly. Secure her communicator. The block on transmissions stays until the device is in evidence. Send Sereya word of the relay check now, and tell her as soon as Roemary is in custody.”

The lead touched his comm.

An alarm cut across his acknowledgment.

Holding block.

Medical assistance required.

Then a second voice, urgent and breathless, broke onto the channel.

“East guest corridor. We need support.”

21

SEREYA

Roemary had asked to see her before the evening meal.

Sereya said no.

For several minutes that was the end of it. She stood in her own room, with her own door locked, and finished dressing. Dhomhes had said he would join her if he could. She chose the dress he had noticed in the gallery, then stood looking at herself because she had chosen it for that reason.

She was smiling when the guard called again.

“She's left a message for you at the visitor room. She says it's about a personal document.”

“Send it to Gol-Vett Dhomhes.”

“I'm sending him a copy. This one is addressed to you.”

Sereya went cold before she reached the corridor.

The guard brought it to her. Inside the fold was a sketch of a house with a roof terrace and four columns across its front. Roemary had drawn it badly. She had still included the little balcony over the side entrance, the one Sereya's youngest brother had used to drop things on arriving guests.