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Ana emerged from her room a while later in full combat gear. She wore black from head to toe, but unlike her friends, she didn’t wear the insignia of our cluster. The patch on her right shoulder looked oddly empty without the faux-brass emblem.
The searing pain in the back of my neck had abated to a dull throb, and sensing that her work was done, Trin had given me a small smile before joining the other two in front of their blinking screens. I could only guess at what they were doing; technology and I didn’t mix very well.
“Here.” Ana threw a bundle of clothing at me. It was another combat uniform. “It’s my spare. It’ll be a little long but you can tuck it into your boots.”
“We got something,” Magh said at that moment, motioning for us to come closer. “They tried to leave no trace that they’d been to this Star but the security net caught just a hint of the tank’s ID. It was enough to run a search through the corps’ system.”
Magh used their fingers to zoom into a blinking round object that was moving speedily. “They’re headed towards Gillies. There’s nothing else on the edge of the cluster.”
The mention of the luxury Star triggered a memory, something Twyla had mentioned in passing.
“Twyla mentioned her family has a vacation home there.” My panic eased a little. If the hunters were bringing her straight home to her parents, at least she’d be okay...physically.
“Tourist Star. Easy to get into,” Berr announced, his growling voice reverberating in the small cottage. His words were clipped and I wondered if he ever spoke in full sentences.
As I watched, he straightened from his crouch over the screen, the top of his horns almost hitting the ceiling.
“What are we waiting for?” Trin unsheathed one of her knives and started twirling it around her fingers in intricate patterns. For a healer, she had too many deadly weapons strapped to her body.
“We’re only going in for a simple extraction. Nobody’s hurting anyone, you hear me?”
Ana’s voice held a hint of command and they instinctively clicked their boots in unison. Trin resheathed her knife with a little bit of a pout.
“Then why’d you need all of us?” Magh asked, a lock of dark hair falling across their forehead.
“It would be stupid to go in without backup. The people who took Twyla are dangerous, but that doesn’t mean we have to hurt them to get her out. I’m hoping your badges alone will scare them.” She indicated the gleaming brass corps badges on their shoulders.
“Right, so let’s go. The tank’s parked out back.” Trin was raring to leave—a bundle of energy as she waited for me to zip up the combat gear. The suit fit like a second skin over my borrowed underclothes, and after years of nothing but baggy work shirts, I felt almost naked.
“Well, shit.” Ana’s voice reached my ears.
“What?” I asked, gingerly extracting the thick length of my braid from the suit.
“Who knew you were hiding such a body under all those drab old work shirts, Cedra Holloway.”
A rush of red crept across my cheeks at Ana’s words and I reflexively punched her on the arm. But she only laughed.
“Yeah, too bad you’re mated. We’d have really beautiful blond babies,” Trin chimed in, her striking eyes roving over my body with interest.
“Um,” was the only thing that I found that was able to leave my mouth.
My fingers itched to grab my borrowed work shirt and cover myself again.
“All right, enough chitchat. Let’s move.”
The click of their heels echoed in the small cottage as they filed out, their strides long and purposeful. I followed behind, reaching for the work shirt at the last moment and pulling it around myself like a safe cocoon.
