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“Matt?”
He searched the home first, though the silence told him no one was there. He cursed the seconds as they ticked by, certain every one took Matt farther, to where Kom might not find him again. He searched, because there might be the slightest chance Matt was still there and he’d gone into hiding close enough where Kom could get him through whatever hell the nightmare had sent him to this time.
As soon as he’d conducted a thorough search, he raced from the apartment, praying out loud to the ancestors he wasn’t too late. On a hunch, he stopped by the shuttle service and asked the dispatcher if he’d seen Matt.
He had.
Kom bolted to his personal vessel, shouting at Avir when the Dramok answered his com. “Something set Matt off. He’s gone to the spaceport. He’s making a run for it.”
* * * *
“We’re here. Where are you, Kom?” Avir stared at the seething mass of travelers and workers, stopping a few steps after entering the spaceport.
Next to him, Masok moaned. “How do we find Matt in this?”
Kom’s voice joined them over Avir’s com unit. “I’m in the off-planet tourist travel section, checking on shuttles going to Dantovonian ports. When I first found Matt, he told me the places where he bounced around most often. I already checked the Adraf flights, and he didn’t book any of those.”
“Where should we check?”
“Alneusian worlds. Plasius.”
“We’re on our way.”
Alneusia and its collection of stations and colonies came up empty for Avir. He joined Kom and Masok in the center of the streaming traffic of Kalquorians, aliens, and hover carts.
“He didn’t try to book passage to Plasius,” Masok reported. His chest hitched. He looked near tears. “Anything on Alneusia?”
“Not a damned thing. Do we keep checking the travel information counters?”
Kom’s hectic gaze searched their surroundings with a desperation Avir had never witnessed from him. “Is there another option? He may have gotten overwhelmed in this crowd. It’s happened before. He could be hiding—”
“You look as if you’ve lost someone. Do you need help?” A bearded Nobek spaceport security officer wove through half a dozen people to reach them.
“As a matter of fact, we have. He’s an Earther named Matthew Larsen.” Avir wished he hadn’t been so panicked. He hadn’t thought to inquire at security.
The sentiment doubled when the guard asked, “Super short and blond? Blue eyes? Please tell me you’re that poor kid’s clan.”
* * * *
Avir had seen Matt in the throes of what he’d believed to be a full-blown panic. He realized he’d only had a hint of the terror that existed in his would-be companion’s head when he entered the room where they were holding Matt and endeavoring to calm him.
The young man shrieked words in snatches and shoved a couple of spaceport medical technicians who were attempting to clean blood off his cheeks. Two harried security officers were alternately struggling to prevent him from hitting the techs and clawing at his face. The blood had come from Matt’s fingernails.
“If you’d let us use the stasis field—”
“You saw how he reacted when he saw it. Don’t worry about us; stop him from hurting himself.” A medic noted Clan Avir’s entrance. “Is he yours? What the hell is wrong with him? What the fuck did you do to make him this way?”
On one hand, Avir appreciated the protective attitude, which came from medics and guards alike. They stared at his clan in undisguised fury, blaming them for Matt’s condition.
Guilt filled his gut. Itwastheir fault. They shouldn’t have left Matt alone.
Kom had no patience for explanations when Matt was screaming and crying and trying to squirm free of the men surrounding him so he could hide under the nearby bench. The Nobek barreled straight to the hysterical human and picked him up.
“Mattie! What happened, little man? Talk to me!”
Matt went silent for an instant, his eyes widening until Avir thought they’d pop out of his head. He grabbed Kom’s horrified face between his hands and squeezed his cheeks convulsively.
“He’ll kill you. He’ll kill you. Let me go. He’ll kill you.”
