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Maggie ducked down beside Sorcha as another round of bullets struck the car.
“I don’t want to die in a dir’y alley, Maarshuhl Walsh. Especially now that yer givin’ me ideas. I may not have t’ work in me da’s grocery when I return home. What did ye have t’ do t’ become a maarshuhl, if ye don’t mind me askin’?”
“Study. Train. Pass physical and written tests. The same as the guys.” Maggie fired again. This time someone yelled out in pain.
“Reale? Ye didn’t have to sleep with anyone? Wummen can do the same as men now?”
“I’m sorry for what you had to go through, out there,” Maggie pointed up to the stars as the men returned fire. “You don’t have to sleep with anyone. Though there are still men who will try to force you into that position.” Two teachers at the academy had propositioned and threatened her. “We have the same rights as before the occupation. At least in the U.S., U.K., and most of western Europe. Some countries are lagging in restoring full rights to their civilians, men and women. I hope you won’t let this incident scare you from testifying on Dal. Your testimony is important.”
“I didn’t know I had a choice.”
“Of course, you do. That’s what I’m saying. Things have changed. You have rights now. Didn’t anyone on the rescue team explain that?”
Sorcha shook her head. “The GI7 maarshuhl, the tall blue one who naever smiles, said he’d notify me ma and da that I’m safe. After I testify on Dal, they’ll take me hoowm to Ireland. We leave for Dal in t’ree days.”
“You’re supposed to go home to family before testifying on Dal, if you choose. That’s the protocol for rescued women.”
“They didn’t tell me that.”
“Commander Zirkov’s only thinking about the larger picture, not the individual.”
When a moan sounded to Maggie’s right, she felt for a pulse on the zyanthan’s wrist. The warrior thrust a knife against her neck.
“She’s on our side, ye know!” Sorcha said to Stenikov whose silver eyes hadn’t quite focused. He looked dazed.
“You know me, Warrior.” Maggie held out her hand to greet him. “I’m Marshal—”
“I remember everything, Marshal. But I want to know how the enemy found my witness so quickly. Minutes before you showed up.”
She hadn’t expected Stenikov to be so abrupt, rude, or to infer she worked for the Brotherhood.
“Marshal Zelin, lower your knife. I’m the one who’s been keeping your witness alive while you napped in the mud.” She flicked a piece of mud from his jacket.
“Stenikov, ye can trust her. She saved us when ye passed out.”
He nodded at Sorcha but took his sweet time lowering that knife. He didn’t trust her. She wondered if he’d come by that opinion himself, or if Zirkov had said something to him.
Maggie peered past the car, hoping to glimpse what the men of the Brotherhood planned next. She hadn’t heard any movement from them for several minutes. “We’re on the same side, Warrior.”
“Our people are allies. That doesn’t mean our goals align.”
“That’s the Brotherhood out there, trying to kill us. All three of us. Understand?”
Stenikov altered between watching the street and her. “You were there that night. At the warehouse.”
There was no question now. He and Zirkov knew she’d been there. But how?
Stenikov’s silver eyes narrowed as if he debated whether to say more. Zirkov also had silver eyes, but unlike Stenikov, Zirkov had a talent for wiping all emotion from his face. This guy didn’t, and his distrust shone through his face as clearly as crystal.
Zirkov must have cautioned Stenikov about her. Did the commander, the male she’d worked alongside for two years, really believe she killed that og’dal?
Shehadbeen there.
And didn’t know how or why. Or who killed the og’dal. She couldn’t have killed him and not remembered, could she?
She could have merely found the dead og’dal. The image of holding the bloody knife in her hand flashed before her eyes.
“What is the status, Marshal Walsh?” Stenikov asked in a more congenial voice this time as he rose with Sorcha’s help. He wavered slightly, his tall frame towering over the slight Irish woman, but he never complained about his head wound. He merely put his hand out for his blaster.
