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couldn’t help continuing to smile at the girl. “What is your name?”
    The girl didn’t answer immediately she finally whispered, “Umbrae.”
    “Well, Umbrae, the killer has enough tranquilizers in him to keep him out for the next—” she glanced at her watch “—thirty-five hours. My people are safe. Vince, get over her and give Umbrae some food.” The medic grinned and trotted the distance, kneeling beside the girl. She showed no fear of him. Her gaze kept furtively glancing over to Gord, who was still next to the killer setting up instruments.
    “Umbrae, I think you and I are going to be great friends.” Irsu grinned, watching the girl snatch and devour can after can of rations.

Chapter Four
    Osiris approached the clearing cautiously. Zakel feared him … and rightfully so. That didn’t change the fact that Zakel was a Morsdente. Unstable and dangerous. When Zakel had called Osiris a few weeks ago, Osiris had nearly refused to talk to his old friend. Then when he’d heard about the female, he’d wanted to beat Zakel to death for hiding her from him. He’d come personally to collect the female just to be sure no mistakes were made. Distant voices brought him up short.
    “SOSC warriors are in the clearing, Sire,” the scout Osiris had sent announced upon his return.
    Osiris waved him on and shadowed invisible against the night He picked his way alone toward the clearing. How had the SOSC found them? Fully shielded and shadowed, he watched an Aquatie male stand before Zakel, who was obviously coming out of a tranquilized state. The Aquatie was flanked by an Elven female. He could feel the pulse of the two communicating; the female shrugged to the male and left him alone to unfasten the restraints holding Zakel. Interesting. It was like they were trying to give the Morsdente a chance at escape. Sure enough, Zakel struck out feebly at the Aquatie, who went to the ground. Osiris could see the male peeking through shuttered eyes, watching Zakel, who seemed to be considering whether to strike the downed Aquatie for a fix.
    Zakel must have had enough of a survival instinct left to realize his window of opportunity to escape was rapidly narrowing. He left the male and ducked into the woods, unchallenged. Osiris was about to port back to the soldiers he’d left behind when the Elven female re-entered the clearing. Instead he waited to see how the two would play this facade out.
    “He’s in the wind. Are you hurt?” the female asked the rising male.
    “No. I really hate this. That beast should have been put down. What are the Oracles thinking?” The disgust the male was feeling emanated from him. This had been a calculated release? Why? Were the Oracles hoping to catch him? Had they become aware of Osiris’s activities after all this time?
    “At least Umbrae is safe. This may not be the outcome we’d like for this mission, but we completed it with no harm to our unit.” The female was evidently in charge of the operation.
    He now knew Zakel no longer had possession of the female. Umbrae. The Latin word for shadow, perhaps this wasn’t a wasted effort after all. He had the female’s name. Sooner or later she would reemerge into the world of the productive. That was part of the SOSC code of symbiosis and integration. Osiris would bide his time and keep his ear to the ground. He would eventually obtain her, then he would be able to determine if she did in fact carry a gift similar to his own. It would be nice to find a kin after all this time.
    In the meantime, he would send out an alert to his species smuggling network to steer clear of Zakel. The SOSC were using him for something, Osiris needed to determine what.
    ****
    Umbrae had the most terrifying yet wondrous two days of her life. She was terrified when Irsu gave her a picture of a geographic place to port to. Zakel had rarely let her port, and when he had, he had always been with her. Since she was very unsure of going, Irsu talked to someone, who