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for a minute and Calvin
poured himself another half a glass and drank. Rain set aside the
remainder of her glass. “As strange as it sounds, Shen isn’t the
one I feel bad for,” said Rain. “It’s Sarah. That girl has come to
visit at least ten times, and every single time she leaves in
tears. I honestly don’t even know what to say to her.”
    Calvin nodded. He’d allowed Sarah to remain
on temporary leave of absence because she was so clearly
emotionally compromised by what’d happened to Shen. The two had
been close, best friends as far as Calvin could tell, and now she
was in severe grief. It was the first time Calvin had seen Sarah
react in such an emotionally striking way to anything. It worried
him. “I’m thinking about sending her along with the crew going
aboard the Arcane Storm. Maybe a change in setting will help her
get perspective and maybe even closure.”
    “ I think that’s a good
idea,” said Rain. “I know it’ll make my job easier not having Sarah
staring over my shoulder. And hopefully, when Sarah returns, Shen
will be up and at ‘em, just like old times.”
    Calvin couldn’t help but smile at Rain’s
optimism. Even if it was simply wishful thinking.
     
    ***
     
    Alex waited until 0320 and then made his way
to the brig. He gave himself a window of exactly five minutes to
get there. And then, right on cue, he saw PFC Tara Larsen setting
up to stand guard. Having just replaced the previous special forces
soldier that’d been assigned to watch the brig. When he was certain
the coast was clear, Alex approached.
    “ I had a feeling you’d show
up,” Tara said, getting a long look at him. There was no approval
in her voice but if she’d had any problems with Alex and his offer
he would have known by now. Probably because he’d be on the other
side of the brig’s force field. Since he wasn’t, he assumed all had
gone well.
    “ You saw your money then?”
he asked quietly once he stood about a meter away from
her.
    “ That I did,” she said. “And
now that it’s too late to take it back I’ll have you know you paid
too much. I would’ve done it for half.”
    Alex didn’t say anything. If Tara wanted to
believe she’d gotten the better end of the deal, so be it. In truth
he would have paid double. So he supposed it averaged out. Just so
long as he got what he wanted, all would be well.
    “ I won’t get in any trouble,
will I?” the soldier looked him in the eye. She, like most human
females, was smaller than her male counterparts but she was still
taller and broader than the average Rotham, including Alex. And she
made a show of looking intimidating. He wasn’t afraid of her,
despite his size disadvantage he was surprisingly quick and had
trained in countless areas of unarmed combat, but he knew it
wouldn’t come down to that here. The moment she’d used his
passcodes and electronic information to log into one of his slush
accounts and accept the bribe, their fates were eternally tied
together. Lucky for her, Alex had no intention of letting his
actions be discovered. Or hers.
    “ Nope,” he replied flatly.
“So long as you get out of my way and let me do my
business.”
    Tara nodded. “All right. But be quick about
it. You don’t have more than a few minutes. And should any of this
fall back on me, I’m taking you down with me. You understand that,
lizard?”
    Alex ignored the offensive pejorative and
forced a smile. An expression that probably looked more devious
than friendly on his Rotham face.
    “ And don’t be gentle,” Tara
said. “The bastard deserves worse as far as I’m concerned.” With
that she made herself scarce and Alex had some time alone with the
prisoner. He walked up to the force field and shut it
down.
    The prisoner, a foolish young human named
Patrick O’Conner, looked up at him with surprise.
    “ If you try to run I will
use it as a chance to kill you,” said Alex.
    “ Nowhere to go anyway,”
Patrick said with a shrug. “So tell me,