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pleasing him, and receiving pleasure. She just wasn’t, well, depressed, and she certainly slept better. Her grin broadened. When Saad let her.
    Even if it’s just infatuation or lust, I don’t care because I’m happy. I’m on this godforsaken world and every day is blood and more blood, and still, at least for now, I’m happy….
    “Saad,” she said, as she rounded the last corner, “I’m so gla—” She stopped. “Mara.” Then, awkwardly, to Saad: “I’m sorry. They said you wanted to see me.” She edged the way she’d come. “I can come back.”
    “No.” Saad beckoned her forward. “No, no, I want you here. I asked Mara to join us. Please, come.”
    For a fraction of a second, she wasn’t sure how to behave. That made her angry, like she was some giggly, gawky adolescent with a crush. “Of course,” she said, sliding down to sit cross-legged on a low flat rock. She spotted a lumpy bundle of something heaped a short distance away. Saad sat across from her, but Mara hung back, leaning against the cavern wall.
    She looked from one to the other. “Why do I think this has nothing to do with planning some raid for medical supplies?”
    Mara just stared. Saad smiled, though only with his lips. “Oh, we still plan a raid. But something else has come up.”
    “And what’s that?”
    “I’ve just gotten word that General Nerrit is on his way to the Kornak complex at the edge of the sea. I think I might pay him a visit.”
    “And it would be suicide, Saad.” Exasperated, Mara pushed off from the wall and paced, the clap of her boots banging off rock. “That you’re even thinking of getting anywhere near Nerrit again.”
    Again? “Who’s Nerrit?” asked Lense.
    “Supreme Commander for the Kornak Armed Forces,” said Saad. “His command center is about five, perhaps six days’ travel. But he’s on his way, apparently. About four days out at this point.”
    “Oh. Well, you want to kidnap him, take him out, what?”
    “Under other circumstances. But now I have new information that makes me wonder what to do next.”
    The sound of Mara’s pacing was giving Lense a headache. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see how I can help here. You want a list of supplies, I’ll give you a list. I’ll give you ten. But anything tactical, military…”
    “It’s not that clear-cut, Elizabeth. Trust me on this.”
    It was the first time he’d called her by name since she’d entered. Her gaze flicked to Mara, who paced and looked black as a thundercloud, and then to Saad. Something else going on, something to do with her …But what?
    You’re being paranoid. It’s probably nothing.
    She said, “Well, what does this—your source say? How many people do you have on the inside, anyway?”
    “We had a few. Three, to be exact. One was discovered, and the other’s gone silent. This one…the last time we had contact was a little over a year ago.”
    Mara cut in, her voice quaking with fury. “I don’t care if we’ve had ten, a hundred sources…that you’re even thinking of going back there—”
    “Back. What does she mean, going back?” Lense looked from Mara to Saad, who was staring daggers at Mara. She switched her gaze back to Mara. “What do you mean? Going back to what?”
    Mara opened her mouth. Clamped it shut. Threw Saad a look so charged that if it had been fire, he’d have burst into flames. She said, “You need to tell her. She needs to know. You need to ask.”
    “Ask me what?” Lense said. “What the hell’s going on?”
    “Mara…” Saad’s voice thrummed with frustration. “I will ask questions when I…” Then he let out his breath, looked at Lense and said, more calmly, “Mara isn’t very fond of a particular portion of that base.”
    Mara was unable to contain herself. “Gee, you think?”
    Ignoring her, Saad squatted on his haunches beside Lense and drew a wide circle with the tip of his index finger. “Here’s the layout. Perimeter security, checkpoints—here,