Chapter 14
Hal arrived at the hotel in a sleek runner that Eazi had arranged for him at the space port.
He was carrying numerous bags, which was not his usual style of travel, but the extras were for Fee.
When he arrived at the door to her rooms and knocked, he heard the voice of a Grih and then a soft murmur he guessed was her.
The door opened, and he studied the woman in front of him.
Trayla, the Grihan operative, he guessed. Her eyes widened, and she stepped back, her head turning.
“Fiona. Captain Vakeri is here.” She moved deeper into the room, allowing him in, and she checked the hallway behind him before she closed the door.
Fiona stepped through into the lounge area in a robe, scrubbing at her wet hair with a towel, and stopped dead at the sight of him.
He let go of the bags he was carrying, and she leaped across the room into his arms.
He was expecting the weight of her, but he nearly staggered back under the onslaught.
“I thought you were patrolling.” She lifted her face up to his.
“The admiral decided it was a better use of my time to be down here.” He was aware of Trayla watching, so he only kissed her lightly before lifting his head. “I brought both of you your dresses from Eazi.”
Fiona’s eyes crinkled in the corners. “Now that’s what I call service. Can you come to the dinner as well? Even if we have to buy you a ticket?”
“Eazi’s already arranged it. Trayla, you’ll take the purchased ticket and pretend you don’t know us.
Just mingle and keep an eye out for anyone who pays us too much attention.
I don’t think there’ll be any drama, given the leader will be there.
” Hal picked up the garment bag containing the dress Eazi had made for Trayla, and handed it over.
“I like the sound of no drama. It’ll be a nice change.” She took the dress with a smile. “I thought I was going to have a pleasant few days with Fiona, showing her around the city and doing a bit of shopping. I never expected such an interesting time.”
Hal grinned. “Interesting things seem to happen around her. Apparently someone shot at you this afternoon.” Eazi had told him, and he’d asked for the lens feed from Fiona’s tiny lens on her shoulder to see for himself.
“You should go into production with those reflector bracelets,” he told Eazi. “Battle Center would be interested.” And he would forever be grateful that Eazi had given her the only one he had. It had saved her life numerous times on this trip alone.
“I’m still figuring out how it works,” Eazi told him. “But when I do, that’s not a bad idea.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault people want me out of the way, especially as I had no say in being here in the first place.”
Fiona’s comment made Hal’s chest seize up a little.
She hadn’t had any say in being here, but he was glad that she was.
She didn’t talk very often about Earth anymore, and now he wondered if it was because she knew she couldn’t return, and not because, as he’d thought, she’d embraced her new life with the Grih.
Fee picked up the other garment bag and unzipped it. “Ooh, Eazi. This looks really nice.”
She held it up against her, and then eyed him. “What are you wearing? The formal clothes you wear to our fancy dinners?”
“No, my captain’s dress uniform. That’s the way we have to do things on Balco, given the relationship we have with them.
” Hal picked up his own garment bag. “And because Eazi had to wait for the Illium to get back to Larga Ways so I could pick up the outfits he’d made for you, we’ve only got half an hour to get ready. ”
“At least I won’t have to put the false ears back on,” Fiona said, touching the rounded curve of her ear. “I’ve been pretending to be Grihan for the last two days and to be honest, I was getting irritated by them. I can be me again.”
He would never want her to be anyone else.
They were ten minutes late, but Hal realized that didn’t matter. There were still plenty of people arriving at the city hall.
Massive arched windows flanked the entrance, reflecting the runners and the flashes of color as guests proceeded up a shallow staircase bathed in silver light.
Hal had never been to Distani before, and he was impressed.
Trayla had managed to slip into her dress and disappear before he and Fiona had left the hotel, and he guessed she was already inside, mingling.
When they reached the massive, open doors, Fiona was greeted warmly by a member of staff and they were led inside to a table near a raised hexagonal stage.
One of the organization’s top administrators was waiting for them at the table and gave Fee an approximate time she would be called to stand and make her announcement.
After a few minutes of small talk, the administrator rushed off and they were left to their own devices.
As Fee draped her wrap over the back of her chair, Hal looked around the room.
It didn’t seem as if Leader Baruke had arrived yet, but there were people he knew standing near another table—Battle Center commanders he’d dealt with before.
They weren’t the only Grih in the room, but they made an impression in their dress uniforms.
“I’ll introduce you to my colleagues,” he murmured to Fee as she stepped close, her hand warm against his back. “It will seem strange if I didn’t.”
She glanced across, saw the Battle Center table. “It will be nice to meet the Battle Center commanders down on Balco. It makes sense for me to know them. They must surely come through Larga Ways, or at least visit.”
That was true. They should have been introduced to her beforehand, but Hal knew most people didn’t really know how to proceed when it came to Fiona.
She and Eazi had carved a place for themselves out of nothing, and there was no precedent for what the protocols were when it came to them.
He looked down at her as he escorted her across the floor toward his fellow Grih, and as it usually did, his heart did a little leap in his chest.
Eazi had made her a floor-length dress of pale green, as light and frothy as the waves on the ocean shores of Xal, his home planet.
The color contrasted with her dark hair—a heavy swing of brown shot through with copper—and her big dark brown eyes.
She was wearing shoes that elevated her height a little, so her head came just above his shoulder.
“Vakeri.” The head of station for Balco, General Olna, raised her hand as they approached.
“General.” Hal gave a Grihan salute and then placed his hand on Fee’s back. “I’d like to introduce you to Fiona Russell, the manager of Larga Ways. Fiona, this is General Olna.”
Fiona and the general murmured their hellos, and a few other senior officers, realizing who was being introduced, crowded closer.
“I didn’t realize you would be here, Vakeri,” one of them said, eyes going from Olna to Hal with interest.
“It was a last minute plan,” Hal said easily. “Fiona had already been invited but I wasn’t sure if the Illium would make it back in time. We cut things a little fine, but we made it.”
“I’m glad you were able to do so,” Olna said. She sounded completely sincere, and Hal hoped that was true.
He knew she would have gotten a message about his presence either from the admiral’s aide or the admiral herself, and by the sounds of things, Fiona’s arrival had caused more than a few complications for Battle Center’s Balco Station.
The noise in the hall suddenly increased, and Hal turned to see Baruke and his entourage had arrived.
The Leader was in his formal robes, and he was accompanied by a few of his staff.
He probably had body guards with him, as well, but they weren’t obvious.
Hal saw Baruke was greeted formally and with much ceremony, and as he was led to his table, staff began to ask the guests to take their seats for dinner.
It looked like . . . Hal tilted his head in surprise. Baruke was being seated at their table.
Hal and Fiona said their goodbyes to Olna, and as they headed back to their seats Fee flicked him a quick look, eyebrows raised.
“Aren’t we fancy?” she murmured.
He had forgotten how hard it was to keep a straight face when he was around her. She was one of the most irreverent people he knew and he enjoyed seeing their world through her eyes.
But it was hard to keep his stoic expression in place.
Hal saw the moment Baruke noticed him and Fiona headed his way.
To say he looked ambushed was an understatement.
He took an actual step back from his chair, his eyes widening when he realized they weren’t just approaching him, they were his dinner companions.
“Fiona. I didn’t know you would be at this event.” Baruke’s gaze moved between them, and then turned slightly to look over at the Battle Center table.
“It’s nice to see you again, Leader.” Fiona had not pulled out her chair, and she gave a kind of bow that Hal guessed might be an Earth custom.
Baruke was momentarily thrown by the warmth and politeness of her tone. “Likewise,” he said eventually.
Hal helped Fee into her chair before he inclined his head in greeting to Baruke and then sat himself. It seemed as if they were the only two other guests seated with the Leader and his entourage.
“It’s Captain Vakeri, isn’t it?” Baruke glanced over at the Battle Center table again as if trying to work out why Hal was sitting at the VIP table, and not with General Olna.
“It is.” Hal leaned back a little in his chair.
Could it be that Baruke wasn’t aware that he and Fiona were a couple, and that when he was on Larga Ways, he stayed with her in the apartment that had once been the leader’s accommodation on the way station?
He was once again forced to suppress a smile, because he suddenly remembered that Baruke had literally been ousted by Fiona when it came to Larga Ways.
The moment they sat, Balcoan waitstaff came swirling around in pale gray robes which matched their eyes almost exactly, to pour water and place frothy lavender drinks in front of each person.
“What is it?” Fee asked. “I haven’t seen this before.”
Hal shook his head. “I’ve never seen it before either.”
“It’s grilko,” one of Baruke’s aides told them. “It’s only available in season, so it isn’t well-known outside of Balco. We tend to consume all the bottles that’re produced ourselves.”
“Is it . . .” Fiona frowned, and glanced upward. “Alcoholic?” she asked.
“This is a word you don’t know in Grihan?” Hal didn’t remember the last time Fiona hadn’t known the Grihan word for something. He also knew when she looked upward, she was usually talking to Eazi.
“Eazi says there is no equivalent.” She seemed very intrigued. “What I’m talking about was banned on the four planets before you were even born. And while not banned on Balco, isn’t actually produced due to lack of demand.”
“Banned?” Now Hal was intrigued. “Because?”
“Because it was so dangerous to you, Eazi says.” She paused.
“Not that it’s not dangerous to my people, either, but I’m guessing not to the same degree.
Huh. I can’t believe that hasn’t come up before now.
” She took a sip of the lavender grilko.
Her face went very still, and he realized he knew that look.
She really hated it.
She set the glass down and lifted her water. Took a deep gulp.
He took a tiny sip of the grilko himself, just in case he had the same reaction, but it tasted crisp and dry on his tongue. Refreshing.
She lifted her water glass in a toast. “More for you,” she said, lips twitching.
“Fiona, what is your involvement in the Balco-Grihan Exchange Program?” Baruke had downed his own grilko in a few swallows, and now he leaned forward. “If I’d known you would be here, I would have tried to make arrangements for that meeting you requested we have.”
“I’m staying in Distani after this for a few days, so if you could squeeze me in, I would appreciate it,” Fiona said.
“And my involvement in the Balco-Grihan Exchange Program is that Larga Ways is offering free accommodation to the students both coming and going through Larga Ways to help with the costs of the program.”
“That’s . . . a generous offer and a good idea.”
If Baruke was resentful it was no longer his decision to make, Hal thought he hid it well. He noticed the leader didn’t offer to arrange for a new meeting, though.
Food began arriving, little plates of beautifully arranged mouthfuls.
Fiona eyed it all with suspicion.
“Balcoan cuisine has so far been your favorite,” he reminded her.
“That’s true, but it’s the food from the Cylvana Plains that I enjoy. It looks like Distani and the area around it has a different style.” She carefully lifted the little disc of pastry, which served as the foundation for a tiny tower of ingredients, and popped it into her mouth.
He couldn’t help watching her face as she chewed, and this time, he didn’t even try to hide the smile on his face. “You like it?”
She considered. “I don’t hate it, and that’s almost the same thing for me, now.”
Suddenly, Baruke exploded from his chair, hands flailing wildly and then going to his throat.
“He’s choking.” Fiona leapt to her feet and Hal did the same as the leader ran from the table, swerving in a wild circle, arms extended, before he crashed down onto the floor.
“Call a medic,” Hal shouted as he ran toward Baruke.
One of the officers from the Battle Center table sprinted over. “I’m the station’s chief medical officer, give me room.”
Hal backed away, taking Fee’s hand as they watched the doctor press a diagnostic wand against Baruke’s neck.
Then the doctor turned as someone ran up with a medical kit. He opened it and pulled out an injector which he shoved against Baruke’s neck and then grabbed the diagnostic wand again. “He’s holding. Let’s get him to a med bay, right away.”
The leader’s entourage helped lift him onto the hover that arrived, but Hal grasped the doctor’s shoulder before he followed it out.
“What’s wrong with him?” he asked.
The doctor took a few steps backward. “He was poisoned.”
Beside him, Fiona suddenly let out a cry, and as he turned toward her, he saw her hand go to her throat, and she crumpled to the ground.