Dark Planet by Charles W. Sasser Read Free Book Online

he asked, obviously attempting to trap me into an admission. “I would advise you that Mishal is in custody from last night. He has made a statement.”
    I felt my heart pounding and concentrated on settling it. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t came to mind. Then it occurred to me that if Mishal were apprehended, he must assume that I was still being held captive by Cauri Tan in the safe house. He would have told the CD nothing about me.
    “I see him occasionally when we run into each other. We are not friends,” I said.
    The CD nodded, apparently satisfied. “Where were you last night, Sergeant Kadar?”
    That one was a bit more ticklish. I glanced at Mina Li. She sat stiffly in her chair, staring at me. I probed her mind and to my surprise her thoughts were so intense that I read them clearly.
With me. With me all night
.
    I sighed to give the impression that I was bored with the questioning. “I left post and went to the Starside Lounge,” I said. “Mina Li met me there. We had cocktails together and then went to my cubicle where we remained for the rest of the night.”
    Mina Lee relaxed in her chair. “See? Is that not what I told you?” she gloated. “Kadar and I are preparing to conjoin. We will be exclusives.”
    I said nothing. I owed her something.
    The CD seemed satisfied again. He looked questioningly at the other investigator, a smaller man with a wider brow, who shrugged and looked away.
    “I think that’ll do it for now, Sergeant,” Low Brow concluded. “We are routinely questioning all the Zentadons on post. Homelanders attempted to blow up a dreadnought last night. One OD’d on taa. The bot killed one. We captured the leader when he ran out of taa and collapsed at the outer perimeter. We’re surprised that he didn’t blow himself up too. The only way this bunch could have gotten as close to success as they did was to have had someone on post helping them. If you hear anything, we need to know about it immediately.”
    “Immediately,” I repeated.
    They left, taking Mina Li with them to return her to the Capital. Before she left, she embraced me and whispered, “Please be safe. I will be waiting for you.”
    “I can hardly wait,” I replied, trying to dilute the sarcasm.
    She tapped my cheek with her tail. I flicked my ear. Commander Mott cleared his throat as the door closed behind her and the CD’s.
    “Where were you last night, Sergeant Kadar?” he asked bluntly. I had forgotten that he was also a Sen and could read both Mina Li’s and my thoughts and emotions. It would do no good to lie to him, even if I could. I told him the entire story from beginning to end.
    “You did well, Sergeant Kadar,” he said when I finished. “But you should have come to me with it.”
    “There was not time, sir. You were with your family.”
    He got up and walked over to me, holding his crippled tail underneath his arm. He dropped a hand on my shoulder. His purple eyes looked troubled.
    “Kadar, there is one other thing. I have my contacts also. It is suspected that the Homelander sleeper on post is a Human, not a Zentadon. He — or she, as you describe — somehow escaped last night. But the suspect has been narrowed down to the Deep Reconnaissance Teams, either a present or a former member.”
    “She is a DRT-bag?” I blurted out in astonishment, thinking of the female I had observed at the hangar last night.
    “One female of whom is the communications specialist on DRT-213,” the Commander said.
    “Sergeant Pia Gunduli,” I murmured. “Is she a suspect?”
    “All the female DRTs are suspects, as are all Zentadon. There is not sufficient time to make team substitutions at this point. Sergeant Kadar, keep very alert on this upcoming mission. The Blobs may not be the only danger.”

C·H·A·P·T·E·R
 
EIGHT
    T he Republic considered the mission so vital that the Group Commander himself, ol’ General Numb Nuts, personally delivered the operations order. If Blade were the