Whispers in the Dawn by Aurora Rose Lynn Read Free Book Online Page B

“Yeah?”
    “Here’s the info you requested,” Ralph replied in a voice that lacked inflection. Obviously, he was on auto-pilot. “The Drifter was logged in as leaving the station at 1100 hours. The captain of the spaceship left alone, but did not log a destination. According to the monitoring sensors, there were two persons aboard the ship when it arrived this morning at 0800 hours.” He glanced down, scanning a printout he was reading from.
    “Did the passenger take quarters here, or did he leave?”
    “The passenger is a woman, whose name is unlogged, but I’ve been able to discover is Odessa Grante from the planet Earth. Did you wish me to keep an eye on her?”
    Harley didn’t like the sound of that. A sudden protective urge, like the one he had experienced in the concourse when the bullets had been flying and Odessa had been in his arms, overcame him. “I’ll take care of that myself.”
    He resisted the urge to run his fingers through his hair. It was a sign of nervousness, and he couldn’t afford his actions being misinterpreted in case Ralph was a double agent primarily reporting to Pardua. Ralph appeared harmless enough, yet on Romaydia, the term ‘harmless’ had a variety of meanings.
    “By the way, sir,” Ralph continued, “the Murrach thought you should know that the man who was piloting the Drifter was Roland Baylon. The Murrach asked me to notify you that he stole a valuable cargo of Gr’iis. We are in the process of searching for the ship to bring Baylon back with his cargo.”
    Irritation set in. “Why wasn’t I informed of this earlier?” Gr’iis was the deadliest narcotic in the galaxy, able to destroy brain cells in a matter of minutes after initial use. If the widespread use of Gr’iis could decimate the galaxy’s young people, who would be left? Only those who used less harmful substances, like the one the Murrach used to control his people. Was Pardua behind the trafficking of Gr’iis too? At this point, the idea made Harley’s stomach churn. Pardua had to be knocked off his seat of power, but with his guards perpetually surrounding him and watching his every move, most men never had a chance to get near him. If they carried weapons, they were dealt with on the spot.
    “The Murrach was only informed a few minutes ago, sir,” the man said, his eyes darting back and forth from the screen to something on his left.
    So that’s why Pardua was searching for Roland Baylon’s passenger. Odessa was now probably on the Murrach’s ‘most wanted’ list. He had to get to her before the Murrach did, or else his hopes of reaching Baylon first to exact retribution would fail. He sensed that whether Odessa Grante knew it or not, she was the key to this operation. There was no telling what cruel method the Murrach would use to extract the information he wanted.
    The implications were staggering. Harley hit the screen’s ‘off’ button. The Murrach would hide her away and either break her body or her spirit if he didn’t get the answers he wanted. On the other hand, Pardua might also use Odessa as a hostage to force Baylon to return.
    Harley changed his black leather jacket for a navy blue windjammer. Pardua wasn’t kind to the women he captured and that fact bothered Harley more than he cared to admit, especially when that woman was Odessa.
     

Chapter Six
     
     
     
    Odessa had no idea where she was headed as she threw the door open and hurtled down the corridor. How dare Harley think he could take liberties with her? How had she ended up in his room and in his bed?
    She slowed her pace once she’d concluded he hadn’t chased after her, and made an attempt to blend in with the crowd milling about in the public area. Where would she go? Where was a safe place on Romaydia? She had been trapped in a concourse with no hope of getting out when she had decided to take the initiative and run. Dodging bullets had been preferable to staying in the passageway and having the air siphoned