Dark Minds (Class 5 Series Book 3) (4 page)

She left out the middle verses, begging to be let go——it sounded awful without a couple of people carrying their various parts——and segued into the final, bittersweet verse.

As the last note faded, absolute silence settled on the crowd like a blanket of fresh powder snow.

At last, her big Grih stirred to life. “Who will help us protect this music-maker?” He spoke quietly, not needing to raise his voice.

She didn't know what she expected, but it wasn't the wave of Grih stepping forward to join them, settling themselves in a crowd between her and her attacker.

Every single Grihan came, she realized, until the only people left on the other side of the hold were the rock man and his three companions and the high-browed, thick-chested aliens.

“That was inspired.”

Imogen turned. The woman who'd murmured the words, not to her but to the big Grihan, was about the same height as herself, with a beautiful dusky gold skin tone. She moved slender hands in Imogen's direction and Imogen saw a thumb and three fingers on each. When she noticed Imogen looking at her, she smiled, and Imogen had to force herself not to flinch.

Her teeth were small but tapered to a sharp point at the ends.

She watched Imogen out of dark brown eyes, which, like the tall, insect-like soldiers that had taken up a defensive position next to the captain and Pren earlier, had no white around them.

There were five others with her behind the protective barricade, a mix of the races that were spread through the hold, so whatever was going on here, it wasn't along racial lines.

Most of the Grih who'd joined them jostled to catch a glimpse of her and she found she didn't have the capacity for her usual blank expression, she knew her astonishment at their behavior must be plain on her face.

She fumbled mentally to work harder and faster, to get some idea of what was happening.

The Grihan in charge seemed to have known she could sing. He had obviously been gambling on swaying the other prisoners to come and help him. And that meant he knew a lot more about her than she did about him. And surely, that was impossible?

The sheer mix of aliens overturned the idea she'd built up of how things worked from observing the Tecran. Especially after all the muttering about the Grih she'd heard from her Tecran guards. She'd had the sense this world was very much delineated by racial groups.

Although, now she looked properly, she couldn't see a single Tecran amongst the prisoners. It occurred to her that if the Krik had dealt with every Tecran they'd come across the way Toloco had dealt with her guards, that would make a twisted kind of sense. They weren't here because they were all dead.

It looked like the enemies of her enemy were legion.

The Grihan leader didn't turn at the golden woman's words, but he did address those who'd joined them. “I am Captain Kalor of Grih Battle Center, assigned to the United Council Investigative Unit, and I thank you for your help.”

Imogen tried to work out what he was talking about, but whatever the United Council Investigative Unit was, it impressed most of the other prisoners.

The Grih who'd come across seemed relieved, and most of the others, who were obviously not as big fans of live rock opera as the Grih were, edged closer to Captain Kalor and his group, leaving the giant and his crew of three isolated.

“Battle Center and the United Council?” The giant spat the words in disgust. He shared a look with his team.

Imogen couldn't see their eyes, but she got the impression they became more cautious.

The Grihan member of the crew gave a nod. “Right uniform.”

“So what does the United Council want with her?” The giant tried to get a better look at Imogen, but the group around her shifted again to block her from view entirely.

“We protect all advanced sentients, music-makers or not. I'm more interested in what you wanted with her. You attacked very quickly.” The captain shifted with the moving crowds to keep his opponent in sight.

The giant said nothing, and they stared at one another until eventually he stepped back, taking his team into the shadows against the far wall again.

The small group were very much on their own now.

Whatever was going on, she'd suddenly gone from prisoner to protected advanced sentient and revered music-maker.

Nice work if you could get it.

The captain turned to face her.

“Fiona Russell?” he asked.

Imogen stared at him for a long, long time.

Ooookay. This really wasn't funny anymore.

T
he Earth woman's
face went pale, and after staring at Cam for longer than was polite, she stumbled back a step. “Fiona Russell?”

“You aren't she?” Olan asked, resting a hand on her shoulder to steady her.

She started as the Fitalian touched her, then shook her head. “No.”

“Who are you, then?” Cam tried to keep his tone even, but if this wasn't Fiona Russell, then a third Earth woman had been taken from her home.

He knew the Tecran had sworn Rose McKenzie's abduction had been a terrible breach by a scientist who had lost sight of the rules, a once-off aberration. The claim from Grihan captain Hal Vakeri that he'd found a second woman was explosive enough, but if Cam had found a third . . . He felt the prickle along his arms and the back of his neck as the significance of this woman's existence became clear.

The Tecran would have no excuses left.

He needed answers from her, but he found himself unwilling to upset her more; an aftereffect of her singing.

He wanted her happy and safe, as did every Grih in the room. He'd manipulated them all to achieve just that outcome. And he would have to put that aside and do his job.

She'd been furious at the way he'd ordered her to sing, and he'd been afraid she would refuse. He'd started planning how he and Pren could take the Vanad and his team right up until she had straightened and opened her mouth.

The two Fitali who'd joined their group had moved forward when things had turned violent, something he'd noted with relief, because with their aid, it would have been an even fight.

Fortunately, it hadn't been necessary. She had sung, and it had had the effect he'd hoped on the Grih in the hold.

There were audio and visual comms of Rose McKenzie singing on the
Barrist
, the Grihan explorer that had found her, and when he'd watched it, Cam thought it was the loveliest singing he'd ever heard, but it couldn't compare to being in the same room with an Earth music-maker singing a few meters from you.

Even one that looked like she'd like to strangle you with her bare hands.

His lips twitched at the thought.

His half-smile seemed to snap the woman out of her distress.

“My name is Imogen Peters.” Her gaze flicked to Diot, then Olan and Pren. Vraen held himself slightly apart from the rest of the team, as he'd done from the beginning, and she barely glanced at him. “Who are you?”

Cam gave a formal bow. “I am Captain Camlar Kalor, and this is my team.” He introduced each one by name, including Chep and Haru and the fast cruiser flight team, and she relaxed a little.

“Pleased to meet you,” she said, her tone unmistakably sincere.

“You reacted strangely when the captain mentioned Fiona Russell. Why is that?” Diot didn't waste any time.

“Fiona Russell disappeared from a town near where I live. I was driving toward it for a meeting when I was abducted.” She looked as if she was going to say something else, and stopped suddenly, her eyes widening. “Is Rose McKenzie here, too?”

Cam watched everyone's heads come up in surprise.

“Yes,” he said.

She flinched. “Where are they?”

Cam shook his head. “Rose is in another part of Grihan territory. I've never met her, but I've seen visual comms of her. I've never seen Fiona Russell, but she's the reason my team and I are here. We had information she was being held as a prisoner on a Garmman trading vessel.”

Vraen made a sound at that, and everyone looked at him.

He looked down.

Cam kept his gaze on his second-in-command. “Fiona was found by one of my colleagues and we were going to meet with them at Larga Ways, a way station that orbits the planet Balco.”

“Balco?” Her gaze jerked to his, eyes wide.

“That means something to you?” Cam had a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach as he watched Imogen Peter's lips twist into a parody of a smile.

“Until recently, that's where the Tecran were holding me.”

* * *

S
he'd obviously upset
the apple cart.

Imogen leaned back against the cold metal wall of the hold, and faced Kalor. With his split lip and her black eye, they were like fighters sizing each other up across the ring.

And then, as the shouting escalated, he turned his laser focus from her, leaving her feeling suddenly bereft, and she crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself as he tried to get some order from his team.

For a moment, it felt as if he'd seen her, right to her soul. Since she'd been taken, she'd been alternatively exotic, strange, and troublesome, but never Imogen Peters, person in her own right.

The sulky one, Vraen, who'd angled himself away from everyone while Kalor had questioned her, was punctuating every second word with a fist slammed onto his open palm, and Diot and Olan alternated between whispering into their wrists and offering their opinions into the mix.

Pren stood slightly back, watching everything with a considering gaze, and Chep and Haru looked even more dangerous and mysterious than they had before.

The only people who didn't seem to have an opinion were the group Kalor had introduced as the flight crew.

Imogen guessed they were too traumatized to care one way or the other.

“Enough.” Kalor's order was low, but it held an implacable edge, and everyone stopped talking.

“You going to investigate the Balcoans' complicity now, too?” Vraen said bitterly into the silence. “They were holding an Earth woman, as well.”

Kalor's jaw bunched a little. He looked like he was running out of patience with Mr. Surly.

“I don't think the Balcoans knew I was there.” Imogen didn't like what she'd seen of Vraen so far, and Kalor had physically saved her from harm. She was happy to interfere on his behalf a little. “It was a secret base, built underground.”

Everyone focused back on her, Olan more or less holding his wrist under her chin. She guessed the thin silver bracelet she saw was a recording unit.

She glared at him and he took a small step back.

She saw Chep and Haru, who seemed more and more like zen warrior monks, edging a little closer, for the first time forgetting to pretend they weren't interested.

She had initially had the sense they didn't speak Grihan, but now she wasn't so sure.

“Were there any Garmman there?” Vraen asked, a challenge in his tone.

“I don't know who the Garmman are.”

Everyone froze, and she had the sense she'd shown what an outsider she was again. Like when she'd asked Toloco to explain the gel wall.

“How could you?” Diot's voice was soft. “You speak such good Grihan, it's easy to forget you aren't one. There are five members of the United Council, the organization that rules this part of the galaxy. The Grih, like Captain Kalor and Lieutenant Pren. The Bukari, which is what I am. The Fitali, like Olan, Chep and Haru; the Garmman, like Vraen, and the Tecran.”

“What about the Krik? And him.” Imogen jerked her chin toward where the rock man was still lurking, watching them.

“There are other people, like the Krik and the Vanad, and the Balcoans, for that matter, who aren't populous enough, or powerful enough, to be part of the ruling body. They fall either outside the United Council's boundaries, but still have dealings with the member nations, or they fall within the territories of the Council's members. The Balcoans are in Grihan territory. The Vanad are in Garmman territory, whereas the Krik are just outside it, outside the Council's influence.”

“I only saw the Tecran while I was at the facility, but I was kept in a holding area on one of the lower floors. The team who recently took me off Balco weren't my original guards, but they were all Tecran, too.”

“How long were you on Balco?” Pren asked her first question.

“Forty-five days.” Imogen shrugged. “I don't know how long it took to get me there from Earth, that part was a blur in the beginning. And I've been on a small Tecran runner for the last two weeks.”

“You've just arrived?” Diot frowned.

Imogen nodded. “A few minutes before they put me in here.”

Diot and Kalor exchanged a quick, worried look.

“Where are the Tecran who were with you, then?” Kalor asked.

Imogen fought the way her mind went back to the memory of Fri, lying open-eyed and lifeless on the floor. Her throat closed up, and she stuttered, unable to get a single word out.

Kalor's gaze held her own, and she saw the moment he understood, his eyes widening.

“Dead?” he asked softly. “All of them?”

She gave a tight nod. Swallowed hard. “Every single one.”