I blink again, slower than before, and feign being far more drugged than I am. “Duct…work?”
“Yes. She has slithered into the ductwork and we cannot find her.” He leans in and says again, this time louder in my ear, “Duct work.”
“What if she’s stuck, boss?” the szzt says.
“She’s not stuck,” the ooli says, fussing. He gives the other alien—Tazza—an irritated look. “When I was in the mess hall earlier, I could hear her moving around. She’s hiding.” He looks over at me. “Which is why we need this one alive to flush her out. You’ll help us, yes?”
The ooli gives me an encouraging smile, as if I’m keffing stupid.
I just want to laugh, though. Helen got into the ductwork on this ship and now they can’t find her? My clever girl. I hope she stays hidden. “What happened?” I slur my words deliberately. “Can’t…member…”
“You killed my co-worker,” the ooli replies, and a hint of anger seeps through his pleasant tone.
Yeah, because he wouldn’t let us leave, but I bite those words back to myself. I try to stand up again. “My…shuttle…”
“You can get on your shuttle once we have the female secured.”
Uh huh. I’ll believe that when threshians fly out from under my tail. But I give them a bleary look. “She’s in…ductwork?”
“Yes. How many times must I repeat myself?” The ooli has given up on being polite, it seems.
I stare up at the ceiling of my cell. It’s a solid, smooth wall of metal, just like the floor. She’ll never be able to get to me here, and while I don’t want her to crawl out and into the arms of these keffing assholes, there’s no way I can escape, either. I need them to move me. “No ductwork in this cell,” I point out. “Use me to lure her.”
The ooli blinks and examines the ceiling. “Of course. Of course. You’re right. We need to put him in guest quarters so she thinks it’s safe to come out.” He pats my arm with that clammy hand again. “Good thinking. Very wise. Let’s move him, Tazza.”
“To an unsecured room?” Tazza is clearly the more practical one of the two. He looks disgusted at this thought.
“Yes. For now. We’ll make sure to have lots of guards. And ductwork, lots of ductwork. And good-smelling food. We’ll make the female think it’s perfectly safe to join her friend, and then we’ll snare her. She’s worth more than this ship and its crew, so it’s imperative that we capture her. The mistress won’t stand for failure.”
I can’t wait for Helen to disappoint the mistress.
CHAPTER 90
MATHIRAS
I’m led through the ship to a room on the far side of the labs. Judging from the swanky bed and the elegant painting on the wall, these are guest quarters. Guards are set up outside the door and then it’s locked.
And then locked again. I also hear the sound of a bar slipping into place on the other side.
Okay, so they don’t want me getting out. Understood.
Now that I’m alone, I examine my new quarters. There’s a vid monitor in the corner, so I remove one of my boots and toss it at the thing until I knock it down. Once that’s done, I resume my exploring. There’s an attached lavatory, a few spindly-looking chairs, and several vents on the high ceiling above. I pry off the paintings on the walls and open every nook and cranny, looking for ways to escape. I even jerk the sink out of the wall in the lav, just to see if there’s a space behind it where I can slide into the walls themselves. No luck.
I’m going to have to wait for Helen.
I put my hands on my hips, frustrated. Every part of me wants to be the one to handle this. Helen’s in hiding somewhere on this ship, and she’s probably scared. Kef, I would be after seeing all those clones in tubes. All those people present a new problem, too. We can’t just destroy the ship or fly it into the nearest star. Some of these clones are fully formed, and some of them are just beginning, but I’m not going to be the one to decide whether they’re people or not. We’re going to have to take this entire keffing ship to Lord va’Rin and hand them over. He’ll have to figure out what to do.
There’s a large window out to the stars in my quarters, just past a delicate dining table. I move over to it and cup my hands against the glass, looking out to see if I can catch a glimpse of the Little Sister out in the void. She’s too far away to see, though, and I worry about Adi. Did he leave? The smart credits would be on yes, he did, but Adiron’s loyal. He might not leave if he thinks he can save us somehow.