Chapter Twenty-Six

“Garrison! How did you get in?” My gaze shot to the access panel over my partner’s head. I’d checked the attic space and found no way out.

He holstered his weapon. “I cut a hole in the roof. You’ll want to fix that before the next rain.”

By the next storm, I wouldn’t be here anymore. “How did you know to come here?”

“When I didn’t hear from you, and Jessie showed up at Jericho in wet, muddy pajamas, I assumed something had gone wrong and figured I’d better check on you. I wasn’t sure if you were here. I shouted from the outside, but you didn’t answer. I didn’t think she would kill you, but I was afraid one of Imana’s men might have gotten to you first. What happened?”

“I got locked in,” I said, and filled him in on the power outage and how she had overheard our last communication and drawn the wrong conclusion. “Where is she now?”

His expression turned grim. “Imana got to her. I ran into Jessie as I got off the elevator at Jericho. She was with one of Imana’s guards. My guess is he took her to the slave ship.”

I desperately hoped so, because the alternative was much worse. “Zigqat! Zigqat, zigqat.”

“Jessie slipped me this.” Garrison waved an object.

“Imana’s personal hologram projector! How did Jessie get it?” If the LOP had been able to get the device, we could have exposed Imana, broken up her cartel, and crushed the slave trade a long time ago.

“No idea.”

“Without her glamour, Imana can’t go out in public. She can’t function on this planet. Her power as president is neutralized,” I said.

Garrison nodded. “Her accomplices can make excuses for her absence and cover for her for a while, but Erika Stadler can’t vanish from sight indefinitely. Eventually the citizens would demand answers, and, even before that, her legitimate cabinet and executive staff will sound the alarm.”

My gut tightened. “We have to move fast. Without the hologram, Imana will have no choice but to leave New Terra. We need to alert Jovi—the fleet may not be in position yet. I hope you have my handheld?”

“No, why would I?”

Chyt. “Jessie took it when she left. She didn’t have it with her when you saw her?”

“No.”

Imana probably had it. Not only could I not contact Jovi, but the information on the device could be very damaging to galactic security. I doubted Imana herself could hack into the device, but the Ceruleans could.

“My handheld is in my hovercar,” Garrison said.

“Yours doesn’t have the authorization frequencies to contact headquarters. It doesn’t have the range or the correct encryptions.”

Human partners and informants were given the equipment and functionalities they needed to do their jobs and nothing more. As they were always paired with a nonhuman agent, the LOP didn’t perceive a need for humans to contact HQ.

“We have to delay the ship’s departure. Keep it on the original schedule,” I said. “You said you know where it is?”

“Unless it moved.”

“Don’t say that. We don’t need any more bad news.”

“We’d better get a move-on then.” He held up Imana’s hologram device. “You want to take this for safekeeping, or should I hang on to it?”

I’d lost Jessie, my handheld, and both my weapons. I wasn’t sure I was the best possible person to safeguard the device. But, while my handheld had fallen into the cartel’s hands, we now had something of theirs we hadn’t had before. It wouldn’t help us now, but our technology experts could take it apart, figure out how it worked, and replicate it. The ability to change their appearance would be a lifesaver for undercover agents and informants all over the galaxy.

I held out my hand.

Garrison dropped it into my palm.

I tucked the device into a pocket. “This will be a game changer in future missions.”

He nodded. “Yes, I can see that, but we’d better leave and finish this mission.”

We hurried to the hall. Crouching under the hole in the ceiling, I pushed off and caught the edge and pulled myself through. Inside the attic space, I reached down to help Garrison who couldn’t leap the way I could by virtue of my half-Copan genetics.

Bright morning light spilled in through the hole in the roof. I squeezed through the opening then climbed down the tree next to the house, Garrison right behind me. We sprinted to the hovercar and piled in.

“I’m glad you came prepared.” I eyed the stunners and blasters on the back seat.

“Straight to the ship, right?” he asked.

“Your hovercar doesn’t have shimmer tech, does it?”

“Of course not.”

“Take us close, but not so near they’ll see us.”

“Roger.” He keyed in coordinates, and the hovercraft took off.

“You got a plan on how we’re going to delay the ship?” he asked.

“Not yet.” I grabbed his handheld and shoved it at him. “Give me access to your contacts. I can’t reach Jovi from your device, but maybe you have a contact who can, or they have contacts who can.”

He handed it back to me, and I scrolled through his very limited list. I found one possibility. A single LOP agent with the same rank as me. I shot off an urgent message. Would he get it in time? I sighed. I had no plan for what to do once we arrived at the ship. We would have to make it up as we went.

“Do you feel any different?” Garrison asked.

“Different how? Why would I feel different?”

“Being president and all.”

“What?” I frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

“You can’t tell? I assumed you knew.”

“Knew what?”

He pulled down a flap tucked against the hovercar roof to reveal a mirror. “Look at yourself.”

Instead of my face, I saw Erika Stadler’s. “Son of a bitch!” I swore in Terran Universal. I thought about what we needed to accomplish and what it would take. I checked my appearance again, and a plan started to take shape.

Pulling it off would take perfect timing and a whole lot of luck.