“Like your father.” Acorna laid a sympathetic arm about the thin shoulders, thinking proudly of his loyalty and resourcefulness. “Did you escape before they could … you know …”
He nodded. “They don’t know the half of what I know about the Haven. I could do anything to this ship … sometimes I think I ought to be making more trouble for them, only I don’t want to wreck it and kill a lot of innocent people. The other SecondGeneration kids may be pretending to go along, but they shouldn’t die for it. I could do anything,” he repeated, “if only I knew what to do. …”
In that pause, Acorna softly asked, “Like being able to release the clamps on my ship so we can all get away?”
Markel considered, eyeing her, then the lighted vent and the rounded walls of the tube. She didn’t think she’d called a bluff:
rather she felt, through her arm still about his shoulders, that he was figuring out how to accomplish this.
“I’d be glad if you could alert Shenjemi Federation that one of their colonies is being blackmailed. And my planet that I’m being held hostage.”
Markel gave a little snort, muffled by his fingers. “You’re not a hostage, you’re a prisoner. They got better things to do than collect ransom for hostages. They can hold up -whole planets for Acorna gulped, happier than ever that she was no longer trapped in that cell, vulnerable. But Calum was still a prisoner. And, if they had no need to take hostages, Calum was in greater peril than she’d originally thought. They’d have to work fast. She was considering priorities when suddenly she saw that Hoa’s face was turned up to the vent. She gave Markel a discreet nudge.
“Oh, oh,” he mouthed back at her, and would have led her away, but she stopped him.
“He didn’t intend this to happen … and he looks ill. I think they’ve hurt him. Let’s free him, too. Maybe he’d know how to stop what they’ve started. Can we do that? Please?” Market didn’t really have any defense against Acorna in pleading mode-especially with her arm around him and the comforting warmth of her soft feminine body giving him the nurturing love he had needed so desperately for so long.
“He’ll have to be quiet,” he said.
“I doubt that will be a problem,” she replied, and helped Markel unscrew the vent.
Dr. Ngaen Xong Hoa’s slender frame made it through the narrow vent with no difficulty, but he was so weak they had to help him far more than Acorna had expected; he did almost none of the work of climbing. When he was finally in the tunnel, she realized why he had been so helpless. Even in the bad light, Acorna could see what had been done to the man’s hands and arms. Pretending to bend lower to reset the screws on the vent, Acorna made sure her horn touched-through the fine fabric of her hat-both mangled hands.
Urgently now, Markel directed them away from the empty cell and around a bend in the tubes and over to the other side of the prison block. At the intersection, he firmly placed Dr. Hoa against the curving side and, finger on lips, indicated that he was to stay put. Dr. Hoa nodded, only too happy to comply. Then Markel beckoned Acorna to slither past the scientist. He put his hps to her ears and spoke low? but distinctly.
“We got to get your buddy right away now? because as soon as they see Dr. Hoa’s gone, there’ll be nine kinds of alarms and searches and stuff. Might not get another chance. Any way you Gan help me locate him?”
Acorna closed her eyes. If only her horn had the power of locating people as well as healing them! Maybe it dou, she thought… I’ve never known another of my kirn). How do I know what I can do?
She composed her thoughts and tried to visualize Calum’s features, but all she could sense was the aura of misery that filled the whole area around the cells … and something about . maps? She shook her head, trying to clear it. How could she concentrate on finding Calum when she kept getting this feeling that somebody was lecturing her on how to color a map? It felt as if there was a whole geography class going on somewhere under her right hand … no, not geography. Strange, half-familiar words floated into her head.