“It’s a tempting thought,” Phule said, rising to his feet, “but I’d better try to catch up with him now. I don’t think I could sleep, anyway, with this hanging over our heads.”
A casual stroll through the ship’s more popular gathering spots failed to locate Tullie Bascom, so Phule began a more careful search through the less frequented areas.
“Excuse me … Gabriel, isn’t it?” he said to a Legionnaire he found sitting alone in one of the smaller lounges.
“Sir?” the man responded, rising to his feet.
“As you were,” Phule said, waving him back to his chair. “I was just wondering if you had seen Tullie Bascom recently.”
“I think I heard him come by a while ago,” the Legionnaire reported. “I didn’t look around, but he was telling someone that he was going to his cabin to get some sleep.”
“Okay. Thanks.” The commander sighed and headed off down the corridor toward his own quarters.
So much for that idea. Maybe it was just as well. He should probably do a little more checking as to the actual necessity for contracting Tullie’s crew for backups before beginning negotiations. Besides, his lieutenants were right-he could use a bit of sleep to clear his mind. Maybe he could get Beeker to …
Phule suddenly halted in his tracks as realization struck him.
The Legionnaire, Gabriel, had been sitting alone in the lounge.
While Phule and Tusk-anini weren’t the only night owls in the company, the Legionnaires by and large were social animals, tending to gather together in their off hours, and to his knowledge Gabriel was no exception. Rather than being at one of the normal ship hangouts, however, the Legionnaire had been sitting alone, without a book or work in sight-not even a deck of cards.