Oret stepped forward as he always did, his hulking body
looming over her. It reminded Elisa of
the brief moment they’d been pressed up against each other when Remington had
thrown her into the cell. She had given
much of her daydreaming this afternoon to remembering that delicious
contact. It was too bad she hadn’t had
the presence of mind to enjoy it at the time it was happening.
The Nobek asked, “You have no guard this evening?”
Elisa rolled her eyes.
“It’s Coombs. You know how he
is.”
She turned from Oret and picked up the first dish. His gentle snarl of a voice was casual as he
asked, “That’s his field disruptor you’re using, isn’t it?”
Elisa set the harmless plastic utensils in their slot on the
tray. She wallowed in her enjoyment of
the moment. She was alone with the
Kalquorians, alone and able to chatter as much as she liked as long as she
didn’t stay too long. “I lost mine. I can’t find the darned thing anywhere, and I
had to report it to security. Boy,
didn’t I get an earful over that. I hope
they track it down, because I’ll be in trouble if we don’t find it.”
She turned around with the tray and performed the same task
she had dozens of times in the last three months. She slipped it through the opening in the
containment field, handing it to Oret.
His grabbing her arm instead of the tray was so unexpected
that Elisa didn’t credit it as happening at first. Nor did the sight of her field disruptor in
the Nobek’s hand alarm her. She simply
stood there, smiling up at him, waiting for him to take the fried liver and
onions dinner and inspect it before handing it off to Miragin.
Oret’s harsh but pleasing features looked at her with a
sense of sadness. Regret, even. His growling voice was soft as he said,
“Consider your disruptor found, poor girl.”
Elisa’s happy mood stilled as she realized what was happening. The room around her tilted as Oret clicked
her disruptor. The tiny slot of an
opening between them bloomed wide open, big enough that she could have dived
through to the other side of the field.
Electric alarm slammed in her gut, driving a gasp from her lungs.
Oret dropped the stolen disruptor and reached through the
opening. Elisa’s heart took off at a
gallop, trying to pound a hole through her chest in the sudden panic that drove
it. Her mouth dropped wide open as she
stared up at the Nobek, still not quite believing what he’d done. He grabbed Coomb’s disruptor off her belt and
dialed it to the 100 percent setting with his thumb.
Oret pressed the button to collapse the entire containment
field as Elisa’s scream tore loose from her throat. The wall disappeared and he pulled her hard,
swinging her around to be caught in the waiting arms of Dramok Zemos. The Kalquorian captain’s hold was like steel
bands, pinning her arms to her body, rendering her helpless before she
remembered how to struggle.
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