Finders Keepers (Bantam Spectra Book) by Linnea Sinclair

Author:Linnea Sinclair [Sinclair, Linnea]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2005-04-26T04:00:00+00:00

Hana Jankova arrived five minutes after Doc left. “You gave us a good scare.”

Trilby looked at the auburn-haired woman. She could see no deception in her blue eyes. “I could probably turn that around and say you—or, rather, the Empire—gave me one. But Doc tried real hard to get me to read between the lines. He wants me to believe the Razalka had nothing to do with the attack on my ship.”

Jankova reached back, hit the palm pad for the door. It slid shut. “In time you will be told, and shown, everything. But, no, those fighters did not come from this ship. They came from Degvar. But the command to send them, yes. That did originate here.”

“Tivahr.” Trilby spat out the name.

“No.” Jankova’s voice was firm. “You must believe me on this. And yet you must, until I tell you otherwise, act as if you think it was Tivahr. Or else your life, and his career, will be in jeopardy.”

“But that makes no sense!”

“Please.” She leaned against the edge of the bed, her hand on Trilby’s arm. “I know I am not Neadi or Carina. You have no reason to trust me. But you must. Lucho Salnay is being held as coconspirator in your escape.”

“Lucho? Farra Rimanava’s Lucho? But he—”

“Helped you.” Jankova’s gaze pinned her. “Lucho helped you.”

Something began to work in Trilby’s mind. If Lucho was covering for Tivahr, then it could only be because Farra Rimanava had asked him to. And Farra wouldn’t ask unless Mitkanos approved. Trilby’s gut told her to trust Mitkanos. “Oh, right. Lucho helped me. Tell me what else I’ve forgotten. I’ve been seriously injured, Doc says.”

Jankova smiled, relaxed a bit. “Lucho helped you. He didn’t know that Captain Tivahr altered your primaries. You told him only that you were having integration problems between your ship’s technology and ours. Lucho manually released the docking clamps because you told him the mechanism wasn’t accepting your signal.” She heard echoes of Mitkanos in Jankova’s recounting. Only Mitkanos knew Trilby had tweaked the clamp mechanisms.

“Right. What happens to Lucho because of this?” Sacrificing that handsome young man for Tivahr the Terrible didn’t seem just.

“Because there was no hold order on your ship in Degvar ops, very little. His only crime, if you will, is that he didn’t advise the Razalka of your departure. For that oversight, he is in Major Mitkanos’s hands. I believe he is forcing him to study the history of the Stegzarda. Confined to his quarters, of course. Mitkanos’s trusted niece, Corporal Rimanava, is the only one permitted to bring him meals. Poor man.”

“So Lucho helped me and I escaped. What made Tivahr send the squadron after me?”

“Captain Tivahr was well aware that you were to remain on Degvar until Lord Minister Kospahr authorized your release.”

“That’s the certain someone who wants to kill me?”

Jankova cringed slightly. “Not exactly, no. Rather, I think he has little value for any one life when political decisions are made. We cannot prove that, of course. But he

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