it for a few seconds and then her fingers started moving.
“What are you doing?” Dylan asked.
“Looking for signals. I think your Mr. Kinross likes to be in control. He would want to be able to access all the other computers. Which means his system must be sending and receiving signals.”
“And have you found any?” Dylan asked after a few minutes of silence.
She glanced up and grinned. “Of course. I told you I’m good. I’m just tracing the signals back to where they came from.” She tapped the screen. “This seems to be the main hub. Everything goes through here. Kinross’s Castle.”
Milo snorted. “The man has delusions of grandeur. But can you get in?”
“Give me a second.” Her fingers were flying again. “I’m in. Though there are some areas I can’t access. I’m sorry.” She handed him the tablet and picked up another donut.
“Don’t be,” Milo said. “You’ve gotten much further than us.” He scanned down the information on the screen. “There’s a big section here called Stellar Recruitment. Does that mean anything to you?” he asked Dylan.
Dylan moved to stand behind him so he could see the screen. “It was the company that organized the recruitment and training of the ships’ crews.”
“And can you guess who owns it?”
“Kinross? Well, that explains a lot. It would have given him access to the ships before they left Earth. He would have been able to put his own people in place.”
“And access to the crew families. You think that was Kinross?”
Dylan shrugged. “It makes sense.”
“There’s a whole load of information here. Manifests for all the ships. Crew details. And guess who’s got a big red flag next to his name. Captain Ricardo Sanchez of the Trakis Two.”
“That’s not good. But again, it makes sense if Kinross was in charge of recruiting the crew members.”
“Is it useful?” Destiny asked.
“Very.”
“I’m glad.”
Milo guessed she liked being useful. Otherwise why would she want to return to a situation where she was a virtual prisoner? To perform a mysterious role that she knew next to nothing about. It seemed crazy to him. “Do you want to go back, Destiny?”
She thought about her answer. “I want to do my duty. But just not yet.” She glanced away for a moment and he could almost see the thoughts warring in her head. Dr. Yang had done a real number on her. Brainwashing her into this role-to-play crap. “I have lots of books still to read and I don’t think Dr. Yang would approve of Fifty Shades. And I have six more Harry Potter books. And the Bible and so many more. But I will go back.”
“If you do, you can’t tell them about me and Dylan.”
“You’d be in trouble?”
“Big trouble.”
“I should lie?”
“We’ll go back to Trakis Two at some point. After that, it won’t matter. So maybe just stay with us until then. And you can finish your books and maybe we can get you some more.”
“Can you get me books on how spaceships work?” she asked.
He didn’t think there were many books on that particular subject, but maybe there would be engineering manuals on the Trakis Two. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you. And yes, I’ll stay here until it’s safe for you. I don’t want any harm to come to you and Dylan. You’re my friends. I’ve never had any friends before.”
Christ, that made him feel shitty. He didn’t want her for a friend. He wanted to be her… He shook away the thoughts and pushed himself to his feet. “If you hear anything or see anything in the forest then go hide in the tunnels. I’m going to put a cloaking device on the entrance.
“What’s a cloaking device?”
“It’s a prototype. New.”
“Like the teleporter?”
It took him a moment to realize she meant when he’d magicked them out of her cell. “Just like the teleporter.” He caught Dylan’s gaze as he spoke.
“Liar,” the other man silently mouthed.
Yeah. Time to change the subject. Again.
“We need to get back and analyze this information. But first, let’s go show Dylan your spaceship.”
Chapter Eighteen
“When you compare the sorrows of real life to the pleasures of the imaginary one, you will never want to live again, only to dream forever.”
—Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Destiny raised her head and listened. She’d been engrossed in her book, but she’d just reached the end—again—and now the outside world intruded.
Had there been a noise? She concentrated and picked up the sound, analyzed it. Booted feet. For a moment her heart lifted. It’d been two days