She glanced at her ship and its shattered window. Renewed hatred flared for her father, but it deflated quickly—there wasn’t time. Not now. Not when she had her first taste of hope in two endless weeks.
“Paris,” she murmured. “We can take the train from Toulouse—it’s, what, eight hours?” She hated the thought of being without her ship, but even the obnoxiously slow maglev train would be quicker than getting the window replaced. “Someone will have to look after the farm while I’m gone. Maybe Èmilie, after her shift. I’ll send her a comm, then I just need to grab some clothes and…”
“Scarlet, wait. We can’t just rush up there. We need to think this through.”
“Rush? We can’t rush? They’ve had her for more than two weeks! This isn’t rushing!”
Wolf’s gaze darkened and Scarlet paused, for the first time recognizing his unease.
“Look,” she said, wetting her tongue, “we’ll have eight hours on the train to think up something. But I can’t stay here a moment longer.”
“But what if your father is right?” His shoulders stayed stiff. “What if she has hidden something here? What if they come looking for it?”
She roughly shook her head. “They can look all they want, but they won’t find anything. My dad is wrong. Grand-mère and I don’t keep secrets.”
Fourteen
“Your Majesty.”
Kai turned away from the window that he’d been staring out half the morning, listening to the drone of the news anchors and military officials reporting on the escape of the most-wanted convict in the Eastern Commonwealth. Chairman Huy stood in the doorway, Torin beside him. Both looked supremely unhappy.
He gulped. “Well?”
Huy stepped forward. “They’ve gotten away.”
Kai’s pulse hiccupped. He took a tentative step toward his father’s desk and gripped the back of the chair.
“I’ve given the order to deploy our reserve fleets immediately. I am confident we’ll have the fugitives found and taken into custody by sunset.”
“With all respect, Chairman, you don’t sound particularly confident.”
Though Huy puffed his chest out, his face took on a tinge of pink. “I am, Your Majesty. We can find them. It’s only that … it’s complicated by it being a stolen ship. All the tracking equipment has been stripped.”
Torin let out an irritated sigh. “The girl has proven herself to be more clever than I would have given her credit for.”
Kai dragged his hand through his hair, extinguishing an unexpected spark of pride.
“There is also the issue of the girl being Lunar,” Huy added.
“Whoever captures her will just have to be alert,” said Kai. “They should all be made well aware that she’ll no doubt try to turn their minds against them.”
“There is that too, but not what I was referring to. In the past, we’ve had difficulty tracking Lunar ships. It seems that they’ve learned how to disable our radar systems. I’m afraid we’re not sure how they do it.”
“Disable our radar systems?” Kai glanced at Torin. “Did you know about this?”
“I’ve heard rumors,” said Torin. “Your father and I chose to believe that’s all they were.”
“Not all my contemporaries agree with me on this matter,” said Huy. “But I myself am convinced it is the Lunars disabling our equipment. Whether it’s through their mental abilities or some other talent, I can’t tell. Regardless, Linh Cinder won’t get far. We’ll have every resource searching for her.”
Tempering his inner turmoil, Kai molded his face into stone. “Keep me informed.”
“Of course, Your Majesty. There is one other thing I thought you might want to see. We’ve finished going over our security footage from the prison.” Huy gestured to the inlaid screen in Kai’s desk.
Rounding his chair, Kai tugged on his long sleeves, suddenly warm, and sat down. A comm from the council of national security rotated in the corner. “Accept comm.”
The screen brightened with footage of the prison, all white and glossy walls. It showed a long hallway lined with smooth doors and ID scanners. A prison guard moved into view and gestured at a door. He was followed by a short, old man wearing a gray cap.
Kai jerked upward. It was Dr. Erland. “Volume up.”