Dark Matters - Michelle Diener Page 0,39
in the cupboard if you don't like them. I'll be looking around the rest of the house.” As soon as the words were out, he realized he'd spoken in Grihan.
There was a moment of silence, and he was about to repeat it in Tecran when Bane spoke in his ear.
“I've translated that for her.” The censure in Bane's tone was clear, and Dray bowed his head, just as annoyed with himself as Bane.
“Thank you.” Lucy's words were choked. The beauty of her voice was clogged, and he knew there was something wrong, but when he waited a beat for her to say more, nothing was forthcoming.
He closed the door and left, climbing up the next flight of stairs to find an identical bedroom and bathroom above, and then, on the top floor, a comfortable, plush room with an even more massive window than the rooms below, although the fog pressed up against it, leaving smudges of frost in its wake.
“How is she?” Bane asked, his voice overloud in air muffled by fog.
“I think she'll be better once she's warm. I'll make some grinabo for her, and something for her to eat.”
“That's all it was?” Bane sounded dubious.
“I think so. If the Grih get too cold, they can die. I think Earth people are similar.”
“Don't let her die,” Bane said, and there was a warning in his tone that chilled Dray.
“I won't.”
“No one will like the results if she does.” There was a promise in Bane's voice that made Dray wonder what he was talking about.
He decided he didn't want to find out.
“Can you connect me to Ambassador Dimitara?”
“She has been asking about you,” Bane conceded. “Quite vociferously. Just give me a moment.”
There was silence, and Dray left the top floor and ran lightly down the stairs. He stopped for a moment on Lucy's floor but he heard her moving around and that settled him a little, allowing him to continue down to the kitchen.
“Dray?” Dimitara's voice was sharp.
“I'm here.” He started pulling out mugs and bowls, taking some ready-made dishes out of the cooling unit and opening cupboards to find the grinabo maker.
“Where is here?”
“It might be better not to say, just in case someone is listening.” He guessed Bane would have good shielding, but Dimitara was sitting in a Tecran office, with hostile Tecran all around her. He'd take nothing for granted.
She was silent, then drew in a breath. “True. You're safe?”
“We are.” He didn't mention Lucy, but Dimitara's gasp told him she understood what he meant by 'we'.
“Good.” He heard a rustle, as if she was shifting in her chair. “That's very good. Things are less well here. The mass protests in the square haven't turned violent, but they show no signs of dissipating.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
She sighed. “It's a sticky area. The people are neither military nor government. They technically come under the government laws, but there is no law against the right to gather. That was set into the UC rules after that bad business with the light guns thirty years ago.”
“So you're going to let it play out?” He didn't think that ignoring the protesters was a good idea either.
“No. I'm going out to talk to them.” Dimitara sounded resigned.
“Take Cossi and Chep with you. Let them set up a secure perimeter.”
“Chep and Cossi have already suggested that. They let some people follow them around the square for nearly an hour and then came to find me to report.” She didn't sound happy. “I thought it would be bad when we got here, but my imagination was obviously not up to the task.”
“I'm surprised it isn't worse,” Dray admitted. “I know how the Grih would react, and I honestly don't know if we'd be this restrained. What is the government saying?”
He heard her chair squeak, as if she was leaning back in it. “They're panicked. They don't want to harm any of the protesters, but they also want to clear the square. And the shots fired in the square and in the side streets didn't go unnoticed.” She paused. “I'm guessing that was you?”
“I was responsible for some of the shots in the side streets. I don't know who fired in the square.”
“The military were firing at Lucy,” Bane said, and from the startled silence on Dimitara's end he guessed Bane had included her in the transmission.
“They were trying to kill her?” Dimitara's voice suddenly grew, as if three of her were talking at once.
“I think they planned to stun her