IN wants with Skye.” Looking up at the heavens, Marcus shook his head in wonder. Why hadn’t it occurred to him before? It made perfect sense now. Skye had very dense cloud cover unlike anything he had seen on any other planet. Most days it was a complete coverage, but there was always at least 80 percent coverage. And as far as Marcus could tell, it was all of Skye, or at least all of Ellon, which was the continent they lived on. Granted he had not been on the other four continents or even all over Ellon, but he’d read a few books on his visits to the capital.
“Ahem.”
“Oh.” Marcus lowered his head to find Patrick and Ram still waiting. “The cloud cover will make it difficult to get intel. The IN could easily hide their activities on Skye from satellites and passing space crafts.”
Patrick’s face drained of color, or at least Marcus thought it did. His face certainly fell, his expression going from amused to shock.
“Do ye dinger! Marcus, ye just killed my jovial mood.” Ram frowned. “One minute I’m plotting revenge on Ciaran fer dunking me and Patrick in the moat, and now….” He shook his head and whispered “shit” under his breath. “From what I ken of ye technology, that would make Skye verra appealing, but are there other planets with a natural cloud cover?”
Shaking his head, Patrick groaned and wheeled his horse back around, willing them all to follow.
Nudging his horse with his heels, Marcus fell in behind him and looked at Ram, who got his own horse moving and sidled up next to him. “Most planets have clouds, but none that I know of with the amount that Skye has. Passing ships would not be able to see anything amiss. Not to mention the lack of technology. It isn’t like Skye can inform other planets what is happening here.”
“Hunh.”
Slowing his mount, Patrick allowed Marcus and Ram to catch up. “Are you sure?”
“What? About the reasoning?” Marcus shrugged. “About as sure as I am that it’s the IN who’ve been attacking us and who are building something on MacLean land.”
“No, about the satellite imaging?”
“Yes. Unless more advancements have been made in the last fifteen years. Satellite radar imaging can pick up an image, but it’s not detailed. For that they would need light detection and ranging. And that cannot penetrate clouds as well. I also remember hearing something different about Skye’s upper atmosphere…. Aren’t there more solar storms here? That would also make surveillance more difficult.”
Smiling, Patrick gave him a long, hard look. As though he had X-ray vision. His gaze settled in the vicinity of Marcus’s lap. “Meteor dust, I love your brains.”
“My brains are up here.”
“Ugh! Would ye two stop. We were talking about the IN… nae ye sex life,” Ram grumbled, positioning his mount so he could look past Patrick and see Marcus too.
Patrick chuckled and sobered just as quickly. “It makes sense. And if I were a betting man, I’d say they are building a base. It’s about the right size.”
“I agree.”
“Why would they need a base on a planet that isna part of their alliance?” Ram asked.
“When Marcus broke into their computers, there was something in there about making a base to reproduce, raise, and train soldiers. From what Bannon and Louisa have said, they still have not gotten Regelence’s procreation technology, but I’m sure they are still doing experiments. Perhaps they have finally perfected the process. At any rate, they’d want to keep it secret.”
It got quiet after that, everyone processing the information. Even the men behind them seemed to drift off into their own thoughts. It was a nice night. Cool but not cold, the air was, as always, fresh and clean. Already the lights of the MacKay keep lit up the night with a soft orange glow. The tops of the towers were silhouetted against that glow.
Marcus’s mount moved over the rough terrain, and its gait changed momentarily. Pain sliced up his hip and into his back. Stars, but it was too bad they did not have Plantation Walkers on Skye.
Patrick frowned at him. “You’re hurting. Why didn’t you say so?”
“What good would it do? We still have a bit to go to get to Lochwood Castle.” Marcus was not in the mood to be coddled and listen to Patrick’s fretting. It wouldn’t do any good, and it always made him feel like a weakling. He did not want to feel less than a man in front