Merri was lying in bed
semi-conscious when Dwyn walked in carrying a coffee and she said
“You’d better drink
this, you look awful”
“Thanks for that”
Merri retorted “but I’ll be fine if I get some more sleep”
“I thought you and the
crew were going out on hover buggies this morning” Dwyn added
“Not until later” she
answered sleepily “What is the time anyway?”
“Later” Dwyn replied
and after a few seconds Merri sat up in bed a look on her face like a startled
rabbit.
“Oh God” Merri said
with panic in her voice “I’m going to be late”
“Well only just” she
said with a smile on her face
“I need to get
dressed” she said panic stricken “I’m in the wrong room”
“Ok just take a
breath” Dwyn suggested
“That’s all very well
but what am I going to do?” she ranted and picked up her posh frock and threw
it on the bed.
“Well don’t panic for
a start” Dwyn suggested
“But I can’t walk back
to my room wearing that, everyone will think I’m doing the walk of shame” Merri
snapped
“Alright calm
yourself” Dwyn said trying to control her laughter,
“Calm down? Calm down?
It’s alright for you” she shouted “You’re not the one that’s going to look like
a tart”
“Nor are you” Dwyn said
but Merri continued her rant and then when the penny dropped
“What?”
“You can wear
something of mine” Dwynwen suggested
“Really?”
“Yes really” she said
“I sorted some out already, they’re on the chair”
“You mean I’ve been
ranting and raving all this time for no reason?” Merri exclaimed
“That’s about the size
of it” she said
“I should thump you,
But I won’t” she said and hugged her instead
Merri dressed quickly
and said
“Ok I’m off, I’ll
quickly pop to my room and then join the others downstairs”
“Ok I’ll meet you down
there after I’ve spoken to my minders” Dwyn replied and quickly embraced her,
then Merri opened the door, and Ferro Scanner and Ambor Etra immediately sprang
to their feet.
“It’s ok” Merri said
“I’m the other one”
Ferro nodded and opened
the door and Merionwen slipped out and then walked briskly towards the
elevator.
She only had to wait
for a minute or so before the door opened, and once inside she said
“Level 3”
But just before the
door closed an arm halted its progress and two men joined her in the lift, both
were humans, one was small and shabbily dressed, with weasel like features, and
the other was cut from very different cloth, tall good looking and well
dressed.
As soon as the door
closed the good-looking man said
“Its Miss Strong isn’t
it?”
She turned to look at
him and replied
“Yes, it is, but I
don’t know yo…”
Her sentence tailed
off because while “Good looking” had her attention, “Weasel” paralyzed her with
a jab to the neck with a needle.
Once Dwynwen had
finished dressing, she and her bodyguards, Ferro and Ambor left her suite and
took the elevator to the ground floor and then they walked through the busy
reception until she spotted the Tornado Crew laughing and joking in one corner,
so she headed straight for them and said
“Hello Tornadons”
“Hi Dwyn” Parse
responded, “Where’s Merri?”
“She’s not with me”
Dwyn replied “She went back to your room to change ages ago”
“I’ve just come from
the room and she’s not there” Parse retorted
“Well she should have
been” Dwyn repeated “She must have got distracted, or….”
“Or what?” Parse asked
urgently, and the rest of the group stopped their chattering, as Dwynwen turned
to gesture towards Ferro Scanner and he immediately moved towards her.
“She left MY room this
morning” she said but got no response, so she added “She looks like ME”
But still the penny
hadn’t dropped
So Dwynwen took a deep
breath and said
“She left MY room,
looking like ME, so what if someone grabbed her thinking she was me?”
“Oh God” Parse
exclaimed “What are we going to do?”
“Do we know who might
have done it?” Asti chipped in
“It could be anyone”
Ferro admitted “Mercenaries or bounty hunters, we just don’t know”
“So, what can we do?”
Lyris Skeet asked
“We can check to see
if she left the hotel” he replied and left the group to consult with Ambor Etra
and after a few moments Ambor rushed off.
Meanwhile Malena and
Shiyne exchanged a look and discreetly stepped to one side.
“Time to switch your
radar on Shiyne” Malena said, which of course meant that Shiyne
should use her telepathic gift, because Shiyne was a Vann and all of the Vann
were telepaths, by varying degrees, and many of them left their home world at
some point to use their gifts to earn a wage.
Those at the zenith of their talents worked as corporate negotiators
or in the justice systems of the Legion.
Shiyne was a Vann with mid-range capabilities and she could read most
species to some extent, her skills were limited with the more sophisticated or
complex brains, lesser minds were easier for her to explore.
In addition to reading
minds she could also implant thoughts and the suggestions would stay in place
longer with someone who was more intellectually challenged.
But in this instance, it was her reading skills that were required.
“Just what I was thinking” she responded and closed her eyes, creased
her cerise coloured brow with concentration and began scanning.
Malena and Shiyne’s discreet withdrawal hadn’t gone entirely unnoticed by Dwynwen so while Ambor was
checking with security and Ferro Scanner was in communication with the Embassy
she also sidled over to join Mal and the Vann and arrived just as Shiyne said
“I’m getting nothing”
“Oh God they’ve killed
her” Dwyn exclaimed
“No, it’s not that
kind of nothing” Shiyne explained “it just means that she’s unconscious,
probably sedated”
“Are you sure?” Dwyn
asked
“She’s sure” Mal said
“It’s what she does”
“So, what can we do?”
she asked
“Keep trying” Shiyne
replied
“The problem is that I
can’t get a fix on her because of her sedation”
“Is there anything we
can do to help that?” Dwyn asked
“Yes, we can get
closer” Malena said
“Good, let’s go” Dwyn
said
“In which direction?”
Mal asked
“What?”
“We need to know which
general area she might be in” Shiyne said
“Can’t we do it by a
process of elimination?”
“Sure, but it they
move her while were searching I might never find her” the telepath explained
“So, it’s hopeless”
Dwyn said resignedly
“Not if your
Andraxian’s can tell us what direction the abductors were heading in” Malena
said
“Then I can start my
search there” Shiyne added
“Let’s go and talk to
them then” Dwyn said and made a bee line for Ferro Scanner, who took a step
back as Dwynwen and the Tornado crew bore down on him.
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