37
By the time Tarkus returned, Kaira had wiped her face and taken several deep breaths. When she heard his footsteps on the stairs she stood and went to meet him in the corridor.
“Have you checked there’s no stowaways?” she asked.
He smiled at her. “Just the one. She seems to be sticking around.”
Kaira chuckled, and shook her head at him.
“You wouldn’t know what to do without me.”
Tarkus’s smile slipped slightly, and he nodded.
“Now what?” asked Kaira, not wanting to follow that chain of thought. “Are they going to follow us?”
“Not for a couple of weeks. They’ll move on from this area, but they’re going to let us go through and draw any heat away from the transition point.”
“That’s good of them!”
“Well, I did insist. After all the trouble we’ve gone to, we really don’t wan
