23
The rebels formed a phalanx around Scout to walk her back to the communications room. But it was a pretty loose phalanx, as the dogs were still growling nervously and none of the rebels wanted to get too close.
Joelle was seated at the same console when they entered the room, but she got up at once to stand with her hand on the back of her chair. She swallowed nervously, and Scout sensed that Joelle was working as hard as she was not to look at the closet door that stood innocuously closed at the end of the room.
Ken and Bente were there as well, but they didn’t look up from whatever they were working on, both grouped together in Ken’s workstation.
“Joelle,” Malcolm said, and his daughter snapped to more rigid attention. “Put a call through to the Months. Scout intends to have words
