I'd suspected she would be involved.

Dammit.

Not just involved, but somehow my sweet, broken Valrea was the daughter of the monster I planned to kill.

I wasn't worried she was tainted. I was worried she would hate me for what I was going to do.

Outside, a few people scurried between their tasks, quickly looking away as our merry band passed by.

I watched their faces, watching their expressions.

Scared. Resigned. Some were gleeful, and I marked them as the fanatics, the faithful that Valrea and Tianna had mentioned. The ones who still believed in the plan.

Crossing the open square to the hall, we didn't enter by the small side door, but rather up a flight of stairs and through a grand columned entrance.

Smooth black masks covered the faces of the guards. But still, they were human. Not a Hunter among them.

Interesting.

I looked around. This was still information that could be useful. Even if I hadn't planned to be caught to get it.

In contrast to the utilitarian lab and the plain block buildings of the rest of the compound, the entry to the hall was opulently decorated, every carved surface gleamed in the low light.

At the far end a grand pair of doors, twice my height, swung open.

Valrea wrapped her arms around herself, shivering as they herded us inside. I wanted to put my arm around her, but the guys with the weapons made it clear they wanted us separated.

She was tough, she'd make it. Later I'd add it to their bill.

* * *

The stench hit me first.

Rotted flesh, hastily covered with chemicals, astringents. But nothing masked the smell of death.

I edged closer to Valrea, my hand reaching for the hilt of my knife before I remembered it was gone.

“Approach,” Stanton commanded.

He stood on the first step of a broad dais at the end of the room, next to a complicated device, tubes and wires twisting every direction, lights flashing.

On the other side, the Companion stood, just as still as I’d last seen it.

Valrea snarled, and her defiance sent a thrill of pride through me.

“I had high hopes for you, girl.”

The high reedy voice didn't come from the Companion or Stanton.

Shocked, I stared closer at the device and shoved down my horror.

A gaunt face, little more than paper-thin skin stretched over a skull, peered balefully at us from the device.

Sterile ceramics covered half the shaved head before encircling his throat, branching and wrapping across his chest. Tubes plunged into arms, pumping milky fluids, while wires led to electrodes on muscles.

General Melchior was a walking corpse. If he was still walking at all. “Stare all you want, boy. They always do. But destiny will not be denied.”

Stanton’s nose jerked a fraction, but he bowed to the general. “Of course not, your Imperial Highness.”

“Wait till we've won,” the general croaked. But a small twitch of the lips showed me he'd been pleased by the compliment, even if Stanton's disgust seemed poorly concealed.

“Girl, want to explain what happened this time?”

Valrea stayed silent.

The Companion’s hand rose a fraction towards her but then froze.

“Keep your secrets, if you want. You survived longer than most of your sisters. Most.”

He stared at it. “One day when we re-take the stars, I will have my loyal daughter at my side.”

Valrea shook her head. “Never. No matter how often you try. You can't have loyalty without love. And you don't even know what that is.”

The general hawked and spat an abortive laugh. “I can't have loyalty? Girl, what do you think built this place other than the loyalty and dreams of the men and women who believed in the plan. They are loyal!”

“They are afraid!” she shouted. “Afraid of you, afraid of their shadows, these are not the men and women that came with you.”

“They are children of the plan. The same as you are.” The old man raised his shaking finger. “Stanton, bring me the new one.

Stanton gave him another oily bow and left the room, gesturing for one of the guards to accompany him.

“Be useful boy, tell us where the rest of your kind are, and I might let you live a little longer.”

I flashed my teeth in a wild grin. “I wouldn't worry about it, old man. You'll see them soon enough.”

“I don't know why I bothered with you,” the general ranted. “She promised new, efficient soldiers. New techniques and advances that would heal this wrecked body, get me up and in the field again, leading my troops to victory!”

Spittle flew as the old man roared, lights flashed in time with the frantic beeping of the device that I suspected was all that kept the general alive.

But I didn’t care, as his words sunk in.

She promised.

She.

Doc.

We all knew she'd been mixed up with some unsavory business. It shouldn't have been a surprise. But since Connor had found the remains of her body in a malfunctioning stasis pod back on the Daedalus, there wasn't much use getting angry with her now.

“Like your lackey said,” I lashed back. “We don't take orders well. Isn’t that what you needed the Hunters for?”

He seethed, glaring through rheumy, hateful eyes. “No matter. Hunters were tools to be discarded once they served their purpose.” His toothless mouth twisted into a grin. “You have to admit, they did it well.”

“Until we killed them all and sent their base ship into the sun. But yeah,” I shrugged, “until then they were pretty good.”

For a moment I fantasized about leaping across the guards and throttling the old man with his own tubes.

But Valrea would never survive the counter-attack.

Information. That's what I'd come here for. And that's what I would get out of him, even if he didn't realize it.

“Here she is, my Lord.” Stanton returned, but walking slowly, bent at an odd angle. And any plan of resistance stopped cold as I saw that he had to stoop to hold the small hand of the little girl trailing behind.

Dark brown hair, but I could see the red highlights that would come when she was older. Eyes too big, too wary for that tiny chubby face.

At Valrea’s sharp intake of breath, I knew she saw it, too.

“Come here, little one,” demanded the general.

The little girl dropped Stanton's hand, refusing to approach near.

“Don't want to.” She stared at the ground, fat lower lip quivering.

Valrea rushed towards her but her way was blocked by one of the faceless guards. “What are you doing?” she screamed at him.

The old man cackled. “You know better than that. Don't you remember meeting your own older sister?”

Valrea shook her head, numbly.

“Well, that doesn’t matter now. If you don’t give me any more trouble, I'll let you pick this one's punishment.”

Valrea rocked back. “What do you mean?”

“It's amusing to watch each of you try to pick something that will hurt the next one less.”

He looked at the Companion, still, unmoving.

“Don't you think so?”

The Companion didn't answer.

The little girl flopped down to sit and sniffled.

By the time she'd worked herself to a full wail, the Companion had crossed the room and gathered her into its arms.

“Fine,” grumbled the general. “Take it away. You can begin its training tomorrow.”

Before the Companion left, I would have sworn that it looked directly at Val. But there was no telling what was behind the black dome.

“I hate you,” Valrea hissed.

“I know.” He motioned for the guards to lead us away. “Oh, and I thought you should know. It wasn't the Companion who betrayed you.”

I froze.

I wouldn't give him the pleasure of reacting. No matter what he said, his words were weapons, carefully aimed to hurt Valrea.

She kept her back rigid, but her step faltered.

“The Mechanicals chief, the one you’ve been spending so much time with. She was caught altering recordings by one of her juniors.” He cackled. “That man is faithful to the cause at least. I’ve promoted him to her station as a reward. After interrogation, we traced her steps. It wasn't hard to determine where you'd show up. You’ve always tried to get to the lab.”

The bed rustled, tubes and wires clinking together as he laid back. “She’ll face the Devourer tomorrow for trying to help you. I thought you should know, have a little time to think about it.”

A guard pushed Valrea forward and she stumbled.

“Don't touch her,” I growled.

General Melchior's laugh was the last thing we heard as we were led away.

The interrogation cells hadn't been on Tianna's map. I sniffed the air. Possibly because they didn't ever need their plumbing looked at.

We passed three doors with narrow barred windows before we were shoved into a dark room together.

As the door slammed shut behind us a recessed panel lit into the ceiling.

Valrea instinctively turned away from it.

“Does the light still hurt your eyes?”

It wasn't the most pressing of our concerns, but it might be the one I could do something about it.

“No.” She shook her head. “It’s the cameras. They're always in those panels.”

Charming.

I glanced around the room. A hard shelf protruded from one side of the cell, a drain opened in the far corner. That was it. I could smell the traces of blood and shit from the previous occupant under the fresh coat of grey paint.

It obviously wasn't meant to hold people for long.

I examined the drain covering more closely. No bigger around than my fist. We weren't getting out that way.

But it might be good for something.

Decidedly not thinking too hard about it, I gripped the grill covering the drain and wrenched it off.

“I don't think you want-” Valrea started.

“I know I don't want to.”

The twisted piece of metal I was left with wouldn't be good for much. But it was a start.

“Cameras you said? Microphones, too?”

She bit her lip. “I don't know. I've never had anything I've said come back to haunt me, but honestly, I never talked much.”

“We'll have to chance it.” I looked at the panel of translucent plexi.

It could hide anything up there.

“Go close to the door, turn your back and cover your eyes.”

Valrea caught on, moved quickly.

I flung the sharp remains of the drain towards the ceiling.

It flexed, bouncing back.

I caught it, hurled it again, harder this time, watched where the impact stressed the material.

Again, a fourth time, and on the fifth blow, the panel shattered, raining shards of plexi around the room.

Valrea squeaked.

“Are you cut?”

“No, just surprised.”

“How long do you think it will take before they come to let us know we've been bad?”

“No telling. Believe it or not, I've never been down here. I always thought prisoners were taken directly to the cage.”

I went to help her brush shards out from her hair. “I doubt they'd waste the opportunity to collect any collateral intelligence.”

She didn't answer, just focused on rebraiding. “You must hate me,” she whispered.

I couldn't have told myself what I felt then, a chaos, a seething cauldron of emotions. But none of it was hate.

“I will never hate you, Valrea, but no more secrets. You've gotta promise me.”

She nodded, and I folded her in my arms, safe by my heart, where she belonged.

“She must be so scared. “I knew we were both thinking of the tiny girl and her wide, wary eyes.

“It won't matter for long. We'll get out of here, and when we come back we’ll rescue her.”

She shook her head, pushed away. “Then you can rescue me then, too.”

“Dammit! You know you're at risk. The general has made it clear he's not interested in keeping you around.”

“I don't care, I can go back…. someplace,” she caught herself before revealing our camp by the river to any microphones.

She touched my cheek, traced down the jawline.

“Would you leave one of your brothers here? A defenseless child?”

I snorted at the image. “We weren't defenseless from the moment we were taken from the incubating vats. But I know what you mean.” I heard footsteps come down the hall.

“We’ll argue about it later, okay?” I kissed the top of her head. “First we’re getting out of here.”

She stood in the corner next to the door where she would be clear of the line of fire. The footsteps stopped, and I widened my stance, braced.

The door slid open and I charged forward, fists ready to strike.

But it wasn't the guard.

Instead, the Companion waited, utterly still.

“You should come with me. There are many things left to learn.”