Edge turned when he heard the banging on the outer side of the door. Andy jerked out of her seat, sliding the chair to the side and aiming her gun at the door. Bailey and Mirela came around to each side. Mechelle stood next to Edge.

Another impatient knock echoed through the room, this time in a distinct pattern. Mechelle hurried forward and threw back the locks. Andy was shouldering her weapon while Bailey ran to be next to Mechelle. Mirela disappeared into the bathroom.

“She’s hurt bad,” Gail said the moment the door opened.

“Shit,” Andy said.

Bailey was already trying to assess what had happened. Edge surged forward. He reached between the women and picked up Lina’s limp form in his arms. Turning, he strode quickly across the room to their quarters. He gently bent over and laid her on the bed.

“Let me see,” Bailey said, sliding in next to him.

Mirela appeared and handed Bailey a knife. Bailey lifted the material and tried to cut it away. Frustrated with the amount of time it was taking, he reached down and grabbed the ends, ripping apart the bloodstained material.

“Thanks,” Bailey muttered, carefully lifting the makeshift bandage that Gail had pressed against the wound.

“What do you need?” Mirela asked, placing a medium-sized container filled with medical supplies on the crate next to the bed.

Bailey choked back a bitter laugh. “A sterilized operating room back on Earth and a team of doctors,” she replied.

“You can fix her up, can’t you, Bailey?” Mechelle asked.

Edge watched as Bailey dropped the bloodied bandage into a bucket that Andy had silently brought in and placed next to her. He saw her look of indecision as she looked at the supplies. It dawned on him that Bailey wasn’t sure what to do.

“Give me the blue box,” he ordered. “Bailey, the green container has an antiseptic cleanser in it. Clean the wound.”

Bailey looked up at him with a startled expression before she reached for the green container that Mirela was holding out to her. Edge took the blue box and opened it up. Inside was an emergency field kit. He inserted one of the vials containing a numbing agent into an injector, placed the business end of the injector near the wound on Lina’s side, and depressed the button.

“Bailey and I will take care of Lina,” he said.

Gail motioned for the others to step out, and paused in the doorway after they had left. Her gaze moved from Lina’s pale face to Edge’s. Edge looked up from what he was doing.

“Don’t let her die,” Gail said.

Edge nodded. “We need to stop the bleeding,” he instructed, kneeling down and focusing on the deep wound.

“Tell me what you want me to do,” Bailey responded.

* * *

Deppar walked down the lane. He was surrounded by five of his guards. Crowds of merchants and visitors warily eyed the group as they passed by.

“You said they were found an hour ago?” Deppar asked.

The guard walking next to him nodded. “Yes, sir,” the guard replied.

The small unit of men turned into the alley. Deppar slowed when he saw the three dead men. Standing to the side was his new Captain of the guard.

“What have you discovered?” Deppar demanded.

The guard glanced down at the men. “Witnesses state that one of the men was following a Driserian female,” he said.

Deppar walked around the bodies, scanning the ground. He paused. Kneeling, he picked up several bluish-white colored strands and rolled them between his fingers. He stood up and held out the strands to the guard.

“Analyze this,” he ordered, rotating to study the dead men.

Stepping closer to the man lying in the middle of the alley, he noticed a clip attached to the man’s vest. Scanning the area, he turned to look at the guard.

“He was wearing a vidpod. Spread out and find it,” Deppar directed.

The guard turned and waved his hand. “You heard him. Find it,” the guard repeated to the other men.

Deppar searched along the wall, two men checked under the bodies, and the rest spread out. The vidpod would be small and difficult to find in the ill lit alley. On the third pass, one of the guards called out. Turning, Deppar held out his hand when the guard hurried over.

“I need a reader,” he snapped.

The guard turned to the men. They all shook their heads. Deppar’s attention returned to the dead man.

“Check the body,” he ordered in irritation at the blank looks on the guard’s faces.

The guard bent over and searched the man’s pockets. Deppar impatiently waited. Several minutes later, the man held up a vidpod reader that he had pulled from the man’s leg pocket.

Slipping the tiny camera into the device, he skimmed through the videos. The guard had a penchant for taping his encounters with women. From the flashes of video he saw, the three dead men had worked together to target their victims. He slowed the video when he reached the guard’s first sighting of the Driserian.

The men had followed the Driserian for several blocks. There was something about the way the woman moved that didn’t feel right. Driserians tended to be hesitant and walked with a different gait due to the joint structure of their legs. Their knees were reversed, bending backwards instead of to the front.

This female had walked with a steady, smooth stride that spoke of confidence and… determination. She was searching for something. Deppar noted the vendors where she had paused, touching certain items. He saw her head turn. Frustration burned inside him because the hood of her cloak hid most of her face.

He caught the movement of her hands, as if she were speaking to someone before she turned and moved down the line of carts. At one point, she disappeared. The vidpod captured a 360 degree view as the guard turned trying to locate the woman.

Deppar sped up the video until he caught a glimpse of the blue gown the woman was wearing. He glanced at the time. It had taken the guards almost thirty minutes to find her again. She was coming down the alley where he was now. Behind her was one of the other guards.

Once again, frustration burned through Deppar. This reader model did not have audio capability. He watched as the scene unfolded. The laughter on the men’s faces, the woman’s bowed head, the discharge as she shot the guard to her left. The guard with the vidpod fell to the ground, so the front of the woman and the ground were all that was visible. The woman moved again. This time, Deppar was able to see clearly that her legs were not jointed like a Driserian’s.

She was quick, he noted. The vidpod angled upward as the guard rose. He could see red against the blue of her outer covering. She was bleeding.

The vidpod aimed straight now and for the first time, Deppar was able to get a view of the woman’s face. At first glance, she looked like she was a Driserian, except for her dark brown eyes. His hand tightened on the device when the guard’s arm blocked the view of the camera. A second later, the vidpod jerked as the guard stumbled backwards.

He froze the image on the face of a species he had never seen before. Frowning, he enlarged the image. The woman’s skin was darker than his. Rich, dark-brown hair matched the color of her eyes. Her lips were pressed together as if she were in pain. This confirmed that it had been her blood that he had seen on her outer clothing. He let the video continue playing. Her head turned, but he never caught sight of who she was looking at because at that point the vidpod had fallen off the guard’s vest and rolled until it was facing the back wall.

His hand closed around the recording device. He breathed deeply. A strange species like this, especially a female, would have been brought to his attention. Who had she been looking at? Could it have been the Trivator?

He looked over at the guard with a clean shot between the eyes. A shot like that wasn’t impossible to make, but it was not one most species would have picked first. Was it possible that this female had something to do with the Trivator’s escape? If so, how had she managed to get him out of his cell, through the building, across the planks that had bridged the gap across the alley, and spirit him away without being caught? It was impossible to believe—yet….

“Follow the blood trail,” he quietly ordered.

“Sir?” the guard asked, unsure if he had heard Deppar correctly.

Deppar turned and shot the man a heated glare. “I said follow the blood trail. The woman was injured and bleeding. Follow the blood trail and you will find her. When you do, inform me at once. I want her and whoever is with her brought to me alive,” he demanded.

“Yes, sir,” the guard replied.

Deppar swiveled on his heel and retraced his steps down the alley. He wanted to return to his office and further analyze the vidpod. He wanted to know who the female was and who was with her.