Page 38 of Obsessed

CHAPTER 20

DAVRIK

The sample bag swings at my hip as I approach the station, a sense of accomplishment warming my chest. Alice will be pleased with how many I found. The red flowers peek through the clear containment material, their delicate petals still pristine despite the journey.

My steps falter. The station's main door hangs open, swaying in the breeze. Scattered equipment litters the ground outside - definitely not how Alice keeps things. The sample bag drops from my fingers as I break into a run.

"Alice?" My voice echoes through the darkened corridor. No response. "Alice!"

The emergency lights cast an eerie red glow through the station. Glass crunches under my boots as I move deeper inside. The lab's in shambles - equipment thrown about, papers scattered.

A faint blue glow catches my eye beneath an overturned table.

"Davrik? Is that you making all that racket?" Navi's familiar voice calls out.

I drop to my knees, shoving aside broken glass to retrieve her module. "What happened here? Where's Alice?"

"Oh, now you care what I think? Not going to dismiss my readings as a malfunction this time?"

I grip the module tighter. "Navi, please."

"Fine. I didn't see much from where Alice dropped me. She was running, trying to hide I think. But I counted at least three sets of boots stomping around. Heavy ones, military grade from the sound pattern."

My jaw clenches. "And Alice?"

"They took her. Dragged her out actually - she put up quite a fight. Knocked over that shelf there trying to get away." Navi pauses. "I tried calling out to distract them, but they ignored me. Left me here like common trash."

"Which direction?"

"Northwest, toward the ridge. And Davrik? They weren't speaking any language in my database. But their gear looked familiar - similar to the pirates who shot us down."

Ice spreads through my veins. The same pirates who somehow knew exactly where to find my ship. Who most likely knew exactly what cargo I was carrying.

"They planned this," I whisper. "They couldn't find the cargo where I stashed it with Alice's. The only thing they could do was take Alice."

"What? Why would pirates want a botanist?"

I stare at the scattered papers, covered in Alice's neat handwriting detailing her breakthrough discovery. "Because she means more to me than the delivery."

Navi beeps in distress. "Davrik, compromising the delivery means compromising your own life."

"I know," I say, getting some gear together. "And my life means nothing now without her in it."

Broken branches and crushed vegetation mark their path through the dense foliage. I push forward, scanning the groundfor signs of their passage while trying to keep my mounting panic at bay. The tracks grow fainter with each step.

"They're good," I mutter, crouching to examine a partial boot print in the soft earth. "Too good."

"Well, they are professionals," Navi chimes from the pocket where I stashed her module. "Just like someone else I know who's very skilled at covering his tracks."

My fingers brush over a broken vine. "Not helping, Navi."

"I'm just saying, if anyone can find them, it's you. Though my sensors are picking up some strange electromagnetic interference ahead. Could be their ship's cloaking system."

The dying sunlight filters through the canopy, casting long shadows across the forest floor. Time's slipping away too fast. Alice is out here somewhere because of me - because I brought danger to her doorstep and then left her alone.

"Your heart rate's elevated," Navi observes. "More than usual for physical exertion."

"She trusted me." The words come out raw. "She opened her home to me, shared her work, her bed..." I swallow hard. "And I repaid her by making her a target."

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