Page 53 of Treasured By the Hunter

“No, you did. Just now.”

I was being outsmarted by a shuttle. “What did you find out?” I asked, deciding I might as well take the bait.

“Sorry, I can’t tell you. I promised Heather; she said it’s something Zoey needs to tell you herself. And don’t ask her, cuz then she’ll know I told you something.”

So it was something Heather knew, and Pip knew, but not anyone else. And Pip said he found out this morning. It must be something about her health. While Heather was officially the “veterinarian” of our group, we didn’t have many animals, and she was the closest thing we had to a medic.

They must have done a checkup this morning and sent the results to the lab before they cleared her to go. What in it was so interesting?

“You snuck into the files,” I guessed.

“I didn’t trust her and wanted to see what secrets she was hiding. I was caught red-handed.”

“You don’t have hands.”

Suddenly, a bright flash whizzed by the shuttle, rocking us wildly. What the— That was a shuttle blaster! I was being shot at.

“Shuttle, Pip, locate the hostile vessel.”

“No vessel located.”

“None at all,” Pip agreed.

That meant there was another vessel out there being used by hostiles. That was bad news. Unable to see it, there was nothing I could do to fight back. I turned around, zig-zagging back the way I came.

“You don’t want to go to Sanctuary anyway. Those idiots might interpret your presence as an attack and break the truce. Then they’llreallybe our enemies and you’ll never see Zoey again.”

Krux! Pip was right.

I directed my shuttle to return to base. They weren’t going to be happy to hear about the mystery shuttle. We could all be miserable together.

Chapter 26: Zoey

Clark had a black eye, which looked suspiciously like he’d been in a fistfight.

We were in his office, and Sasha, one of his right-hand men, had just stormed off. I wondered if it had been Sasha who’d given Clark the black eye, but it wouldn’t bruise that quickly.

“I’m glad I finally have a chance to talk to you alone. I’m not sure if you knew, but Connor and I were close.Connor was my brother-in-law. It was one of the reasons why he never settled down here. He saw my sister every time he saw me. It was hard on him.”

I’d known Connor was married before the bugs and that he loved and missed his late wife very much, but I hadn’t known she’d been Clark’s sister. “He mentioned her from time to time, but no, I didn’t know she was your sister.”

“Last time he was here, he mentioned he planned on visiting New Franklin to see if the rumors were true. This group Heather joined claims they’d come from there. You’ve been to their camp. What do you think of these people?”

“I like them,” I said honestly. “And if Connor was still around, I believe he wouldn’t have hesitated to join them. He was always talking about making a difference. And these people do.”

Clark scratched his beard, which was starting to grow in. “Then why come here?”

“Because Riley’s here, and I promised her.” It was only half the truth.

He asked me more questions about Harb’k’s group, and I answered without saying too much. I certainly didn’t tell him about Mina.

“Do you remember a kid named Caleb?” Clark’s question caught me by surprise.

I started to shake my head but then remembered a kid who disappeared a few years back. “The one who disappeared?”

“Yes. He’s living with his mother with a group in the Rockies. He’s a young man now, and”—Clark held up a cell phone—“according to the man I spoke with there, already a great pilot.”

“Really! Wow! That’s great.” I hadn’t known there’d been more than one contact in the phone they’d given him.

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