Page 7 of Abducting Sarah

I clapped his shoulders and said, “Jacaranda, come in.”

He smiled back. “Don’t mind if I do.”

He walked in, wearing those tacky black fatigues he loved so much, and sat on the end of my bed.

“Tell me how it went.”

“She’s in your infirmary, with Wave giving her the once-over.” His words were positive, but his tone was thick with judgment.

“Speak your peace,” I said.

“This is a shit idea, Deacon.”

I laughed. “You have got to spend less time on Earth. Your words are theirs.”

He shrugged. “Not really the topic at hand, is it?”

“I suppose not. Why do you object to—”

“She’s got drugs in her blood, according to Ode. Enough that the doctor was afraid the girl would die in transport, if we kept sedating her.”

“Why would you need to sedate her more than once?”

“She woke up because of the drugs she already had in her system,” he said adamantly. “Whatever she is on, it interferes with our medicines. She even had pain when Ode injected her with our language.”

I frowned. “That should be painless—”

“Exactly. This one…I understand why you want her specifically, but she’s not the right one for the job. She’s too strung out.”

“It has to be her,” I insisted.

“She is not the only conduit—”

“It has to be her, Jac,” I said more firmly. “I can’t trust anyone else to do what I need done. You know I’m right.”

“I know youthinkyou’re right.”

I sighed. “How did it go when she came out of sedation?”

“Not well.” He pointed to a cut on his cheek. “She did this.”

I laughed. “Are you kidding me?”

Jac glared. “Now who sounds like a human?”

“Seriously, Jac, how did she get the drop onyou, if she was all drugged up?”

He shook his head and sighed, embarrassment plain on his face. “I got too close when she was looking the other way, and she was much faster than I had anticipated when she spun back around. I’m still not sure how she got a hold of the penknife, but I think it was the one from Ode’s lab coat.”

“So, she snuck a penknife and managed to be faster than you thought. Seems she’s got more spunk to her than you had imagined, drugged or not.”

“Don’t sound so proud of your new pet. You don’t know what will happen to her without her drugs.”

“You think she will suffer withdrawals?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Ode was worried about it, though. She’s walking Wave through her vitals and her biology—”

“Wave knows human biology.”

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