Page 96 of The Alien's Private Redemption

Chapter 23

Angela remembered the Orvax doctor as the one who had spent the most time questioning her about what had happened to Captain LaGrange.

He still looked angry when he took her to the other room and pulled out the tool to implant the tracker. It was awfully convenient that he had it there but she had the feeling he would have been looking for a reason to use it.

He worked in silence, his expression serious.

"I still don't know what happened to the Captain," she told him after she couldn't take the silence any longer. "I didn't have anything to do with it."

"I believe you were not an active participant it what happened," he said. "Though I do not think even you are aware of how you came to be part of it. The truth will out, however, and I will find a way to reverse his condition."

"Has it gotten worse?" she asked.

"We have arrested it for now," he said. "And being with his Mate is helping fight its progression."

"I'm glad they're able to be together," she said. "I never really understood how mates worked until I met Zoric."

Mintonar harrumphed at her and she got the feeling he didn't like Zoric much, either.

"I'll help if I can," she told him.

He walked behind her and shot the tracker into the muscles below her neck, just next to her spine. "Yes, you will."

A shiver ran down her spine when he put the tool away and walked out. Zoric hurried in a moment later, a set of keys in his hand.

"Are you okay?" he asked, pulling her into his arms.

She rolled her shoulders back, trying to get rid of the phantom pain that lingered from the tracking device.

"I'm fine," she said. "I think. Are those the keys to the truck?"

"They are. The Colonel gave you his personal vehicle, and a stipend in cash for gas. I suspect it was out of his personal accounts."

She grinned. "He's smarter than I thought. Or he realizes just how far back into the mountains we're going to make this call."

It was still before noon when they left the base and Angela didn't realize how long she'd been holding her breath at the gate when they drove out until the world started to spin slightly with the deep breath she took when the arm went up letting them out.

Human vehicles were not made for Chelion but Angela was happy to drive the entire way while he asked her questions about where they were going.

With all his questions, she realized that he had, in a very real sense, lived under a rock for most of his adult life. What modern culture he was exposed to was brought in by the women they kidnapped and the few humans willing to trade with them.

When they pulled off the highway eight hours later, she was describing some of her favorite cartoons to him.

"Bugs Bunny may have been a chaos spirit," she told him with a grin. "But he was also one of the greatest landscape artists of our time."

Zoric, who did have some knowledge of Bugs Bunny, laughed and agreed with her. Then, he turned his gaze to the solid rock wall that seemed to have sprung up directly next to the truck.

"I thought you said their were roads out to your mother's house?"

"There are," she said. "We're just not taking the obvious ones."

"You're right, I would never have mistaken this for a road. It barely looks like a deer trail."

She grinned at him. "It's sturdier than it looks. And it's faster than taking the routes everyone else knows. We'll get there before midnight this way."

"Were you ever able to tell your mother you were coming?"

Angela shook her head. "She doesn't have a phone. There used to be a party line that ran to the base of the mountain but they stopped supporting that around the time I was born. No cell towers out here or anything, either, but she has her ways of knowing things."

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