Page 16 of Escape Clause

“Krogan’s penthouse,” she said as she got into the tube for the umpteenth time. In her mind’s eye, she pictured the flowers with their huge, sweet-smelling perfect heads.

The vaporator opened.

The noise hit her first. Squawking, chiming, clanging sounds assaulted her ears.

Then the smell. “Oh my god.” She pinched her nose at the assault of sewage clashing with other noxious odors.

Colors had grayed, the entire area shadowed by the giant cloudtoppers, their lower levels blackened by alien graffiti.

The people seemed grayer, their skin less blue—but that could have been the grime. Smudging walkways, buildings, and faces, it covered everythingexcept the expressions of despair and malice. Rough, scary huge alien men, their eyes either vacant or mean, ambled aimlessly over trash-covered, filthy walkways, as if they were lost. As one came abreast, he looked right at her and made a beeline straight for her.

Run. Run. Get out!Frozen with shock and fear,she couldn’t mentally formulate a place to go, and he squeezed onto the vaporator, bringing with him an eye-burning unwashed odor. That galvanized her into action, and she jumped out before he could take her someplace worse.

Could there be a place worse than the surface of Caradonia? She realized that’s where she was. Thoughts ofpenthouseandflowerssomehow had landed her on the surface.I am clearly not doing this right.

She couldn’t find her way to the officiant’s office, and she couldn’t get home either.

Chapter Nine

Krogan burst into his apartment. “Hope! Hope!”

The scarlet sunset painted a pink blush over the vacant living room.

He ran to her bedroom, almost smacking into the door because it didn’t open fast enough. “Hope!”

She wasn’t in the bedroom or the bath. Panic thrummed in his chest, and the sick feeling worsened.She left me. She caught a flight back to Terra Nova at the spaceport.

She can’t do that! We have a contract!

We’ll see about that!

If the ship hadn’t left yet, he’d drag her off the vessel and force her to live up to her commitment.A deal is a deal.He charged out of the bath, stopping short at the sight of two dresses hanging in the closet. He recognized the green one from the day before. The other, yellow with white flowers, looked frayed and faded. The sleeve cuffs and the hem were ragged, and he spotted mended tears in the fabric.

She wouldn’t have left without her clothes.

Unless she left these behind. They are practically rags.

Except her carryall had been folded and placed on a shelf.

Again, he was struck by the paucity of her belongings.

A vague sense of guilt settled over him, adding to the emotional stew. He left her suite and verified she wasn’t in his room or the other bedrooms.

Maybe Don One knows something.

He found the android in the kitchen.

“Good evening, Krogan,” Don One greeted him. “Are you ready for a meal?”

“No. Do you have any idea where Hope is?”

“Yes. She is on Caradonia.”

He closed his eyes.Not the bot’s fault. Not the bot’s fault.It could only perform to its programming specs. Although a conversational model, it answered questions literally. He opened his eyes. “What time did she leave the apartment?”

“She left at three forty-one and sixteen seconds.”

“Did she indicate where she was going?”

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