Page 20 of Polestar
“I don’t know,” Sascha said, trembling.
“The room wasn’t on a ship.”
“No.It was some kind of transfer place.”
“Can you tell me more?”
Sascha shook her head as her body trembled.
Ana didn’t want to push her too hard, but she wanted to know more about this transfer place.
“Can’t you hear him?”Sascha said, eyes fixed behind Ana’s left shoulder.
Ana glanced over her shoulder.She saw no one else.
“No.Who is there?”
“I don’t know who he is.He just keeps screaming at you,” she sobbed.
Save them.
Ana straightened.She’d heard it just once.She was so focused on Sascha, she didn’t sense anyone else.
Still couldn’t.
“Can you describe him?”
Sascha shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut.“No, I don’t want to… dark hair… uniform of some kind.Same as the guys that protected me.Please, I don’t want to talk anymore.”
The numbness dissipated and emotion surged forward, overwhelming the space surrounding them.
Ana gasped as Sascha sobbed.
“Okay, Sascha, thank you.Thank you for talking to me,” Ana said, voice soft as she struggled to reconcile the girl’s emotions washing over her.
She closed her eyes, drew a deep, steadying breath, and when she opened them again, the chair across from her was empty.
As it had always been.
Elbows braced on her knees, she leaned forward until her forehead rested on her trembling hands.
“Are you all right?”Magnus’ deep voice was quiet in the small room.
“Yes.”She glanced at her phone on the table next to the untouched glass of water.She picked up the phone to speak into it.“Interview with bi-located victim in shock before she returned to her body.”Ana’s hands continued to tremble as she described the interviewee and what they said, since she couldn’t be sure how much the recording would pick up of the conversation.
The phone slipped from her fingers, bouncing on the carpet.
Magnus scooped it up, sat across from Ana, and held it for her to finish her report.
When she finished, she turned the recorder off.
“Is it always like that?”
She shook her head.“You’re pretty calm for someone that just watched me talk to an empty chair.”
“It was a first.”His lips quirked.“Who was the other person?”
“I-uhm… don’t know.”She swallowed.
