Skate sat in her cell wearing binders, shackles and a restraint helmet. When first restrained, the battle droids had used biodegradable binders on her, and then switched to the more sturdy metal ones she wore now after taking her into the cell. After the shackles came the helmet.

     The restraint helmet was designed to send a powerful shock to the wearer’s head when an attempt was made to remove it, or when it left a certain boundary set by a master sensor unit. It blocked all vision and didn’t lend itself to hearing, either. Luckily, a breather unit was built into it, so fresh air was abundant. And somehow, Skate suspected, the helmet disrupted her link with the Force. She had had a hard time focusing the Force enough to use it for unfastening the binders. Finally, after numerous attempts, she had given up.

      Sitting alone in the silent darkness had given Skate time to think. Primarily, of her stupidity for coming here all by her lonely. Her current situation was proof positive that Wrenn head been right in his plead for her to not go alone.

     What was I thinking?

     Now, it was most likely that the rest of Sith Squadron would never find her and she would be subject to the TOS Force’s whims. That is, as long as they wanted to keep her alive. Skate did fear for he personal safety but that was outweighed by the fact that the Sith would never see the information she had picked up from the barkeep on Sova.

     She had been thinking over that, too, and came to the conclusion that the information on the datacard hadn’t been bait for a trap. If it had, Ryvo Lorell had to be going by the assumption that the SSD would come in full force, and there were few or no ground bases that could withstand the assault from a Super-class Star Destroyer. That plan may have worked if it had been a decoy planet, and TOS Force ships had jumped in and pounded on the SSD, but that’s not the way it had been set up. Nobody in their right mind would reveal the location of a groundside base to their enemies, especially if those enemies had a Super Star Destroyer to bring to bear. Also, Veego’s apparent ignorance of how she found the base’s location seemed to support her idea.

     So Sith Squadron, unaware of the information she had obtained, would probably never find her or Reno. This knowledge made Skate feel even guiltier and more tore up inside than she had been in the past few weeks. Unable to hold back, she sank her head and let the tears stream from her eyes.

     Just then, the door to her cell hissed open, and the sound of footsteps approached her. She swallowed, for Veego had said he’d return for her first round of interrogation. But instead of Veego’s voice, she heard a low hum. After several seconds, the sound of metal against floor resounded, freeing her of her shackles. The sound continued and soon after, she was free of her binders. The humming stopped, replaced by a short click. Not knowing what to think, she stayed in place. The restraint helmet began to come off, so she grabbed it, pulling it back down. A hand squeezed her arm, assuring her that she wouldn’t be shocked. Apprehensively, she let the person remove the helmet, and while she wasn’t electrically shocked, she was shocked by the light hitting her eyes. Skate snapped her eyes shut and buried her face in her hands. Slowly, she gradually let her eyes open, adjusting them to the light. When she opened them fully and looked up, she saw standing before her a tall man with dark hair and blue eyes. He stood well over two meters and was clad in a TOS Force uniform. He offered her his hand, but she took a second to extend hers, lost in his eyes.

     Giving her the signal to stay silent, he led her from the cell in to a hallway. The hall was bare, with only three other doors breaking the redundancy of sterile, metal walls. At either end was a door, but the man took her to the one on the right. He punched a quick code into the keypad, cracked the door open, took a peek, and exited. Skate followed close behind and was surprised not to see any kind of security in the larger adjoining hallway. The tall man moved down the large hallway to the left for a few meters, then cut into an alcove. She ducked in with him, and found herself pressed against his hard body in the confining space.

     "We don't have to worry about the droids in this section," the man said in a deep, but youthful voice.

     "Well, that's good. Who are you?"

     "Not important right now," he said, shaking his head, swinging his small ponytail. "We're going to continue up this hall, cut a right at the third hall on the right, then cut a left at the end of that one, go down a flight of stairs, and enter the rightmost of three doors that will be in front of us. Got it?"

     "Uh, sure," Skate said, furrowing her brow. The man started to enter into the hallway, but Skate stopped him. “Do you have any weapons I can use?” Skate looked at the man’s loaded up belt and vest.

     “I’ve got my Magna Caster, Luxan Penetrator, Quickfire-4, DEMP gun, Gee-Tech micro blaster in my sleeve,” he said, tapping each weapon as he named them. “Here.” He handed her a small, cylindrical item.

     “A stylus?” she asked incredulously. “What am I going to do, give them my autograph?”

     “You don’t think I’m going to give you a gun do you?” He shook his head. “Hit the button and a monomolecular blade will extend. It’s a stiletto. Use it like a lightsaber.”

     “Speaking of which, I don’t want to leave until I get that back.”

     “I anticipated that, and have planned accordingly. I disabled the cam in the cell, but they’ll get suspicious pretty quick. Let’s go.”

     “Where is Baron Reno?” Skate asked.

     “No time! Let’s go!”

     Skate gripped the stiletto and stayed close to the man’s back. He leveled the DEMP gun in one hand and his Magna Caster in the other. Skate didn’t know much about the latter, but a DEMP gun was a weapon used to immobilize droids, or with the proper setting, render them irreparable. Not a bad choice of weaponry for this occasion.

     They continued down the hallway to the appropriate junction and cut right. There were many doors in that hall, but none had the type of locks that were on the entrance to the miniature cell bay. Skate stayed back to back with her rescuer as they crept down the long corridor. As they neared the T-junction at the end of the hall, two humans dressed in TOS Force coveralls came around the corner on the left. The man pumped two arrows into them from his Magna Caster as they turned his way. They both went down, but only cried out momentarily, as whatever chemical had been applied to the arrows took effect.

     “Is anyone in there?” he asked Skate, nodding to the nearest door.

     Skate opened herself to the Force and concentrated on the room. “No.”

     “Let’s toss them in there.”

     They dragged the two men into the room, which was full of cabinets and worktables, then proceeded down the staircase. They winded their way around stacked crates and drums. Skate looked off to the right to see a huge warehouse. Most of the ceiling to floor shelves were empty, and a few cargo droids could be seen hauling things around. As they rounded the next row of crates, a battle droid trimmed in yellow stepped out in front of them. Skate gasped, but the man raised his arm. The droid extended its right arm, and Skate was surprised to see her lightsabers in its hand.

     “You’re still on stand down until further notice. Orders.” Skate’s rescuer took the lightsabers.

     “Roger roger.” The battle droid marched off.

     Skate took her lightsabers from the man, glaring at him. “How?”

     “It’s called a restraining bolt.”

     “Obviously, but how you got it on there is beyond me,” Skate said, sticking her smaller lightsaber in her boot.

     “I’ve got skills. I couldn’t find the central computer that controls them, though. That would have been a good thing.”

     “Wait, they have a central control system, along with a command structure?” Skate asked. “Why?”

     “Ask the idiot that designed them. But only the droids under his command aren’t going to mess with us.” The man holstered the Magna Caster and drew his blaster. “At this point, stealth matters little. Ready?”

     Skate nodded and they moved for the door. It was more than a twenty-meter sprint with no cover. They made it to the door without mishap and took up positions on either side. The man pounded on the hinged door, which swung open. Skate ignited her cobalt blade and took off the first battle droid’s head. The man aimed the DEMP gun through the vertical crack in the door on his side and shot the other droid, prompting it to spark, smoke, and collapse. Skate rushed through the door, waving her blade around. All across the huge hangar mechanics looked up from their work with looks of confusion, surprise and fear. She felt the same emotions coming from them through the Force. Several battle droids at the exit on the far side turned and saw the two. They opened up with blaster fire, and Skate had to bat away a few bolts.

     Skate and her rescuer jumped over the sides of the stairway to take cover. “Looks like you picked the wrong officer droid,” she said over the sound of the laser fire.

     “I got your blades back, didn’t I?”

     “Where to?” Skate said, ignoring his comment.

     “We need something fast. Those ULAV’s!” He pointed to some small craft with laser cannons mounted on them.

     Skate surveyed the hangar. Most of the mechanics were making for doors off to the right, but some had acquired blasters and were joining in with the battle droids shots. The droids had advanced and taken up cover positions behind the various vehicles.

     “If we’re going to make a move, we’d better do it soon, because that door above is going to be shooting out droids like Telti any time now,” the man said, taking shots at the droids. He managed to hit one, and it fell to the ground.

     Skate swallowed. “I have an idea.” She pulled her mini lightsaber from her boot, ignited it, and drew in a deep breath. She gritted her teeth, drawing on the dark side, letting it roil inside her. With all her strength, she threw the blade, sending it spinning through the air. It cut through the first droid, second, third, until it bisected all seven of them. The blade then hit a speeder and fell to the ground. Skate let out the breath she had been holding and looked at the tall man in his blue eyes. He seemed impressed, but not for long, as a bolt from one of the mechanics made good with his arm. Covering the wound with his right hand, he fixed his gaze on the mechanics with a fire in his eyes.

     “Run away before that speeder explodes!” he bellowed at the makeshift soldiers.

     The mechanics stopped firing their weapons, looked at the speeder they were taking cover behind, and ran toward the doors that their counterparts had absconded through.

     Skate ran around the staircase to his side and eyed him as he pulled a strip of bandage from a pouch. “What was that all about?”

     “I’ve got skills. Let’s get to that ULAV!”

     “Wait…before we leave I must know if Reno is here.” Skate snatched the bandage from his hand and began wrapping it around the wound.

     “No. He hasn’t been here for at least a few days.”

     “Then you know who Reno is?” Skate narrowed her eyes. “Who are you?”

     “No time. Those alarms mean more droids.”

     Skate hadn’t noticed the alarms, and didn’t know how long they’d been sounding. “Let’s go.”

     They scrambled over to the nearest ULAV. The craft were small, two-seater assault vehicles with single rear-mounted laser cannons. If Skate remembered correctly, they were used by both the Empire and Rebel Alliance.

     “Jump in,” the man ordered her.

     “Why me?”

     “Because I have one more thing to do,” he said, unzipping a long, vertical mounted pouch extending from his right shoulder to his belt. Pulling out three thermal detonators, he set each one and rolled them in three directions, the last one toward the refueling station on the far wall. By the time he joined Skate in the ULAV, she had already fired up the engines.

     Before the canopy was even fully closed, she hit the throttle, sending them shooting for the open hangar door. Even by the time they had passed through the doors, nobody had arrived on the scene. Maybe he did take out the right officer droid.

     Her rescuer took some shots at the other vehicles in the garage with the laser cannon, but it was the three thermal detonators that did the real damage. Almost instantly, the hangar became a volcano, spitting flames out more than a fifty meters. She knew the explosion of the fuel tanks had been responsible for such a huge blast. He then aimed the cannon at a sensor dome of some sort about thirty meters to the north of the base, and destroyed it. Skate remembered reading that the major design flaw in the ULAV had been its single rear-mounted laser cannon, but she had to admit that it made for a great escape vehicle.

     “Flandon’s Teeth, this hurts.”

     “I must ask…was that their only hangar?” Skate asked, ignoring his grouse.

     “They have a couple heavy speeders in the courtyard, along with, maybe, two small speeders. I just took out everything spaceworthy, unless there’s something else that I don’t know about, or if there was something on patrol.”

     “So four speeders. Where am I taking us?”

     “First take us in this direction until we’re out of visual range from the base. Then cut southwest and head that way for two hours. Break northwest and stay on that heading until I give further instructions.”

     “You didn’t answer my question,” Skate said candidly.

     “To my ship.”

     “Now’s a chance for you to tell me who you are.” The man didn’t answer. “Well?”

     “Okay, but don’t go crazy on me when I tell you.”

     “I’m not promising anything,” Skate said, a bad feeling starting to roil in her gut.

     “I’m Ryvo Lorell.”

     At that moment, Skate’s stomach went from bad to worse.

     After checking out the Bottomless Bottle for Bran Klinn, only to find that his shift had ended, Jace and Jen returned to the bar where they had met Benny Nedran. After finishing a song, Benny had called for a break, and taken the two Sith to the back. Much to the musician’s chagrin, the audience hadn’t cared.

     Jen was relieved that Benny hadn’t taken his band and retreated from the cantina in spite of the intense conversation she and Jace had had with him. He had even gone so far as to introduce them to his band. Given the circumstances, Jen had rushed through the pleasantries. Still, she had felt a bit uncomfortable when Jalia had been introduced. And with good reason, as the woman had been cold, yet polite.

     “Yeah, Bran lives in suburban R.U.C.O.S.S. But he usually hits his favorite hangout before going home. Mid-life crisis kind of thing. His wife left him a few years back.” Bran shrugged. “We can go look for him there, if you want.”

     “Well…we didn’t exactly come here to go bar hopping-“ Jace started.

     “Speak for yourself,” Jen interrupted. “ I have yet to find one with Whyren’s.”

     “-but under the circumstances, we’re ready to leave when you are.”

     Benny nodded, then turned to his wife. “Think you can handle the Kloo horn for a few songs?”

     The green-skinned Twi’lek smiled. “A few songs?”

     “I didn’t mean it that way. Far be it from me to take your musical ability lightly.” Benny took his wife’s hand.

     “Go,” Nesha said, nodding. “But be careful.” The Twi’lek woman wrapped her arms and lekku around Benny in a hug.

     The band leader kissed his wife. “Be back later.”

     After exiting through the back door, Benny turned to Jace and Jen. “To be honest, I am not that comfortable with this. From the way I understand it, Ryvo is in some real trouble. What are you, bounty hunters?”

      “In a way,” Jen said, before Jace could answer. “We’re trying to find him, but the reward isn’t money. It’s information.”

     “I see.” Benny pursed his lips. “Why don’t you just buy the information from him? You must know he deals in information.”

     “It’s more complicated than that,” Jace said.

     Benny was silent for a moment. “You’re not going to hurt him, are you? Because he is my friend, and I don’t want to participate in anything that will bring harm to him.”

     “If we don’t have to, we won’t,” Jace said, stiff-faced.

     Benny paused again. “I don’t know very much at all about any of this, but I am guessing all the info you need will be in whatever Bran has for you, be it a datacard or otherwise.”

     “To be honest, we don’t give a vrelt’s ass about Ryvo. All we want is the information we need. As soon as we find it, our search for Ryvo will end.” Jen knew that the latter part of her statement wasn’t exactly true, for once Reno was found, it was a given he’d want revenge.

     It was a fairly grueling trip through the busy streets of R.U.C.O.S.S. Pedestrians of all types moved through the streets of the city, including native Asova. The tall, earless humanoids ranged in color from light green to dark blue. Their large eyes were black, and below them were flat, wide noses that didn’t extend very far from the face. Long, thin lips and a rounded chin characterized the lower part of the Asovan face. They reminded Jen of Ho’Din, sans the head tendrils and webbed hands.

     Finally, they rounded a corner and Benny indicated a tall building flashier than Bottomless Bottle. The words “Raw Deal” flashed in an ever-changing color laser display on a vertical sign.

     “A casino that’s honest to its visitors,” Jace said dryly.

     “It’s pretty tough to get inside,” Benny informed them.

     “Leave it to us,” Jen said, starting across the street.

     The line into the casino wasn’t long, but that made the wait no shorter. Each and every patron was scanned from head to toe for weapons, extra cards, cheater chips, skifters or anything else the owners didn’t want in their establishment. Most casinos would turn away people with any of those items, but a sign clearly stated that Raw Deal would confiscate and hold any unauthorized articles until their owners were ready for departure. Not a bad idea business-wise, but they’re not taking my lightsaber. Jen turned to Jace. He had obviously read the sign, because he gave her a reassuring nod.

     When they got to the front of the line, Benny was scanned without incident. Then came Jace. The Barabel bouncer waved the scanning device over Jace. After checking Jace’s belt for normal effects, he became suspicious of the lightsaber.

     The huge Barabel bared its needle-like teeth. “We have great respect for Jedi on my world. Though I have never seen one this close, I believe that is a lightsaber.”

     “Yes, it is. We are Jedi.” Jace nodded to Jen. “We’re not here to cause harm. We want to find someone.”

     “It would be for the best for you to let us in while retaining our lightsabers,” Jen chimed in, using Force suggestion.

     “Of course,” the Barabel doorman agreed, after only a short pause. He waved them in and moved on to the next person in line.

     “I won’t even ask,” Benny said once they were clear of the entrance foyer.

     “Don’t,” Jen said with a derisive smile.

     “Bran usually haunts the Exotica Room on the second floor. It’s where all the women half his age are.”

     “Must be a mid-life crisis,” Jace observed.

     When the doors to the lift opened, Jen was taken off guard by the scantily clad waitress that passed by. The human female wore a two-piece outfit that barely covered anything, along with sandals. As Jen glanced around the rest of the room, she was even more surprised.

     “Strip sabaac?” Jen asked incredulously.

     “Nice, huh?” Benny said, grinning. “Best part is, only the dealers strip, not the players.”

     “And all the dealers are women?” Jen asked.

     “Men hours are different. And a couple nights a week, they have ‘ladies’ night’ and ‘gentlemen’s night’.”

     “Let me step over your tongues,” Jen said, moving into the huge room.

     Benny looked around. “There’s Bran,” he said, nodding to a table on the left.

     Jen glanced that way and her heart sunk. One of the three men at the table was the one Skate had spoken with at the Bottomless Bottle. “Jace, that’s the man Skate talked to.”

     Jace looked at her, steel-faced, and nodded. He then headed for the table with Benny in tow. Jen followed.

     “Bran,” Benny said, smiling.

     “Hey, Benny. What’s up?”

     “These folks would like to have a word with you.”

     Bran Klinn looked up at Jace and Jen.

     “In private, preferably,” Jace added.

     “The one time I am winning something like this happens,” Bran said, setting his cards down. The female human dealer, wearing only her pants and bra, looked relieved. “Let’s go.”

     They moved over to a table near the bar and took seats.

     “Well?” Bran said, lacing his fingers together.

     “A few days ago, I came into your place of employment with a redheaded woman,” Jen said. “I saw her talk to you. Did you happen to give her anything?”

     Bran glanced at Benny. “Yes, I did. I followed the instructions I was given.”

     “By who?” Jace asked.

     Bran paused for only a second. “Ryvo Lorell.”

     Jen felt her heart speed up. “What was it?”

     “A datacard.”

     “What was on it?” Jen asked.

     “I have no idea. Like I said, I only followed the instructions.”

     Jen glanced at Jace and then at Benny. The band leader nodded. Jen felt compelled to use Force suggestion on Bran, but held back, letting Jace handle the situation. After all, he was the acting CO.

     “What did she say to you?” Jace asked.

     “She asked—no told—me to give her any information I had on Ryvo. I handed her the datacard. She popped it into her datapad and left soon after.” Bran turned to Jen. “In fact, I think I remember seeing her leave with you.”

     “Time to feed the sarlaac,” Jace said, looking at the lift doors. A group of four helmeted beings stood there. Two were native Asova, one human and one Iotran. They all wore uniforms of dark blue and white, and all but one each carried a blaster rifle. The one without a weapon in hand, one of the Asova, turned toward their table. “Too late.”

     “Someone must have dropped the decicred,” Jen said. “Someone in line behind us. Or maybe we were on holocam.”

     Jen put her hand on her lightsaber as the Asovan law enforcer led his men to the table.

     “Greetings. I am Sergeant B.O.S.A.C. of S.H.A.R.P.,” the tall alien said in his deep voice. “I understand that you are Jedi. While I am generally ignorant of Jedi affairs, I take it as a fact that there are no more Jedi, save for Luke Skywalker.”

     “We have been in hiding, and have returned what with the demise of Palpatine,” Jace said, looking B.O.S.A.C. straight in the eyes.

     The Asova met Jace’s gaze evenly. “No.”

     “Okay, well,” Jace said, and then flipped the table over toward the cops. Jen joined Jace in pushing the table with telekinesis, slamming the quartet of lawmen against the wall. People screamed and gasped at the sudden rapine.

     “Jace, the window,” Jen said, igniting her amethyst blade. The cops recovered and leveled their rifles at her. They opened fire and she batted the bolts away. She managed to deflect one back at them, taking down the human. The sergeant, who had produced a sidearm, took aim past her. Pushing his blaster with the Force, she sent his shot wide. After several more seconds of repelling blaster fire, she heard Jace’s voice in her mind. Now Jen.

     She turned and sprinted for the window, which had obviously been opened with a lightsaber. Diving through the window, she plummeted toward the ground. It wasn’t too far of a drop, but headfirst she had no chance. Just as she thought she was going to crash and die from her self-defenestration, Jace caught her with telekinesis and gave her a gentle landing. Before she had a chance to make it to her feet, blaster bolts scored the ground all around her. Jace ignited his own lightsaber and fended off the attack, giving her a chance to get to her feet. In unison, Jen, Jace, Benny and Bran dashed out of the alley. They mixed in with the pedestrian traffic once on the main street.

     “Now what?” Benny asked, concerned.

     “We leave,” Jace answered.

     “I was born here and now I’m a fugitive,” Benny said dryly. “I won’t be able to show my face here once this hits the Sovan news nets. Thanks, Jace”

     Jace looked over at Benny. “I’m sorry, I really am. But I can make you a deal. I like your music. How about you bring your band with Jen and me? I will hire you to play on our ship.”

     “Good pay?”

     Jace nodded.

     “Deal.”

     “Now they haven’t figured out who we are yet, so don’t get paranoid,” Jace said. “If they do have holo footage, it will take a while to identify us. Do you have a ship?”

     “Yeah, we do. Trianii RX4.”

     “An RX4?” Jen asked, surprised. “I ran into those a few times in the Corporate Sector. Tough little ships.”

     “What about you, Bran?” Benny asked the older man.

     “I’ll probably head to Verune,” he said. “See what’s been going on out there.”

     “Okay, get your people and belongings to your ship before S.H.A.R.P. figures out who you are,” Jace instructed. “Meet us in orbit in two hours.”

     “Two hours?”

     “Too long?”

     “Too short,” Benny said, shaking his head. ”I have a houseful of stuff, Jace.”

     “Take what you like the most,” Jace said, shrugging. “And I hope that RX4 is as tough as Jen says it is, because we’re going to need all the help we can get to get out of here.”

     With that, they parted ways. Jace tried to contact the rest of the squadron, but they still hadn’t arrived. Jen didn’t know what bothered her more, the coming strife in their escape, or Skate’s apparent deception.

     Skate warmed her hands over the fire. She and Ryvo had set up camp in some rocky caves far northwest of the T.O.S. base. During the seven hours they had been in the ULAV together, there had been no conversation, bar Ryvo's directions. Truth was, she didn't trust him, but he was her only ticket out of there. There was also the fact that he looked like the man in her dreams, even more so than Lieutenant Trebaum.

     She sensed him returning to the cave, presumably with more firewood. The wood hit the ground in a clunk, and then she felt his hands rubbing down her arms. She yanked her arms free, stood, and spun around.

     "You keep your paws off of me!"

     "Paws?" he questioned, smiling. "Aren't I worthy of 'meat hooks'?"

     "You're not worthy of me," she shot back, fading his smile. “Don’t you realize that I could kill you right here and right now?”

     "Hey, I rescued you."

     "Now that we're on that subject, I'd like to ask you why."

     "I can imagine you thought it was a setup," Ryvo said, tossing a few small logs into the fire.

     "Especially after the ion bolt hit my ship. What was that, anyway? Some kind of patrol ship?"

     "Ion mines. They're satellites that are programmed to target and attack any vessels within a specified parameter by their owners. Obviously, your fighter didn't register as authorized."

     "How did you get down here? Or were you already down here?"

     "I came down. After I scanned the planet and found the mines, I took the only course of action I could without alerting the T.O.S. Force to my presence." Ryvo sat down in front of the fire opposite Skate and checked on his wound, which he had applied a bacta patch to. "See, the ion mines can target anything larger than two meters. I donned a spacesuit, and jetted in to one of them and disabled it. I'm 2.34 meters tall, and taller with the spacesuit, so I just tucked my knees in. Once I got back to my ship, I entered through the gap I had created in the ring." He smiled. "I’ve got skills."

     "Clever," Skate said. "I just wish I had seen the ion mines."

     "My sensors are superior," Ryvo said, shrugging. 

     "You're good at avoiding questions, aren't you? Why did you rescue me?" Skate felt a turmoil of emotions roll off of Ryvo. "Better yet, why did you leave that information for us? Why didn't you just contact us?"

     "Because they would have found out," Ryvo said, staring at the fire.

     "Who?"

     "Them," he answered, nodding to the side.

     "I don't understand," she said, shaking her head.

     "I know you probably hate me for setting up Reno the way I did, but I didn't do it because I wanted to, I did it because I had to." Ryvo looked Skate, his blue eyes reflecting the fire. "Xanthis has my parents."

     "And he used them to make you set the bait for Reno?"

     "Yes," Ryvo said. Skate didn't sense any deception from him, only remorse and sadness. "He said he'd kill them if I didn't cooperate. I didn't want to do it. And as for rescuing you, I showed up here because I couldn’t let you come here alone.”

     "What? How did you know I was coming alone? You barely know me.”

     "I know you better than you think." Ryvo looked at Skate right in the eyes and it sent a chill down her spine. "Skate, I am Wrenn Valto."

     If the shock of him revealing himself as Ryvo Lorell had made Skate's stomach turn, this revelation made it feel even worse. She didn’t say anything for several moments, just looked down into the fire, letting her mind take in this latest disclosure. "Why didn't you tell me? You knew where Reno was the entire time!"

     "Because I couldn't! I told you my parents' lives were at stake! I understand your pain at losing Reno, and I ask that you understand my loss. I left that card in the drawer so you guys would find it. If I had simply contacted you and given away the information, Xanthis would have found out and killed my parents."

     "Found out from his contact aboard the SSD?" Skate asked.

     "Right. I see you already know about the contact."

     "Somebody had to alter the information about Vetter," Skate said, shrugging. “Who is the contact?”

     “I don’t know,” Ryvo answered.

     “How did you know about this place?

     “The last time I met with Veego, I was able to grab one of his pilots and pull him into a room.” Ryvo shrugged. “I questioned him until I got the answer I wanted.”

     “With the same little trick you used in the hangar.”

     “Right,” Ryvo said, looking down into the fire.”

     “Do you want to tell me about that?”

     “What’s there to tell? I can tell people what to do and they do it. End of story.”

     “What else can you do?” Skate asked.

     “What do you mean, like move stuff with my mind? Telekinesis? Or predict next week’s lucky numbers? No, I can’t do any of that.”

     "Who was Tomy Gi?" Skate asked after a short pause.

     "Me again," Ryvo admitted.

     "Why? You kept us from Jace."

     "I did it to keep you away from harm," Ryvo said.

     "Me? Or us?"

     "You."

     "Why?"

     Ryvo didn’t answer, but continued to look into the fire.

     “Why?” Skate asked again.

     “Because…I care for you.”

     If all the other revelations had made Skate feel sick, this one made her stomach fluttery. She found it to be a surprise, as her mind was still trying to compute the fact that Ryvo Lorell was Wrenn Valto. While she knew she harbored at least some kind of feelings for Wrenn, she didn’t know if they applied to Ryvo.

     “What’s wrong?” Ryvo asked.

     “Nothing. Just thinking.”

     “Well, I think we’ve talked enough for tonight,” Ryvo said, standing up and stretching. “We should get some sleep. We need to get going early.”

     “Yeah. I agree.”

     Since they didn’t have any kind of camping equipment, they were forced to sleep on the sandy, rocky cave floor, warmed by the fire. The absence of blankets made the fire a plus, but a blanket always added that psychological layer of protection while sleeping. Skate had just gotten comfortable, using her arm as a pillow, when Ryvo called her name. She turned and looked at him on the other side of the fire.

     “No kiss?” he asked innocently.

     Skate sighed and turned back around.