December Page 20

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  “Jodi? Alana? Are you two done in there?” Ted asked, knocking on the door to Alana’s room aboard the December. He knew they’d gone in there, because a nearby guard had told him so. But it had been three hours already, and Ted both wanted to bring up the whole Uyya Kolean thing to Alana as well as check in on Jodi and see how she was doing.

  Alana opened the door. “Oh, for the most part.” Ted could see Jodi sitting on one of two large cushions arranged in the middle of the room. “Why don’t you come in?”

  Ted accepted her invitation and went over to Jodi, watching her facial expressions carefully. “How are you doing?”

  Her blue eyes pierced through him, containing a kind of dull anxiety. “I’m all right,” she said. “It’s just a little overwhelming.”

  “I know,” Ted said, remembering how he’d felt when Alana and Trell had spirited him away. He regarded both of them. “What have you two talked about?”

  “I filled her in, for the most part,” Alana said. “It seems you already told her a decent amount. Now to the important questions,” she continued. “The resistance. You told Ted you had an idea of where to look?”

  Jodi nodded. “I know a few cities and places where they are most active, but Kenneth moves around from base to base and even his subordinates don’t always know where he is. He only tells them what they need to know.”

  “In case someone is captured and interrogated, so they can’t give away their leader’s position,” Alana commented. “Smart.”

  “Kenneth is smart,” Jodi said, almost in warning. “Underestimating him would be a terrible mistake, for you as well as for the Drevi. And he’s stubborn as hell too. If you’re going to win over his cooperation, you’re going to have to prove yourselves to him first.”

  “And how would we go about doing that?” asked Alana.

  “You’re going to have to show him that you’re several things,” she said, counting with her fingers. “One, not a threat to him or Earth. Two, that you’re competent enough not to slow him down. And three, that he has enough to gain by working with you.”

  “Seems like a paranoid bastard,” Alana muttered, the potential roadblocks not appreciated.

  “He is a paranoid bastard,” Ted said softly. “But I suppose the great people in history often are.” He glanced up, an idea coming to mind. “Jodi, what if I got to him through Zarathustra?”

  She seemed to mull the idea over. “It could work. As far as I know, he’s still obsessed with that stupid book.”

  “Might as well give it a try. It seems the least risky way of getting in contact with him.” Ted almost smiled. It seemed Jodi had never gotten over her intense hatred for Nietzsche.

  Alana sighed, not really understanding what the two of them were talking about. “Ted, we have to meet with General Toka and fill him in.” Her tone was so low and dangerous and Ted knew he had no choice.

  Ted had been dreading this. He knew the general wasn’t likely to be in a good mood. On the other hand, Ted did want to know whether there had been any serious consequences as a result of his actions. If anything had happened to anyone because of him, he would feel responsible, since it was his mistake that had been the cause of this whole mess.

  “Well, I guess we’d better get going then,” he said. “Will you be okay, Jodi?” he asked in genuine concern.

  “I’ll be fine,” she replied.

  “I don’t see any reason why you can’t move about the ship. Just don’t do anything stupid and the guards shouldn’t bother you,” he said.

  “I’ll tell whoever’s outside your door to escort you when you leave,” Alana said. “They’ll only speak Kolean, but at least you’ll have someone with you.”

  Jodi nodded. “Thank you, both of you.”

  “We’ll be back after the meeting to make further plans for finding Kenneth,” Alana said before exiting through the door. With a last glance back to Jodi, Ted followed her.

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