Cress

Chapter 30

  Cress  humid  to   herself  as  she  rubbed  a  towel   through  her hair, amazed
  at how the weight of it  no  longer  pulled on  her. She  emerged  from  the
   washroom rejuvenated—her skin was bright pink from   scrubbing and
  she'd  managed to  get almost all the dirt out from beneath  her  fingernails.
   The  bottoms  of    her feet  and the insides of her legs were  still  sore, 
    but   all  those  complaints  were  petty  compared to the sensation of unex-
   pected luxury. A soft  towel. Short,  clean  hair. More water than she could
     drink in a year. Or at least, her  long  bath  had  made  it  seem endless.
     Cress eyed her pile of clothes and couldn't bear to  put them back on.
          As  Thorne hadn't returned yet, she pulled a   blanket   off  the   bed  and
         wrapped  it  around  herself instead, then struggled to kick the corners out
         of  her  way as   she  crossed  to the netscreen on the wall.
        "Screen on."
          It was set to an   animated netted  that  shows  orange   octopuses   and 
          blue  children bopping around to techbeats.  Cress changed   it  to    the   local 
        newsfeed,  then opened a new box in the corner to check their GPS coordinates.
                Kufra, a trading city at the eastern edge of   the Zhara.  She  zoomed    out 
          on  the map and tried to pinpoint where the  satellite  would    have    landed, 
          though   it  was impossible to gauge how far they'd  walked. Probably  not 
          half  as  far  as   it   had seemed. Regardless, there   was   nothing, nothing, in 
    the vast  open  sands to  the north and west.
She shuddered, realizing how close they'd   come to being  food   for  the
   vultures.
She sent the map away, beginning  to  connect  a strategy   for contacting 
     the rampion though   they   didn't have   the    D-COMM chip anymore, that
   didn't   mean the  Rampion was  completely out   of touch.   After   all, with
         or  without   tracking equipment, it  would  still  have communication  capabilities
        and  a   net  protocol address. She could have hacked into the military database
  and  tracked down  the original NPA for the ship but it would be a waste of  time.
        If  it  was  that  easy,  the Commonwealth would have  been  able  to contact  the
  Rampion  as  soon as  they had determined which ship they were after.
     Which meant the address had been  changed, probably  not  long after
    Thorne's desertion.
     Which most likely meant   the   auto-control  system  had   been   replaced.
         Hopefully  Thorne   have     some   information   on    where  and  when   the
new  system had been purchased, or what programming it had been replaced with.
  If he didn't know anything, well ... she was going to have to get creative.
  That was not worth worrying about just yet. First things first.
    She had to make sure there was someone aboard that ship to contact.
         She  began by checking the newsfeeds.  A   simple   search   made   it clear 
          that,  at this   time, the earthen   media had   no  more   information on  the
         whereabouts  of Linh Cinder than they'd had five days ago.
          "...Lunar satellite..."
       She snapped her attention to the news anchor  who was  rambling  in
       a   foreign   language,   most   likely  the  language  that  the   caravan   hunter
      had  first  spoken  to  them.  Cress   frowned,  thinking  she  was  only  hearing
things. But then, as she squinted at the  man's  lips,  she  thought  she  heard
        Sahara and, again, Lunar.
        "Set translation overdub to universal language."