Between

Chapter Fourteen

Master Controller's Stateroom aboard the CRL Valhalla, South-Central Port of Corzibar

Edric Kovaleski studied the surveillance footage from the Sector 7 Verification Day, his arms crossed over his chest and a sharp frown marring his otherwise handsome features. Isla Williams' tent was barely visible on the far bottom corner of the screen, concealing the majority of the day's events from his watchful eyes, but he wasn't interested in the tent.

"Where are you...?" he whispered to himself, scratching at his chin now and squinting with the effort of keeping an unblinking connection to the screen. After a few more seconds, the footage reached the point he'd been waiting to see.

"That's her," came another voice from beside him—Lieutenant Joseph Greeves—and Edric nodded with narrowed eyes. "That has to be her."

He watched on screen while a Directorate soldier led a blonde haired woman to meet Isla Williams where she stood outside the tent. Reaching to touch the glass, Edric paused the footage and zoomed in.

"Are there no cameras inside that tent?" he asked his subordinate, who hesitated before shaking his head. Again, Edric frowned. "I'm glad to see my strict protocols requiring the presence of cameras in every tent are being so well adhered to." Evidently Greeves had understood his Controller's sarcasm, because he suddenly looked very uncomfortable in Edric's presence.

"Sector 7 is always a...difficult...place to properly secure, Sir," Greeves began sputtering, and Edric felt his patience dribbling away. "It's quite large, as you know, and the terrain makes communication equipment less reliable. The cameras interfere with that equipment, so the fewer we have..."

"The fewer chances we have to stop something like this mess before it even begins," Edric finished for him, his voice icy and harsh. "You have your prisoner, Lieutenant—how do you intend to get the information out of her now? Obviously we can see a general picture of the Exotic woman's physical stature and appearance, but she could be anyone. We need whatever information Williams has—preferably a Sector Residency Number—if we have any hope of finding the woman she sent away." He turned to Greeves again, his arms crossing once more. "Are the cameras in the carrier vehicles functional? Can we at least see footage of the lineup?"

Much to the Controller's frustration, the Lieutenant's facial expression tensed and his complexion reddened.

"I'm afraid the cameras in many of the carriers were damaged several cycles ago, and there have been a number of delays in—"

"Perhaps I was wrong in my decision to promote you, Lieutenant," Edric interrupted calmly, pivoting away to stare out the window of his cabin at the distant form of an approaching ship on the horizon. Behind him, he could imagine Joseph Greeves was bristling in quiet fury. Though the man was an excellent leader and very intelligent, his shortcomings had become more frequent since his recent elevation. Edric knew how to deal with them though—the only way to spur improvement was the fluster him and draw attention to those shortcomings.

By the time he had rotated back to Greeves, raising his eyebrows in expectation when he did so, the Lieutenant had regained control of his emotions and taken on the expression of determination Edric knew so well.

"The crew of the Lorskoto will be most helpful in retrieving information from Miss Williams, Master Controller," Greeves indicated with a casual glance in the direction Edric had been looking before. "In fact, that is why you see the Lorskoto on the horizon. She is returning to harbor to take aboard Miss Williams and several other new passengers of interest."

"The boyfriend?"

"And the Miller family."

"All of them?"