Chapter 52

The force field around the makeshift camp evaporated in the middle of the night. It proved distinctive because the sound returned, along with the fresh air of the planet.

Kobrah immediately woke, and he wasn't alone. Karo remained tucked against him, less for heat and more for comfort.

He remembered still, with chilling clarity, the moment the previous day when she'd turned to him with wide eyes and said, "Raffie gave Mommy to the bad guys."

For a second he wondered if Dara had betrayed them. He immediately shoved that doubt aside. Dara would never put Karo in harm's way. Which meant she was in danger.

He would have sprinted the whole way back to the ship if he could have, but a force field appeared, a perfect dome about twenty paces round. Opaque, impenetrable, and frustrating. Within its cocoon, his communicator didn't work. Nor his knife. He and Karo were caught like insects in a jar with no idea what happened.

But he feared the worst, especially given Karo's statement.