When his dactyl’s warning system flashed, Jared thought it was because he’d short-circuited it. “Get in here,” Jared yelled, cutting the shield to accept the incoming call. “Problems?” Arinna asked, trotting in the back hatch from where she’d been watching outside the shield. “It didn’t look to have grounded ou—” Her gaze rested on the now silent alarms as Kehm came on the monitor. She took the second pilot’s chair. “Lieutenant Assad will be on the way with reinforcements in five minutes,” Kehm said, finishing his brief report of the violence at the peace negotiations. “I’ll have a platoon waiting for you, but Farrak will have an hour lead time.” Arinna sat in frozen tension, enough that Jared was surprised when she answered. “Negative. We’ll leave from here. We should arrive fifteen minutes after Assad.” For the first time in the years of fighting alongside Arinna guided by Kehm’s insight, Jared nearly snapped off the video link to talk to Arinna in private.
