A Starship Called Starsong

Chapter 72

I leaned on the railing and gazed down from the second level of the musical theatre to watch the old man as he subtly scanned the crowd that had gathered inside the run-down place. The performing singers were still in training, so most of the seats were occupied by relatives who found it a great chance to gossip with others who were simply waiting for this rehearsal to be over.

We were supposed to leave port tonight, and I was pretty sure Gabriel had been keeping a close watch on the docking station to see if I might go out on ship-leave again. I had put on civilian clothes and pretended to go see some of the more common sights before slipping in here. It didn't surprise me to see that he had followed me inside.

He was standing in the shadows beside the door as he finished inspecting all of the oblivious people in front of him. A faint frown appeared as he started looking along the sides and back of the room. The small second level overhang in this small building wasn't apparent unless people looked above the main entrance.

He froze as his eyes met my relaxed ones. I gestured with my hand for him to come up before pointing to the stairs. He hesitated before reluctantly heading for the stairs. I remained leaning on the railing with a relaxed posture, pretending to be engrossed by the slightly off-key singers.

He also leaned against the railing in a similar fashion before commenting, "You knew I was following you. I thought you were a bit too relaxed in the marketplace after what happened the other day."

I nodded slightly in agreement. "I had you, a docking station guard, an undercover Officer from the Enforcement detachment, and my bodyguard all following me. It was easy to lose the guard in the marketplace. Took a bit more effort to misplace the Officer."

Gabriel scanned the room. "And your bodyguard?"

"I wouldn't be able to lose that guy regardless of how hard I tried."

He did not seem surprised, nor was he looking overly hard for Ronan. He spoke quietly, "How did you find out about my granddaughter?"

I tapped my ear with my index finger. "Starsong uncovered it and let me know. He also destroyed most of the evidence he found. A couple of your enemies were pretty sure they had missed someone, so Starsong stole some of their other documents and sent them to the Enforcement Detachment as a gift. You won't have to worry about those particular men again."

I had touched my ear because Starsong wanted to make this man think I had an earpiece so he wouldn't look for any other explanation. The Deviant Monitoring Group had been very certain I had used one when trading, so the fact that it was simply as high tech as my communication device was would be quite believable. We didn't want anyone to think any differently...

Gabriel watched the singers for a while before responding, "Then you also know who she is."

"Yes. I can also reassure you that she has more protection on the Starsong than she would anywhere else. You saw how well the Elite Destroyers fared, even when we let them have the first strike."

He closed his eyes before sighing sadly. "She is all I have left."

I turned my head to look at him and responded kindly, "I know. And Starsong has also said that you are welcome to visit her on board. No one can spy on you within his walls. Even now, in this place, no cameras or recorders will work. At the moment, my communication device is emitting a signal that prevents it."

He stilled at that thought. He had spent his life trying to watch over her while not going near her out of fear for her safety. The thought of finally meeting her face-to-face with no risk was probably one he had never had before. From the bit Starsong had told me, his granddaughter wanted to meet her last relative pretty badly.