She laughed. “Surprise.”
Camilla was an A-C rarity—a natural Liar. They were few and far between, and when found were usually whisked off to Liar’s School or whatever they called it, to get trained into the Lying Way. Meaning they were excellent at subterfuge, infiltration, and similar. And there were none better than Camilla.
The Royal Family made the most use of their Liars, and Alfred had assigned Camilla to us when I became pregnant with Jamie. She’d saved us more than once, though we’d gotten to save her, too. While having yet another stowaway on board was in some ways annoying, that it was Camilla was pretty great. It was hard to say that I liked her—she didn’t go out of her way to be likable or hang out with others—but I respected the hell out of her, and her having our backs was a very good thing.
Rhee looked both surprised and pleased. “Wife of my heart, you said you were investigating something.”
“I was. It led me into the ship. Then the ship started acting up and I decided that the best place I could be was in a shuttle, just in case.”
“How did you avoid being seen by Mother? Um, the AI that runs the ship. That’s her name.”
“That you gave her, I’m sure. I ‘worked’ for Drax, remember? I know how to circumvent most of his safeguards. However, someone else knows, too.”
“Stephanie?” Jeff asked.
She nodded. “I’m not sure who planted the bomb that knocked out the warp core or who took the chlorophyll, but she has to be on the suspects list. And I know what was going on because the shuttles can access the intercom system and I did. So I don’t need a recap.” She grinned at me.
“Wow, I feel so useless all of a sudden.”
Butler put his head out of the shuttle. “Can we go? I think the sooner we’re down there, the sooner we find out if this planet can help us or destroy us.”
“Well, with that cheery outlook, how can things go any way but right?” We started loading into the shuttle—which was more like a space-aged bus than anything, with a really interesting moon roof—when another thought occurred. “Christopher? Can you please do a fast check of all the shuttles on the ship? Just in case?”
“Sure, Kitty.” He was gone in a flash, but not back in one.
“I’m staying on the ship,” Camilla said, as Jeff and I waited for Christopher to return.
“Not that I’m complaining, but that makes you literally the only person who doesn’t want to go with us. Why are you happy to hang out instead of demanding your seat on the shuttle?”
“I want to be sure that things here remain . . . safe.”
“I’m all for that,” Jeff said. “Especially because the children are both on board and wanting to go to the planet.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t put it past Lizzie to try to sneak onto a shuttle and come down.” And if she did it, then Wasim and the Valentino boys, at the very least, would go with her. Frankly, all the kids would go. Camilla hanging around seemed like a really good plan.
“Lizzie’s not as reckless as you think she is,” Camilla said, as Christopher finally returned. “But I’ll keep an eye on all of them.”
She wandered off as the three of us went inside and got seated. “Found no one else, but I think that someone other than Camilla was hiding on the ship. I found traces that indicated someone was living in a couple of the shuttles.”
“That should have been impossible,” Tim said. “People were on this ship constantly while it was being built and we had the highest levels of security, including top Field teams.”
Christopher shrugged. “I told Buchanan about it, as well as the fact that Camilla’s on board. They’ll do a full investigation of the ship, again, while we’re down here.” He strapped in and we took off.
Butler was acting as pilot with Reader as copilot. “I threw James a bone,” Tim whispered to me. “Technically, I should be the one copiloting, but I figured why not make his day?”
“I think you’re enjoying this entire mission a little too much.”
He grinned. “It’s nice to not be the Junior Commander for a change.”
“You get used to it,” Christopher said, with a wink for Jeff.
Who rolled his eyes. “Everyone’s a whiner today.”
Looked at the ship as we headed for the planet. It still looked beautiful but just a little less shiny than it had when we were on Earth. Wasn’t sure if that was because we were farther from this sun than we’d been to our own or if it was the lack of chlorophyll. “I hope we can get what we need.”
“We will,” Chuckie said firmly. “Drax had the necessary equipment on board, and Serene and I have it with us now.”
Decided to stop worrying about everyone on the ship and focus on the mission, such as it was. So, I looked at the planet.
I wasn’t really an astronomy expert, but it looked larger than Earth to me. Figured I’d ask someone else if it was relevant. Hyperspeed meant distances weren’t nearly as big a deal as they could be.
There were clouds scattered around the world, just like on Earth. It was very pretty—white clouds against the green background. And green was really this planet’s operative word. I would have expected to see some blue, since I had to assume a planet this green had a lot of foliage and, therefore, a lot of water. But I didn’t glimpse any.
Well, that wasn’t quite true. There were all shades of green, though a bright grassy green was predominant. However, there were some blue-greens in there, though the blues were muted.
The closer we got, the more the planet looked like it was mostly made of grass.
“I see no roads or anything like them,” Reader said. “There could be some trails, but if so, they’re not well traveled.”
“Should we orbit?” Chuckie asked. “To see if there’s a more industrialized section?”
“We can,” Butler said.
So we did. There were rolling hills and grass. Plains covered with grass. What sure looked like oceans of grass. Trees that resembled bamboo and grass. And all in shades of green. “Even the water here is green,” Mahin said. “If there is no dust or dirt, I’m not going to be much use to the team.”
“Maybe the dirt is green,” Claudia suggested. “It’s possible.”
“We shouldn’t have any trouble getting what we need,” Lorraine said. “So there’s that.”
“Only we’re supposed to stop two superconsciousnesses who are interfering and prevent a mad scientist from destroying this solar system.”
“Are you sure this is the right planet?” White asked. “It does seem rather . . . calm, and not a hotbed of nefarious activity.”
“And unpeopled,” Reader added. “Sensors aren’t picking up anything humanoid, anywhere.”
“And I see nothing that we could construe as civilized,” Chuckie said. “Let alone industrialized.”
“Barring Sandy playing a practical joke on us—which seems hella unlikely—this was the planet in question.”
Tim nodded. “Maybe everything’s underground.”