Chapter 18: I will come back

Her shoulders slumped, and she pushed her plate away. "Please, Balthazar, surely, you have the technology to do a search."

Her attachment to this sister deeply disturbed him. "No."

"Then let me go to Earth and find her. I've got some good leads. I promise I'll come back."

"You will stay on the ship." Soon she would forget about this sister and belong only to him.

She held out her hand, palm open. "You can trust me, Balthazar."

"I know I cannot trust you."

He contacted his second on their internal frequency. Nebuchadnezzar entered, carrying all the contraband they'd found in her luggage.

Her throat moved when she swallowed, staring at the packages neatly marked Explosives. Did the humans think cyborgs couldn't read? Next to it, Nebuchadnezzar placed the recording devices, putting them down one by one.

Her face changed color, became as white as the trunks of Kefu trees in winter on Tunria. "What are you going to do to me?" she whispered.