Torran’s helmet clicked open, then a moment later he said, “Not much.”

“I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. How much better is ‘not much’ than that?”

There was a long pause, then he said, “I will show you, if you are willing.”

When I murmured my assent, an image formed in my mind, much like when Luna sent me a picture of her empty bowl. The night wasn’t nearly as dark for Torran, but while he could see somewhat, the details were hazy. It took me a second to figure out that the person-shaped blob in the middle of the image was me standing next to the lev cycle.

No wonder Valoffs had such excellent night-vision tech. They could definitely see better than humans, but with so much of their time in the dark, boosted night vision helped fill in the details.

“Thank you,” I said. I tilted my head as I considered the trampled plants. “So even if the soldiers had Valoffs with them, the team had to have night-vision gear because neither of us can see well enough to change vehicles quickly.”

“The moon was up that night. In moonlight, a Valoff could see well enough to navigate the trees.”

I looked at the thick canopy and shook my head. “Then the humans, at least, had night-vision tech. That doesn’t tell us too much, because it’s pretty common, but they had to get it somewhere.” While we sometimes caught a lucky break, most of our cases were solved by dogged pursuit of the details.

I circled the lev cycle, looking for tracks, but the trees were far enough apart that a transport could’ve left in any direction. Rather than waving at Torran again to get his attention, I tried to think loud thoughts. “Which way did they escape?”

It took a couple of tries, which hopefully meant he really wasn’t listening to every thought, but eventually he turned to me and waved an arm off to the left side of the route we’d been following.

“Their getaway vehicle was hidden off the main path. After that, we were unable to track them.”

“You don’t have any thermal satellites that might’ve caught their engine exhaust?”

“We checked, but the tree canopy reflects so much heat that it would hide a small transport engine.”

“Seems like a security issue with the palace so close.” It was also data the FHP would probably find very, very valuable.

“The palace is well protected,” Torran said, his mental voice cold and stiff.

“Show me where the other vehicle was.”

Torran waved me closer, then headed deeper into the trees. I was glad for the Valovian armor because the sharp undergrowth slid past the synthetic material without catching—or cutting.