Alone in HGR’s office, Simon looked at his mobile phone and almost played the message that he had saved just to hear Meg’s voice. Instead he called the Pony Barn.

“Pony Barn. Meg speaking.”

Hearing her voice delighted him, relieved some unhappiness he hadn’t known he’d felt until it faded. That’s why he growled, “I am going to bite you so hard.”

“No, you’re not.” Her voice sounded prim. He suspected she was laughing at him. “You’re going to give me a large bonus in my next paycheck for not only realizing I needed to get away from all the people who were making my skin prickle but for going to a quiet place where I wouldn’t be alone and you wouldn’t have to worry about me. And if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have found Sam and Skippy.”

He couldn’t argue with any of that, but...

“I wish you were here too,” Meg said quietly. “I wish we were all curled up in the straw watching the storm. Then you would be safe too.”

“I’m safe.” Somehow, knowing he couldn’t just run out and join her made it feel like she was too far away.

Rain mixed with hail lashed the windows. Damn! Had he remembered to close the apartment windows this morning? Had she? He wasn’t going to ask. This would be a new thing for her and she would fret.

He sighed. “It’s started. I’d better go. You stay with Jester.”

“I will.”

“And don’t let Sam go out, not even to pee.”

“I won’t.”

“And if Skippy rushes out, don’t you follow him.”

“I won’t. Geez, Simon, are you becoming a micromanager?”

He didn’t know what that was, but it sounded like an insult—and it sounded like something he should bite.

He grunted and hung up. As he went downstairs, it occurred to him that feeling a little insulted by Meg’s teasing had cheered him up.

To: Douglas Burke

I hope this gets to you. Reliable sources say the Cel-Romano troops stationed in the land taken from the terra indigene have disappeared. Lots of blood and smashed equipment; some body parts—and indications that at least some of the men died from an unknown kind of plague. Some speculation that soldiers from “provincial” areas deserted and are making their way home, but it’s assumed that most of the men stationed in the wild country are dead.

Fishermen from mainland villages situated on terra indigene land warned Brittanian fishermen that Cel-Romano is “about to get some weather” and advised the men to stay close to home.

—Shady Burke

CHAPTER 50

CHAPTER 50

Earthday, Sumor 1