“It would appear that the Loranna have missed our captive. They are upset enough that some of them have spoken Lorannic out loud in the office.”

“Okay. I’ll come up to the conference room. Have you alerted the others?”

“Gee, that never occurred to me. What a great idea. I’ll get right on that.”

“Umph,” I replied, glaring blearily around the room. If the world needed saving before I had coffee, the world was going to be in deep trouble. Finally focusing on my slippers, I shoved my feet into them and staggered off to the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, I was on board the Halo and watching the activity on the wall monitor. Two video windows were open—the bigger window showed a view of part of the office from the bug that Nat had planted, and a smaller window displayed a close-up view of Karen’s monitor from the bug under her keyboard. Three people, including Karen’s assistant, Marc, were searching the offices, presumably for any clue to Karen’s whereabouts. One of them had a phone on speaker and was occasionally exchanging commentary with the person at the other end.

They had gone through Karen’s office twice, but hadn’t touched her computer. I found myself gritting my teeth with frustration. Was checking her computer that complicated an idea?

“If they could log in to her account, maybe,” Nat said to my muttered complaint. “But if they log in using their own credentials, it’s hard to see how they could learn anything.”

I made a growling sound in reply, but she was right. I tried to relax and let events unfold at their own—nope, that Zen stuff didn’t work for me.

However, my complaints to on high seemed to have an effect, and a positive one for once. Someone finally sat down at Karen’s computer, logged in, and proceeded to do some searches. Because of the position of the keyboard bug, we could only see the monitor, not the person using the workstation.

“We have his log-in credentials,” Sheldon said with satisfaction. “It’s Karen’s assistant, Marc Abramson, judging from the username. Fun fact, his password is EarthSuxGr8ly.”

Nat laughed. “Maybe the Loranna are more like us than we think.”

“Don’t make the mistake of trying to relate to them, Natalie. The Loranna have a massive case of racial entitlement. Humans are little more than talking animals to them. As are the Gen, the Ka’alag, the Nir-k-hi, and all the other Covenant races. However, the Loranna are outmatched militarily, so they maintain a veneer of politeness.”

“Wonderful,” I muttered. “Kzinti.”

While this discussion had been going on, Marc had finished, or possibly just given up. He smacked the monitor, then logged himself off and pushed the keyboard away. He yelled something to his fellow searchers and stomped off.