Angela Verdenius by Angela Verdenius Page A

pearly-skinned forehead. 
    Never one to blame others for his own mistakes – and they were rare except when it came to Molly – Alsandair pushed aside his alarm to concentrate on the problem at hand.  “Tell me everything.”
    “Dr Surnace’s assistant went to Molly’s room to see if she was all right, as she hadn’t appeared at dinner.  When she didn’t find Molly there she went looking for her.  It didn’t take long before we realized that no guard was with her, and since you were in here with Dr Surnace, we knew Molly wouldn’t be without a guard normally.  We searched the ship but she hasn’t been found.”
    Alsandair started striding down the corridor towards the main control room.  “You’ve scanned for her body pattern?”
    “Yes.  She’s not on board.”
    “That’s impossible!”  Alarm bit at him but he strove for the calmness he was renowned for, and which he needed badly right now.  “She can’t leave the station.”
    “Unless she left with someone else.”
    “Kidnapped?” Alasdair looked at the soldier.  “Impossible.”
    “I mean maybe she left with someone else, not necessarily kidnapped.”  The soldier resolutely kept a stoic expression.  “Apparently she looked a little…”
    “What?”  Though he knew.  Deep down, Alsandair knew what she looked like.
    “Upset.  As though she’d been crying.”
    And there it was.  She’d been upset and wandered off on her own, and idiot that he was, concerned about himself only, Alsandair hadn’t even thought about a guard for her.  Now she was gone.
    But he needed to scan the system himself, see for himself, know for himself that she was truly gone. 
    Once in the main control cabin, he ran the system scan but it was as the soldier had said, Molly’s body pattern wasn’t on the ship.  The last place her body pattern was scanned was in the docking bay.
    “Has anyone recently left the station?”  Fear gripped him now inwardly, but outwardly he remained calm, refusing to allow the dread and turmoil inside him to show.
    “The Major’s son, Cujo, left two hours ago.”
    Alasdair’s head snapped around.  “Cujo?”
    “Yes, Sir.”
    Involuntarily, Alasdair’s fingers curled onto the panel, his nails scraping down the metal.  Cujo.  He’d been looking like a hound in heat when he’d seen Molly.  That bastard wanted her, he just knew it!
    “Get a lock on Cujo’s ship,” Alsandair snarled.
    Startled at his vehemence, the two controllers looked up.
    “Now!”
    Hastily they averted their gazes to the control panel, concentrating on getting a lock on Cujo’s spaceship.
    Alsandair stared at the radar screen, his mind not quite chaotic.  Almost panicked.  Certainly fury, mostly towards that womanizing bastard Cujo, but panic also at the thought of Molly leaving him.
    Molly…  “When you figure out what you are, who you are, and what you expect from me, then come and see me, Alsandair.  Until then…”  She turned in the bathroom doorway to look sadly at him.  “Until then, I don’t know what to think or who to trust.”
    The last memory he had of her was like a knife turning in his gut. 
    Had she chosen to trust Cujo?  Could she have chosen Cujo over Alsandair?  The pain speared out to dive deep into his heart.  “You can trust me, Molly,” he whispered. 
    “Sir?” One of the controllers glanced up questioningly.  “I’m sorry, Sir, I didn’t hear what you said.”
    “Nothing.”  Alsandair shook his head, trying to still his churning gut.  “Have you locked on?”
    “Yes, Sir.”  The controller frowned.  “But the spaceship isn’t moving.”
    “Broken down?”  Hope leaped to life inside him.
    “I can bring up a picture now… Oh no…”  The controller looked grimly at the picture that appeared on the screen beside the radar. 
    Alsandair stared at the ruined spaceship as it drifted in space.  The metal casing was twisted, smoke trailing away from it.  Parts of the hull were