THE Mistral’s shuttle had already departed, so they took another, telling the pilot to fly them up to the Guardian’s ship. The Nova Fortuna’s shuttles traveled at half the speed of the Guardians’, so they were still on their way when Strongquist contacted them over the ship’s comm to report on his preliminary examination of Twyla’s body.
“I would like you to look at something,” the Guardian said. The image he sent showed an area of skin bearing a small tattoo.
“This is on Twyla?” Ethan asked. He kept his voice low and glanced at Garwin, but the man didn’t appear to be registering anything in his surroundings.
“It is,” Strongquist replied.
“Do you recognize it?” Cariad asked Ethan.
“Should I?”
“It’s the Natural Movement symbol,” she said. “Can you see? It’s a stylized N and M.”
“Twyl
