Baggage

Nita motioned Raymond to follow her. They walked down the hall, and when they were out of earshot, she gave him a contemptuous glare, “you'll get nowhere with that one!”

“Shut up,” Raymond snapped. “It's non of your concern.”

“It's all our concern,” white haired woman insisted, and held out her hand.

“No, not yet,” Raymond pleaded. He did not want these feelings to go away so soon. He wanted a little private time, but it was futile to resist.

She grabbed for his hand, and he did not stop her. She was his superior, after all. Her grip managed to always be firm and supple.

They searched together, winding through the chemical pathways of his nervous system, up through the spine, and then into the brain. Their probing detected unwanted chemicals building in his system. Distractions that would make the Yogan weak were severed and rebuilt with alternative routes. Unfortunately there were too many of them. Raymond had spent too much time with Jueqel, making it an impossible to task to finish in such a short period of time. More Yogan would be needed to find them all.

Nita released him. “You attempted a bonding,” she accused.

“No.”

“Then why so many connections?”

“I cannot explain it.”

“Try,” she demanded.

“I put too much effort into the purging of his system,” he tried to come across as emotionless. He wasn't sure if it was coming out that way. “I had to find the poison through all routes.”

“So, you attempted a bonding,” she concluded. “I should strike you down and dispose of you right here. He is not Yogan. He rejected us then and he rejects us now.”

Raymond knew she dared not dispose of him in this place. “I will submit to a full cleansing when we get back to the Green House.”

She got into his face and said, “yes. You will.”

Raymond could see that had made her back off a little, but he carried hazardous baggage that she would not let him forget.