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“This girl claims to be our royal princess,” the general informed the new arrival. “Can you verify?”

Signa turned to look at Alex and tilted his head, his gaze unfocused. After a tense moment, his eyes narrowed and he stepped closer to her. His expression darkened further and he grasped her shoulder firmly.

“Hey!” she exclaimed, trying to shrug off his hand. “Let me go!”

“Signa?” the general pressed. “Is she lying?”

Signa’s face remained irritated but he released Alex’s shoulder and walked over to the general’s side. “I’m unable to hear her thoughts. Any of them.”

A few of the soldiers around the room looked astonished, including the general and Major Tyson. Alex rolled her eyes.

“Do you really think my father would allow me to remain untrained in the art of protecting my mind? With all I hear around the palace? Of course not,” she said, injecting a hint of scorn into her voice.

“You’re too young to have such strengthened resistance,” Signa argued.

“I’m a fast learner,” Alex rebutted him arrogantly.

The general’s gaze was calculating, while Signa looked enraged.

“I don’t trust her, General,” the mind reader said. “She could be a spy. She’s probably in league with the intruders from earlier. I say we torture her for information.”

Alex somehow managed to keep her face blank despite her rising fear, but wondered just how much sway Signa had overthe general. She had to think quickly before her situation took a turn for the worse.

“There’s a simple enough solution,” Alex said, following a hunch. “Contact my father. He’ll confirm my identity.”

“We can’t contact the king directly from here,” Drock informed her. “We communicate with him through the Warden headquarters unless there’s an emergency.”

Alex folded her arms. “You don’t consider my abduction an emergency?”

“Not if you’re lying,” he said. “I won’t waste the king’s time.”

“Contact the Wardens, then,” Alex said, desperately hoping he wouldn’t call her bluff.

“As you wish,” the general said, almost mockingly. “But if it turns out you’ve tried to deceive me, I’ll personally see to it that you discover new meanings of the word ‘pain’.”

Alex raised her chin and tried to appear confident, despite the fact that she was now mentally hyperventilating. “Lead the way, General Drock.”

At her words, he spun on his heel and headed over to the far side of the outpost tower and into an adjoining room. Tyson motioned for Alex to follow.

Alex trailed after the general into the smaller office-like room, where her steps faltered. There, sitting in the rubbish bin at the base of a large desk, was a bright red envelope. The good news was that she’d found what she needed without having to actually search for it. The bad news was that she had no idea how to retrieve it, let alone how she would get both it and herself safely out of the compound.

She could have used Jordan’s gift right about then, that was for sure.

General Drock moved to the wall of the office and pressed on a touch-screen panel. Immediately a voice echoed out of the Device and asked for identification.

“General Alan Drock, Soori Outpost. Authorisation code one-one-six-four-two-eight. Requesting visual contact.”

Within seconds, a projected life-size holograph appeared in front of them. It was a Warden, that much was clear from the uniform, but the person—a woman—had her back to Alex so she couldn’t see her face.

“General Drock,” the Warden greeted him. There seemed to be something wrong with the audio transference, since the voice was distorted, almost robotic-sounding, while the picture was of good quality. “You’re not due to check in until tomorrow evening. Is there a problem?”

“Nothing more than we can handle, Warden,” Drock said. “But we’ve had some intruders in the compound today who we failed to apprehend.”

“Intruders?” the Warden asked sharply. “What were they after?”

“We’ve yet to discover that,” the general said. “There’s nothing of value here. We didn’t get a look at them, but it was probably just some kids looking for a thrill.”

“Keep us updated,” the Warden said.