Her lips curled. "What do you want?"
"Don't try to shield," he warned. He studied her face and his chest was tight. He looked away from her face.
"I've got to ask you some questions," he said. "After that, I'm going to kill you."
There was no fear in Lauri's eyes. "Go ahead," she said calmly. "Kill me."
"I ... I ... want to ask you something first," he said. "I've got to ask you some questions."
Her lips glistened and he felt sympathy that he could not understand. And seeing her frown, he shielded the thoughts from her.
"You're not ... quite like I thought you were," she said, very calmly.
"I am!" he snarled. "I am what you thought!" He was ashamed of the sympathy he had let her sense, and then he was ashamed of being ashamed, and his mind was confusion.
"Why did you—did you leave this planet as an unprotected flank, like this?" he said. It was a question, he knew, that had to be answered, before ... before ... what?
"They weren't ready to join us," she said.