6:51 AM
Basil stumbled into the house to the smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen. " Kiya? " he called. " Is that you? "
The girl poked her head out of a doorway. " Is Father home yet? " she asked.
" No, still underground trying to pick apart that mobile suit, " Basil answered. " What's up? "
Kiya came out of the kitchen and sat on the couch. " I think he's wrong about that pilot, " she said quietly. " I think we were all wrong about him. "
" Did you speak to him again? "
" Well, yeah. "
" Your father did forbid you from speaking to him, remember? "
" It doesn't matter. " Kiya looked up at her friend. " Basil, has it ever occurred to you – or to anyone else here – that if this guy was really an OZ soldier, he would have broken out of here, gotten to the base, and gotten us all captured? Wouldn't he have done something to totally tear the Resistance apart? Bas, wouldn't he have killed you, me, and Father by now? "
Basil's brow furrowed in deep thought. " You just might have a point, Kiya. But how do you know he's just not biding his time? "
Kiya recounted her conversation with the mysterious pilot. " He said he didn't kill me because maybe he pitied me. Do you understand what he might be saying there? "
Basil shrugged. " Not really. Why would an OZ soldier pity a girl who's got blatant ties to a resistance movement? " The two sat in silence for a few minutes.
Basil has a point, Kiya thought. OZ and everyone there is merciless to anyone and anything that dares to stand against it. If that soldier up there has anything vaguely resembling a brain, he'd have realized that late-night comings and goings in a little cottage in the middle of a rural colony quadrant right next to an OZ base seem just a little more than completely odd. Even in the state he's in now, he'd have been able to find some way to contact the base, and we'd all be done for. But that would have been ages ago. This guy doesn't even sass me out like the OZ soldiers do.
Unless…
Kiya's head snapped upright with a cry, finally hitting on an idea. " Basil, what was that question you asked a little while ago? "
" Umm… why would an OZ soldier take pity on a girl with ties to a resistance movement? "
Kiya's eyes sparkled brightly as she answered. " Because he's not really an OZ soldier. "