The crew looked for Kaylee and Marcus but had no luck. Night came, and Simon was getting worried. Something was definitely wrong. Kaylee always let someone from the crew know she was going to be late. Simon looked in on River before going back out.

He found her sitting on her bed. Her fingers were on her head with her eyes closed. Simon knew this look. She was trying to concentrate. She didn’t stop when Simon sat on the bed with her. He put his hand on her shoulder.

“Simon look for her, I need to stay focused.”

“Well I don’t want you hurting yourself.”

“She is out there Simon, I can feel that she is still alive but I can’t locate her. It’s like Marcus has some special power to block her from my mind.”

“You might be right kid.”

Simon and River turned to see Mal standing in the doorway. He walked over and handed Simon a pad. Simon took it and looked at the screen. There was information about Marcus.

“This can’t be? He never showed signs of having any type of special ability. Sure the guy was smart, but any sort of power?”

“The Alliance was keeping a secret. They were using him as a mole to find others.”

River looked over Simon’s shoulder at the screen. “What does he have?”

“He can read thoughts like you, but he can block mind readers from reading other people’s thoughts.”

Simon didn’t understand why Marcus would want Kaylee. River took Simon’s hand. “It’s my fault. He’s using Kaylee as bait. The Alliance wants me and they will do anything.”

Simon couldn’t say anything. He was always worried about River, but he never thought to worry about Kaylee.

“We’ll find her Simon. Kaylee is our Mei-mei on this ship. No one hurts our Kaylee.”

Simon still didn’t feel reassured by Mal.

Kaylee’s head was throbbing. Where the heck was she? She appeared to be in a small room with no windows. She had been lying on a cold floor. Kaylee stretched out her legs. There was something on her ankle. She went to grab it, but her hands were tied together. She moved her leg to see her ankle had a chain around it.

There