TITLE: "TRAIL OF TEARS"

SERIES: THE DEVIL'S CRADLE

CHAPTER: 15. Sequel to "DEADLY OBSESSIONS"

FANDOM: "FIREFLY"

AUTHOR: Alison M. DOBELL

PAIRING: Zoe/Wash Kaylee/Simon Mal/Inara

RATING: PG-13

SUMMARY: "Lucy has a decision to make meanwhile the

Captain has already made his though Simon Tam is far from

happy about it."

"TRAIL OF TEARS"

A "Firefly" Story

Written by Alison M. DOBELL

* * * * *

"We would appear to have lost the iniative."

Chou gave her a steady look but said nothing. A faint smile hovered on her twisted lips, her eyes bright and sharp belying the march of years.

"Appearances can be so deceiving can they not?"

Chou inclined his head sensing the Lady had new information though not its' source. Intrigued but patient he waited. She would tell him what he needed to know when he needed to know it.

"My sources counted the dead, old friend." She said quietly then paused. "Of the two factions one would seem to be 'missing'."

That was news to him. Disturbing in its' oddity. Who would want to take a dead body and why? "Do we know who was taken, my Lady?"

"*Bu qu* but I am more interested in the why. Something else is going on, Chou. Something perhaps even more sinister than we had supposed."

Again she paused, this time her lips flattened in a thin unforgiving line as if a thought displeased her.

"Nothing must be allowed to interfere with our 'interests'."

He gave a slight bow. When he straightened the screen had gone dark and she was gone. Chou wondered what it meant and what threat to their interests such an act might presage. The Lady was not one to take chances or to expose her people to unfriendly scrutiny. Her ways were subtle but no less deadly than any of her competitors many of whom did not