Take me to jail. Please.

Yesterday, Rome's questioning turned toward the mystery Vuduri woman who had helped Troutman and Steele attempt to murder Rome and Rei. Troutman claimed he didn't know much about her, she always kept her identity hidden. But even the few facts that he did know would help them whittle down the list of candidates. Rome pressed Troutman on this:

     “No,” Troutman said. “Other than breaking into the library, I didn’t spend much time with her. It was her and Steele most of the time. We came back here, I rigged the bomb. We watched you for two weeks and knew exactly what time the two of you were going to be home. They snuck it into your house and set the timer. I still don’t know what happened or even how you survived, Bierak.”
     “Is this woman with Steele now?” Rei asked.
     “She might be. Since the bomb, they’ve steered clear of me. I don’t know what they’re up to. Maybe she left. Maybe she’s still here. I have no way of knowing. I’ve just been hiding out.”
     “Have you ever been at Steele’s encampment?” Rome asked.
     “No,” he replied. “But it can’t be too far away. I would have to guess within a day’s walk, maybe a little more.”
     Rei looked over at Rome. She nodded. He stood up then said, “MINIMCOM, can you rig us a jail cell in your cargo compartment. We gotta go after Steele now and we don’t have time to put this loser any place else.”
     “Absolutely,” MINIMCOM said. He stood perfectly still then bowed his head. “It is done. I have constructed a small room with no entrance or egress. It will hold him until you are ready to release him.”
     “Thank you!” Troutman exclaimed with a great deal of relief in his tone.
     Rome cocked her head. “Why are you thanking us?”
     “I’ve hated every minute of my life here. I hate Steele and I hated what he made me do. Finally, I’ll be able to going back to being human. You’re doing me the biggest favor you can imagine just putting me in jail.”
     Rei shrugged. With a whoosh and a pop, Troutman and the chair were gone as was MINIMCOM’s livetar.
     Rei looked around the room. “Do you think there’s any point in searching this dump?”
     “No,” Rome said. “He was telling the truth. He really did not know where Steele is hiding out.”
     “OK,” Rei said, leading the way to the door. “Then we head west.”
     “Hold on,” Bonnie said. “Steele is rather vicious. Don’t you think we should take your robot with us? For protection?”
     “He isn’t a robot,” Rome offered. “He is, a, well, the thing you see that looks like a person is called a livetar. It’s an animated shell but the intelligence and personality reside up there.” Rome pointed toward the ceiling.
     “Even so.”
     “MINIMCOM will pick us up shortly,” Rei said. “We only need go as far as the edge of town then we’ll ride from there. We’ll look for Steele from the air.”

Well, at least we have a plan. But before we head into the woods, let take at trip down nostalgia lane to Rei's one and only space-walk, the one where he retrieved his music slab.