Chapter 26
Their apartment always felt like a haven to Hal. He came back to it, and to Fiona, after his long stints patrolling the border, and he found to his surprise that it was what he thought of when he thought of home.
It looked like their home had been violated though.
It had clearly been invaded, and searched, and Hal could easily guess why.
“They were looking for Eazi here first,” he said.
“Looks that way. Maybe after finding nothing here, they went to the warehouse.” Fiona was looking around with a stone face, and Hal drew her close.
“I’m sorry.”
She tucked in closer, then tipped back her head to look at him. “I wondered if they’d try here. They might have tried to look at my office, as well.”
She pulled away, and he let her go, watching as she walked through the rooms, studying the wreckage.
Nothing had been broken, he was relieved to see, but whoever had conducted the search had not made any effort to hide the fact that they had been here.
No time, he guessed.
While Fiona went to shower and change, he began setting a few things straight, and was pleased to see it hadn’t taken long to get the lounge almost back to normal before she stepped through from the bedroom.
She was wearing a jacket he hadn’t seen before, covered in tiny crystals and she was singing softly under her breath, a song he hadn’t heard before. It was in her mother tongue, and it had a gentle, sweet rhythm.
When he looked up at her there was a look on her face, a sharpness, that was in contrast to the calming melody, and he opened his mouth, then shut it at the tiny shake of her head.
“The shower’s yours,” she said.
He hadn’t planned to take a shower, but he nodded, and went to the bathroom.
Fiona came in after him, and he turned the water on.
“What song were you singing?” he asked.
She looked at him blankly for a moment, and then grinned, delighting him that he’d been able to lift the grimness from her expression.
“A song about walking on sunshine,” she said. “But that’s not why I maneuvered you into the shower.”
He blinked as he tried to connect walking on sunshine to the double entendre her words conjured up and then sobered as her expression got serious again.
“What is it?” He breathed the words out, pulling her close with his lips to her ear.
“Eazi left me a message woven into the garment bag this jacket was in. I don’t know how he got it here, but I’m guessing he ordered Jaden Tris or one of his little drones to deliver it.
The message on the garment bag says the crystals are specially created to boost a comms signal.
He’ll use them to contact me as soon as he can work around the comms blackout, so I need to wear it.
” She lifted her face to his. “It got me thinking that whoever broke into the apartment might have left a lens or at least a listening device in here.”
Hal should have assumed that himself, given the apartment had been completely ransacked.
He nodded. “Seeing as I’m in here, I’ll shower, and then we can get out of here. Why don’t you carry on the clean up job while I’m in here, and keep an eye out for the lens. It might be useful to pass on misinformation if they think we don’t know it’s here.”
She nodded, leaving him to strip off his clothes, and when he came back out, he was amazed at how much she’d managed to deal with.
“Fortunately, it’s more in disarray than damaged,” she said at his expression.
“That’s something, at least.” He shrugged into his own jacket, eyed her new one again. The crystals were the same color as the dark gray fabric of the jacket itself, and were attached in a pattern that seemed to swirl around her body. “Let’s go to the Illium, I need to check in with my crew.”
Hal waited until they were out of the front door of the building before he turned to her. “Did you find anything?”
She shook her head. “But I’m absolutely sure there is something to find.”
Hal had to agree. “What about the jacket? Do you think Jaden Tris knows what it does?”
She shook her head. “Whether Eazi got Jaden Tris to drop this off or used a drone, he would never tell Jaden anything important. And the fact that Tean hasn’t seen Jaden since this mess started makes me wonder what’s going on. Either he’s in trouble, or he is the trouble.”
Hal had never liked Jaden Tris.
He knew the admin had been part of the original way station management team before Eazi and Fee had taken over, and as part of the olive branch they’d extended, they’d kept him on. “If I were to bet, I’d say he’s in this up to his neck.”
Fiona made a hum of agreement. “I thought he looked a little too gleeful about my leaving the way station. He thought I was going to stay on the Illium, though.”
“When it arrived two days ago, and you weren’t on it, he must have wondered where you were. Why didn’t he try to get in touch with you?” Hal asked.
Fiona was keeping more space between them than usual, and as he reached to draw her closer, she shook her head.
“No, no, no.” Her expression was amused. “I currently look like a junior member of your staff. A very young, junior member. And everyone here knows you’re in a relationship with me. So pretend I’m Grihan while we’re out walking, will you?”
He cursed.
Pretending she was Grihan was good for keeping the supposed assassins at bay, even if their enemies from Balco already knew about her disguise. “I can’t believe I’ve gotten used to that wig and those ears so quickly.”
“You love me, no matter what I look like,” she said, and sent him a wink.
She meant it as a joke, but as they headed for the docks that surrounded the way station like the rays of a star, he knew that was absolutely true.
Fee realized she hadn’t been back on the Illium since she and Eazi had taken control of the way station, and that was coming up on just over a year.
Chel, Hal’s second-in-command, had taken his chance while Hal was off the ship and missing to firmly, and not-so-politely, turf her off.
“Commander Chel,” she said as they were welcomed onto the bridge. “Last time we saw each other the way station had no comms, either. What a coincidence.”
Chel didn’t hide his wince. “That was a stressful time, with no comms, and knowing Hal was in danger . . .” He sighed. “I’m sorry for how I handled things. I would act very differently if given the chance again.”
Fiona studied him, saw the genuine misery on his face. “Apology accepted. Although, seeing you again reminded me that this is exactly what was happening when Paxe shut down the comms on the way station.”
“Do you think he’s doing it again?” Gerbardi, the comms officer, stood from his console.
Fiona shook her head. “He doesn’t need to. He’s invested in the way station, and would never do anything to harm it.”
“Look back in the logs.” Hal pointed to Gerbardi’s console. “See how close this shut down is to what happened last time, because Fiona is right. This has exactly the same feel as the last comms black-out.”
“And we are dealing with people secretly building a Class 5,” Fee reminded him. “They had the laser cannon, after all. Maybe they also have the comms blocking equipment.”
Chel turned to stare at her in horror. “Who has these things?”
“Some Balcoans.” Hal gave a slow nod. “And they think they have Eazi right now.”
“That might give us a bit of time as they try to integrate him, or whatever they’re going to try to do, but it also occurs to me that they have to have either a Garmann or a Tecran expert with them.
Someone involved in the original building of the Class 5s.
Because surely assembling and then using a comms blocker like the ones on the Class 5s is not something just anyone could do?
” Fee could tell her question was freaking everyone on the bridge out.
“They think they have Eazi?” Voa, the explorations officer, hauled herself to her feet. “How?”
“They mistook something in his warehouse for being his physical housing.” Fee quirked her lips. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters is finding where they’re holed up with the jammer.”
“I’d like to look around the buildings near the warehouse,” Hal said. “We know they were waiting close by, given how quickly they broke in after we arrived.”
“You want to get a few teams together to do a search?” Chel asked.
Hal nodded. “Four teams of six each. Everyone should be ready to go in half an hour.”
Fee liked that they were going to be moving. Doing something. “Don’t forget we have that meeting with Tean Lee in about forty minutes ourselves.”
Hal had forgotten, she could see it on his face.
“It’s okay. I can go. You can direct your teams.”
Hal hesitated. “No. I’ll come with you. Rial can lead the teams and we’ll join them afterward.”
He was determined to have her back, and she loved that more than she could say. She merely nodded, though. This was not the time and place to let him know how she felt about it.
“You should ask the traffic controllers if they can clear the way for the Illium to undock and leave the way station, so we’ve got more options.” Hal turned to Chel before he left the bridge. “I don’t like us being stuck down here with no easy way off. We’re a sitting target.”
“I can do that.” Chel nodded. “What happens if we get permission to leave before you return?”
“Do it anyway, and get in a holding pattern around the way station. I’d rather we’re able to leave when we want, than sit here, stuck. Leave some runners in the bay for us to get up to the ship if that happens.”
Fee knew all movement into and out of the way station had ground to a halt, but if the Illium moved slowly as it left, it should be safe enough. It was so big, no one could miss it.
“I’ll see what I can do to expedite that when we speak with Tean Lee,” she said to Chel.
He blinked, as if suddenly remembering she was the way station manager. “Thank you.”
It occurred to her that if Chel hadn’t tossed her off the Illium and made her Sazo’s problem all those months ago, she’d never have had the opportunity to take the way station, and that had definitely been one of the best moves she’d made since finding herself in this new world.
“No problem.” She gave him a little wave as she left.
She didn’t think he had any idea how to respond.