I nodded to show I understood.“Thanks for the help,” I said.“And the cargo.Appreciate it.”
“Miss,” he called before I left the office.“I wouldn’t recommend you go anywhere alone down there.”
“Just me or my crew too?”I asked.
“Anyone, but especially just you.It’s a hard life down there.And they make it harder for some.”
A shiver ran through me.Is that what had happened to Layla?I thanked him again and wandered back toFortuna.
No.I had to believe that my sister had been taken because of her research.Because of her obsession.I chewed on my lip.His warning ratcheted up my fear and worry.
Lost in my dark thoughts, I ran into Dax at the bottom of the ramp.He grabbed my shoulders and kept me from tumbling to the ground.
“Oh hey,” I said.
“Oh hey,” he echoed.“Burn said you had something to ask me?”
Ask, tell.Practically the same thing, right?“We’ve got some cargo for Kottke.It’ll be delivered later this afternoon.”
“What the hell?”
I looked up then, past Dax, and noted for the first time the two men, and Burn standing behind them.If the call earlier was anything to go on, Mercer was the one who’d spoken.He glared at me, his lips pursed in disapproval.He might have been good-looking with his tawny skin and his dark eyes, but his sour expression made him look like an asshole.
Burn was doubled over in laughter.The other guy, the big one who looked like a tank, just watched the interaction with a half-smile.
“I told you,” Burn wheezed out between laughs.
Dax sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.
I mimicked him, but it wasn’t nearly as effective.“Burn and I were talking about cargo and it got me thinking.Why not take cargo down to Kottke?It gives us a legitimate reason to be there.We’ll be delivering livestock feed.Shouldn’t take up more than a third of our cargo space.Decent price.Enough to cover the fuel bill, probably a little more.”
The rest of the crew had gotten closer as I spoke, and now they crowded behind Dax.I hated feeling like I was under a microscope.
“It’ll be delivered this afternoon.Cargo master said it’s best to take it tomorrow.Apparently the landing pad is in bad shape and they don’t always light it well.”
“Why not?”Burn asked.
“Salvage, probably.”
The four of them stared at me in confusion.
I sighed.“Say a ship crashes at night.People might come out and pick the wreck clean.And when they get billed, they argue that the shipment never arrived.They refuse to pay for goods they didn’t receive.It’s hard to prove a negative.”
“Diabolical,” Burn whispered.
It was.Also kind of awful.“I think that gives us a sense of the kinds of people we’ll be dealing with down there.”
“They do that on purpose?”Orion asked.
I shrugged.That was not a question I wanted to answer out here in the open.“Can we please get on the ship?I promise, I’ll answer your questions there.”There was already the chance that we were drawing too much attention.
“You’re just going to let her make decisions about our cargo and our schedule?”Mercer still sounded pissed.
“Let’s get back on the ship, everyone,” Dax said, bypassing Mercer’s question.
I appreciated his support.
Burn was the first one to tramp back up the ramp.Orion followed.
