Lacy’s fingers flew over the keyboard.
Fuck.She was good.Good enough that I might not catch her if she decided to screw me over.
Pay attention, Dax!No more watching her delicate pulse.
I focused on the screen, hoping to catch whatever she was doing.
A video file opened.Lacy paused it before it played.“This is her last recording,” she said.“It’s time-stamped four days ago.”
Was four days a bad thing or was the delay usual for her sister’s videos?“Are there other gaps in the timeline?”
“I only looked at the folders for this year and last.There are other gaps.”She stopped me when I would have spoken.“But it’s not the gaps that matter.The data file requires regular logins from her.When she missed two, it sent the data to a broker, who sent it to me.”
Lacy pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket.She smoothed her fingers over it before offering it to me.Even then, she almost didn’t let go.
I read her sister’s message.Then read it again.The “get here quick” part was concerning.“This is why you stole my ship.”
Lacy shook her head vehemently.“I didn’t even open the package until this morning.”
“Um hmm.”That seemed way too coincidental to me.
Instead of responding, Lacy advanced the last video two thirds of the way to the end.
Yep, that wasn’t suspicious at all.“Let’s watch it from the beginning.”
The muscles of her neck flexed in tension.“No.You don’t need to go through her research.The important part is at the end.”
On the one hand, I understood her desire to protect her sister’s project.On the other, it was hard to trust her when I didn’t know everything.
Lacy pressed play.“I think that asshole on the forum played me,” her sister said from on the screen.“He claimed to be descended from theQueen of Starscrew.”
I snorted and Lacy whipped her head around and glared at me.
“It sounded fishy from the start, but heknewthings,” Lacy’s sister continued.“Things that corroborate information I’ve uncovered.No one has ever mentionedcrediblesurvivors before now, though, so I took a chance.Turns out it was just a waste of time.I’m out of here tomorrow.”She glared at the screen before the recording ended.
“That’s the last entry.”Lacy sat back in the chair.
I swiveled it around so we were face-to-face.“I understand why you’re concerned,” I said.“But it’s a big leap from a last entry a couple days ago to missing.Maybe she got lucky and missed a couple of check-ins.”
Lacy kicked my shin.
“Ow.Okay, maybe she didn’t get lucky.We don’t know that there isn’t a perfectly good reason for her to miss her deadlines.”
“Are you even listening to yourself?”Lacy launched from the chair and got in my face.“What if one of your friends was potentially missing?Would you just write it off to a random hookup?”
Okay, she had a point.“We don’t even know where she was.”
Lacy’s fingers skimmed my chest as she brushed that argument away.“The date and coordinates were at the start of the video.”
Her eyes begged me to agree.I was tempted.Who wouldn’t be?The chance to hunt for a ghost ship, a legend.A fantasy.
That was what decided me.It was just a fantasy.And right now, I needed tangible cargo if I wanted to keep my promises.To my crew and especially to Wilson.I placed my hands on Lacy’s shoulders.“I can’t.I’m sorry.I need to pick up paying cargo and my crew.I can stop at the next spaceport.I’m sure you can hire a ship and a crew to find your sister there.”
My stomach churned as I spoke.It felt wrong, so wrong, to refuse to help.
She shrugged my hands off violently.But instead of backing up, she stepped closer.“Thanks for nothing.”Hands on my chest, she shoved with enough force to move me back a couple of steps.
Then she popped the data chip out of the console and tucked it back into her pocket.She brushed by me, her elbow whacking me in the stomach, then stomped off the bridge.“Asshole.”
