“I know your time is precious. But there’s something I’d like to say to you.”
I nodded as gravity reasserted itself, the memories of those weightless moments on the couch pulled down to some more appropriate level of consciousness.
“You’d asked me at the Fire Ball why I was traveling on this ship,” Sonia said, a resigned expression moving acrossher face. “As much as possible, I try to keep my professional and personal lives separate. But I would not be where I am today if I didn’t have a keen sense of when to ask for help.”
“Do you need my help?” I asked, gravity doubling.
Running two fingers up and down the bridge of her nose, she said, “I fear—no, I’m quite certain that my family is in danger. Tell me, Sunny. Have you heard of Proposition 2126?”
I shook my head, my attention snagging on two words: family and danger.
“What I am about to tell you is highly classified information. Can I trust you to keep this between us?”
I wanted to tell her yes, but it was impossible. “It depends,” I said. “One of my duties is to keep everyone aboard this ship safe. If what you’re about to tell me compromises my ability to do that in any way?—”
She waved me off. “You’re right. Of course. I shouldn’t have asked.”
My mind rewound to the bistro, to what Tig had told me. If the senator’s family was in enough danger that she was about to share highly classified information with me, I needed to tell her what Tig had found. “Senator, our IT specialist found something distressing the other day. Someone off-ship has been hacking our system to access our guests’ itineraries.”
So quickly I almost missed it, her eyes flared with something like alarm. “That’s troubling.”
“These security breaches started around the time you and your family came aboard. Do you think this has anything to do with your proposition?”
Curling her fingers around the armrests of her chair, she said, “Perhaps.”
It wasn’t much, but it was all I needed to hear. “I wouldlike to help you, but I need to know what’s going on. And I need to be able to share that information with my crew.”
After a tense moment, a muscle in her jaw flickered, and she sighed. “Very well. I have committed myself to introducing a”—she paused briefly—“controversialproposition at the upcoming KU joint sessions meeting on Portis. Certain information regarding the proposition has been leaked, although I’m not certain how. Nevertheless, my comings and goings have been a source of much interest of late, and my security officers—who are also guests aboard theIgnisar, although you won’t uncover who they are unless they want you to—devised this plan to travel to Portis on this very crowded, very public ship in efforts to dissuade any attacks on me or my family before we reached the meeting.”
I sat up straight. “Is my ship in danger, Senator?”
“We do not believe so,” Sonia said, leaning back in her chair. “The negative press of anything happening on theIgnisarwould make the risks too great.”
This was an odd statement. Who, aside from LunaCorp themselves, would care about the negative press of something happening aboard one of LunaCorp’s ships? I wanted to ask what the proposition entailed, but the thumping of little feet down the hall put an end to our conversation.
“Hi, Mom,” Sai said, rubbing his eyes. “What are you two talking about? You woke me up.”
Sonia rose to her feet and walked to her son, picking him up and swaying him from side to side. “Sorry, bubs,” she said, kissing his cheek. “I’ve missed you. Did you have a good time with Sunny and Freddie?”
Sai squeezed his arms around her neck. “We made cookies.”
Sonia laughed and set Sai down, then turned back to face me, all business again. “I’m certain you’ll need todiscuss what I’ve told you with Chan, and I realize that it was unfair of me to ask you not to. All I can do is request your entire crew’s discretion in this matter.”
“Of course,” I said, getting to my feet. Straightening my top, I said good night, then watched Sonia lead Sai back to his room before seeing myself out. And heading directly to Freddie’s pod.
19
He openedhis door after one knock, wearing a soft white T-shirt and an even softer pair of gray sweatpants. He must have showered, because his hair was damp, and his linen scent rushed out to greet me. Maybe it was his soap, or his shampoo, or just some pheromone his body produced, but all I wanted was to get him all dirty again.
“The senator made it home safely?” he asked, backing away from the door to let me inside.
“She did. I told her about the cookies. And she told me that her family might be in danger.”
He coughed into his fist. “What?”
As succinctly as possible, I told him about Tig’s findings and the senator’s concerns.
“That’s troubling,” he stated, sitting on the edge of his bed.
