"This is why you find it so hard to trust Roake even though I know you want to," Finn said, his voice soft with discovery.
It took willpower to duck her chin in the smallest of nods.
Finn didn't say anything more, lapsing into silence.
Kira's hands clenched.
Much as she wanted to reject Jace putting himself in danger, she couldn't. She'd be a hypocrite if she did.
She'd hit a wall in her own investigation. Being as high up in the ranks as he was, Jace was in a better position to learn more.
The Haldeel bustled around the cabin, closing the hatch doors as they prepared to launch.
There was none of the insistence on seat belts or safety harnesses that you'd encounter on a human vessel.
Unless there was an issue during re-entry, such things would be unnecessary. At that point, it likely wouldn't matter what kind of restraints they wore.
The ship lifted off the platform with the faintest of jolts. There was a sense of movement as they slipped out the membrane separating the dock from the void of space.
The gravity switched seamlessly from the station's to the ship’s, the faint sensation of weightlessness there and gone in an instant.
"What did you find?" Kira asked as they started their descent.
"You were right about a mole. They're good too."
They'd have to be to go this long without discovery.
"If I hadn't known they existed, I don't think I'd have caught their trail so easily," Jace admitted.
Outside the viewing window, the small orb that was the planet grew until it filled the screen.
"They're pretty high up in the ranks," Jace said. "I'd say an admiral or rear admiral. It could also be someone who had regular contact with the Curs."
Kira shook her head. "I thought of that. Most of them are dead."
"It could be a survivor from one of the ships present at Rothchild," Jace pointed out.
"If that was the case, they would have been on the CSSVega. They couldn’t have guaranteed their survival."
The handful out of thousands who'd survived had done so by chance. Kira didn't see a Tsavitee double agent taking that sort of risk.
"That leaves someone who had knowledge of troop movements and highly classified information," Jace said.
Of which there was only a small number.
"Tell me one thing," Kira said. "Do you suspect Himoto?"
The muscles in Jace's face jumped as he quelled his instinctive denial.
Kira's stomach twisted as she waited for his answer. It wasn’t easy contemplating whether Himoto was a traitor. He’d raised her after the camps.
At one time, he’d been her hero.
"At first glance, he would seem to be a prime candidate," Jace allowed before shaking his head. "I simply don't see it. Himoto would do many things to safeguard the Consortium, but I can't see him being capable of that. He'd have to be a much better actor to pull something like this off."
That fit with her assessment as well, but she’d also known she was too close to the matter to be objective.
"There are multiple people who were at Rothchild and at other battles now in positions of high authority," Jace said, sliding a microscopic data unit her way. "I've included dossiers on all of them. I think you'll find one of particular interest."
