I followed, matching her rapid pace and letting my limbs loosen and my body warm up. Something told me we’d be running before we finished this walk.
Paroled planets generally kept a low profile, trying not to attract anyone’s attention, let alone the Overseer’s. I’d studied up on a lot of places for different jobs, but I didn’t know the situation of every rock in the Dark. Nearly a decade ago, I’d followed a prize to a planet required by the Overseer to prove good behavior for a fifteen-year period in order to benefit from galactic financial and medical assistance again. Now that I thought about it, the unnerving emptiness I’d encountered outdoors there had felt a lot like this.
“I’m seeing incident reports,” Merrick relayed from theEndeavor. “Riots and uprisings in Koralight Crown about twelve years ago… Iridium deposits around and underneath the city… Nonviolent sanctions to preserve the continued exploitation of the element…”
Ir?I’d worked with it once. “Iridium is used in the manufacture of hyperdrives.” My engineering studies didn’t feel like a lifetime ago, even though in some ways, they were. I’d expected to use them again, just not like this. “It’s expensive and difficult to shape but extremely durable. Even at two thousand degrees Celsius, it won’t corrode or melt. A hyperdrive reactor lined with iridium lasts on average three times longer than one that’s not.” Essentially, the silvery-white metal was one of the only things able to withstand some of the severest conditions technology or nature could create.
Tess looked at me, her mouth pressed flat. I nodded, furious also. With just a little more time to prepare, to ask ourselves the right questions, we would’ve known this. Better yet, someone in the Fold could’ve handed us a fucking file with the information we needed. Even Ahern might’ve mentioned it.
“This has AGL written all over it.” Tess nearly broke into a jog and checked herself at the last second. “Everyone to the ship. No stops.”
“It’s okay to steal when it follows your agenda?” Fiona snapped. “We take risks every day for orphans and the Outer Zones, but I see a fruit-bearing plant and I can’t have it?”
“Of courseI want you to have it,” Tess ground out. “But AGLs don’t pop up in cursory searches, and we didn’t have time for anything else. If there are additional galactic laws here, the Dark Watch will be twice as nasty as everywhere else. It’s free rein to terrorize people. Fines. Imprisonment.”
“Oh, you mean a regular day in the galaxy,” Fiona shot back.
“No, I meanworse.”
“Fruit, Tess. Fresh fruit on board. Think about it.”
“Ifyou can make it grow,” Tess said.
Fiona scoffed. Tess let out a tight breath.
I stayed out of it. I understood the allure of a berry bush for a space-rat botanist. Hell, I’d only been living like a Nightchaser for a matter of days, and I already missed the food, fresh air, sunshine, and comforts of planet-dwelling life. But Tess was right. The Overseer didn’t want his draconian AGLs headlining as anything unusual on the rocks he’d imposed them on. For the citizens of Korabon, these laws were simply the norm, and outsiders just shouldn’t come here.
The thing was, we hadn’t come. We’d beensent—and someone should’ve warned us.
I ground my teeth in frustration. So far, the rebel leadership seemed as full of assholes as the Dark Watch.
“I’m almost there.” Fiona’s stubbornness didn’t surprise me. It seemed an automatic extension of her perpetually swinging ponytail.
“Jax!” Tess didn’t say more. One word was enough.
“Let’s go, Fi,” Jax said.
“Not without my plant.”
“Now.” Steel laced Jaxon’s voice.
“Ow!” Fiona sucked in a sharp breath.
Tess’s pace turned furious. “What?”
“I forgot it had thorns. Cut myself,” Fiona said.
“Someone’s coming,” Jax warned.
Shit. I broke into a run, my heart boom-booming with a surge of adrenaline. Tess didn’t run; she sprinted. I stretched my legs to keep up.
“Oh no, they’re here.” Fiona’s quiet horror made my hair stand on end.
“Sit on a bench. Hold hands. Look natural,” Merrick said from the ship.
We turned a corner and caught sight of the park. An eight-foot-tall spiked fence closed it off from the street. I didn’t see a gate.
Reaching out, I gripped Tess’s wrist and pulled her to a stop. Silently, I signaled for her to wait. She twisted out of my grasp with a scowl. I shook my head. If we barreled in, we could make things worse. I tapped my ear, telling her to listen to what they said. She nodded but continued toward the park at a determined walk.
