Licking his lips, Aiden shook his head. “I’d like to speak with him as soon as possible.”
“Bea,” Darren addressed his pilot, cutting her off in the middle of saying something to Nyle. “We’ll make a stop on Mars now.”
“Roger.”
“I’ll let Nan know so she can arrange the meeting,” Nyle followed up, squinting at something on his screen. “Also, I have one more update. It’s about Liu’s people. I did some more digging, and I think I’m onto something.”
Darren’s heart jumped at the news. “You located someone?”
“Sort of. I have a series of online footprints, but it’s been a little tricky pinpointing where they originate or if they areconnected. I also have to be careful because it seems like Marcus might’ve picked up on this, too.”
A bolt of fear passed through Darren. He tried not to give into it, but it was hard because he knew how ruthless his enemy was. Marcus eliminated anything and everything he saw as a threat, so it was paramount that Nyle got to Liu’s people before it was too late. Darren had a responsibility to them, a duty to protect those who’d supported his family and refused to betray the Valrais secrets even when it meant Marcus would go after them.
“Prioritize this,” Darren said, his voice coming out a little stern.
“I am, but I don’t have much yet. Which is a good thing. Whoever is behind the footprints has been extremely careful.” Nyle grinned from ear to ear and narrowed his eyes. “But, well, they are up against an actual genius. I’m already working on a program that will fish them out. I should have at least some idea where to begin looking soon.”
Nyle’s confidence was reassuring, igniting in Darren hope that maybe everything was going to work out in the end. In some way, somehow, because he wasn’t alone anymore in fighting Marcus. He wasn’t imprisoned or waiting for an opportunity that might never come. He was in the driver’s seat, making things happen so he could reclaim what Marcus should’ve never stolen.
“Than—”
A ship-wide warning cut Darren’s thanks off, startling both him and Aiden.
“Uh-oh.” Bea’s smirk, which looked more exasperated than amused, came into focus on the screen. “Guys, we’re being hailed by a Global Nation’s vessel. Routine inspection.”
“I thought you said Nyle’s tricks assured the GN wouldn’t bother us?” Darren demanded, cocking an eyebrow.
Nyle scoffed, waving him off. “My tweaks guarantee they won’t find anything out of order.Anything. They don’t preventrandomsearches because someone has a quota to meet.”
Good point, these things did occasionally happen. But ideally, the Maine could avoid such surprises as well.
“Are you sure we can’t do something about it?” Darren threw, not really meaning it, because there wasn’t much that could be done that he could think of. After all, luck wasn’t a variable which could be influenced.
“No, but I’ll pretend to have a think about it.”
Before Darren could respond, Bea jumped in, “Chop, chop, you two. I’ve just hailed the cruiser back. They’ll be at the airlock in fifteen, so make yourselves scarce.” She squinted, likely reading from one of her screens. “I’m supposed to be on my way for an engine refit, not transporting two fugitives.”
Amused, Darren shot back, “Roger, captain!”
Sliding back his chair, he closed the call and stood up, then rolled his shoulders, conscious Aiden was watching him as he pushed up from his own seat.
The Maine had five hiding spaces across its decks. One was in the elevator’s shaft, another one behind a removable panel in this very room. A third one was above a metal rack in the cargo bay, a fourth one through an opening in one of the utility cupboards in the mess hall, and the fifth one was just off the midsection of the stairs leading from the engine room to the ship’s core. All were big enough, if a little tight, to fit two adults of medium size so the logical thing would have been to go for the nearest one here in this room.
Instead of doing so, Darren tugged Aiden’s arm and ushered him out the door.
“Darren, where are we going?” Aiden looked at him quizzically, but went along with being herded anyway.
Again, his first name coming from Aiden caused heat to pool south and his heart to skip a beat. “There is a hidden compartment in the engine room,” he explained, aware Bea knew the five spots just as he did and was listening in through the ship’s comms. “Let’s go.”
When she didn’t foil his plan by telling Aiden they could’ve just hidden in the conference room, he was sure it was because she could tell he wanted to take Aiden to the engine room compartment for a reason. Still, he made a mental note to thank her.
Less than a minute later, they passed by her lounging in the pilot’s seat while the holographic image of Nyle on the main screen was droning on about procedural specifics and giving her a list of the GN officers about to board the frigate. Her attention veered to Darren, and he nodded in thanks.
A small smile told him she got his message as she mouthed, “Go, go”.
Another few minutes and they were climbing down the stairs in engineering, Darren’s fingers feeling for the inconspicuous hand scanner that controlled the access point. Along the bottom of the wall, just behind the metal railing, was where he found it. He flattened his palm, causing a square section of the silvery paneling to recede back and then up. It revealed a narrow crawlspace that, for all intents and purposes, looked like any other maintenance shaft.
“You better be in position, boys, they are about to board,” Bea announced over the ship’s comms.
