She tensed and shook her head.
Sawyer stopped and kept his voice even. “Where was he taking you?”
She kept her head down when she said, “Sector Ten.”
He heard the terror in her voice, the uncertainty. She hadn’t wanted to go with him—the first reaction he could relate to.
“Then why help him?” It was a pointless question when he had so many more to ask, but it burned to be answered.
Why did she help a Calypson? Why did she try to stop him from attacking one of the biggest threats in the solar system? Everyone knew what they could do to a person, what they were capable of if you got too close, though thehowof it remained a mystery. Which begged the question, how was she still human?
She lifted her chin and met his gaze. “He treated me with more respect than an asshole like you.” Her jaw flexed. “And I would do it again if given the chance.”
They stared at each other for a long moment, more questions needing to be answered, but their time together was short. On cue, his PALM beeped, letting him know the timer he’d set had run out.
Turning on his heel, Sawyer left the good doctor on her knees staring after him, and made his way to the bow of the ship. A slender spiral staircase punched upward, and he took the steps two at a time to the upper level. Plush carpet dampened every stride as he passed through the sitting area toward the cockpit.
With a swipe of his PALM, the door slid open, revealing a four-seat setup that would rival any ship out there. The creamy smooth texture of the upholstery contrasted with the black of the shiny terminals that wrapped around the entire bulbous cockpit. Above them, a viewer showed the unending vista of space.
He slid into the pilot’s chair, the upholstery squeaking as it rubbed against the material of his flight-suit. A flashing red light on the main control panel drew his attention. He tapped it to turn it off—a summons from Earth’s orbital station, and another fromJupiter One, Jannex’s home base.
The administrator would have lost his shit when he found out about his commandeered ship. Sawyer relished the thought. Any time he could stick it to the ruling class, he would.
Ignoring both summons, he adjusted their course. He hadn’t wanted to go straight to theCorvuswithout first interrogating the good doctor and had plotted an arched route that would take them there eventually. But his time for detours was over.
Another communique appeared, this one sent to him directly. Cazin’s signature scrolled across the bottom of his ocular implant. With only a short span remaining on this trip, it was time to send his update.
His fingers twitched.Not yet.He couldn’t send the past days as raw data.
He started with the last hour in the cargo hold. The radiation down there was always a bitch for sensors, making it easy to erase how he’d strung her up by the wrists. He went all the way back to the moment they stepped on this ship and he’d knocked her out.
I don’t have time for this.A rushed job meant a messy job, and he’d done this twice in the past week.
Maybe it was time to cut himself loose from the CORE before they decided he was worth the termination order. He could use his extensive contacts to disappear and never resurface on the government’s radar.
A problem for another day. He was already short on time.
He continued to scrub anything that revealed the doctor’s resistance in coming along. Adding some personal but benign facts to the brief, he concluded with,She’s been an absolute delight,before sending the package to theCorvus.
He didn’t know why he’d lied. She’d been anything but cooperative, but he also knew what reception she’d garner on a Guardian if he marked her as a hostile.
And he definitely didn’t mention that she’d helped a Calypson.
Chapter twenty-nine
The regenerator went silent with a flick of her thumb. Wynn gulped a breath, trying to settle her racing heart. She didn’t understand what just happened, why he’d cut her down instead of continuing his interrogation, but she wouldn’t tempt fate by asking.
With the hard surface of the deck pressing into her kneecaps, she stared where Sawyer had disappeared. She couldn’t comprehend his questions. Except for the one about why Iax had been at her outpost, they’d made little sense. Who were Cazin and Archibald?
She shifted her weight off her knees, and the plastic beneath her rustled. Drips of her blood smeared in an arc in front of her. Her heart skipped a beat. She couldn’t leave it here. Not after what Iax had shown her.
Keeping the regenerator tight in her hand, she moved off the plastic and pulled it toward her, bundling her blood inside with crinklingfistfuls. She wadded it into the smallest ball possible, then searched for a reclamation unit. Every deck had one.
There.At the back. Wynn stood on shaky legs. After hanging so long, each step took an effort, her bare feet protesting at the cold deck. She stopped in front of the reclamation unit and flexed her left hand. He’d taken her PALM. She also didn’t know where her UV-suit went.
Manually opening the compartment with a press of her hand, she stuffed the plastic inside with sudden urgency, like if she didn’t get it in fast enough someone would stop her. A scrape of her fingers against her throat, and the node followed. The small door closed, and she pressed the destroy and jettison control. Her shoulders relaxed a fraction when the light went green, signaling completion.
Wynn rotated her throbbing wrists. She might have healed the damage to the outside of her skin, but she felt bruised beneath.
