“Easy for you to say.”
The words stung, although she knew they weren’t intended to. But then she realized something. A year ago, they wouldn’t have been easy for her to say at all.
“No,” she said. “It isn’t. But I’m saying it anyway.”
Tess looked back at her. For a moment neither of them spoke, then Tess released a long breath.
“Copies.”
“Copies.”
“And we keep everything.”
“Everything.”
“And if Baralt decides we’re delicate females who should leave this to the males?—”
“We tell him he’s wrong.”
Tess’s mouth twitched.
“Njkall won’t like that.”
“I think you’re wrong. But even if you aren’t, Njkall is learning.”
That earned her an actual laugh. It was brief and rusty, but unmistakable, and she grinned at the other woman. Then she sent the records to Baralt before Tess could change her mind.
His response arrived less than an hour later.
Good catch. I’ll check Nareth. Keep looking.
Tess read the message three times.
“That’s it?”
“What did you expect?”
“I don’t know.” She frowned at the datapad. “Dismissal. Or orders.”
“He told us to keep looking.”
“That’s not an order.”
“It looked like one to me.”
Tess gave her a suspicious look, but some of the tension had gone out of her shoulders.
They went back to work. Once they knew what they were looking for, the endless columns of information began to feel less random. They found another ship that had passed through Nareth, although its registration appeared legitimate. Thenanother vessel that hadn’t stopped at the station but had made an unexplained course adjustment in the same region.
Neither proved anything, but a pattern was beginning to emerge. Late in the afternoon she found a notation she recognized.
“Wait. Look at this.”
Tess leaned over.
“What about it?”
“This location.” She tapped the translated coordinates. “It’s here on Hothrest, but it’s not Port Eyeja and offworld ships aren’t allowed to land anywhere else.”
