Page 23 of Cloverleaf Station

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“Are you listening?”

It wasn’t like Kieron had much of a choice, given that the alternative was being blown up. He sat very still, seething inside but knowing he needed to stay calm. He couldn’t do anything before he learned what Moritz wanted.

“I know that Desfontaines found his way to Cloverleaf Station just after I got here myself,” Moritz said. “I figured he wouldn’t give up Catalina without a bit of a battle. However, if I don’t get out of here in the next three days, I’m going to miss the rendezvous I’ve got set up to sell this sweet little hunk of junk. This ship is fighting me every step of the way as it is, and if Elenus is keeping as close a watch on this asteroid field as I think he is, then there’s no chance I’m going to be able to fly her out of here unseen.

“That’s where you come in, my friend.” His voice deepened, becoming smooth and persuasive. “I’ve looked you up. You’ve been in charge of Cloverleaf Station for years now, you know how it works better than anyone. You could blind him to Catalina’s energy signature, I could slip through, and he’d never know otherwise.”

Kieron’s hand found the transmit button before his mind could quite catch up. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t like you,” Kieron said honestly. “And I also know there’s no way you’d trust me to obey your orders once I was out of immediate danger. Plus, there’s nothing you can hold over my head to make me obey you, which makes this scenario you’re spinning even less likely. So move on to your next suggestion because this one won’t fly.”

Moritz chuckled. “Boy, do you really think I’d make a threat I can’t back up? I didn’t know who you were until a week ago, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t done my homework since. I happen to know that I do have something to hold over your head … you’ve got friends on Trakta, don’t you? A lovely lady named Xilinn, two small children, and their extended family.”

Kieron stopped breathing. Every hair follicle on his body flared like it was trying to leap out of his skin, making him hypersensitive to the faint noise of the engine and the fainter sound of his own heart trying to jump through his rib cage.

“I’ve got colleagues on Trakta who are more than willing to do my bidding for the right price, and that price is going to be half of what I’m planning to get for Catalina—which I’ll use as a bounty for killing that pretty little family, in your name.”

No, no, no no no … He found the transmit button again. “Elenus has more money than you do,” Kieron said through numb lips. “He could pay even more to have them protected.”

“And you think he will? For you?” Moritz laughed. “He doesn’t trust people so quickly, boy. There’s no way you’ve gotten that close to him yet … or, huh. Maybe I’m mistaken.” His voice turned thoughtful and as sharp as a knife. “Has he already tumbled you into bed, then? Fucked his brand of ownership into you? You’re not to my taste, way too short for starters, but I could see him liking someone as pretty as you. Is that it? You think because he’s fucking you, he’ll protect the people you love? Think again.”

Moritz’s words came out as a snarl. “I gave that little brat everything, raised him from nothing into the titan he is today, and what did I get out of it in the end? Nothing but his scorn. The second you aren’t useful to him, Elenus throws you away. That’s what you’ve got coming to you from him, boy. That’s all you’re ever going to be to him—a means to an end, a tool for him to use until you’re all used up.

“This is your chance to be smart. Get ahead of him, be the user instead of the one being used. He never has to know we spoke,” Moritz assured him. “I can send you the frequencies to ensure that the station blocks the ship’s noise out, and I’ll be gone within the next two hours. That’s all it’ll take. He’ll bother you for a few more weeks, looking for me, give things up as lost eventually, and by then I’ll be onto a new phase in my life, and you’ll be left alone to do what it is you always do, with Elenus and your friends on Trakta none the wiser about our little deal. What do you say, Carr?”

It was jarring to hear his name after being called “boy” for the entirety of the conversation. Before Kieron could reply, Moritz came back on.

“The fact that you’re taking the time to think about this tells me that you’re not sold on the idea. You don’t think I can do what I’ve threatened to, do you? But look at it this way, boy.” Oh, there it was again. Great. “There’s no way out of this for you other than working with me. I can blow you up right here and right now, and Elenus will write it off as you not being careful enough in the asteroid field. I can blow you up at any time between your being here and your journey back to the station. I can blow the Lizzie up once you’re inside the station and maybe take Elenus out at the same time, but then his estate will definitely hound me for the rest of my life.

“Or you can promise to help me, and we can trust each other. And just to let you know that I really do have the people in place to make good on my threats, how about you check the visuals I’m sending your way right now?” The beep of an incoming data packet rang loudly in Kieron’s ears. “Trust me when I say I didn’t choose this location to hide from Elenus on accident, boy. I’ve had plenty of time to learn about you and put my plans into place.”

Kieron reluctantly opened the data file. He didn’t think he could feel any more unsettled than he already did, but seeing Xilinn and her children in the picture—a candid shot of them at a playground—was enough to do it.

“I’ll give you ten minutes to think about it,” Moritz said. “After that, if you don’t give me good news, I’ll blow you up, get these people out of the way just because I can, and take my chances on the run. Elenus won’t have his pretty little Lizzie to chase me down in—that’ll count for something.” The line went silent for a moment, then Catalina’s scream suddenly poured in over the radio.

“Godsdamn fucking—knock it off, you shitty little—”

Whatever Moritz did next was enough to silence the ship and enough to let Kieron know there was only one way forward.

He was going to have to get to Catalina now, within the next ten minutes, and he was going to have to do it without using the Lizzie.

Time for the world’s worst space flight.

Chapter ten

It only took a minute to triangulate the most likely position of Catalina and her domineering passenger given the size of the asteroids out there and where the probes had been left active. That was one more minute Kieron didn’t have to spare before traversing the space between them. Closing up the greenie suit, bringing a probe back into grabbable range, and collecting the one thing he thought might actually save his life once he found Catalina took more time he didn’t have.

Once he opened up Lizzie, the clock really began. He approximated his survival in the greenie at exactly twelve minutes, but for the last three and a half of those, he’d probably be either in agony or unconscious from radiation poisoning.

He was going to have to spend so much time in the fucking Regen tank if he survived this.

“All right,” he whispered to himself, programming the course into his implant and linking it up with the probe waiting just outside Lizzie’s door. “Time to go.” He forced his way through the safeguards, opened up the hatch, and …

Felt nothing, not even a tingle. That was the insidious thing about radiation poisoning—it started so subtly. He’d probably feel better than usual in another few minutes, which was good because he was going to need the boost in order to navigate the asteroids between here and Catalina, especially since some of them were armed with explosives.