Page 49 of Cloverleaf Station

“Oh, but … no.” Now Elenus was the one to reach out, grabbing Kieron’s hand and pulling him closer as Kieron stepped into the V of his legs. “No, I’m not going to ask you to do that. If it’s not all right for me to do it, then it isn’t okay for you to do it. I’m sure you’ve killed people before, and I do think it’s sweet you would offer, which come to think of it is pretty sick of me, but I can’t let you do that.”

Kieron sighed. “I didn’t say I would be the one to kill him either.”

“Ohhhh … kay, you’ve lost me.”

Clearly. Kieron wasn’t used to being this many steps ahead when it came to Elenus, but he supposed a certain amount of fixation was to be expected. “You said you won’t let him go to prison. I agree.”

“And you said that we can’t kill him, so …”

“So.” Kieron let a smile appear on his lips. “We get him to kill himself.”

Elenus stared at his mouth for a moment, transfixed, before he shook his head again. “No, but—he wouldn’t. Won’t. He’s not the type to commit suicide, trust me. He can’t be shamed, the man is unshameable. Trust me, I would know. He’s not going to kill himself.”

“Not deliberately.”

“Oh? Ohhh …” Elenus let go of Kieron’s hands and gripped him around his middle, pulling him in closer. His handspan was almost wide enough to encompass Kieron’s entire waist. “You want to set him up to kill himself.”

“I want to give him the option to kill himself, yes.”

“And you think he’ll take it?”

Kieron nodded. “I think it’s going to look like such a good deal that he has no reason not to take it. You said it yourself, he’s unshameable. He has no interest in paying for his crimes, no interest in spending any time in prison. He’s probably cast himself as the victim in his own mind. I think we can make it so that he thinks he’s getting the better of us and escapes, and then … well.” Kieron shrugged. “It’s still radiation season out there.”

“And he knows that,” Elenus added pensively. “So he probably wouldn’t try to fly out there.”

“He would if he thought he was in a ship that could take it.”

“Oh. Oh, babe.” Elenus tilted Kieron’s head up and kissed him passionately, bending him back so far that Kieron had to grab Elenus’s shoulders to stay upright. “Fuck, you’re such a clever thing,” he purred when they parted. “How do you want to do it?”

Kieron told him. Elenus laughed through most of it.

Chapter twenty-one

The cold receded gradually, feeling following it: tingling in the fingertips, stiffness in the neck, a sense of nausea that only got worse the warmer Deysan Moritz became. Ten seconds after becoming aware of the fact that he was waking up out of cryo, he leaned over the side of his open tube and vomited a load of stomach acid and preservative onto the floor.

Of fucking course, Elenus would see to it he didn’t get the injections to prevent sickness coming out of cryo. But … why was he coming out of cryo? Deysan would have expected to be locked in this fucking tube until his jailers came to pick him up. Instead, the darkness of the cryo room was broken by red and yellow emergency lighting, spinning around in circles.

It took a moment for his ears to come back online, but when they did, Deysan heard an automated voice calmly repeating: “Flare incoming. Emergency procedures enacted. All personnel head to the secure shelters in the center of the station. Flare incoming. Emergency procedures enacted. All personnel head to the secure shelters in the center of the station. Flare incoming—”

Deysan grabbed the set of plain, utilitarian work clothes that were stored in the bottom of every cryo unit and pulled them on, then staggered over to the wall and slapped his hand against it.

“Computer, explain flare,” he said hoarsely, coughing around what felt like a rock in his sternum. Shit, he was in bad shape. He’d probably be able to sue the fucking asshole who ran this station for it, once he was picked up. After all, Gania wasn’t going to let one of its wealthiest representatives be treated like a prisoner, no matter what he was accused of.

“A radiation flare from Cloverleaf Quasar is due to reach this station in thirty-seven minutes,” the computer said. “This will bring radiation levels to three times what they are now, for a duration of three point two-one minutes. All personnel must proceed to the secure shelters in the center of the station.”

Deysan stood there for a moment, absently rubbing his chest as he tried to wrap his head around this information. He’d been woken up out of his cryo sleep because an emergency situation was about to happen. Given the fact that he hadn’t seen Elenus’s sneering face the second he opened his eyes, Elenus and the … whoever it was who he’d almost killed, gods damn it he’d been so close … didn’t realize that he’d been released. They were probably sitting in the shelter right now, safe and sound, not thinking anything about their hapless prisoner.

Not so hapless now. Thirty-seven minutes … that was a long time, comparatively. Plenty of time to, oh, get a ship into space and activate its high-speed drive before Elenus even knew it was gone. Three times the radiation was a lot even for the Catalina’s capabilities, but it wouldn’t last long. She’d endured days under this place’s regular deadly radiation without a blip. If he wore a greenie suit, ordered her to focus her shielding on him, he should be able to endure it. And after that …

The universe was waiting for him. And Elenus wouldn’t be able to follow, not without cooking himself in his insufficient second ship. Perfect.

Now who’s having the last laugh, you piece of shit?

“Computer, keep this contact classified,” Elenus commanded as he slid his feet into a set of papery shoes.

“Understood.”

“Guide me to the hangar that contains Elenus Desfontaines’ ship Catalina.”