Page 26 of Enthraller

“What about Demilla Garrett, the head of services?” Wren asked.

Hyt flicked a hand. “Maybe she was shut down by Harden, maybe she’s involved. I’ll speak to her, too.”

Velda gave a slow nod. “Agreed. I’ll speak to a few people on the Council. You say Henry Nostrada is the one you think set up the confrontation at the docks? I’ll need some backing to go after him.”

“What about you?” Ethan Hyt turned to Ed. “What are your plans?”

“If you can give us some guards, people you really trust, then maybe what Wren and I should do is what they’re trying hard to stop me doing.”

“Which is?” Wren asked him.

“Using the Guan scanner to check incoming ships.” It had the benefit of getting Wren up in nearspace on a teams runner with him. She would be relatively safe up there.

Ethan was nodding. “That would be useful.”

“Wouldn’t you need me in Nanganya?” Wren asked Ethan. “It will be harder for Harden and Trent to deny things when I’m there to contradict them.”

Ethan eyed Ed. “Maybe. But it could also be dangerous.”

Ed acknowledged the lifeline Ethan had thrown him with a tiny nod. “Let’s try and work out what the bigger picture is. What they’re trying to hide. You can always go to Nanganya later, when Ethan has a better idea of who exactly is involved in this. Right now, we don’t know who we can trust.”

“If something’s coming in to Aponi that those criminals who used to own the Cores are trying to hide, we need to know as soon as possible,” Velda said. “And I’d rather have you alive and safely tucked away for the moment, Wren. Let Ethan and I work out how far this conspiracy has spread, while you and Ed see what’s coming in that someone is so desperate to make sure we don’t know about.”

Wren gave a slow nod. “Alright. For how long?”

Ed would have felt slightly insulted, but he knew he’d feel the same way. They were all maneuvering her into doing nothing, when for four months, all she’d done was hide in the shadows and fight.

“Give me three days to see what I can find out in Nanganya. When I come back, we can talk,” Ethan said.

“I should know what Henry Nostrada’s deal is by then, as well.” Velda leaned forward, focused and serious. “You’re our main witness, Wren. Now they’ve failed at setting up Ethan to take care of you for them, they’ll need to go after you directly. A lot of their problems go away for them with you gone, which is why they targeted you in the first place.”

Wren sighed. “I’ll stay with Ed.”

He didn’t smile, but he wanted to. He wanted to a lot.

10

“I heardyou laid the captain out.” The SF soldier who spoke, Hatch, was eyeing Ed with dislike, and Wren felt a sickening clutch of guilt in her chest.

“That’s on me.” She leaned forward and Ed sent her an amused look from his place beside her in the runner. He was leaning back, ankle propped up on his knee, totally relaxed.

Hatch—young, male, extremely buff—glared at her. “You weren’t there. I saw you dematerialize into a gray mist.”

“I was still responsible.”

“How so?” The soldier’s partner, a woman around the same age, face sharp with angled cheekbones and long, thickly-lashed eyes, glanced over at her. She’d been introduced as Bailey. She was piloting the small craft taking them up to the observatory, although she’d put it into auto after they’d reached the edge of nearspace.

Wren glanced at Ed, but he continued to look slightly amused at her coming to his defense.

“Ed thought the captain had set me up. Set us both up.”

“I can see how that might have happened, given what we know about Mornes and Jenick, but all the shooting was over by the time you hit him,” Bailey said.

“He wasn’t going to let me leave. And I needed to find Wren.” Ed lifted wide shoulders. “I apologized. We’re good.”

Hatch blew out a breath. “I get that. The captain wouldn’t have put us here otherwise. But I don’t like that you did it.”

Ed gave a grunt of acknowledgement, and that seemed to be that.

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