Page 33 of Enthraller

It was a generic enough question, but everyone knew what she meant.

She could kill all three devices now with a single touch, but she didn’t want to give herself away to Hatch and Bailey, and they probably had equipment to do that, anyway.

“Let’s sort out some kind of schedule for the next few days,” Ed said. He stood and walked over to the first device Bailey had indicated, crouched in front of it, and lifted up a sleek metal cylinder. It was the kind of thing that looked vaguely practical but was clearly there for aesthetic purposes.

He set it on the low lounge table and waved Bailey into his room while Hatch and Wren kept up a conversation about schedules.

When they came out, Ed set a lamp down on the table and then the two of them went to her room, came out with another lamp.

Ed looked at the three items for a long moment, then went to his room and came back out almost immediately, carrying a bag. He carefully put the items inside it and closed it up.

“Can you fly down to Demeter and back tonight?” he asked Bailey.

“Sure.” She gave a nod. “It’ll take me three hours end to end.”

An hour to fly down, an hour to hand off the devices, an hour back. Wren approved. The make and tech of the devices would be able to tell Hyt something about who was listening in.

“Talk to Guttra at headquarters once you’re on your way,” Ed said.

“Agreed.” Bailey hefted the bag. “Let me check Hatch’s and my room before I go, just in case.”

She walked out, closing the door behind her.

“They’ll know we found the bugs,” Hatch said.

“Sure. But we couldn’t tolerate them in here,” Ed said. “And this way, we’ll find out where those devices came from. Plus, we can see who looks edgy among the crew now they’ve been uncovered.”

“Even more edgy, you mean,” Wren said. “They already look like a loud noise will spook them.”

“Do they?” Hatch cut himself another piece of cake.

“You were too busy refueling to notice,” Wren told him with a grin. “And my welcome was not warm, either. Plus, Banks seems to be very unhappy to see you, Ed.”

“I picked that up.” Ed sat down, nudged Hatch aside and cut himself some cake. “I was wondering about it. He might have been involved with what happened to me two years ago.”

“I heard about that,” Hatch said. “You were set up?”

“Just like Captain Hyt was set up. Almost exactly.” Ed picked up his cup of jah. “A little too exactly. Someone made a mistake there. Although, to be fair, their plan worked well enough last time. I wasn’t blamed in the end, but I still left the teams.”

“And as soon as you were about to come back, they tried it again.” Hatch nodded. “So there is definitely something they’re trying to hide.”

“What’s going to happen to incoming traffic while you’re resting?” Wren asked. “You can’t be on the line more than six hours a day. Are we just doing spot checks?”

“No spot checks. Every ship will be scanned. The freighters will have to wait. They’re probably forming an orderly queue out to the moon cluster as we speak.”

Wren snorted out a laugh. “I guess there will be some very unhappy skippers tonight.”

Ed shrugged. “I guess there will be.”

“We should also check the control room for listening devices before Bailey leaves,” Hatch said. “I’ll take the dishes back to the canteen while I’m about it.” He patted his stomach. “Thanks for the cake and the dinner, Wren. Best station food I’ve ever had.” He scooped up the plates.

“I think we can assume the gym and the canteen are bugged too,” Ed said. “Don’t say anything outside the rooms we’ve checked that we don’t want them to hear. I’ll go with you to check the control room.”

He and Hatch left, and as soon as the door closed behind them, Wren stood and let her nanos rise to the fore.

She had held back, waiting to be alone.

She closed her eyes and slowly turned in a circle. For the last ten minutes her nanos had been telling her something was off.

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