Page 41 of Enthraller

Hatch pressed something and a narrow door popped open.

Wren studied the purser with interest. He was speechless, and she genuinely thought he hadn’t been aware of the door.

“This is where things sometime get dangerous,” Ed said.

Hatch nodded, pulling out his laz. “I’ll go first.”

Ed put a hand on his own laz, sitting at his waist and he gestured to Wren. “I’ll take up the rear.”

She shot him a look. Although she wasn’t armed, she was far from defenseless. Hatch might not know it, but Ed did. Still, it was good to keep up the fiction she was the most vulnerable member of the team.

She looked over at the purser, but he was already leaving at a fast clip.

“Gone to inform the captain, is my guess.” Ed nudged her into the secret passage. “Best to keep the door closed behind us.”

“Does that work?” Wren asked.

Ed shut the door. “Sometimes. If they open it, it shows they know about it. So usually they try to pretend it’s all a big mystery to them. But if they really can’t afford to lose whatever it is we’re going to find in here, then they’ll come after us, no matter what that reveals about their culpability.”

Hatch was waiting for them a little way along. He’d turned on a powerful light he’d clipped to his jacket.

“Can you see a light fixture anywhere?” Ed asked him.

“There has to be, right?” Hatch played the light along both walls. “There.” He touched something and lights flickered on.

“What have we got?” Ed edged past her, standing shoulder to shoulder with Hatch, which just about blocked the way completely, and Wren had to go on tiptoe to look over their shoulders to see for herself.

“Whatisit?” Hatch asked.

“Let me see, and maybe I can tell you,” Wren said, voice dry, and Ed shot her a grin over his shoulder and flattened himself against the wall to let her through.

She had to press past him, and then she saw the shelving running down most of the narrow space, with only room for one person to access it.

She stepped closer, and then stilled.

“What is it?” Hatch lowered his voice to a whisper as he repeated his question.

“If these boxes are genuine, then they were stolen from Cepi.” She reached out and brushed a finger over one of them reverently. It was cold, a stone surface that would fit with what she knew about the artifacts from Cepi, the now-destroyed moon that used to circle Kalastoni.

She picked the box up, and found it was heavy, but even in the poor lighting, now she had it in her hands, she could see the ridge of a mold along one side.

“Are they genuine?” Ed asked.

She set it back down, tapped the surface with her fingernail and then lifted the lid. “No.” She pulled out a neat package from inside, hefted it. “From the weight of it, I’d say this is bonami.” She looked over at them, eyes wide. “The most I’ve ever seen in one spot.”

She turned back to the shelf, and counted twenty five boxes all in a row.

“Someone’s been sampling the goods,” Ed said, nodding to the package she was holding. It had clearly been opened, the side neatly sliced open and then taped back up.

“Or checking the purity,” Hatch guessed. “This looks like more than all the bonami users on Aponi could even get through.”

“This trader’s going on to Arkhor and a few other planets in the VSC. My guess is that only some of the product is being offloaded here.” Ed moved to stand next to her, and picked up a box. “Interesting they chose a fake Cepi artifact to transport their drugs in.”

“You’re thinking about the Core Company execs who are still on the run? They were responsible for the Cepi disaster, and it was their people we bumped into in Demeter.”

Ed lifted his shoulders. “Seems a little coincidental.”

“Why would they give themselves away like that?” Hatch asked.

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