Page 43 of Enthraller

Wren rolled her eyes, but she supposed dragging the semi-comatose captain out into a ship full of his crew was probably not the wisest choice. “What will happen when Protection get here? Will they arrest him?”

Hatch lifted his hands. “Protection and Customs and Excise might fight it out as to who takes him away.”

“So it’s best we ask him what we want to ask him now?”

She didn’t know if he’d have anything useful to say, but the fake Cepi boxes were a definite connection to the former Cores Companies, who were also very interested in ancient tech, and that was worth a question or two while they had the captain to themselves.

She could get him to talk.

The thought popped into her head unbidden, and she hesitated. She could, but should she?

It was crossing a line. She knew that. She had felt guilty about the repercussions of what had been done to Ed, but this would be deliberate. Her making the choice.

Her gaze snagged on the row of bonami, and her lips firmed into a thin line. Bonami was a terrible drug, dragging its users deeper and deeper into a sleeping state, punctuated by wild, violent forays for more of it, as the addiction tightened its hold.

After a certain point, there was no going back. The addict simply lay, incapable of movement, skin tight as they starved and dehydrated, unable to accept anything but the drug that had destroyed them.

And Masin was bringing in enough to swamp two whole planets, at least.

Decision made, she crouched beside him and lightly tapped his cheek. “Captain Masin.”

He stirred, and she felt her nanos prick against her fingertips.

“Who are you working for? Who gave you the boxes of bonami?”

Ed and Hatch stepped a little closer, very interested in what she was doing.

“They made me.” Masin rubbed his chest where Ed and Hatch had hit him with their laz.

“Who made you?”

“I’m too low down to know the main players.” Masin sounded bitter. “I deal with someone called Rhen.”

Ed made a sound, and she looked over her shoulder at him.

“That’s the name of one of the Lassian mercenaries we encountered on the street a couple of days ago,” he said.

“Rhen’s in custody?” The captain lifted his head. “Is that how you knew about the stash?”

Ed gave a shrug, not saying no, but not confirming it, either.

Masin shook his head and then lay it back on the ground, looking sick.

“Why would you do this?” Hatch asked him, waving a hand at the line of boxes. “What could possibly be worth it?”

“They had proof of some . . . mistakes I made.” Masin turned his head away. “Mistakes my family might have been unwilling to forgive.”

So they’d caught him being unfaithful, or perhaps worse.

Wren guessed there were plenty of people who had secrets they were desperate to hide.

“How many times have you done this?”

He looked like he didn’t want to answer, but she knew her nanos were in his system, making him more uninhibited.

“This is the second time.”

“Did you drop off the whole lot on Aponi?” Hatch asked.

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