Page 53 of Enthraller

Everyone here was trained, and despite their inter-agency rivalry, everyone was trained well.

No one panicked.

“A laser strike,” Darnell was saying. He seemed very confident about it. “We’re under attack.”

“We need to get to Freighter Five.” Ed was crawling toward Wren, and when he reached her, he put out a hand to help her to her feet.

As she took it and he hauled her up, the import of what he was saying sunk in. “Freighter Five is the one.” It must be. And someone didn’t want them reaching it.

“Shit.” Bailey had overheard them, and she tapped her ear. “Hatch, make sure someone knows not to let Freighter Five go anywhere.”

Something on Bailey’s face made Wren reach out to grab her. “What did he say?”

Bailey shook her head. “Nothing. The comms are dead.”

“Ours, too.” Violet Fann made a sound of frustration. “You think this laser fire is coming from Freighter Five?” she asked Ed.

Another shudder ran through the ship. Wren slammed back against the wall but managed to keep her feet this time. Ed turned to her, hand out, but she shook her head. “Focus on keeping yourself and the scanner safe, not me. That’s what they’re trying to destroy.”

She needed to break him of the habit of always thinking of her first.

She was sorry her nanos had imbedded that in him, and she felt a jolt of guilt at every indication of it.

The whole ship shuddered again, but not the way it had when it was under fire. This felt more like it was grinding against another object.

Darnell and Fann exchanged a look and then ran to the bay.

Everyone else followed, and Wren stumbled to a halt when she saw the bay was blocked from the outside by the dark metal of a massive ship.

“They’re shielding us,” Ed said, and Wren could hear the surprise in his voice. “Something is stopping them from returning fire, so they’re using themselves as a shield.”

The battleship shifted, just a little, and a tiny one-person pod slipped through the space it made, and landed in the bay.

Darnell was beside it in a moment, and the woman who got out spoke to him in low, urgent tones, then handed him something, got back in, and flew out.

“Direct comms,” Darnell said, waggling what turned out to be a comms device. “They can’t return fire, because the ship that’s shooting is doing it between the freighters in the line. It keeps moving, too fast to track until after it shoots again.”

“We’ve seen this before,” Ed murmured.

Darnell looked over at him and gave a nod. “On Cepi, on Parn, and on the breakaway planets. Possibly on Faldine and Fynian, too.”

“Rogue former Core Company owners?” Violet Fann asked. “I heard something about a fast cruiser that was hard to track.”

Darnell gave a nod. “They got some of the tech from the Caruso.” He shook his head. “We would love to get hold of one but every time one has been close to our grasp, it gets away or it’s destroyed.”

“Can we ask it to shield us all the way over to Freighter Five?” Ed asked.

“Freighter Five is nothing but a field of debris.” Darnell’s words brought silence to the whole group.

“Shit,” Bailey said. “They would rather destroy their own people and ship than let us have a look at what they’re smuggling in.”

“I don’t know about you,” Violet Fann said, “but that doesn’t give me a good feeling. At all.”

20

Hatch was waitingfor them as they docked at the observatory.

Ed liked the young officer. He was straightforward, and he seemed to have gotten over his unhappiness at Ed for punching Ethan Hyt.

---