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  "He's in a parking deck four blocks away. Under the name Owen King."

  "Thanks," Lizbeth said, pushing off of the wall and walking down the street.

  "Use a condom," Razia said, unable to stop herself.

  "Excuse me?"

  "I said, use a condom," Razia replied. "He sleeps around a lot."

  "And you would know?"

  "I've seen him with a different girl every night."

  "Well thank you for that astute observation," Lizbeth said with a warning tone that Razia missed entirely. "I'm so grateful that you're looking out for a fellow female."

  Razia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right, just make it quick so you can quit slutting it up around pirate bars. The sooner you finish your stupid investigation, the better."

  "Are you jealous of all the attention I'm getting?" Lizbeth asked sweetly.

  "I'm not jealous, I'm disgusted," Razia replied, unable to hold back. "You walk in here with your tits and your ass hanging out, and you expect me to respect you in any way?"

  "Wow," Lizbeth said, shocked. "Just because I like looking like a woman doesn't make me a slut. And just because you don't respect my methods doesn't mean you can't respect my results!"

  "And what kind of result are you going to get by sleeping with Relleck?"

  "God in Leveman's Vortex, I'm not going to sleep with him," Lizbeth exclaimed. "I'm going to hide out on his ship! So I can figure out where he's going!"

  Razia opened her mouth and then closed it again.

  "It's a miracle," Lizbeth gasped sarcastically. "You finally shut up."

  "Hey, you can get sucked," Razia growled.

  "You know, for a girl who spends a lot of time with men, you are awfully catty," Lizbeth said, squaring her shoulders and placing her manicured hands on her hips. "Did you have some bitchy sisters or something?"

  Razia blinked at her, remembering with vivid clarity the Peate sisters. They were catty, and had nothing else to fill their days but gossip about each other and everyone else in the family. She remembered the way they circled her like feeding sharks when she was at the Manor last year, commenting on everything from her skin to her clothes to her apparent loneliness.

  The thought that she was anything like them was enough to shame her into silence.

  "And besides that," Lizbeth said, steeling her glare. "You, of all people, should appreciate what it feels like to be the only person on your own team. I know what the other pirates say about you."

  Razia shifted uncomfortably.

  "Funny enough, it was the exact same thing you said to me," Lizbeth continued humorlessly. "'Why doesn't she quit while she's ahead? Can't she take a hint?'" She paused to smile. "'Somebody just needs to bed her so she'll stop causing so much trouble.'"

  Razia's eyes widened; she hadn't heard that last one.

  "I've heard worse, trust me," Lizbeth said. "But you know what keeps me going? I know when I'm right, and I want to shove it in their sweaty faces when I show them all up. Because I know I'm better than all of them anyways."

  Razia clenched her jaw, repentant but unsure of what to say.

  "So I guess I'll be proving it alone," Lizbeth said, turning to walk away.

  Razia couldn't let her walk away. "Lizbeth, wait. You can't sneak onto his ship by yourself."

  "I can handle it—"

  "No," Razia said, jogging after her. "Relleck rarely does anything alone, and he never plays fair. Trust me I…know from experience. He wouldn't hesitate to…well…" She remembered the way Sage berated her the year before. "It's never a good idea to go up against him without some kind of backup."

  "So what, you want to come with me now?" Lizbeth asked.

  Razia shrugged, adding, "I would feel kind of bad if something bad happened to you."

  "Is that as close to an apology as I'm going to get from you?"

  "Why in Leveman's would I apologize?"

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Relleck's ship was a monstrosity, the biggest ship in the reserved docking station near Eamon's. And with all the other pirate ships nearby, that was saying something.

  Razia and Lizbeth waited until one of Relleck's drunken crew members came stumbling out of another lift with a new female friend, offering them an opportunity to slip on behind him. They hid in the first open room they could find, an expansive gym with state-of-the-art weight equipment. Razia figured that it would be a safe place. None of Relleck's crew would be interested in working up a sweat in here after drinking heavily; though, based on the noises coming from upstairs, she was sure they were working up a sweat in other ways.

  Razia did her best to ignore the sounds, as she was more interested in counting each of the inebriated members that stumbled back to the ship. She wasn't sure if Relleck was sporting eight or nine crew members now, but she'd counted six so far. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Relleck was shoving the last of the three crew members onto the ship, berating them for getting so drunk they could barely stand up. For spending so much time at Eamon's, Relleck seemed mostly sober, which was strange to Razia.

  Soon after he arrived, the ship rumbled to life and D-882 disappeared out of the window.

  "I'm sending you a bill for my parking fees," Razia muttered to Lizbeth. Razia was a bit nervous about being on Relleck's ship. Even though his crew was drunk, they wouldn't be drunk forever. And what if Relleck was bluffing about his "run" tonight?

  "Do you think we'll be safe in here?" Lizbeth whispered.

  "You should be more worried about how we're going to follow Relleck onto whatever ship he hijacks," Razia said, unwilling to let Lizbeth know she was nervous.

  Lizbeth seemed wholly unconcerned. "I thought maybe we'd just slip in behind them onto the ship?"

  "It'll be kind of hard to do that with all of Relleck's goons hanging around," Razia said, wondering if this was the worst idea she'd had in…well, ever. "I'm not even sure how long we're going to be on this ship. They looked pretty drunk."

  "Relleck said he was leaving tonight," Lizbeth said. "Do you think he can hijack a ship without his crew?"

  "I wouldn't think so." Razia again wondered if Relleck had been bluffing about his run that night to get in Lizbeth's pants, and began to feel even stupider for offering to help her.

  "I thought you'd be an expert at this kind of thing," Lizbeth said.

  "I haven't hijacked a ship in years. Not my cup of tea."

  "Oh, do you have moral fiber or something?" Lizbeth teased. "Pirate?"

  "Getting hijacked is considered an inevitability by most transporters, cost of doing business," Razia said, repeating what Tauron used to say to her. "It's not moral or immoral. Just happens."

  Lizbeth was about to respond when they heard voices. Or one voice, in fact.

  "Yeah, no, they're not coming. Stinking drunk, the whole crew. No, I don't need them. I'll have the stuff and be back before they even sober up."

  As quietly as she could, Razia slid open the gym door and saw Relleck talking on his mini-computer with someone. He was stuffing some supplies into a bag and slinging it around his shoulder. The ship shuddered to a stop and the hatch opened, revealing a docking station.

  "C'mon," Razia said, motioning to Lizbeth to creep closer to the open hatch. Relleck stood at the foot of the ship, engrossed in conversation with a man on the dock. Neither man noticed the two girls as they hurried off and hid behind some nearby shipping boxes. Razia strained her ears to hear what Relleck was saying.

  "...just leave it here....it'll be okay..."

  "...ain't got no business....need to get it approved..."

  "...approvals....up your ass..."

  After a few minutes of heated conversation, Relleck went to close up his ship, but stopped and glanced around curiously. He shrugged and shut the hatch, shouldering his bag. Razia and Lizbeth followed close behind.

  The station was huge, and although Razia had no idea which planet they were close to or which system, this place was obviously heavily used by transporters. As they left the docks int
o another hallway, Razia realized that this station was also an inter-system shuttle hub—a place where those without ships could purchase tickets to ride to different systems. The UBU had established a system of shuttles between S-864 and the most inhabited systems for the rather large sub-section of the population without a means of transportation.

  The open room smelled of body odor and old fuel and seemed much smaller with all the people packed into it. They bumped into each other as they moved about, headed for their ships or shuttles to other transport stations or planets.

  It was difficult for Razia to keep an eye on Relleck, walking ahead of them. He strolled through the throngs of people, twisting and turning as he made a beeline for the main terminal area. Here, there were sundries and small restaurants selling everything from cups of soup to pillows for transporters to sit on during the long days traveling through space.

  Relleck seemed to be in no hurry, stopping to grab a cup of coffee and chat with a cute girl at the sundries place. When Razia saw his C-card slide through the reader, she immediately searched her list of aliases for him. After a moment, she found what she was looking for:

  "We're on a transport station near G-279," Razia whispered. Relleck was still sitting at a table as if waiting for someone.

  "So we're near G-245?" Lizbeth asked.

  Razia rolled her eyes. "Leveman's, don't you know anything about how planets are named?"

  "No," Lizbeth snapped at her. "It's not something you generally learn in school."

  "They're not named for the system. They're named for the type of planet. G-2 planets have high concentrations of iron ore," Razia replied, as if it were obviously common knowledge. "So no, obviously, we're no where near G-245."

  "There's no government contract with G-279 to my knowledge," Lizbeth said, watching Relleck stand up to greet a transporter. The other man was older, with a potbelly and a scruffy beard. Relleck offered his new friend a seat, and the man sat down with considerable effort. Razia smiled as the man ordered something from the pad at the table and slid his C-card through the reader.

  "Angelino Moses," Razia murmured. She searched on his name in the Universal Bank and pulled up his last transactions:

  "Looks like he works for Salazar Shipping," Razia said watching them continue to talk. "Is that one of the shipping companies on your little list?"

  "Oh sure, because I've memorized all six hundred of them."

  "What, you don't have a list of them already in your mini-computer?" Razia asked, eyebrow raised.

  Lizbeth still didn't seem to understand. "Why would I do that?"

  "Wow, you really do suck at this."

  "Ssh!" Lizbeth said, as Relleck stood with the man's keys in his hand. Relleck said a few more words to him, and the two men laughed as Relleck strolled away, spinning the keys around his finger. The other man looked pleased with himself, if not ready to go on vacation, as he sipped on his coffee.

  "I'm not an expert in pirate hijackings," Lizbeth noted, dryly. "But I don't think—"

  "No, it wasn't normal," Razia said. "At least, when Tauron used to do them, the guys were a little bit surprised—if not annoyed. It was never…expected like this?"

  "Let's see where he goes," Lizbeth said.

  ***

  Razia shifted, trying to find a comfortable spot between the two boxes that she assumed held raw ore, based on the smell. It made her head spin, or maybe the lack of air pressure and limited artificial gravity was the cause. The transport guild had mandated that all transport companies utilize a minimum set of life-preserving features within each shipping container, as they were tired of finding cold, asphyxiated bodies in their shipments. But the pressure and warmth was only enough to sustain life, not to make it comfortable. After all, they just wanted to prevent stowaway deaths, not encourage freeloaders.

  Still, even with the pressure in her head and the tingling cold in her fingertips, she was warm from excitement. She was going to go "catch" Tauron today, the same way she had been catching him for years now. This game they played started when he realized Harms had given her a pirate log-in to the Universal Bank, and she was able to track him through his aliases. So he'd created a new one, and she'd found him yet again. Then he began using multiple aliases, switching back and forth. She figured out his pattern and anticipated where he'd be next. Of course, in-between these rounds, he would drag her back to the Planetary and System Science Academy and tell her to stay there. It had been a while since he begrudgingly accepted her as a pseudo member of his crew, but he still refused to make it easy for her to find him. That was how she liked it.

  What she didn't like was having to get to D-882. Unsurprisingly, legal shipments to the pirate planet were quite rare, and she'd learned more than once about climbing onto a transporter and hoping it would get hijacked. Calling for help was useless. The one time she'd called Tauron to come and get her, he'd laughed in her face and told her to figure it out. That didn't mean he wasn't beaming with pride when she showed up half a day later. He told her it was character-building, tests for when she was out in the real world without him.

  She checked his transaction history to see if he'd left D-882.

  Her breath caught in her throat.

  Suddenly, the doors of the shipping container flew open and she was staring at the Arch of Eron in the center of Leveman's Vortex, a rope hanging from the center, and a hooded man standing on the dais.

  "Tauron!" she screamed, scrambling to get to him, but her legs were lead.

  She smelled sulfur. Plethegon.

  Under her feet, the ground began to crumble. She was unable to breathe, a noose wrapped tight around her own neck.

  The ground gave way under her…

  "Yo!" Lizbeth's voice snapped her out of her dream.

  Razia sat up-right and immediately regretted it, as her vision filled with black dots from moving too fast. She still felt like she was falling, but she realized they were descending onto a planet. Without the gravity stabilizers, they were forced to endure the shifting pressures—one of the unfortunate downsides of not riding in the main cabin of a ship.

  "Leveman's, the things I do for this job," Lizbeth moaned, bracing herself on the boxes of raw ore. She gave Razia a curious glance. "Are you okay over there? You're pretty pale."

  Razia's heart was still pounding from her dream, and her chest ached. She had forgotten for a brief moment, and was filled with such warmth and happiness. In the cold reality, however, she remembered that he was gone forever.

  "Hey?" Lizbeth repeated. "Are you okay?"

  "Yeah," Razia nodded. With a great thump, the transport ship landed, shifting all the boxes around them as they settled firmly back on the ground.

  "So I guess we're here?" Lizbeth said, standing up slowly.

  "Yeah, but where is here?" Razia wondered aloud, also coming to her feet. She pressed her ear to the container door, listening intently. When she didn't hear any voices or steps approaching, she lifted a lever to open the door.

  Air rushed in as the door slid open. They were in a docking station of some kind, blackened and dirty from years of use. There weren't any other ships that she could see, but she did spy a familiar stone clocktower out a grungy window.

  "We're on S-864," Razia gasped.

  "The capital planet?" Lizbeth blinked. "Why would Relleck go here?"

  "I don't know, but this is definitely nowhere near S-6642."

  "And I don't remember there being any record of material going to S-864." Lizbeth shook her head. "Besides that, how in Leveman's Vortex did he get here so fast?"

  Somewhere in the room, a large machine hummed to life.

  "What's that?" Lizbeth asked.

  "I—" Razia stumbled to her knees as the container lifted upwards. The door flew open as the container swung in the air, and a box tumbled out, exploding as it hit the ground. Razia's eyes nearly flew out of her head when she registered the contents sprawled out on the floor.

  "Guns?" Razia gasped before the force of the conta
iner stopping in mid-air tossed her to the ground. She gripped the floor as it swung back and forth. Without the humming of the machine, she was able to hear voices.

  "Did you check the cargo and make sure it was secured?" Razia didn't recognize the man's voice, but from the tone, she assumed that he was in charge.

  "Listen, Sarge, my job is to drive the ship," a voice that was most assuredly Relleck responded. "If you got a problem with the way it's packed, then you gotta talk to Angelino."

  "If anything else is missing or damaged, it's going to come out of your fee," the man replied. "And it's Major, pirate."

  "Roger that, Major Pirate," Relleck said, and Razia could almost see his smirk.

  If there was more conversation, she didn't hear it, as the machine hummed to life and they were swinging again, this time headed downwards. They landed with a hard thump that made all the boxes shift again, and they could hear the major screaming at the operator to be more careful.

  Razia was too caught up in the bliss of standing on solid ground to realize that the door to the shipping container was wide open, nor notice the sound of footsteps approaching.

  "Hide, Lyssa!" Lizbeth hissed, diving behind a stack of boxes.

  "What?" Razia said, standing up just as the door fully opened and she was face-to-face with two young soldiers.

  "Shit."

  ***

  Razia took stock of her situation silently:

  She was tied to a chair in a makeshift office off the side of the shipping warehouse, with one soldier and his gun standing by to guard her. She was slightly offended by their underestimation of her, but she was more thankful that it would be easy enough to escape once she was untied. Lizbeth was nowhere to be found, which was either a good thing or a bad thing. She hoped that the investigator was smart enough to make herself scarce and sneak off the shipping container after Razia had made a fuss.