Chapter Five
“You have any breathing restrictions?” Nathan asked the prisoner from outside the transparent door to the C Deck isolation cell. It was the Neptune Belle’s one and only form of long-term incarceration, located near the back of the ship close to the reactor. The cell took up space originally reserved for general storage, but its inclusion came in handy every so often.
Like today, he thought.
Aiko-One stood next to him, her commando body and the rifle in her hands more than enough to deal with the prisoner now that she’d been relieved of her pistol. Aiko-Six was on the bridge, piloting the Belle on a leisurely ascent along the retention wall while Aiko-Two brought up the rear in the Dirge of Darkness.
“No.” The woman’s voice was muffled by her helmet. “Why?”
“Then off with it.” Nathan gestured to her hard suit. “Everything goes in the bin to your left. Either that or Aiko here will take it off for you.”
“And you don’t want that,” Aiko added, sounding like she might relish the opportunity.
“Fine.” The thief sighed and took off her helmet. Her cat ears sprang up, and she ran a gloved hand through her short, black hair. She set the helmet down in the bin and began to take off the rest of her hard suit. Aiko cycled the rotary bin, took the helmet, and placed it next to the thief’s pistol on a nearby workbench.
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Now that’s a surprise.”
“What is?” the thief asked.
“You’re a nekoan.”
“What’s so surprising about that?”
“Nothing by itself. It’s just we don’t see many cat people around Neptune. You from Saturn?”
“I’m from all around.”
She tossed the top of her hard suit and belt into the bin, then began to peel off her hard suit leggings, freeing the tail she’d wrapped around her waist. It fluffed out angrily. Aiko cycled the articles over and placed them on the workbench.
“You have a name?” Nathan asked, just as a gust of wind rocked the entire ship. “Or should we just call you ‘Mysterious Nekoan’?”
“It’s Vess.”
“Is that your full name?”
“Vessani S’Kaari.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss S’Kaari,” Nathan replied brightly.
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes and tossed the armored leggings on top of the pile.
“The vest, too.” Nathan pointed to her top.
“Seriously?”
“Do I look like I’m joking? Who knows what you’ve got in all those pockets?”
“Fine.” She unzipped the vest and tossed it into the bin, revealing a tight black bra. No hiding anything there. She flicked one of the straps. “You want me to strip this off, too?”
Nathan shot her a disapproving grimace. “What kind of people are you used to hanging around?”
“I . . .” The comment seemed to take her aback. “The wrong kinds, I suppose.”
Aiko rotated the bin and set the vest on the table. She began emptying the pockets and arranging the contents in neat rows.
“Now, let’s see what we have here.” Nathan joined Aiko at the workbench.
“You won’t find any surprises,” Vessani said, crossing her arms.
“We’ll judge that for ourselves, thank you.” He started with the pistol and immediately noticed the customization work. “You do this yourself?” He held up the weapon.
“Most of it.”
“Not bad,” Aiko said. “Custom sight, modified grip, extended magazine. I could do without the flame detailing on the barrel, but other than that, this is a nice gun.”
“It looks Jovian,” Nathan said.
“It’s a wraithbane,” Aiko explained. “A somewhat uncommon sidearm in the Everlife. Where’d she get a Jovian handgun?”
“It was a gift,” Vessani replied.
“Yeah, right,” Aiko said. “She probably stole it.”
“Probably,” Nathan agreed.
Vessani turned away, shaking her head.
Nathan set the gun down, then checked out the various pieces of the hard suit, which also showed signs of customization. Some edges around the armor plates had been cut down to increase mobility while additional plates had been added in spots that wouldn’t impact movement. Everything was painted matte black.
“You have a thing for black?” he asked.
“It’s all right.”
“Just ‘all right’? Then why does your gear make me wonder if you’re color blind?”
“My former employer has something of a dress code.”
“Former employer?”
“Hugo Dirge.”
Nathan paused, then chuckled. “You tried to steal your boss’s ship?”
“Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Well, it wasn’t.” Nathan sifted through the contents of her vest pockets: a Union ID card for one Vessani S’Kaari, about forty c’troni in loose coins, a knife, various tools, spare ammo, a honey-and-peanuts food bar, and two empty wrappers.
Aiko unclipped what looked like a thermos from the hard suit’s utility belt. She unsealed and unscrewed the top, gazed inside, brought it up to her olfactory sensor, then shook her head and presented the container to Nathan.
“Here.”
“What?” Nathan asked.
“Lick it and tell me what’s inside. I don’t have taste buds.”
“I’m not licking the inside of a strange thermos!”
“Come on. It doesn’t smell bad.”
Nathan grumbled something under his breath but took the thermos anyway. He inspected the frothy white fluid inside and then sniffed the contents, surprised to discover a faint yet pleasant hint of vanilla.
“Go on,” Aiko said. “Lick it.”
“Don’t rush me.”
He dipped his finger into the froth and brought it cautiously up to the tip of his tongue.
“Well?” Aiko asked.
“A vanilla milkshake?” He turned to Vessani.
“What? Why the weird face?”
“You were carrying a vanilla milkshake on your hard suit?”
“So? I like milkshakes.”
Nathan set the thermos down and put the top back on.
“Look, Mister—”
“That’s Captain Nathaniel Kade to you.”
“Right. Captain Kade. Look, I know what all of this seems like, but I can explain.”
“Sure you can.” Nathan approached the cell door with an air of expectancy, eager to hear what sort of contrived sob story she was about to dump on him.
“I’m sure Hugo offered you a tidy bundle to return his ship, but I can beat whatever he’s paying.”
“You don’t say?”
“By a hefty margin. You see, I’ve got a juicy lead. I know this is going to sound far-fetched, but I’m this close to finding a massive pentatech relic.”
“Really?” Nathan replied with faux interest. “This close, you say?”
“It’s the truth. And I’d be more than happy to cut you in on the score. All you have to do is let me leave on Hugo’s ship. You can tell him you lost me in the clouds or . . . or whatever. Doesn’t matter. Just let me go for now, and we can meet up in orbit later. I’ll even let you have the Dirge after we’re done. Two ships are better than one, and way better than what he’s paying.” Vessani smiled hopefully at them. “What do you say?”
Nathan turned to Aiko.
“We’ve heard better,” the Jovian remarked with a shake of her head.
“That we have.”
“I’m being serious here,” Vessani insisted, ears drooping.
“Yes, yes,” Nathan said. “And next you’ll tell me one of the moons of Mercury is made of solid computronium. I’ve heard them all.”
“Cap—”
“Not buying it. We’re turning the ship over to its rightful owner, and we’re turning you over to the police.” He picked up the thermos. “That said, I think I’ll keep this. Maybe clean it out and use it to store Beany’s coffee.”
“I want her gun,” Aiko said.
“What do you need another gun for?”
“Nothing, really. I just like collecting them.”
“Fine. Just so long as the police don’t confiscate it as evidence or something.”
“Score!”
Nathan headed for the freight elevator. Aiko gave the gun a loving caress then hurried after him.
“You’re making a big mistake!” Vessani called out desperately.
“Save it for someone who cares,” Nathan replied with a dismissive wave.
Full night had fallen over the back of Neptune. Not the half night where the sun-walls dimmed and Sol remained in the sky, but the complete lack of outside illumination beyond the twinkle of distant stars and the pale reflections off nearby moons and habitats.
Port Leverrier didn’t care.
The city’s lights covered a wide plateau with a trio of refurbished deifactories rising above the skyscrapers in the city center. Ocean waves lapped against the cliffside and water-based docks to the east while rich farmlands spread a lavish canvas of greenery to the south and west. Hundreds of bridges and ramps led off the plateau, spreading out into roads and railways that connected with nearby cities and manufactories. If the Neptune Concord possessed a beating heart for its commerce and industry, Port Leverrier was it.
Aiko-Two guided the Dirge of Darkness to a bay situated in the smaller of Port Leverrier’s two spaceports. She brought the ship to a smooth hover, deployed the landing gear, then eased the ship down into the dock. The six landing struts made contact with the ground and compressed so that the ship came to rest with little more than a minor jostle.
She eased the thruster nozzles closed, then initiated a controlled reactor shutdown. The lights dimmed momentarily as power switched over to the Dirge’s capacitors. She unstrapped from the pilot seat, took a staircase down to the ship’s lower deck, and followed the corridor back to the cargo hold, which she then opened.
A group of six men crossed the docking bay and met her at the bottom of the ramp. They all wore black, though with nothing else in common besides the coloration and the weapons holstered at their hips or slung over their backs. An older gentleman stood ahead of the pack wearing a black suit with a long black tie and a black handkerchief in his pocket. His pin, featuring a smooth onyx inset in gold, was a rare splash of color.
He stood somewhat shorter than the others, his black hair flecked with gray and a trim pencil moustache over his narrow lips. A hulking, green-skinned divergent loomed at his side. That one eyed Aiko with the prelude to a snarl.
“Which one of you is Hugo Dirge?” she asked, though she probably didn’t have to.
“I wasn’t told we’d be dealing with Jovian . . .” The short leader trailed off with a sour face, perhaps leaving off the word “trash.”
“You’re welcome,” Aiko replied sarcastically. “You Dirge?”
“I am.”
“Then I believe this is yours.” She stepped aside and swept an arm across the hold.
“That it is. Broog?” He beckoned the divergent forward.
“Sir.”
“Inspect my ship.”
“Right away.” Broog hustled up the ramp.
“You’ll find everything in order,” Aiko said. “All we did was fire a few warning shots. We didn’t put so much as a scratch on your ship.”
“So you say.”
“Hey, boss?” Broog turned back to them and knocked on one of the fuel tanks at the far end of the cargo hold. “Tank Two’s been punctured! Someone slapped a pair of half-assed seals over the holes!”
Dirge raised an accusatory eyebrow at Aiko.
“Hey, now! That’s how we found it,” she snapped.
“Is this true, Broog?”
“Not a chance. The ship was in perfect shape when Vess made off with it. Zuloph and Narsh will back me up on this.”
Two of the men behind Dirge nodded their agreement.
“So.” Dirge crossed his arms, turning back to Aiko. “Just a few warning shots, you said?”
“You trying to cheat us out of the bonus?”
“That would imply I’m somehow in the wrong here.”
“Those bullet holes were there when we recovered your ship.”
“My crew says otherwise, and I’ll take their word over some Jovian’s any day.”
“Oh, come on.” Aiko pointed back to the tanks. “The damage isn’t even all that bad. I can have that patchwork cleaned up and looking good as new in under an hour.”
“No, thank you. I think you’ve pawed my ship quite enough for one day. Zuloph?”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Pay the Jovian the two thousand we owe her.”
“Right.”
“And not a c’troni more.”
Aiko took the proffered box and opened it. She counted the cylinders, then clapped the top closed.
“Seems to be a thousand short, if you ask me.”
“Tell you what, Jovian.” Dirge smirked at her. “Perhaps we can come to an arrangement for the remainder.”
“Okay, I’ll bite. What did you have in mind?”
“First a question. Where’s the cat?”
“We have her. Why?”
“I assume you intend to turn her over to the police.”
“That’s the plan. Again, why do you care?”
“I’d be willing to pay you the remaining thousand for her return.”
“You have your ship back. What’s she to you?”
“That’s a matter of business between me and the cat. I’ve recently become aware of . . . dealings of hers she’s been making on the side while under my employ. I’d like to clear up those loose ends, as it were. Beyond that, I’m not willing to say. We would, of course, turn her over to the police ourselves at the conclusion of our business.” Behind him, Zuloph sniggered, which provoked a sharp glance from Dirge.
“Um, let me think about that for a moment.” Aiko made a show of tapping the side of her head thoughtfully, then leaned forward. “No.”
“You’re being awfully hasty here.”
“Look, I get that you have a grudge to settle with the nekoan. She tried to make off with your ship, after all. But she’s no longer your problem.”
“Are you the one in charge of your little outfit?”
“No. That’d be Captain Kade.”
“Then shouldn’t you at least discuss my offer with your superior?”
“I . . .” Aiko shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, fine.” She called up Nathan on the commect, turned up the volume, and explained the situation to him.
“He wants us to do what?” Nathan raged through the speaker for all to hear.
“Would you like me to repeat his offer?” Aiko asked, holding the commect between her and Dirge.
“Hell, no! And he shorted us on the bonus?”
“Two thousand,” Dirge cut in, adjusting his tie. “I’ll pay you two thousand for the cat.”
“Was that him?” Nathan asked.
“It was,” Aiko said. “He’s starting to look desperate.”
“Surely two thousand is a fair offer for custody of the cat,” Dirge added.
“Look, pal,” Nathan barked over the commect. “It doesn’t matter how high you go. Aiko and I run a clean business. If you want to talk to the nekoan, you can do it at the police station after we’ve turned her in.”
“Three.”
“Didn’t I just make my position clear to you?”
“Five!” Dirge shouted. “I’ll give you five thousand c’troni for the cat, but that’s my final offer!”
“I don’t have time for this.” The commect clicked, and the channel turned to faint white noise.
“Hello?” Dirge leaned over the device in Aiko’s hand. “Are you still there? Hello?”
“Aww.” Aiko switched off her commect and slotted it back into her belt. “Looks like he hung up on you.”
“Why that—!”
“Well, Mr. Dirge. I’ll be going now.” She hefted the money box in one hand and gave the man a little, insulting wave with the other. “Let’s never do business again.”
Port Leverrier’s 117th Precinct Building was a drab, squat structure situated outside the Ackerson Memorial Spaceport. Nathan walked up the steps and pushed through the glass doors. He spotted Sergeant Shawn Turner sitting behind a nearby desk, almost as if the rugged, graying police officer hadn’t moved a millimeter since he’d last seen him.
“Nate!” The sergeant’s face lit up. He rose from his chair and waved Nathan over. “How you been, sonny?”
“Good, all things considered.” Nathan grabbed the empty seat across from Turner, and they both sat down.
“Wow. It’s been, what? Half a year since I saw you last?”
“Longer, I think.”
Turner shook his head. “Time flies when you’re having fun. How’s life as a freelancer been treating you?”
“Could be better. Could be worse.”
“Aiko still with you?”
“Still.”
“Figured. She’s never going to leave your side, is she?”
“Not until I bite the dust.”
Turner snorted out a laugh. “She actually word it that way?”
“Yeah. She calls it my ‘squishy meat-death’ or the like.”
“Ha! Sounds like something a Jovian would say. They don’t view death the same way we do. Makes them keep one eye on the long game. She’ll probably outlive all of us. You pick up any new bodies for her?”
“Lost a few, actually. She’s down to three, and one of them we cobbled together from leftovers.”
“Aww, man. Sorry to hear that. How about the rest of your crew? You pick up anyone new?”
“Nope. Just me and Aiko still.”
“Well, you two do make a good team.” Turner leaned back, and his chair creaked. “How’s your mother?”
“I haven’t visited yet,” he deflected, not eager to dive into that topic.
“But you will?”
“I will.”
“You know she likes it when you stop by.”
Nathan wasn’t too sure about that. Visiting his mother wasn’t easy. Not because he didn’t love her dearly, but because when he stopped by her room at the asylum and gazed into her eyes, he didn’t recognize the person gazing back.
“I said I will,” he said, a little more stiffly than before.
“Of course. Of course.” Turner sighed. “Anyway, what brings you down here?”
“Business, I’m afraid.” He tossed a Union ID card onto the desk. “We picked up someone you might be interested in.”
“Union, huh? One moment.” Turner opened a drawer and pulled out a card reader. He plugged the cable into the side of his desktop vlass and slotted the card into the reader. A picture appeared of a younger version of Vessani along with a blob of text. “Vessani S’Kaari, aka Vess Longfang. Citizen of the Saturn Union, Birthplace listed as ‘no one’s business.’ Same for her next of kin. Age twenty-two with fairly typical nekoan divergences. What brings her up?”
“She’s currently a ‘guest’ on the Belle. We caught her trying to steal a ship.”
“Not yours, I hope.”
“No. Can you check if there’s a bounty out for her?”
“Sure thing.” Turner tapped the screen a few times. “And . . . she does indeed have a bounty.”
Nathan smiled.
“The total reward is listed as twenty-eight c’troni.”
“What?” His smile vanished.
“She’s worth twenty-eight,” Turner repeated.
“That can’t be right.”
Turner spun his screen around and let Nathan read the file.
“But she stole a spaceship!”
“Not officially.”
“Didn’t the Dirge Company charge her?”
“What you see is what you get.” Turner waved his hand over the screen.
“But then . . .” Nathan shook his head. “What kind of crimes earn someone a piddly bounty like that?”
“Umm.” Turner spun the screen back around. “Drunken and disorderly conduct, public indecency, noise complaints, and one case of vandalism.”
“But . . . twenty-eight?”
“I’m just reading what’s in her file.”
“She had more than that on her in loose change!”
“Maybe she’s done worse in the Union. You could check with their embassy.”
“No, thanks.” Nathan crossed his arms with a scowl. “I’ve had my fill of being ripped off by Union officials for a while.”
“Then, sorry, but this is all I can offer you.” Turner pulled out the ID card and handed it back to Nathan. “Feel free to drop her by anytime. We’ll process her and pay up.”
“Won’t you send someone out to our dock to pick her up?”
“Not for a minor nuisance like her.”
“Uhh!” Nathan leaned back and ran his fingers through his hair.
“Just let me know when you want to drop her off. After that, I don’t know. Maybe treat yourself to a nice dinner?”
Nathan left the precinct building with his hands stuck in his pockets and a frown on his face. He took a right and melted into the flow of pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk, heading back to the spaceport.
Twenty-eight c’troni.
It was an insulting amount.
Criminal record or not, they’d caught Vessani stealing a spaceship. Was this really her first big crime? And what was up with all the money Dirge had offered? That reeked of all kinds of shady. Nathan was half tempted to ask Vessani about it before he turned her over to the police but assumed she’d lie about that, too.
Twenty-eight. Good grief!
Well, it is what it is, he thought. Nothing to do about it. The sooner she’s out of my hands, the better. Maybe I’ll use the money to buy Aiko an accessory for one of her guns. She’d like that.
Nathan sauntered down a street, overhead lamps creating regular pools of light. Port Leverrier never really slept. Half the nights weren’t true nights anyway, what with the distant Sol casting its own light upon the shell band, and the crowds near him attested to that fact.
He passed a string of restaurants, their signs bright over each entrance, the air thick with the scent of rich, fatty cooking. His stomach grumbled, but he kept walking, intent on returning to the Belle to discuss the situation with Aiko, but the mouthwatering smells continued to tempt his senses, and his stomach eventually won out over his brain.
He stopped at the next food truck he saw, glanced over their menu, and bought a chili-and-sausage wrap. He took a messy bite and continued down the street.
“Captain Kade.”
Nathan stopped and turned, his mouth in the middle of chewing.
The speaker was a handsome young man, perhaps in his mid twenties, with clothes nice enough to set him apart from most of the other foot traffic. He wore a dark gray vest patterned with an intricate, swirling weave of blue and gold thread over a crisp, white shirt. He’d tucked a blue ascot inside the collar, and a gold chain ran from his breast pocket to a loop on his belt.
The young man had combed his wavy blond hair to the side, though a few errant strands hung in front of his face while he caught his breath. Had he been jogging down the street? He watched Nathan with sharp blue eyes that sparkled with a keen sense of observation.
“Yesh?” Nathan asked the newcomer.
“I’m sorry, sir. Have I caught you at a bad time?”
“Nah. Ish fine.” Nathan continued chewing, not sure yet what to make of the interruption. The fellow didn’t appear armed, so there was that at least.
“Wonderful.” The young man beamed at him. “Allow me to introduce myself.” He extended a hand. “My name is Joshua Cotton. There’s a matter of some importance I’d like to discuss with you.”
“Ish tha sho?”
“It is, sir.”
Nathan glanced down at the proffered hand and reached out to shake it, but then stopped when he realized a gob of chili had migrated to his hand. Cotton saw it, too, frowned, and lowered his own hand.
“Perhaps the handshake can wait.”
“That’s probably for the best.” Nathan wiped the gob off on the wrapper, then stepped out of the main flow of traffic. Cotton followed him. “What sort of business are we talking about here?”
“It concerns an acquaintance of mine named Vessani S’Kaari.”
Oh bloody hell, Nathan thought.
“Ah.” Cotton smiled. “I know that look. You’ve met her, then.”
“A bit more than that,” Nathan replied, unwilling to say more until he had a better read on the man. “What’s she to you?”
“An acquaintance, as I said.”
“And?”
“She’s currently aboard your ship. The Neptune Belle, is it?”
“What if she is?”
“There’s no need to be coy, Captain. The police told me you’re holding her. It seems I stopped by the station shortly after you did. A Sergeant Turner said she was in your custody, so I headed toward the spaceport. Along the way, I happened to spot your jacket and took the chance to introduce myself.”
“Fine,” he told Cotton. “You found me. What do you want?”
“I’d like to arrange for Miss S’Kaari’s release.”
“Sure, I’ll release her. Right in the middle of the police station.”
“I would prefer that you didn’t.”
“Well, I prefer not to have my meals interrupted by strangers making unusual requests, but we don’t all get what we want, now do we?”
“I suppose not, sir,” Cotton replied, somewhat sullenly.
“Do you know what she just pulled?”
“I believe I have some idea.”
“Do you know all of it?”
“Sir, if it’s a question of her bounty, I’d be happy to compensate you appropriately. Say, double what the police are offering?”
Oh, this is great! Nathan thought sarcastically. What’s the word for doubling a pittance?
“Sergeant Turner left me with the impression the police have more pressing concerns at the moment,” Cotton continued. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind it if the two of us came to a mutually beneficial agreement.”
“I’m not turning her or anyone else over to you without a damned good reason,” Nathan declared, wagging his half-eaten wrap at the other man.
“That’s not what I’m asking.”
“It’s . . .” Nathan paused and lowered the wrap. “It’s not?”
“No, sir. I only wish to arrange for her to be freed. Nothing more.”
“Because she’s an acquaintance of yours?”
“A close acquaintance, I will admit.”
“We’re talking about the same Vessani S’Kaari here, right?” Nathan asked. “Wild-looking nekoan? Black hair, gold eyes. Has a bad habit of stealing other people’s spaceships?”
Cotton’s eyes widened. “She stole a ship?”
“Yeah. What did you think she tried to pull?”
“I . . . was guessing something a bit smaller. Closer to her past antics, as it were.”
“You know Hugo Dirge?”
“I’ve heard of him.”
“She tried to steal his ship.”
“Oh.” Cotton lowered his gaze. “Oh, dear.”
“Everything I know about her tells me she’s more trouble than she’s worth. Except now interested parties seem to be lining up for a piece of her. So how about you cut to the chase and tell me why you’re really interested.”
“I suppose that’s only fair. Have you spoken to her?”
“Briefly. Why?”
“Did she mention anything”—Cotton licked his lips, seemingly unsure how to proceed—“unusual to you?”
“She tried, but I have this degenerative ear disease. It’s called earplugus for bullshitus. I become hard of hearing whenever people spout nonsense my way.”
“Yes, I see what you mean.” The young man sighed. “Vessani may be rough around the edges, but she has a good heart. She’s just had it tough. She grew up on a low-tech habitat, you see, and that life of hers ended when she was kidnapped about five years ago.”
“I’m sorry.” Nathan stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it. “That degenerative disease is kicking in.”
“The point is her first experience with high-tech societies was human trafficking. Now, mind you, she was lucky enough to be freed before anything . . . inappropriate happened to her, after which she ended up bouncing her way across the solar system, learning and adapting as she went.”
“Until she landed with the Dirge Company?”
“One in a long string of outfits she’s worked for. As I understand it, she impressed Hugo Dirge with her skills as a pilot. Tell me, sir, how much do you know about the man?”
“Just that he’s a cheapskate who won’t honor his contracts. Why?”
“Vessani thought he ran a legitimate business when she signed on, and part of that is true, but Dirge also operates a side gig of sorts. Granted, I have no proof of this, but Vessani told me she was horrified to learn Dirge and his crew will make their way to the Habitat Belt in order to kidnap exotic divergents from low-tech societies, mostly female, and then sell them to wealthy clients, mostly male, if you catch my meaning, sir.”
“Yeah,” Nathan breathed, suddenly taking the man’s story more seriously. “I catch it.”
“I suppose the revelation hit a nerve. Doubly so, given the parallels with her own history. I can understand how she might feel motivated to stop them.”
“By stealing his ship.”
“So it would seem, Captain.”
“Hmm.” Nathan frowned at his cooling wrap. “All right. You have my attention, but right now all you’ve given me is a story. Got anything to back it up?”
“As I said, I don’t have evidence of Dirge’s wrongdoing, if that’s what you’re expecting from me.”
“What about what happened to Vessani? Sounds like she was kidnapped and then freed.”
“That’s right.”
“Is there an official record of the incident?”
“Not on Neptune. It’s my understanding the pirates who nabbed her met an unpleasant fate at the hands of Jovian privateers.”
“Jovians, huh.” Nathan nodded. Perhaps one of Aiko’s old contacts could help them sort out the truth, then. “Do you know the group’s name?”
“I believe they’re called the Platinum Corsairs.”