Page 115 of Throwing Fire

“Mmm.” Kez wriggles a little tighter against me as she considers. “Maybe. T-White is pretty pure by any standard. We might be able to market it to the garden worlds as a luxury product.”

“We’ll do some market research on Yrillo.”

Kez twists her head to look up at me. “You’d have to untie me first.”

I wink at her. “For an hour or two.”

She grins and goes back to watching the view.

We swing wide around the city’s space-tether to avoid the worst of the morning traffic and head into the sunrise, to the western edge of the city, where the Jielt DeSal plant rises like an accusatory black finger from the sand flats. At the base of the plant there’s a loading dock where a huge skimmer sits, ready for today’s shipment. The plant sits at the mouth of a natural estuary, and the morning light glints off an abundance of undrinkable water: mercury-filled rivers, the toxic ocean, and the rectangular hypersaline pools that stretch to either side of the plant. The glittering pools framing the plant’s black spire remind me of the dragonflies that dance off my deck on warm nights.

Too bad this dragonfly ain’t so benign.

As the ship rises to the landing pad on top of the spire, I rise and gear up. Kez helps me, but it’s Exeter who takes my katanas out of the storage cubby. He passes me the first sword and holds the second between his hands. and hands them to me.

“May I?” he asks.

“Sure.”

He slides the sword free of its sheath smoothly. Not the first time he’s handled a sword. He examines the edge, tests the balance by rotating his wrist, then does a neat horizontalnototo return the sword to its sheath. He holds the sheathed sword out to me.

“This is an Amata,” he says. “How’d you get it?”

“Trade secret,” I say. Actually, I just know a guy who knows a guy. Evvan, my knife-seller, has an impressive collection of sharp metal and was willing to part with both katanas for just a little less than a new starjumper would have cost me.

The corner of Exeter’s mouth quirks. “I might trade you secrets, after this is over, if it gets me one of those.”

“We’ll talk.” While not my weapon of choice, there’d be some big advantanges to carrying a gun.

As I’m settling the katanas on my hip, Payton rises from her chairand holds out her eskey. “Mother Jo is trying to reach you, Mister Snow.”

I nod and take the eskey from her.

“Sandringham Snow.” I identify myself and wait while the AI scans me through the eskey’s biomonitor.

“Mister Snow, Security Xec Giglan instructed me to contact you directly,” the AI says when it finishes the scans.

I frown. I figured Gig would be safe enough flying theInfinityback to Nock. “What’s happened?”

“There’s been an attempted security command, level two. It failed the second level of security.”

The traitor’s finally sprung the trap I set.

“Who gave the command?”

“Halemano Hauser,” the AI says.

I’m speechless for a moment. Kez notices and puts a hand on my good arm. I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her close.

“Locate, Halemano Hauser,” I tell the AI

I hear Kez take a surprised breath at the name, but I’m focused on Mother Jo’s response.

“Hemos Tower, Xecutive Office C.”

Pretty fucking sure I’m not in Hemos, or in my office at Tyng H.Q.

“Security command level one,” I tell Mother Jo before giving her the security handshakes. “Have Hemos Tower security search Xecutive Office C and detain anyone in that office, no matter who it is. No reason given. No release until authorized by—” I pause before giving my name. Someone’s been impersonating me. Both of me. “Until authorized by Xec Kezra Kerryon. Got that?”