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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Dani

She sat in the conference room, staring at the wall.

Her crew was gone, forced back to their units. And the ship was about to go into full lockdown. She was not allowed to go with them since a team was searching her unit even now as she sat there.

She couldn’t move, could hardly think. Her emotions were tearing through her, but she couldn’t calm them if she tried. By now, they would have found Kryxis. By now…

“Dani,” Nadine said. Dani looked up and saw the concern on her superior’s face. “I can take you down to the medbay if you like. If you need a place to calm your nerves. Or to another safe place.”

Safe place. No, there was no safe place. She needed to go, to run. She needed to find Kryxis.

He wouldn’t have hurt Garret. No, he couldn’t have.

And yet, she couldn’t suppress the dread twisting in her gut.

She slept ten hours. He didn’t. He could have gone…and come back. He could have…

No. No , he wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t do that to her.

Except there’s that small chance he might . He was angry when Garret came to the unit. Because it was clear Garret liked her. And to someone like Kryxis, who only knew his instincts, he saw a threat. He saw a competitor for her attention.

She shook her head. Kryxis was smarter than that. He had to be. He had to know harming Garret put him in danger of exposure. And know she would never forgive him if he hurt someone.

He had to know that.

You thought he would stay put too , said the doubting voice. But he didn’t. He went lurking, and he hadn’t seen anything wrong with that until you scolded him.

“Dani?” Nadine said.

She blinked away the tears. “I want to talk to my father,” she said shakily.

“You sure about that?” Nadine asked after a short pause.

“Yes.”

Nadine went up to the table and tapped on the surface to bring up a control screen. She sent a call out to Dani’s father, and they waited. When the call went through, a holographic image of a man stood before them with deep dark eyes, black hair slashed with silver, and a hard set mouth. Her father.

“Officer Miguel,” he addressed Nadine.

“Officer Pyne, your daughter wishes to speak to you.” She glanced over, fixing Dani with a pitiful look. “I’ll be outside.”

Once she left, Dani stood before her father. He did not greet her, only sized her up.

“I’m disappointed, Dani,” he started. “You had one job. You were heading toward a promising field. Yet, I learn you threw it all away for a—”

“Save it,” Dani snapped.

Her father tensed, eyes widening. “You dare speak to me like that.”

“You have no right to give the governing militia permission to come here and take Kry—the vrisha—away. They don’t have the authority. That’s up to the alliance. Because he is one of theirs. He’s protected under their law.”

“Their law only extends so far. We have an agreement with the governing militia. You should know this since eighty percent of our security personnel come from them. If the vrisha had stayed on X110, then perhaps it would have been up to the alliance. But you brought the vrisha onboard, and the ship is our territory. The vrisha has attacked our people and therefore we have the right to get rid of it as we see fit.”

“I…don’t believe it’s him who hurt our crew.”

“What else could it be, Dani?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t believe it’s him. I don’t.”

“Whatever happened to you on X110 has clearly traumatized you. You’re not thinking clearly. You’ve allowed the vrisha to manipulate you into thinking it was harmless, but it is not.”

She shook her head, tears again stinging her eyes. “I’ll prove it. Somehow, I will. And I’ll expose Marityne for what they did. I’ll tell the alliance.”

“You do that and you’ll never set foot in Nexacor.”

“You partnered with them too. With Marityne. But they needed their dirty secrets cleaned up first.”

“You’ll be taken off the ship and left at the next port until I send for someone to pick you up. Then we’ll deal with legal matters.”

“Don’t bother sending someone to grab me. Because I don’t care if you’re my father. I don’t give a fuck about trying to be worthy of you anymore. I don’t give a fuck about Nexacor!” Before he could respond, she severed the signal. She let out a shout of despair, slamming her fist against the table. She pressed her head against the cool metal surface, her body shaking.

The lights above changed from a warm yellow to a deep orange.

“A lockdown is in place,” came a voice overhead. “All staff, please proceed to your designated unit. This is a code-red lockdown. Please proceed to your unit.”

Tears dripped down onto the table, her nails digging into her palms. She had to see him. She had to know. Had to hear him tell her the truth. At the very least. Whether he did it or not, she had to find him.

She pushed herself off the table and made for the door. Nadine was down one side of the hall, speaking to a pair of soldiers. She looked over and they locked eyes.

“Dani!” she called, starting for her.

Dani turned the opposite way and made for the elevator. She slipped inside and slapped the button for her level, letting the doors shut on Nadine before she could reach them. She made her way back down to her floor, bolting out of the elevator and rushing down the hall to her unit.

Her door was wide open and bent in the middle. She stepped inside and knew immediately that Kryxis was gone. Her table was overturned and a few of the growth tanks on her shelf of plants were shattered on the ground.

She went over to the computer and found the datachip gone.

Covering her face in her hands, she tried to clamp down the cry of rage rising in her throat. She whirled around and rushed to the bedroom but found it dark and empty.

“Chowder?” she called. She swore if they hurt her cat, she would kill someone.

There was a soft mew coming from her closet. She opened it and found Chowder at the bottom sitting on a blanket. Letting out a cry of relief, she swept him into her arms.

Quickly, she found his carrier and set him inside. Then she went for a lock box in the closet. Thankfully, it looked like the search team was only tasked with grabbing the datachip because they hardly touched her things. She also had a feeling Kryxis didn’t get caught. The fact they went into lockdown told her he fled before they could find him.

She opened her lock box and took out the gun Kryxis had given her, latching it to her belt. She grabbed her stunner and shoved it into another pocket then she took out her garometer and clasped it to her wrist. She almost felt sorry for lying to Garret about it, but she was thankful she had it now to track Kryxis down.

Picking up Chowder’s carrier and throwing the strap over her shoulder, she rushed out of her unit. From above, she noticed the vent was open and the grate lay on its side a few feet away. She adjusted her garometer to search for energy higher than twelve, but nothing came up.

She went back to the elevator and made her way up again, to level five. The passageways were empty as she raced over to another unit and knocked.

Myrell opened her door. “Dani, what in the deep heavens are you doing?”

“I need you to keep Chowder for a little while,” she said, taking off the strap and handing the carrier to her.

“You shouldn’t be out here alone. Stay here, at least until lockdown is over.”

“I can’t. I have to find Kryxis.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I am.”

“Dani…if he was the one who hurt Garret…”

“I’m going to find out.”

They heard shouts coming down one hall. Myrell pulled her inside and shut the door. They listened to a group of soldiers pass as they stood by the door.

“It’s not safe,” Myrell said in a low voice. “And you can’t possibly hope to find Kryxis before they do.”

“I have to try.”

“Let me come with you then.”

“No.”

Myrell clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Damn stubborn girl.” She put up her hand and went over to her kitchen table, grabbing a flashlight and small bag. “Take these at least,” she said, offering them to her.

Dani took both. She looked into the bag and her eyes widened. “When did you take this?”

Myrell shrugged. “It got mixed in with my pack. Thought it could be useful.”

Dani tied the bag onto her belt. “I won’t use it on Kryxis.”

“I didn’t expect you to.”

“Message the others and tell them I’m okay. That I’m grateful they tried to keep Kryxis a secret. If I don’t see any of you after the lockdown…”

“Like hell you won’t.” She pulled her into a hug. “You’re kind of crazy, you know?”

“I know.” She broke away and went to the door. “Don’t come out, no matter what.”

The elevator opened, and Dani stepped out onto one of the lower decks. It was dark down the wide passage. The rooms on either side—work stations for the engineers—were completely empty. She aimed her light around but saw no movement. She checked her garometer but still nothing. No energy levels high enough to be him. She crept down the passage until she came to a bend and heard the voices of a security team close by, searching.

“Clear here. Nothing.”

She peered around to a small docking bay. She recognized Saul and Tristan right away, along with a few she didn’t. They carried the weapons with the ice, little wisps of coolant rising from the tips of their guns.

“Good thinking on the ice Saul,” one said. “Freeze that fucker right up.”

“I say we stick our guns into these vents and start blasting. Ice it out.”

“Don’t want to drain our guns too quick,” Saul said. “Just keep an eye out.”

Dani hid back behind the wall. She peered over and saw one of the vents. Silently, she went over and crouched down, wrenching the grate off and carefully setting it aside. The vents were large enough for her to practically crouch in. On all fours, she took a left and crawled her way around trying to find a way to bypass the dock and the soldiers, hoping they didn’t change their mind about icing the vents.

She crawled into a small room with a fan rotating slowly and swore for a moment she caught Kryxis’ scent. But her garometer showed nothing, which meant he might have only been here recently but had since moved on.

Still, it gave her a little hope that she was close. She crawled her way through the dark, her narrow light the only thing to guide her way. Eventually the voices dulled as she turned down another narrow passage leading away from the dock. As she came to a dead end, she found another grate and popped it open, slipping into a small office.

Past the office, she found her way into a mechanic’s bay. A spare one by the looks of it, with several ship parts strung around. Old junk parts that would eventually be used for scrap. She doubted many came in here. In fact, she found the wide bay door to be locked. The large room was warm too, warmer than the rest of the ship. She searched around and noticed steam wafting up from the grates beneath her feet, coming from the engine room below. She could even see a dull red glow from light underneath. Above was a deck running all the way around the sides with chains dangling from the ceiling, some used to lift parts.

Besides being a little creepy, she didn’t see anything. She started back toward the office when something crunched under her foot. She glanced down and frowned. Crouching, she picked up what looked like a piece of….

Bruiser fungi. She pointed her light around and saw pieces of all shapes and sizes scattered everywhere.

What the...?

As she stood up, a low crackling came from her garometer. Heart in her throat, she checked it immediately.

The level was at fifteen.

She let out a little gasp, whirling around. “Kryxis!” she cried.

A large shadow slunk closer and her garometer grew louder. Through the steam, the shape appeared.

It was not Kryxis.