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I didn’t really want to stay for dessert, but considering what Frank was paying and his assurance that the longer we waited, the more information there would be, I stayed in my seat. Well, after I got my dessert, that is.

On my plate was a small chocolate mousse with a spaceberry garnish, a petit four that was either key lime or pistachio, and a slice of the most amazing-looking mocha cake that Frank and I were going to share. He’d gone with a lemon meringue tart and a fat piece of spaceberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

I extended my spoon in the cobbler’s direction. “May I? I just want a taste.”

He pushed the bowl toward me. “Help yourself.”

I took a small spoonful and ate it. “Oh, that’s good. Smart choice.” I went for the chocolate cake next: moist layers of cake with whipped coffee ganache in between and chocolate buttercream frosting on the outside. It was staggeringly good. I let out a sound that I might have only previously made while kissing Frank.

He snorted. “That good, huh?”

“I have no words.”

“Somehow, I doubt that, but I understand.” He helped himself to a forkful. He closed his eyes and nodded. When he opened them again, he went back for another bite. “That is the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had. We need to know where to get this.”

He called the server over and quickly found out it was available by special order from La Patisserie. No surprise there. He asked for the check, as well.

We finished the cake and the cobbler. I left the rest of the chocolate mousse and ate the petit four. The pistachio was a nice change from all the chocolate. Then we headed out. I was exceptionally full, but we opted to take the escalator back to his place, and the walking helped.

As soon as we were in and Gracie was greeted, he asked if I wanted coffee. “I can make half-caf again.”

I shook my head. “I don’t have room for anything.”

“Let’s see what those vuum reports have to tell us then.”

That’s all I wanted to do. We went into his office, and he quickly found the information he was looking for. It was a lot of numbers.

“Just a second while I throw this into a spreadsheet.”

“As long as you can make sense of it.” Spreadsheets and I were not the best of friends. Give me the Dewey Decimal System any day.

But then the spreadsheet popped onto the screen, and it was in graph form. I could totally read that. Except I didn’t know what the parameters were. “So what does that mean?”

“We have seventeen possibles, three likely, two unlikely, and one unreadable.”

I could do that math. “There are twenty-three potential places on the Athos where the Star could be?”

“Yes, but the seventeen possibles are our strongest bets.”

“Do you know where those locations are?”

“I will in a moment. Just need to correlate the vuums’ data with the ship’s layout and…” He typed as he was speaking, and a map of the ship appeared, the same one from the schematic, actually.

Pulsing green dots began to appear on it, followed by three blue, two purple, and one red. “There you go,” he said. “Those are all the locations the vuums found nebulite energy signatures. Now we just need to pair them with room locations and see who’s quartered there.”

I pointed. “I can tell you that one. It’s me.”

“Makes sense. You do have that pendant.”

“But it’s in my safe. Are you telling me that nebulite energy is strong enough to penetrate the walls of that structure?”

“It appears so. It’s news to me, too, but no wonder it can be used as a fuel source.” He sat back and looked at me. “Any idea who the other locations belong to?”

I peered closer. “I’m guessing the premier and Ayronina are two of those dots. We know they have nebulite. But the rest? Beats me. There was a large number of people—Loessaians, no doubt—at the gala wearing nebulite.”

“I say we ignore the purple and red, as those aren’t likely locations. And if we can correlate them with the dossiers, we should be able to eliminate some more. Maybe even figure out which of them is most likely to have the Star.”

An idea came to me. “Do you have facial recognition software?”

“I do.”

“We need the last few days of the Morning News Report . They’ve been running clips of interviews from the Gala. From those images, we should be able to match names and faces and figure out who wasn’t there. Probably not foolproof but?—”

“Still brilliant. Nicely done, Els.”

I grinned. “Good to know watching that show has finally paid off. And while you do that, I think I’ll run home and take a shower.” I was still in my gym clothes, we both were, and I was ready to get into something a little less clingy and sweaty.

“Yeah, I need to do that, too. I’ll set it up to run, then see you back here in— How long do you need? Thirty minutes?”

“That’ll do. See you then.”

“Bring the nebulite pendant back with you.”

“Okay.” Not sure why he wanted that, but he undoubtedly had a good reason.

He was already focused on his work, so I didn’t interrupt to ask. Just went back to my quarters.

Harry greeted me with a funny little meow, a big stretch as he got out of his bed, then, “Hi, Mum.”

“Hi, baby. Want me to put the birds on for you?”

He sat up. “More in a fish mood, Mum.”

“Fish it is.” I fired up the aquarium channel, which I found relaxing myself, then went in to shower and get a fresh outfit. I was still full from lunch, but the idea that we might be on the verge of recovering the Star was giving me plenty of energy.

After the vapor shower, I changed into my previous outfit of the drawstring navy pants, striped gray T-shirt and the loose navy cardigan. I tied the same navy and pink scarf into my hair. I retrieved my nebulite pendant from the safe in my closet and put it on, tucking it under the neck of my shirt.

A glance in the mirror told me my makeup needed a quick touch-up. I did that, then I kissed Harry on the head and went straight back to Frank’s.

His hair was slightly damp when he answered the door, and the scent of his shampoo drifted to me.

“Did I come back too early?” I asked as I stepped inside. It hadn’t quite been thirty minutes, but he was usually so quick.

“No, you’re fine. I just got caught up in all the new info.”

“Anything good?”

“It’s all good. Or at least interesting. The names and locations are done, but I haven’t looked at them yet. We can do it together.”

It didn’t take long to read through the list of the names of those who had worn nebulite to the gala and had been denoted by the vuums as having nebulite in their quarters. When we were done going through them, we had three locations with names that could be strong possibilities—all of them Loessaians, and all had been to the gala without wearing any nebulite jewelry.

“You realize,” Frank said, “this isn’t a slam dunk. Those people might just be citizens who own nebulite in some other form than jewelry. Or citizens who decided not to wear that jewelry to the gala. Which seems an odd choice, all things considered.”

“I’d agree with that. But it also could be that they’re holding the Star. It would certainly earn them big points to help out the premier that way. If he’s behind this. Something I think we’re about to find out.” I couldn’t help but smile as I said it. We were so close. “How are we going to do this?”

“You mean how are we going to check if they have the Star?” He shook his head. “Only one way I can think of. We need to search their rooms. But I have a plan. If your daughter will give it the okay.”

“Which is?”

“We go in under the guise that we’re looking for a small radiation leak. Completely official.”

I nodded. “She’ll approve it, I’m sure. Let’s call her.” I was dying to find out if she’d heard anything from the premier since giving the news station the go-ahead to announce the second guard’s death. With Frank next to me, I popped out the holoscreen and called her.

She answered quickly, no doubt thinking we had news. “Hey, Mom. Hey, Frank. What’s up?”

“Frank and I need permission to go undercover as Athos staff looking for a radiation leak.”

Her brow furrowed. “Please tell me this is related to the Star situation?”

“One hundred percent. We just want your blessing. And to make sure you know about it in case anyone calls to check.”

She nodded. “It’s fine. Does this mean you have a solid lead?”

“The vuums have returned a handful of possible locations where the Star might be.”

Hazel sat back and exhaled. “Please, please call me as soon as you find it.”

“No promises,” Frank said. “But you’ll be the first to know.”

“Good. Thank you.” Her intercom went off, requesting her attention. “Gotta go. Talk soon.”

The holoscreen went black and disappeared. I looked at Frank. “All right. How are we going to do this?”

“We’re going to borrow some jumpsuits and use fake name patches that I printed up.”

“You have a 3D printer?” I shook my head. “You don’t need to answer that. Of course you do. And the jumpsuits?”

“We’ll need to get those from requisitions, but I know I guy.”

“Naturally.”

“I’ve already called him. He’s sending someone with them?—”

Frank’s door chimed. He glanced in that direction. “That must be Sully.” He got up and answered the door. I heard a little conversation but nothing much. He returned with two tan jumpsuits and two toolbelts, complete with attached tools.

Not more than ten minutes later, we were wearing them. I’d had to cuff the ankles and wrists on mine, but otherwise, we looked like Athos systems crew. My name patch said Turner. His said Walsh.

With the toolbelt around my hips, I was really getting into the role. I’d even taken off my signature scarf, leaving it with my clothes. Instead, when I’d changed in the bathroom, I’d pulled my hair back into a low, more work-appropriate knot at the base of my neck.

I’d come out to find him holding a piece of equipment that looked like a cross between a Geiger counter and a radar gun. I nodded at it. “Let me guess: That has the nebulite energy signature-sensing software in it?”

“It does. A slightly intensified version. I want to try it on your pendant, get a feel for how close we’ll need to be.”

Which explained why he’d asked me to bring it. “Smart.” I unzipped my jumpsuit a few inches so he could see the necklace. “I have it on.”

“Just a second.” He adjusted a few of the settings, then aimed the machine at me. A dull beeping started immediately. We were about five feet apart. He backed up, motioning for me to do the same. The beeping kept up but weakened when we were about fifteen feet away from each other. At twenty feet, it stopped.

“Okay,” Frank said. “Decent range.” He hooked the device to his toolbelt. “We just need one more thing to give us that official look.”

He picked up his tablet and handed it to me. “I’ve uploaded a document with the official Athos header on it. It’s a list of the quarters we need to visit, in case anyone looks at it. Tap the screen to wake it, and you’ll see.”

I zipped my jumpsuit back up to hide the necklace before I tapped the screen. Sure enough, a very official-looking document appeared with some small print and a list of the locations most likely to have the Star.

I grinned. “Let’s get to work.”