Page 27 of Stolen Fire (N.O.A.H (Nostradamus Outerspace Advancement of Humanity) #2)

Years of discipline allowed Cifer to calmly make his way to Master Corvus.

His heart demanded he leave the negotiation table and follow Blaize.

If it hadn’t been for the children, he would have.

But his brain ruled his body, and he had loaded the weapon that was Master.

It would be far too dangerous to leave him cocked without verifying the direction he was pointed.

“Master.” Cifer stood in front of the table.

“Sit.” The old pirate’s steely glare combined with the threat of his flanking bodyguards had Cifer pulling out the single empty chair and fitting himself onto the edge of it.

Silence filled the table for an uncomfortably extended period.

Corvus rolled his eyes. “Lose the disguise.”

Cifer glanced around. The shadows would conceal his transformation from any casual observers. He slowly morphed into the coppery-skinned humanoid he most commonly adopted.

“I know what you really look like.” The scowl on Corvus’s face didn’t have the effect on Cifer he might have hoped. Cifer had seen it too often.

The bodyguards shifted in their seats.

“The games you play are tedious. Besides, I taught you everything you know.”

Cifer shrugged. They both knew the student had become the master, or Cifer would still be under Corvus’s control.

“Fine. What did you learn?”

Cifer detailed what the Gordinian offered and the fact that Varik had committed to a premium price for the kids. “I’m not letting Varik take those kids off Cassan.”

“Eh. Don’t care. The kids are yours to do with as you wish. I’ll be busy dealing with the Gordinian. How dare he transact business in my establishment without authorization.”

Cifer held back a grin. The gas-bag slaver was well and truly fucked. He just didn’t know it. Yet. So was Varik. Cifer hadn’t missed the micro-reaction to the price Varik had agreed to pay. If he had to guess, Corvus was unhappy to discover that Varik had funds to spend while still owing a debt.

Cifer rose to leave.

“Don’t be a stranger, son,” Corvus spoke to Cifer’s back.

Outside the bar, Cifer pulled out his data pad to check for an update from his spy.

Still no location of the ship Elaya had described. Cifer tapped back a message with the location and name of the ship that would receive the kids. Keep an eye on it, but do not approach.

He checked the time. It was too late to put the next part of his plan in motion. A couple of hours of sleep would serve him better than sitting in the dock outside a locked ship.

Blaize’s head pounded all the way to the galley.

She’d meant to get up earlier, but the alcohol swimming in her veins had made being vertical earlier impossible.

The smell of Dez’s cooking, usually so welcome, had bile rising in her throat.

Puking was not going to make a difficult conversation easier.

She swallowed tightly, forcing everything back down.

Before she went into the galley, she took a couple of deep breaths in through her nose and out through her mouth.

When she felt composed, she plastered a smile on her face and joined Captain Cyra and her mate.

“Blaize. How are you?” Cyra had the relaxed but energized appearance of a satisfied female. Blaize wasn’t jealous at all. Nope, not a bit.

“I’m okay. Stayed out later than I should have.”

“Oh, that explains why Veda isn’t here.” Cyra was speaking to Dez as if they were continuing a previous conversation.

The big bald male nodded without taking his eyes from the food preparation.

“Yeah. So. Um. There was something I saw at the bar that I wanted to talk to you about. It, um, concerns?—”

“What did you see?” Dez placed a plate of food in front of her, and she swallowed hard and then forced herself to smile.

“I saw Varik.”

Cyra and Dez both frowned.

“He was meeting with Cifer. And a Gordinian. I’m not sure who he was.

But I know Cifer is up to no good, and I don’t think we should take him on the ship anywhere.

We don’t know anything about him, and he’s meeting with bad people.

He’s already stowed away, and we don’t know what else he’s done.

” Blaize took a deep breath and put some food on her fork that she would eat. Soon.

“Do you know what the meeting was about?” Dez asked.

“No.”

“Did you ask Cifer about it?” Cyra asked.

“We didn’t have time to talk. He said he’d explain, but what explanation could there be for meeting with Varik?”

“Varik left him on Kolben. Perhaps they were discussing the return of Cifer’s credits.” Dez spoke between bites of food, keeping one eye on Cyra, probably making sure she ate. Dez was a good male. Cyra was so lucky to have such an honorable male to care for her.

“We can’t take him to Hiargus,” Blaize blurted.

“You want to me cancel the contract?” Cyra looked at her sideways and wrinkled her brow. “That could ruin what little reputation we have. As it is, we haven’t secured any other contract besides his. And that contract is very profitable.”

“What does our reputation mean if we transport criminals? Are those the kinds of contracts we want? What if he’s a killer and we’re murdered in our sleep?

What if he kills us just because he wants the ship?

He could be anyone. And he’s using children.

One came to his rooms in the middle of the night, and he just ran off with her without a word. ”

Dez’s eyes were wide when she was finally able to bite her tongue, literally, to stop the word vomit. When she’d felt green in the hallway, she’d had no idea that she was going to spew words instead of stale cocktails. Words she would do anything to erase from the mind of her captain and Dez.

“How do you know he left in the middle of the night with a child?” Dez’s voice made Blaize’s already shaky control evaporate. He was what she thought a father would sound like.

“I might have been at his place.” Blaize pushed the fork around in her food.

“In the middle of the night?”

“Yes, sir.” This was not the conversation she pictured having.

“Tell me about this child.”

“Her name’s Elaya. She used to be in the engineering academy at the orphanage that houses the pubescent females.

I volunteer there.” She looked up at Dez, hoping his expression had changed from stern parent.

It hadn’t. “Anyway, she—Elaya—left the program recently. She wasn’t doing well, chafing under the rules according to the director, and really, they can’t keep them against their will after a certain age.

They have to want to be there. But there is such limited space, and the program has so much potential. I can’t understand?—”

“Blaize.”

Babbling again. It was one of her worst habits.

“I recognized her voice before Cifer left. Without a word.”

“You were intimate?” Dez asked.

Did she have to answer that? The heat flooding her system meant that she was turning red. She wouldn’t even have to answer. He’d know.

“Yes.” More breath than sound came out of her mouth. She stared at the floor.

“He just walked out without a word?” Cyra put her arm around Blaize.

Blaize nodded.

“Did he apologize or try to explain when he came back?”

Blaize looked up at Cyra’s ocean eyes. “I got locked out. Varik came to his door, and when I opened it, he yanked me out. I got away from the asshole. I thought Cifer would come looking for me. Instead, I found him at the bar with Varik.”

Dez sipped his caffeine before speaking. “I will speak with him. You don’t have to be around him if you prefer. We can make modifications to the schedules.”

“Is there no way you can cancel the contract? He’s hanging out with Varik.”

Cyra and Dez shared a wordless conversation. Then Cyra delivered their decision. “As much as it pains me to see you upset, I can’t cancel a contract over a bad love affair. I wouldn’t put it past Varik to create the illusion of an association to disrupt us.”

“You weren’t there.” Blaize drew a breath to continue her argument, but Dez held out his hand and stopped her.

“Let me finish,” Cyra said. “I know you believe he is doing criminal things, but we have no proof. Everything we’ve observed personally, beyond him stowing away, has been beneficial to the ship and the crew.

I know a difficult personal relationship can color your opinion, but I have to do what’s best for our business.

He’s already paid for transport to and from Hiargus in full.

We have no valid reason to terminate the contract. ”

The conversation was over. Blaize could either quit or be trapped on the ship with Cifer for galactic months.

“Hiargus is a long journey. We’re making at least two stops before we get there,” Dez said.

Blaize looked at the captain.

Cyra scooped a forkful of her meal and made an obvious point of filling her mouth.

“What does that have to do with transporting him?”

He smiled. “It will give us time to assess his true purpose and provide two opportunities to turn him over to the authorities if he proves to be the criminal you believe he is.”

The rest of the meal passed in silence and settled in Blaize’s stomach like a greasy brick.

Dez paused at the door. “By the way, we’ve had Bodi investigating Cifer’s past. She’s found nothing.”

“So he’s a smart criminal,” Blaize said under her breath, but Dez and Cyra had already left.

She tidied the remnants of her meal and stomped back to her quarters.

She could use a long shower before she started on the preflight checklist. It was a full cycle’s worth of work, if she didn’t sleep or eat.

The tasks would keep her mind off a certain shifting criminal who had slithered past her defenses.

In fact, she could do a workshop on ship preparation for the academy.

That would take her mind off his presence.

She could avoid him completely for the entire trip.

He was going to be sleeping in the crew quarters, so it wasn’t like she’d have to walk by his cell every morning.

She barely saw the rest of the crew, other than at meals, except for Veda in her greenhouse.

Dez’s meals would be missed, but she’d been putting on weight with his excellent cuisine.

A couple of months of protein bars and water would do her good.

She let the warm spray wash over her. A plan. Everything looked better when she had a plan.