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“Kez,” I say, slow and deep to pull her back a little. “Hex is in there.” I tip my head at the containers, which the techs have stopped loading while they watch our little drama.

Kez’s eyes flick to the containers, then back to me. “Hex dissolves.”

“B’s evidently got a degree in chemistry.”

Kez hisses through her teeth. She turns to Payton, and as she does, Erin shifts and begins to rise. Kez swings back to her sister and pins her to the floor with a blue glare no less deadly than Erin’s. “Don’t you move or I swear to God I’ll break your neck the way I should have when we were kids.”

Erin snorts but settles back onto her elbows. She’d look in control except for the way her nose is beginning to swell.

“Any records of which containers are tainted?” Kez asks Payton. Payton pulls out her palmtop and taps rapidly. After a moment, she shakes her head.

“They must be able to tell somehow,” Kez says, and I can hear her grinding her teeth in frustration.

“It could be anything. Quality. Destination. Distributor. I’m sorry, I have no way of knowing,” Payton responds.

“What’re the losses if we dump the whole shipment?” Kez asks.

A couple of the techs gasp, but no one volunteers to be her next target.

“That’s a tenday supply to the Clouds,” Erin remarks from the floor.

“When I ask you a question, you’ll know,” Kez snaps at her. “Payton?”

“Fourteen point four million,” Payton says.

Kez runs her hands through her hair. She knows we can’t dump the shipment. Not without a whole lot of people who depend on her and haven’t done anything wrong losing their jobs.

Kez turns to me and the anguish in those big blues is something I’d do anything to end. “Kitten,” I say.

“Can we catch it on the other end?” she asks me.

We can try. I nod.

She turns to the clustered, whispering techs. “Finish loading. I want to see the manifest when you’re done. Every goddamn drop.”

One of them, a foreman by his uniform, nods. “Yes, Miz Kerryon.”

“Well, if that’s settled, can I get up off this really rather filthy floor?” Erin asks.

I grab the back of her unisuit with my good hand and haul her up. “We ain’t done—” I begin to growl at her.

It’s Payton who finishes my sentence, coming to stand in front of Erin and stare up at her with a flat, black glare. “Not by a long shot,” Payton says.

“What’s got your panties in a knot, clone?” Erin purrs.

“You killed my family,” Payton says.

Erin scoffs. “Your jailor and your fellow slaves? You should thank me.”

Payton pats the Xec case on her hip. “Oh, I will.” She turns away and says to Kez, “What can I do to assist you now?”

“There’s got to be a way to figure out which containers have the Hex in them,” Kez says. I can tell by her distracted tone that she’s wracking her brains for the answer.

“Can I suggest we retire to Operations?” Payton says. “We can compare recent shipments to previous shipments and see if there is some variation.”

“Or we can squeeze this one and B until one of them squeals,” I suggest, giving Erin a shake before setting her on her feet.

“Or that,” Payton agrees.

Mech Tyng takes it as a given that she’s leading us back to Ops. Like I couldn’t find my own way. When she scoots back against the consoles but doesn’t leave after I line Erin up on the floor next to B, I tip my head at her. “Don’t you got somewhere else to be?” I ask.

“Sawhet has a direct uplink to Mother Jo,” Payton says. “She could be useful.”

Mech Tyng offers me a small smile, which I return.

Kez and Payton move to the consoles and begin tapping, trying to figure out what’s different about the thirty million liters upstairs. I trade nods with Acker, who is leaning against the window-wall, looking out over the Hex plant.

“It would be impressive, if I didn’t know the nature of what is produced,” Acker says.

“Yeah. You never tried a taste?”

Acker shakes his head. And something clicks.

“Kez, any of the water headed to the Deeps?” I ask.

Kez lifts her head sharply. “Yes, why? ”

“We buy water like everyone else,” Acker offers.

“More than usual?” I ask Kez.

“Wait. Yes. Not a lot, but there’s more T-White than the last shipment.”

“Payton’s daddy said you’d bow to the pressure sooner or later.

They pulled out the big guns, even bigger than Exeter’s.

” I cast the merc a grin over my shoulder, which he returns without relaxing from his duty stance by the door.

“That was for a reason. To make you cave or kill you off before today’s shipment hit the Deeps. You stockpile T-White?”

Acker nods. “Some. For occasions.”

“Best guess,” I say to Kez.

“I’ll take your guesses any day,” Kez says.

“You trust your grocer?” I ask Acker.

“Today, I trust no one,” Acker says. His dark eyes shift to me. “But I might make an exception for you. We usually receive the water delivery mid-afternoon. If you permit me to contact Match, I will instruct him to reject it all. We can argue about the cost later.”

“I’ll take it outta your bonus,” I say. “You got enough to last your people a couple of days?”

“We have a small reserve, assuming it wasn’t destroyed in the attack.

I’ll have to ask Match. Can you get a replacement shipment to the Clouds tomorrow?

Whatever we have, it is not enough to last until the next normal delivery and buying water from a third-party will be more cost than I can bear right now. ”

I glance at Payton who immediately nods. “I’ll have a replacement delivery to the Deeps tomorrow morning.”

“Where will a rejected delivery go?” Kez asks Payton. “I don’t want anyone getting their hands on it.”

“The old Blue Water plant. We use it as a depot. But it’s not secure.”

“Exeter, you want another contract?” Kez asks, turning to look at the merc .

“Guarding water?” The edges of his mouth twitch. “Dream assignment.”

“Good,” Kez says, without responding to his sarcasm. She’s got a lot on her mind, my kitten. “Acker, if you want a free ride back to the Clouds with your friend there, the bus leaves in six minutes.”

Acker looks surprised but then nods. “Thank you, Lightfoot. Come along, monster, we have a bus to catch.” He nudges B with his foot.

B rocks forward, unbalanced. Maybe his knees really are hurting. “Wait, wait. Surely we can resolve this.”

“We resolved it,” I tell him. “Didn’t you get the memo?”

“No, wait. You can’t mean to send me into a den of—” He glances at Acker and shudders.

“You’ll fit right in,” I reassure him.

“Erin,” B pleads, turning to the woman kneeling beside him, who is watching with disinterest. “Erin. Please.”

“Darling, if I had any say in the situation, I wouldn’t be kneeling on the floor next to you. Have a nice trip.” She makes a little kissing noise with her teeth. “Try not to get bitten. I hear Rabies-E is hard to cure.”

Acker leans down and snaps his teeth a centimeter from Erin’s swollen nose. “If I discover you had anything to do with the attacks on my people, I’ll be back for you. And you will find out personally.”

Erin winks at him. “Something to look forward to.”

Payton hands Acker a corporate eskey and a sheet of flimsy before he’s out the door with Mech Tyng. “You’ll be able to contact your people as soon as you’re clear of the Cloudline,” she tells him.

“Thank you.” He lifts his eyes and looks at me. “And you, my friend.”

I nod. “I’ll see you soon.”

The door snicks closed behind him. After watching him go, Erin makes a show of checking her wrist, which is bare, before she says, “Well, Kezzy, if we’re going to make our departure window, we’d better get going. ”

Kez swings around from the console to stare at Erin. “What are you talking about?”

Erin wets her lips with a red tongue that should be forked. “Our shipment today includes more than Hex. You need to be on that boat, too.”

Kez takes a few steps toward her sister but stays out of reach. Smart kitten. “And why do I need to be on that ship?”

“Because I’m a woman of my word,” Erin says. “And I promised my contact on the Clouds a sweetener.”

I feel the bottom drop of out of my stomach.

The Hex ain’t the sweetener.

Kez is.

“Jaxon,” Kez says flatly.

“Is that his name?” Erin shrugs. “I didn’t ask. All I know is that he and I share a certain, mmm, interest in your welfare. Now, tick-tock. Boat’s leaving.”

“You are out of your head if you think I’m going anywhere with you,” Kez responds, a second before I growl, “No.”

Erin’s smile gets wider, sharper. “Oh, Kezzy, I hoped you’d feel that way.

I hate it when a good plan goes to waste, and so much planning has gone into this.

” She stretches and climbs to her feet. That makes her the target of Exeter’s big gun.

She ignores both the gun and the merc. “If you and I aren’t on that boat, then Ape and that pregnant Hexhead, and your oversized rodents, and everything else you care about in that reeking pit you’ve turned Granna’s house into are going to burn. Now, tell me again, how crazy am I?”

Kez goes pale and reaches out for me. I’m there before she staggers. Catch her and tuck her tight against my good side. “Kitten, it’s an empty threat,” I say to her.

“Is it, Halemano?” Erin purrs. “I mean, you keep hiring Sabadeen, so there must be something to their services.”

Fuck. Burning down the Warren was one of the options Mike-the-Merc gave to Old Man Tyng as a way to break Kez. I didn’t doubt he’d do it then. If Halemano Hauser gives him the order, I don’t doubt he’ll do it now.

I glance at Exeter. He’s already got his hand cupped over his ear and is murmuring frantically into his wrist. He meets my eyes and shakes his head.

Erin gives me a lazy grin. “Time’s a-wasting.”

“I’ll go,” Kez whispers to me.

“No.” I turn to Erin. “Take me instead.”

The überbitch rolls her eyes. “Sorry, darling, you have nothing I need.”

Kez shifts in my arms and looks up at me. “Please. Be there at the other end.”

I squeeze my eyes shut for a second, trying to think of any way I can keep her from getting on that ship.

Anything I can say. She promised me she’d never put her ass on the line for her brother again.

I could throw that at her. But this is more than her brother.

This is everything she loves and making her choose between them and me is just another way of breaking her.

I promised I wouldn’t let Tyng break her.

“I will, kitten.”

Erin rolls her eyes. “Sure you will, Manny. See you there.” She takes Kez’s arm. “Come on, sis. We don’t want to be late.”

I don’t release Kez, but when Erin tugs her towards the door, we move together.

Up through the lobby, across the wind-whipped dock, out to the waiting ship, where I finally let Kez go.

She walks up the ship’s vibrating ramp without a backwards glance, with Erin’s claws sunk deep in her arm.

It’s only when the ship’s ramp begins to fold closed that Kez looks back at me. I see the flash of her blue eyes.

Then my fierce, frightened kitten is gone.

I turn to Exeter, who is standing a step behind me on the dock with Payton and Mech Tyng. “Can we beat them back to the Clouds?” I ask, forcing the words out between my teeth. My jaw’s locked tighter than my gut .

“I’m trying to get clearance, bear with me,” he says, before dropping his voice to murmur into his comm again.

Payton puts a hand on my arm. “Mister Snow, please, think for a moment.”

“What?”

“I know ... I know you must be upset.” She don’t know the half of it.

“But please hear me out. Even if you can get clearance through the Cloudline on such short notice, we don’t know where that ship is going.

It could dock in Tiv. It could dock anywhere.

There are hundreds of commercial ships in and out of the Clouds every day. It will be difficult to find.”

I grunt. I was planning on following the ship in the merc’s Red Shift, if Exeter can get clearance fast enough, but a bowship might be able to outpace the merc’s craft. “Yeah, and?”

“I’ll admit I don’t know Miz Agosante as well as you do?—”

I shake my head. “I don’t know her at all.”

I had no idea she hated Kez enough to hand her over to Jaxon.

“I know enough of her to know that this is not her end-game. One shipment of Hex? Getting whatever twisted revenge she thinks she’s getting by turning Miz Kerryon over to Mister Mereia? That’s not what she’s after. Whatever she’s doing, there’s more to it than this.”

Makes sense. “Agreed.”

Payton lets out a breath she’s been holding. “Chasing them to the Clouds is futile. The answers are in Hemos. In Xec Office C.”

“You heard that,” I say.

Payton nods. “And I know who they detained.”

“Who?”

“Myhre Hata.”