“It might be useful to be able to keep track of what’s going on.”
“I’m sure there’s a way to get it to store the frequency, but I don’t know how right now.”
“Okay, we’ll just have to find it again.”
She had gotten the frequency for the comm unit on the Trakis Two from one of the engineering books on the fleet—it had the frequencies for all the ships, and she sat chewing on her lower lip. It was totally different from the local frequencies, and she suspected she wouldn’t get there by just turning the dial. She had to somehow flick the machine to a different level. She studied the console. Tapping the button had seemed to move between big areas of frequencies. The dial then narrowed it down. She tapped the button, then ran her finger around the dial. Nothing. Not even any crackle. She tapped again. Same thing. The third time, though, she heard the faint crackle of static. She turned her finger very slowly around the dial and the crackle got louder, then cleared.
“This is the Trakis Seven, we are receiving you. Go ahead.”
She looked up at Milo, and he shook his head, clearly he didn’t want to talk to the Trakis Seven.
“Hello, can you identify yourself?”
She turned the dial again and the voice faded. Her finger moved around.
“This is the Trakis Ten, we are receiving you. Go ahead.”
She thought for a moment, then waved a hand to her ereader. “Can you pass me that?” she asked.
Dylan handed it to her, and she swiped through the pages. She’d highlighted where the frequencies were and she looked up the other ships, comparing them to the Trakis Two.
She grinned, then reached out and turned her finger the other way. She moved quite quickly, until a red light flashed on the console, and she stopped. Then started slowly turning back the opposite way.
“Trakis Two here and this better be fucking important.”
She’d got it. She was good. She tapped the button next to the screen and it lit up. She blinked a couple of times. A man appeared. Black hair pulled into a ponytail, olive skin, and eyes so dark brown they were almost black. He was stunning.
“Who the hell are you?” he asked.
“I’m Destiny.”
He raised a brow. “Of course you are.”
Milo gave her a nudge and she stood up and moved to the side so he could sit down. Dylan gave her a thumbs-up and a grin. “You are good, baby.”
“Is that Rico?” She mouthed the words, not wanting him to hear, and Dylan gave a quick nod then turned his attention to the screen.
“Milo, where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to contact the shuttle and nothing.”
“That’s because the shuttle is no more.”
“What the hell? That bastard…”
“What happened?” Milo asked.
Rico’s eyes had gone cold, his face turned to stone, and a shiver ran through her. There was something seriously scary about Milo’s uncle. Milo had said he wasn’t a demon. Destiny wasn’t sure she believed him.
“Luther Kinross contacted me twenty-four hours ago. He wanted me to hand over the release codes for the Trakis Two. I told him to go fuck himself.”
“What are the release codes?” Milo asked.
“They give access to all the primary systems on the ship,” Destiny said. “I read about them. If he has the codes, he can control anything from the life support systems to the cryotubes.”
“Yeah,” Rico growled. “He gave me a long talk about how he knew there was something off on my ship. How I wasn’t one of the captains, and I could fall in line or he’d make sure the whole fleet knew about it.”
“And what did you tell him?” Milo asked.
“Mierda! What do you think I told the fucker? That he could go fuck himself twice. He told me he’d be sending me a message. I guess this is it.”
“Christ, he nearly killed me. Some message.”
At the memory, Destiny rested her hand on his shoulder and squeezed.
Rico just grinned. “I wouldn’t have sent you if I didn’t think you could look after yourself.”
“I’m guessing he set motion sensors. The shuttle exploded five minutes after I entered. He wanted one or both of us dead.”
“And they blew up the whiskey,” Dylan said.
“Bastards. Well, I’m glad you didn’t give the fucker what he wanted. Now tell me what’s going on down there. How much shit have you gotten us into?”
“A lot of shit,” Milo said. “Kinross had this all set up. He couldn’t have known the Trakis One would be destroyed,