was duplicated on my screen. We were headed for Andromeda Prime and we were about twenty minutes deep in the gate queue. Persistence lifted off with a rumble.
“How did you intercept my messages to Guskov?” Ian asked.
“Skill.”
When I didn’t say anything else, Ian laughed and tilted his head. “Touché.”
“Why did you decide to accept my help?”
“I’ve told you all along that I will do everything in my power to get Lord Ferdinand back, and it will be easier for you to infiltrate the party with me playing bodyguard than it would be for me to show up alone. If you’ve dealt with Silva before, they’ll be more likely to hear you out.”
“Does the House have a spare ship on Andromeda Prime? I’d rather not take a starliner to CCD Six if we can avoid it.”
“I’ve arranged for a fresh House ship. The starliner route shut down a couple of years ago—too many losses and not enough profit. A few mercenary squads based on CCD Six offer passage on their ships, but the timing is irregular.”
“So once we’re there, we leave on our own ship or we’re stuck for however long it takes for a merc crew to leave?”
“Yes. I’ve called in a security team to keep an eye on the ship while we’re on-planet.”
“Is that wise? Won’t word get back to Father that you’re conspiring with the enemy?”
“I trust my people,” Ian said.
I filed that tidbit away. It was good that the director of security engendered trust, right up until that trust became loyalty to him instead of to House von Hasenberg.
The signals weren’t as bad here, so I monitored the messages being sent from the ship. I sucked in a breath as pain stabbed through my head. I pulled back and tried again.
“Are you okay?” Ian asked.
“Just a headache,” I murmured. Ian was sending a flurry of messages. I did my best to keep up with them. Some went to contacts I didn’t know, setting details for the meet in Honorius.
I caught a message to Father and read it with trepidation. Ian admitted to capturing me, but before my rage could ignite, he also said I had time-sensitive information about Ferdinand that must be followed up immediately. And since he didn’t think I would make my own way home, he was taking me with him. He told Albrecht not to expect an update for a week, as we would be in deep cover.
I’m sure Father would be apoplectic when he received that message, and I smiled in spite of myself. I would’ve preferred that Father didn’t know how easily I’d been caught, but Ian had probably already told him that he was on the way to pick me up.
The rest of the messages were innocuous, so I stopped focusing and let them become background noise. I was getting better at tuning them out, but I still had a long way to go, as my throbbing head demonstrated.
While we waited for the jump, I used my com to open an encrypted connection to a secure server. I had no doubt Ian was monitoring all of the traffic that passed through the ship. The secure tunnel would slow him down, but it wasn’t foolproof. I’d need a few more layers of protection that would take some additional time before I could safely connect to HIVE or check my digital drop boxes. I added it to the mental list of things to do before I slept.
I posted a message in our sibling channel, outlining in oblique terms what had happened in the last day and what I knew so far. Ada had reported that she and the others were still digging, but had not made any real progress. Hopefully, with a little more direction, they’d have better luck.
With that in mind, I sent a separate message to Ada, Rhys, and Veronica, asking them to look into the Syndicate party in Matavara, especially anyone who might have an inside line on an invitation. I hadn’t been entirely lying when I told Ian I could get an invite—I knew of a few possibilities. But I’d take a sure thing over possibilities any day.
We made it to the front of the gate queue and smoothly jumped to Andromeda Prime. The planet glowed a distinctive red and blue on the forward video screens—it definitely was not Earth. Still . . .
“Open the shutters, please,” I said.
Ian glanced at me in confusion, then his mouth tightened in anger. “The video isn’t doctored.”