ivory skin and strawberry blond hair pulled up in a ponytail that reached past her shoulders. She was lithe, with the kind of supple strength that was easy to underestimate.
Ian clapped both of them on the back with a smile. “Thanks for coming,” he said quietly.
“Of course,” the woman said. The man nodded.
Ian turned to me. “Bianca, meet Alexander and Aoife.” He pronounced the woman’s name EE-fa, and he did it carefully enough that I knew it wasn’t a mispronunciation of Eva.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said. Neither of them echoed the greeting, and they both stared coldly at me. Okay, then.
Clearly these two were not House von Hasenberg employees, which begged the question of where Ian had dug them up. I made a mental note to look into it, though Ian had been careful not to include their surnames.
Ian shot the two a warning look. A wealth of silent communication passed between the three of them as they all ignored me. I told myself it didn’t matter, but being excluded still stung, just a little.
I sank into my public persona as I looked around the cargo hold and pretended indifference. The cargo had been moved from Persistence, and an additional crate of supplies had been added. I moved toward the new supplies, but Ian cut me off. “We need to get in the air,” he said.
“I’m not stopping you,” I said.
“You should be clipped in on the flight deck in case we run into trouble after we jump to CCD Six.”
“You think someone will attack a registered House ship?”
“It’s a possibility. We don’t know what kind of defense the Syndicate has set up.”
“Ian, what’s in the crate?”
“Supplies.”
“So you won’t mind if I take a look?”
The muscle in his jaw flexed, but he ground out, “Not if you think it’s worth the delay.”
“You do realize it would be far faster if you just told me?”
Aoife and Alexander watched us with sharp eyes. They didn’t have the body language to indicate they were a couple, but they were comfortable with each other. They’d worked together for a long time.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Aoife said. “It’s a crate full of von Hasenberg prototype technology. Combat armor, weapons, et cetera.”
I raised an eyebrow at Ian. “There, was that so hard?”
“Aoife, get us in the air,” Ian growled.
She gave him an insolent salute and turned for the stairs. Alexander cast a suspicious look my way before following her, leaving me alone with Ian in the cargo bay.
“Nice crew,” I said.
“They’ll keep the ship safe and their mouths shut. And if things go poorly in Matavara, they’ll get us out.”
“Fair enough. Are the supplies for them, then? Because you know the Syndicate won’t let you within two kilometers of the party with prototype weapons and armor.”
Ian started up the stairs and I followed. “We don’t know where Ferdinand is being held or what condition he is in. If you fail to purchase him, we’ll have to break him out. That’s why Alex and Aoife are really here.”
“You think you can infiltrate a Syndicate compound with four people?”
“Three,” Ian said sharply.
Anger flared through the ice of my facade. “Oh, so you can defeat Silva security? Maybe Alexander or Aoife is a secret security specialist? No? Because I am. I’m one of the best systems crackers in the universe. That’s why I run circles around your security protocols and why House von Hasenberg has never been hacked.”
It was also one of the reasons Father was desperate to have me back, but Ian didn’t need any more reasons to send me home.
Ian spun around to face me. He was a step higher, so he towered over me, an advantage he used to great effect. “Can your precious security protocols prevent you from taking a blaster bolt to the brain? Taking you on a rescue mission into Silva’s compound would be like leading a lamb to slaughter. If it comes to that, you stay on the ship.”
Bright, furious rage turned the world red. “When you get caught, and you will get caught, I am going to make you beg on your knees before I get you out.”
“Dream whatever fantasy you want, love. I will protect you even from yourself, so stay out of my way and let me do my job.”
I’d never before been so tempted to punch a man in the balls as I was right now. I uncurled my fist, one finger at a time, and tucked the rage away, until I was outwardly as