I froze at the unexpected question. Of course Ian would’ve heard the rumors. Everyone in Serenity had heard the rumors, but no one had been brave enough to question me to my face. So I gave him the truth rather than a deflection.
“No,” I said softly, “but I didn’t save him, either.”
“Wha—”
“What did Aoife learn about MineCorp while we were in the tank?” I interrupted.
Ian let me change the subject, but not without a look that meant we’d be revisiting this conversation at some point. As far as I was concerned, it would be long after hell froze over.
“Nothing much more than what you already told me. They pick up new ‘employees’ all over the ’verse. There was an accident recently in the Triangulam sector, but the company shut down access before the full extent of the damage could be reported.”
“Any chance Ferdinand was there?”
“No, it happened just before the kidnapping. But it might be a point of leverage we could use.”
Aoife’s voice came over the speaker. “A half dozen Syndicate ships just jumped in, and I’m assuming they’re here for us since they’re not heading toward the planet. They haven’t spotted us yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Where is our next destination?”
“APD Zero,” I said before Ian could give her other orders. “I’ll get us a landing bay in Sedition after we jump. Are you sure the Syndicate ships are searching for us?”
“I’m sure,” she said grimly.
I hadn’t expected Riccardo to keep his promise, but I also hadn’t expected him to try to attack this quickly. “Did they bring in Riccardo’s battle cruiser?”
“No, these are smaller fighters,” she said.
I frowned at Ian. “Why would he assume we were still here? If not for the time we spent in the tank, we’d be long gone already. Jumping ships here is a waste of resources.”
“We falsified our arrival time,” Ian said. “He thinks we can’t jump for another few hours. Jumping in just prior to the party was one of the requirements. Aoife, let us know if anything changes, otherwise we’ll be on the flight deck in a few.”
“Will do,” Aoife agreed, then the speaker clicked off.
“Why APD Zero?” Ian asked.
“MineCorp has a large corporate office there. Their headquarters are on Earth, but that’s too risky even for me, so Sedition was the next best option.” And I could run my suspicions about Ian past my sister in person.
“You can’t hack them remotely?”
“I won’t know until I try. But they are a huge corporation with a lot of dirt to hide and plenty of people who would like to dig it up. I’m sure they have an entire division dedicated to plugging security holes. Physical access will likely be required.”
“And you think you can just waltz in and they’ll let you into their systems?”
“In a word, yes.”
The Syndicate fighters hadn’t found us, but we’d had a couple of near misses while waiting for a jump point from the gate. Imagining Riccardo’s face when he realized we’d escaped brought me a great deal of malicious joy, but now I’d have to watch my back until I could deal with him. The trade-off wasn’t worth it.
“We need a landing location,” Aoife reminded me.
I may or may not have been dozing in the navigator’s chair. It was after midnight Universal Time and today hadn’t exactly been easy. Local time in Sedition was the opposite of Universal, so it was just after noon. At least I wouldn’t have to wake Ada up this time.
I called her com, connecting voice-only.
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Ada said without preamble.
“Hello, Ada, I missed you, too. I need a hangar for a small House ship. Hidden if you have it. I’m in Fortuitous. And Ian is with me.”
“Do you want me to get rid of him?”
“No, we’ve come to an understanding,” I said. “We’ve made some progress and our path led us to Sedition. I’ll fill you in on the ground.”
“Are you running on Universal? Would you rather sleep on the ship or here at Rhys’s?”
“If Rhys has room and doesn’t mind, I’ll do that. We can chat on the way because I’ll need your help while I grab some sleep.”
“And Ian?”
“Hold on.” I pulled the com away from my ear. “Ian, do you want to stay on the ship or join me at Rhys’s?”
“I go where you go,” he said. “These two”—he waved at Alexander and Aoife—“can keep an eye on things here.”