Rico watching, and the excitement was immediately replaced by abject fear. Strange. Very strange. But Rico didn’t have time to ponder the young boy right now.
“That was great,” Daisy said. “Can we do it again?”
Rico grinned. He clicked open his harness and crossed to where Skylar leaned against the wall. “You okay?”
Her eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to answer just as Tannis strode onto the bridge, radiating raw fury, her head bleeding from a small scalp wound.
Another one who couldn’t follow orders.
“Do you want to tell me what the fuck is going on?” Tannis snapped.
“We had someone on our tail.”
“Who?”
“That space cruiser that we bumped into the other day.”
“I’m not getting this. Did they attack?”
“Not quite.”
Beside him, Skylar snorted. “This big, stupid, brain-dead, blood-sucking idiot thought we’d attack first.”
“All-dead, actually,” he inserted cheerfully.
Tannis frowned. She reached up and rubbed at the blood trickling down her forehead. Rico followed the movement. Danger always whetted his appetite, and he had to rein in his hunger.
“I don’t understand.” Tannis shook her head. “You attacked that space cruiser?” Her voice rose with each word. “The space cruiser that’s bigger than us, faster than us, with ten times more firepower?”
“I wanted to know if they would finish us off. And the answer is no. Whatever they’re after, they don’t want us dead.”
Tannis didn’t look impressed with his explanation. “And what if they had wanted us dead? Then, guess what—we’d be dead!”
“But they didn’t.”
She gritted her teeth and made a visible effort to bring herself under control, then spoke into the comm unit. “Trog, what’s the damage?” She listened for a moment. “Hey, don’t shout at me. I’m not the one who nearly blew up your engines.” She turned back to Rico. “The cooling system is fucked. I suggest you get down there and fix it.”
Rico took one last look at her fixed expression and decided the cooling system sounded like a good place to be. Besides, he needed time to think.
. . .
Skylar watched him go.
What the hell had that been about? Her hands shook, and she knew it wasn’t just the physical shock.
How had he known the ship was tailing them?
“Have you got anything to say?”
The question cut into her thoughts. Tannis looked pissed. And who could blame her? She had a madman flying her ship. It hadn’t occurred to Skylar when she’d done the computations for this mission to factor in that the pilot was a complete suicidal idiot.
Or was he?
She couldn’t get away from the nagging doubt that Rico knew more than he was letting on. But that couldn’t be the case. Otherwise, why was she still alive?
“Well?” Tannis asked.
Skylar frowned. She’d already forgotten the question. “I think I need to go lie down.” Not waiting for an answer, she turned and walked away.
Al caught up with her in the corridor. “Are you all right?”
She nodded.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“No.” She set off again and then stopped. “Where’s the cooling system?”
“Down on the lower level, next to the engine room. Do you want me to show you?”
“Thanks, but I’ll find it.”
She felt Al’s gaze boring into her back all the way along the corridor, until she took the ramp down to the lower levels. She had to find out what Rico knew, whether her mission was compromised.
Shit. She was totally fucked if she had to get out now. No way could she set this up again in the time left. Her first mission, and she had messed it up. She just wasn’t sure how. Maybe Rico had picked up that message she’d sent, but she’d been quick, and the frequency wasn’t something they monitored. And that was days ago, why wait to confront her?
She knew she’d arrived at the cooling room from the billows of steam wafting under the black door. She pressed her hand on the door panel. Nothing happened. It figured she wouldn’t be cleared to go anywhere on the ship. For a moment, she considered turning back, but she needed to know. She tapped her hand on the door. Still nothing. Drawing her laser pistol, she hammered on the metal with the butt.
The door glided open. Rico stood in the opening. “Skylar, what a nice surprise.” He glanced down at the pistol still clutched in her hand. “Planning on shooting somebody?”
She was tempted. Maybe she could shoot him, toss the body off the ship, and no one would be the wiser. She was almost certain he hadn’t shared whatever it was he thought he knew.
Could