Marit and Laramie to the middle of nowhere and made Ginn and Spence wanted criminals. And now Dusty and her entire entourage were banking on him too. What if the ship wasn’t even there? Then what?
His protective headphones crackled with static. “Denver.” He could tell by the tension in Marit’s voice that something was wrong. “I need you up here.”
“What’s happening?”
“Fucking trouble is what’s happening. We’re being hailed.”
Denver pushed to his feet. “Which of the escapists is it?” Maybe more people wanting to surrender. Or maybe someone’s ship was breaking down. That comber had looked rough from the get-go, there was no telling how long it had before—
“Not an escapist, Denver. It’s Tonlet.”
Of all the names he’d anticipating, that one was nowhere near the top of the list. “What the hell? Are you sure?”
“I know the Zenith’s call sign when I hear it, and there’s no mistaking this smarmy bastard’s voice. He wants to talk to you.”
“I’m on my way.” Denver gathered up his tools, hunting fruitlessly for one of his socket wrenches until OPAL dug it out from behind a pipe and handed it over.
“I find I was wrong in my earlier assessment,” she informed him. “It appears that you are very unlucky indeed.”
As if Denver didn’t already know that.
Denver debated the odds of running into Tonlet in the back ass end of nowhere as he made his way to the cockpit. As far as they knew, the Zenith hadn’t been at Titan X at any point during the Jiminy’s brief stay there, so chances of Tonlet having followed them from port seemed slim.
Spence started to stand when Denver entered the cockpit, apparently to cede his seat to him, but Denver gestured for him to stay put. He had too much nervous energy to sit anyway. He chose to stand behind Marit. “So, the bastard found us again?”
“Don’t ask me how,” Marit replied without turning away from the console. “It makes no sense.”
Denver considered the interference he’d been trying to track down in the engine room, a sudden suspicion nagging at the back of his brain. For years now, no matter where the Jiminy went, Tonlet always seemed to find them. Time after time, even in the most remote regions of space. He’d turned up right after they’d discovered the pod too, and now here he was again, halfway to the Kuiper Belt.
It couldn’t be coincidence. He’d undoubtedly bribed Poppy to place a small transmitter in their engine when they’d had it rebuilt.
“Where are they?” he asked. “Between us and the Legacy?”
“No. A few hundred thousand kilometers in the direction of Umbriel Crater.”
The comm pinged again. Marit glanced back at him, her eyebrows raised.
“Go ahead,” he told her.
The screen in front of them flared to life, the image dominated by Tonlet’s smug face. Although they’d talked on comms more than Denver would have liked, this was the first time in two or three years he’d seen Tonlet’s face. His jowls had grown heavier, and Denver suspected he was thicker about the waist too. That wasn’t surprising. He had a taste for all things exotic. What was surprising was the streak of gray running through his ample beard. Denver would have expected somebody as vain as Tonlet to dye it.
“Greetings, brother,” Tonlet said, sitting forward in his seat so that his face loomed larger on Denver’s screen. “Fancy meeting you all the way out here in the void.”
“Yeah.” Denver tried to keep his voice neutral, even though every inch of him wanted to squirm. Tonlet had always had that effect on him, ever since their days in the orphanage when the man had pretended to be his and Laramie’s ally. “Odd how that keeps happening, isn’t it?”
Tonlet’s eyes flashed, and he chuckled. “In quite the hurry too. Running from Titan X militia with this hodgepodge group of ships. Why the hell’d they haul a quadrant comber all the way out here? It raises questions, brother.”
Denver resisted the urge to remind Tonlet that they weren’t brothers, shared past or no. But he had no inclination to keep up the pointless banter. “What do you want, Tonlet?”
Tonlet leaned back in his seat, as if he had no cares in the world. “What makes you think I want anything?”
“Because you always do,” Marit growled.
Tonlet barely spared her a glance, which was telling in and of itself. He usually jumped at the chance to irk her. “I’d like to discuss terms.”
“Terms of what?” Denver asked.
“Of your surrender.”
Denver’s heart lurched into double time. “Surrender?” Denver’s