So why the hell was she so wound up about all of this? Imagining Dek and Talina, bodies locked together under a blanket. The very thought of it tripped her “now-I’m-really-pissed” trigger.

You jealous, bitch?

“Damn straight,” she muttered under her breath.

Better ask yourself why.

Kalico growled to herself, stepped to the door, and prowled down the hall. At the arms locker she grabbed a rifle from the rack, checked the chamber and magazine, and stepped outside into Capella’s bright light. Nodding to Dina Michegan, who stood in armor by the double doors, helmet slung on her belt, rifle at port arms, Kalico added, “Just going to walk the perimeter.”

“You need an escort, ma’am?”

“God no. I’m trying to clear my head with a little exercise.” She slapped her rifle. “If I see some quetzal climbing the fence, he’ll be steaks and leather before you can call the alarm.”

Michegan gave her a grin. “Yes, ma’am. But I think we’ll keep you on telemetry . . . just in case.”

Of course, they would. Only eleven of her original marines remained. They took their job seriously.

As Kalico walked out into Capella’s heat, she asked herself: “So, woman, what does Dek mean to you?”

Back in Solar System, she’d hated the guy. Loathed having to breathe the same air. Derek Taglioni may have been the single most despicable human being she had ever met . . . well, right up until she crossed paths with Dan Wirth. The difference was that Dek didn’t have the excuse of being a psychopath. He’d just been a purposefully hideous human being who had hated himself and everyone around him. Especially Miko, and by extension, Kalico, who was Miko’s lover and subordinate. Foul-mouthed be he drunk or drugged, arrogant, hurtful, and condescending of anyone and everyone, Dek had been an unmitigated slime. Had she the power, she’d have damned him to the most excruciating of fates.

Right up to the moment he’d stepped down from Ashanti’s shuttle carrying what little luggage remained to him. The way he told it—and the records verified—that excruciating fate had landed full upon Taglioni’s shoulders.

The man who’d emerged from Ashanti might have been an entirely different human being hidden away in a Dek Taglioni costume. A man who’d stooped to the most menial of duties in a desperate gamble to stay alive.

Once Kalico got over the shock—managed to separate “the odious beast from Transluna” with the humble man who now presented himself—she’d come to value his company.

At the fence, she glanced back. Saw that Abu Sassi had taken the station at the dome door, and Dina Michegan—Capella’s light gleaming on her armor—was ambling along about twenty meters back. The woman was glancing this way and that, as if out for a sauntering stroll, admiring the scenery.

Nothing like being obvious.