Grigori broke into a broad grin. “Lyosha,” he said, stepping forward to embrace his nephew. Alexei returned the hug one-armed, his right hand remaining deceptively loose at his side, ready for action. Grigori withdrew and held Alexei at arm’s length, examining his face. “Prison has been kind to you, my boy. Perhaps kinder than you deserved, huh?”

He chuckled. Alexei did not. “It seems we find ourselves in need of your assistance,” he said through clenched teeth, as if every word pained him.

“Of course. Of course!” Grigori spread his arms wide, encompassing all of us in a suddenly beatific smile. I drew a step closer to Cage, who slid his hand against the small of my back, and we both moved to shield Rune from his view. “Let me see if I understand the situation. You have all escaped from prison and have Omnistellar on your tails. You staged a second prison break on Mars, then proceeded to blow up a valuable piece of alien technology. And now you have incapacitated the man sent to help you and left him bleeding on the deck of his own ship. Have I summarized the situation?”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Jasper said dryly, “it does sound kind of bad.”

“Sent to help us?” I broke in sharply. “He said he came to destroy the alien ship.”

Grigori brushed that aside. “Of course, of course. I misspoke.” Had he, though? Grigori didn’t strike me as someone who made mistakes. Who the hell was Liam? I believed his story, as far as it went. But that lingering sense of mistrust warned me he hadn’t told us everything.

Cage and I exchanged nervous glances. Grigori’s genial act was somehow almost painful in its duplicitousness. You could read through every friendly glance. He was a man of pure danger, and every muscle in my body sensed it.

All at once, the mask slid away, leaving only malice in its place. Grigori switched to Russian, presumably not aware I understood him. I kept my face carefully blank as he said, “I am happy to help you, Lyosha, on two conditions. One, that you run a small errand, nothing of importance, for me. And two . . .” He nodded in Mia’s direction. “She does not draw another breath on my station.”

The signal is found. The signal alerts.

Awakens.

Unfurling.

Not one. Not the harvesters.

All.

The hunters.

Awake now, they progress.

They proceed.

Awakened.

EIGHTEEN

ALEXEI’S SHOULDERS DREW TOGETHER SO tightly they almost swallowed his spine. He, too, switched to Russian, but Mia clearly sensed trouble: her right hand rested casually on the pistol at the small of her back. “That is not negotiable,” Alexei snarled.

“Your loyalty to the woman who murdered your family is commendable,” Grigori replied coldly.

“She no more murdered them than I did.”

“You admit your role?”

“I said no such thing.”

“The courts were very clear.”