With each advance, I probed ahead, making sure the vent didn’t suddenly drop into nothingness. I groped along the walls on either side, too, dreading the moment I’d find a branch and have to make another choice. None came, though. A new terror enveloped me: the inevitable dead end. There was no way to turn around in the close quarters, the walls brushing my arms, the roof against my head. I’d have to crawl all the way backward.

Sweat dripped from my forehead. How much time had passed? Long enough for Cage to worry? Long enough for him to follow me? He wouldn’t be that dumb, would he?

Yes. Yes, he would. I stifled a curse and redoubled my efforts, my fingers sweat-slick against metal.

I rounded another corner and blinked against sudden light. Relief surged in my chest as I pulled myself forward, my bruised knees and elbows banging against the walls. A grate loomed in front of me. I threaded my fingers through it and shoved with all my might.

It didn’t budge.

Of course it didn’t. “Hey!” I shouted, throwing caution to the wind. I rattled the grate as hard as I could, metal clanging in echoing reverberations. “Hey!”

A face appeared in front of me—an all-too-familiar face, one I was coming to hate. “You!” I shouted.

“You,” Liam groaned in response, leaning against the wall to glare at me through the grate. He was wearing a white cloak over his pirate garb. “Why won’t you leave me alone?”

“Why won’t I . . . ?” My brain short-circuited for a second. “You stole my comm!”

He grinned, a flash of teeth gone before I’d properly registered it. “Precisely. Fair and square. Now crawl back to your hole, little girl, and—”

I slammed my hand into the grate. Pain reverberated all the way to my elbow, but I got the satisfaction of seeing him jump in surprise. “I’m not going anywhere,” I seethed. “Not without that device.”

He scowled. “Well, then I hope you enjoy your new life in that vent.”

We glared at each other, at an impasse. I craned my neck to see around him, revealing a tiny alcove resembling nothing so much as a maintenance shaft, but he’d clearly converted it to a home, with a crumpled pile of blankets in the corner. A crate with a fluorescent lantern illuminated the space. I couldn’t see more from my position.

I regarded him a moment through the grate. “Nice place you’ve got here,” I said at last, fishing.

He didn’t respond, but his eyes narrowed. Encouraged, I pressed on. “I’m guessing this isn’t exactly an official setup. I’m not sure how rent control works on Obsidian, but this looks pretty off the books.” I raised my eyebrow, as if a thought had occurred to me. “Hey. Maybe I can trade the location of your little hideout for a ride off this station.”

“Damn, you’re an annoying piece of work.”

I grinned in spite of myself. “So I’ve been told.”