His brows drew together in irritation. “They don’t need my help. You said it yourself, sweetheart. Omnistellar knows where you are, and they’re on their way. They don’t pay for information they already have.”

Right. Exhaustion catching up with me. I heaved a sigh between clenched teeth. “Then what the hell are you doing?”

He hesitated, then shrugged. “I’ve intercepted some of their comms. They really wanted that alien tech.”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you think I mean? Omnistellar’s lagging. Mars Mining is up-and-coming with the dome technology. Omnistellar is the unquestioned king of the prison yard, but that’s not enough to keep them on top of the pile forever. They need new technology. New advancements. They want to focus on their interstellar travel arm, keep advancing. The alien ship provided a golden opportunity to do exactly that, reverse engineer the thing until they had a way to travel beyond our solar system. Do you know what it would be worth? Controlling that kind of technology? Being the first corp to travel beyond Jupiter?”

I did know. And I understood that Omnistellar didn’t exactly have humanity’s best interests at heart. I wanted to question Liam, demand more information. As if reading my mind, he held up his hands. “That’s all I’ve got. They didn’t exactly send me a briefing. Everything I learned is from intercepted comms. I’ll tell you this much, though: they were banking on that alien ship. They aren’t happy it got blown up, and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to get it back.”

I shook my head. “They can’t. We destroyed it. Right?”

“Whatever it takes,” he repeated, staring right at me with those strange piercing eyes. He drew the words out slowly, and I got the sense he was saying something I wasn’t getting.

We gaped at each other a moment longer before it sank in. We had destroyed the alien ship. There was nothing left of it, or at least not enough to salvage. The only way to get their hands on alien tech was to find a way to summon the rest of the creatures. “Oh my God,” I choked. “They couldn’t be that stupid.”

“That’s not a humble company you work for.”

“I don’t work for them,” I corrected automatically, surprised at my vehemence. Omnistellar was my entire being for so long. Now the very thought of them filled me with blind rage. “They don’t really think they can take on the aliens, do they?”

“They think they have a good chance, yes. But first they need you. They need intelligence. They need information. And from there, they think they can summon the creatures, defeat them, and take their tech.”