Which was why I didn’t understand his obsessive attraction to Mia, the virtual epitome of selfish aggression. But to each their own, I supposed.

Mia alerted us to her return by jabbing us in the ribs. I jumped and swore softly, glaring in what I thought was her direction. “They’ve got them on their ship,” she said without preamble. “They’re talking about who’s going to stand guard while they go and look for us. I don’t know how these people function. They’ve been arguing forever.”

I shrugged. Bounty hunter interpersonal relationships were neither my specialty nor my concern. “Okay, we wait until some of them leave. Then with a bit of luck we eliminate whoever’s left and free our friends. Simple.”

“Sure, simple. They’ll probably leave the door unlocked for us too.” Mia brushed past me, sending chills down my spine. “Okay, they’re on their way,” she said. “Lie low.”

I turned, although I positioned myself to watch their passage. Four of the hunters stalked past us. I didn’t see the Silver Oni among them, meaning that, by process of elimination, he’d stayed behind to guard the ship.

That was good. He would be armed and well trained, but there were three of us and only one of him. Even if there was somehow a sixth hunter, we held the advantage, at least in numbers. And we had our powers. Against their weapons and training, well . . . I still liked our odds.

We waited until they passed, and the Silver Oni retreated into the ship. All we had to do was get inside without him knowing, incapacitate him, save our friends, and escape before the other bounty hunters returned.

And just maybe, we would finally get a stroke of luck. “If we get on that ship and eliminate the hunter,” I said, “and if we find Cage, I bet Rune can hack the system, no matter what kind of security they have.”

Alexei stared at me in confusion for a moment before his jaw dropped, realization dawning in his eyes. “You’re not suggesting . . . ?”

“Sure. Why not? We need a way off this station. And there’s a perfectly good ship behind that door.”

Mia materialized, something like admiration in her expression. “Well, well, well. Look at Ms. Omnistellar Guard. No qualms about stealing an entire spaceship?”

“From people sent to capture us so they can summon those things back to Earth? No. Definitely not.” And to my surprise, it was true. I didn’t feel even an inkling of guilt at the idea. If it meant protecting humanity from aliens, I wasn’t about to balk at stealing a ship.

Alexei buried his face in his hands like he was in pain, but when he raised his head, he smiled. “All right,” he said. “What the hell? If we’re going to do this, let’s go big.”

Grand theft starship it was.

TWENTY-FOUR