Zeerid took a step closer, angling his body for a strike.

Vrath had to fight down the instinct to shift his own stance to eliminate the off-angle of Zeerid’s approach. Zeerid would recognize it. And Vrath could not afford to kill Zeerid now, not until he used Zeerid to locate the engspice.

“What were you looking at, friend?” Zeerid asked.

“Daddy!” Arra called, but Zeerid’s eyes never left Vrath’s face.

“I was just watching the greenbeaks. I like to feed ’em.” He reached into his pocket and grabbed a handful of the feed pellets he’d purchased from one of the park’s droids.

“Daddy, I want the green ’ice!” Arra said.

Seeing the feeding pellets, Zeerid visibly relaxed, though not entirely. “Of course,” he said. “Sorry, pal.”

“Is that your daughter?” Vrath asked, nodding at Arra.

“Yes,” Zeerid answered, and the hint of a smile curled his lips.

“She seems very happy,” Vrath said. “Have a great day, sir.”

Vrath walked past Zeerid and fell in with the runners, bikers, and other sentients using the park. As he did, he chided himself for taking his eyes off Zeerid. The man clearly had a nose for trouble.

ZEERID TURNED TO WATCH the man walk away. Something about him felt off, but Zeerid could not quite put his finger on it. He’d seemed overly interested in Arra and Nat, and he’d had a coldness to his eyes, despite the stupid grin.

“Daddy! It’s melting!”

Arra steered the chair over to him and he handed over the sweet ice, wiping his hands clean on his jacket.

“Thank you,” she said and took a bite. “Mmm. Deeeeeeelicious!”

He smiled at her, and when he looked back, he could not spot the man anywhere.

“Who was that?” Nat asked when she walked over.

Zeerid absently offered Nat the other sweet ice, still looking in the direction the man had walked. “I don’t know. Nobody.”

Nat must have picked up on Zeerid’s concerns. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he said, and forced a smile. “I’m sure.”

Only he wasn’t.

“I think I’ll walk you both home, okay?”

“Hooray!” Arra said.

“What is it?” Nat asked. She still had not taken the sweet ice.

“Nothing,” he said, not wanting to alarm her. “Can’t I walk my girls to their door?”

“I’m not walking,” Arra said, grinning. “I’m flying.”

ARYN’S RAVEN CAME OUT of hyperspace. She’d left her robes and her regrets back on Alderaan.

“Straight on to Vulta, Tee-six.”

The astromech took over the flying and the Raven knifed through space. Vulta appeared through the canopy, a lone planet circling its star. The sun’s light glinted off the many artificial satellites in orbit and the space traffic moving to and from the planet.

“Ping planetary control with our official Republic credentials,” she said to T6. “Request a pad at the Yinta Lake spaceport.”

The droid whistled an affirmative.