It was the answer I’d expected, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear. I sighed. “Come find me once your workout is done. I want to talk about the kidnappers themselves—what you know, what you don’t, that kind of thing.”

“I’m finished. I’ll meet you in my office after I get cleaned up.”

I would not think about him in the shower, I would not think about him in the . . . dammit. I jerked my eyes away from his chest and nodded. “Sounds good. I’m going to go check on Kee, then I’ll meet you there.”

I left the gym before I got myself in trouble.

The workshop was closer to the house than I’d thought—the trip had seemed longer in the dark. I stepped inside the warm interior. Two pairs of legs stuck out from under the stolen transport, and Nilo crouched beside them, looking under the vehicle. One pair of legs was obviously Kee’s, and the others likely belonged to Varro.

“Yes, right there,” Kee murmured, her voice coaxing. “Just like that.”

I chuckled to myself. I’d heard Kee talk to her electronics before. That, plus the fact that the two sets of legs were fairly far apart, made me pretty sure that I wasn’t interrupting anything private.

“Have you found something?” I asked.

Nilo turned to me without a hint of surprise. He’d likely known I was here since I’d stepped in the door. He was dressed from head to toe in unrelenting black, but he made it look chic. He glanced over my shoulder, but his mask didn’t reveal any of his feelings when it became clear that I was the only one here.

“This damn machine tried to lock me out,” Kee said, outrage in her voice. “Me! As if I’m going to let that happen.”

I crouched down next to Nilo and peered under the transport. Kee and Varro were on their backs, their arms in the transport’s guts. They both had on the long-sleeved shirts and sturdy pants that had become the unofficial uniform on Starlight. Varro held a light with one hand while the other braced a part that was half out of the undercarriage. Kee fiddled with something on the part, a slate on her chest.

She concentrated for a second, a scowl on her face, then with a final wiggle, she made a sound of victory. “If you won’t come to me, I’ll come to you,” she said, easing a small flat box out of the part that Varro still held.

“Tavi, grab this, would you?” She lifted her head so she could see me. “Don’t drop it.”

She handed the little box over as if it were a baby bird, and I cradled it just as gently.