Or the fact that they were carrying the exact suitcases I’d found hidden in the parking garage last night.

The nine soldiers loaded into the transport. Their disguises were clever. If the transport was stopped, they just looked like tourists or businesspeople going about their day.

Eli held up a finger, telling me to wait, as he sped up the footage. People and transports sped by at an accelerated rate, but the door to the building remained closed.

Until it didn’t.

Eli paused the frame and expanded it, but he needn’t have bothered—I would recognize the son of a bitch on-screen at a thousand meters: Commodore Frank Morten, the asshole in FHP Command who had ordered me to blow up civilians.

None of the Valoffs in the room showed a trace of surprise. Either they didn’t know who Frank Morten was or they’d already known.

I rounded on Torran, unwilling to believe that he’d betray me like this, but unable to deny what was right in front of my face. “Tell me you didn’t know.”

Torran’s jaw clenched, but he remained silent.

“Why, out of all the bounty hunters in the galaxy, did you pick me?” I asked, my voice deadly quiet. I wanted to be wrong. I wanted to be wrong so much.

Torran met my eyes, his expression stark, and shattered all my dreams. “Because you’re the hero of Rodeni.”

The knife slid into my back without so much as a whisper of warning.

Chapter Twenty-Three

At Torran’s words, my team closed ranks around me, weapons drawn. The Valoffs didn’t move. I mentally snorted. Of course they didn’t. They didn’t have to. Torran could incapacitate us all before a single shot was fired.

I straightened my spine. “Is your nephew even missing?”

Torran nodded, his expression turning haggard before the mask smoothed it over once again.

The pieces came together, and I didn’t like the picture they painted. “I suppose that whatever happens in—what is it, ten days, now?—has more to do with me than your nephew, doesn’t it? If Commodore Morten doesn’t bow to the empress’s wishes, then you have me as a backup plan. I’m a valuable hostage.”

Torran’s gaze dropped away from mine.

I shook my head. “Not a hostage, then.” I took a stab in the dark. “The execution of an FHP hero would send quite the message, I bet.”

Torran flinched but denied nothing.

Tears pricked at the backs of my eyes, but I refused to acknowledge them. “Let my team go, right now, and I’ll be your little scapegoat,” I said. “I’ll even keep looking for Cien.”

“Tavi, no,” Eli growled. “If you think we’ll just leave you—”

“You’ll do as I order,” I interrupted, sinking command into my tone.