I covered my laugh with a cough. Torran had to know we were communicating with each other, even if he couldn’t hear us, but his expression remained unreadable. “General Fletcher, meet my first officer, Elias Bruck. When I’m not around, you’ll follow his commands while aboard Starlight’s Shadow.”

A curt nod was Torran’s only response.

“You may want to move this somewhere more private,” Eli said. “You’re starting to draw interest.”

I’d noticed the increasing frequency of people walking by, but for all of our furious disagreement, Torran and I had kept our voices down.

“They’re not setting a single foot on my ship without an ironclad contract,” I growled with an impatient wave toward the Valoffs. “It’s not my fault the general refused a perfectly good one.”

“My ship is—” Torran started, only to stop when I made a disbelieving noise. I certainly wasn’t setting foot on a Valovian ship, contract or no.

For the first time, frustration showed in Torran’s expression. Welcome to the party.

Without warning, one of the Valovian soldiers broke from the group and headed toward the landing bay’s exit into the station. Eli stepped protectively closer to me. We were both a little jumpy with so many enemies nearby.

“Chira is going to secure us a neutral location,” Torran explained.

This was a Fed station, so as long as we remained in the station itself, it was unlikely to be a trap. And if it was a trap, well, then more fun for me.

“Message Starlight when you have the location. My team and I will meet you. And I suggest you think about accepting my boilerplate, or at least compromising on some of your ridiculous requirements, or this discussion will go nowhere, and you’ll just waste our time.”

Torran’s mouth tightened, but he inclined his head a fraction of a centimeter. Without another word he and his remaining team turned as one and headed for the door.

Well, that wasn’t creepy as all hell or anything.

Eli waited until they had cleared the airlock into the station before he spoke. “Do you really think this is a good idea?”

“No. But Kee’s right—it’s more money than we’ll make in two years and that’s if we fail to retrieve the item. If we get lucky and find it, we’ll be set for a while.”

“Damn straight,” Kee chimed in over the comm.

“Or we could all die,” Eli said drily.

Kee huffed out a breath but held her tongue. She and Eli were the opposite sides of the same coin. Kee was optimistic and idealistic while Eli was more pessimistic and pragmatic. They balanced each other, and they’d learned long ago that neither would change the other’s mind.