“Code?” Leox didn’t open his eyes. “Tell me more.”

“It looks like some kind of…of smugglers’ code. Handwritten symbols that give them hints about directions they can travel through hyperspace, that kind of thing.”

Leox finally turned his head and looked at her. “Why would they write that down instead of recording it the usual way?”

“I don’t know,” Affie said, flexing her still-sore wrist. “They just did.”

“That question wasn’t rhetorical. Think about it. Hardly anybody actually writes symbols with their hands anymore—not anywhere in the galaxy, so far as I know, at least not on planets advanced enough to have technology. So why are space pilots scribbling important information on the walls?”

It felt good to have the answer even before he was finished with the question. “Because they’re skimming stuff off the top, and hiding it from Scover.”

Leox sat up straight then, his beads swaying back into place. “Wait. How does Scover come into it?”

“One of the symbols is this.” Affie pointed to the star shape on her coverall pocket. “It’s got to be pilots in the Byne Guild talking to each other, but in a way and in a place my mo—I mean, a place Scover doesn’t know about.”

He weighed her words for a few long moments. Affie couldn’t wait to see him light up with the same astonishment and anger she’d felt. If only Geode were there instead of recrystallizing in his bunk! She wanted her discovery witnessed and confirmed.

But then Leox shook his head. “Not much goes on in the Guild that Scover Byne doesn’t know.”

“Of course not—but she can’t know about this!”

“Why can’t she?” Leox’s pale blue eyes met Affie’s with unaccustomed directness. “The coordinates for this station were preprogrammed into the Vessel, as part of the standard nav download every ship gets when joining the Guild. That’s not coincidence.”

Frustration tugged at Affie’s temper. Why couldn’t he see this? “These thieves inside the Guild, they could’ve tampered with the download. Put in the information they’d need to operate behind Scover’s back—”

“And share it with every single new ship in the Guild, even if they’re not part of this so-called conspiracy?”

Affie folded her arms across her chest. “So how do you explain it?”

Leox took several moments before he answered, his voice low and patient. “I know, and you know, that not every Guild haul is what you would call, in the strictest sense, legal. Scover’s got plenty to hide from the authorities. This seems like a pretty good place to hide it.”

“She wouldn’t hide it from me!” Affie insisted.