The fragment ripped through one of them, causing it to detonate immediately—and the shock waves took out four other vessels before they got their shields up.

“Ouch,” Kassav said. “That was a few hundred crewmembers, easy…not to mention all that lommite. What’ll that cost your system, Governor? Big money, I bet. Now you’re in a worse spot than you were before. And remember, one more Emergence on the way. You’ve got about four minutes. And this time it won’t be hundreds dying. It’ll be billions. Even you, probably. You’ve got the account information. Don’t wait too long.”

“This is evil,” the governor said. “You realize that, don’t you?”

Kassav turned to face his Tempest and rolled his eyes—more laughter.

“You’re laughing?” came the incredulous words over the comm. “You’re laughing?”

“Yeah, Governor. It’s funny, that’s all. It’s not evil. It’s business.”

“You’re sending these Emergences somehow, aren’t you? You’re doing this. It’s the only way it’s possible.”

“Does it matter? Time’s wasting, Governor. Two minutes.”

Kassav was getting a little nervous, truth be told. They needed to move, fast, to get in the path of the third Emergence, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to stop it—and he figured it was important that they did stop it, otherwise, well, this scam might not work so well next time, would it? He wasn’t even sure he’d go back to the Nihil at all after this, not with fifty million credits in his account and an entire Tempest loyal to him, and a list of all the other Emergences he could exploit.

Yep, Marchion Ro was absolutely not his father, just handing out valuable information like that. The man had this weird sense of loyalty to the Nihil. He thought they were something more than they were. The Nihil were a gang of criminals, and if there was one thing Kassav knew about criminals, it was this: You couldn’t trust them.

He was a perfect example.

Ninety seconds.

“Governor, you’re running out of time.”

“You’re monsters.”

“So are you, if you don’t save your people.”

“Fine,” Governor Veen spat. “The funds are being transferred now.”

He looked at Wet Bub, who gave him another thumbs-up. Kassav pointed at Dellex, who fired up the engines for the burn that would put them in the path of the third Emergence just as it appeared.

Gravhan’s gun crew got to work again, preparing the salvo that would destroy the final fragment and earn them their pay.