Kyla’s dry laugh was slightly muted by the static. “I lost communication with Sher, so we are officially off-script. ITI mission, Eris. Big time.”

“ITI?” Ariadne asked from her swivel chair next to Clo. It’d have once belonged to the head of security, now floating somewhere in the void between their current location and Myndalia.

“Impossible to Infiltrate,” Clo clarified. “Apparently, Eris gets off on these.”

<Shut up, Clo. You have no idea what gets me off,> Eris said through the Pathos. Clo laughed in response. “What am I doing, Kyla? Does it involve shoving Clo out the airlock?”

Kyla paused. “You’re not going to like this. The engineer angle is a bust. I’m going to need you to be Zoe.”

“No,” Eris said immediately.

Ariadne and Clo mouthed, Who is Zoe?

“Eris.” The commander’s tone was a warning of its own: Don’t piss me off. “I didn’t call you to negotiate. I called you to give an order.”

She didn’t move a muscle. She could feel Clo’s eyes on the back of her neck. “I’ve taken every order you’ve ever given me without question. And I’m telling you: come up with a different plan. Zoe is too dangerous for Damocles to know directly.”

Hunting down Zoe Eirene-X-2 had been Eris’s first assignment with the resistance. Eris had been desperate to throw herself into a mission—to prove her changed loyalties. The more dangerous, the better. Zoe was an arms dealer who had been of relatively low consequence until she’d provided innovative and destructive weapons for the Battle of the Garnet. The Tholosian military had used her weapons to slaughter thousands of Evoli until the Oversouls had managed to prove that Discordia’s death had not been one of theirs.

Eris had a responsibility to go after Zoe; she was just as responsible for the deaths of Evoli as the woman who supplied the weapons. For months, Eris watched as the arms dealer had been catapulted to riches and secured more weapons contracts. It had also made her a prime target for the resistance, but no one had been able to get close to her.

Except Eris.

Eris killed Zoe—quick and too clean—and stole her identity.

After that, “Zoe” decided she was rich enough to semi-retire. Eris would make sure she was seen cavorting and spending riches on the pleasure planet of Revelries, or pulling odd jobs that wouldn’t actually result in overt deaths. She was a handy cover, able to wriggle into both official and unofficial corners of the Empire. Damocles would recognize Zoe’s name. The Archon’s military commanders had purchased from the real one often enough.

But Eris had never played Zoe Eirene-X-2 near Damocles, much less spoken to him.