Sigurd’s beacon didn’t just disappear. It looks small enough, but that’s because a Spirit was carrying the thing around under its arm. It’s probably about as big as my sleeping quarters, although that isn’t saying much. There would’ve been thirty people on deck when Hail put down, and probably double that when you add in EOD and decontam. Fifty, sixty crew, all watching her. They’d be hosing her down, and stripping her out of her flight suit, just like they did to me. Eyes on her, eyes on her shell, procedures and protocol and plain old bureaucracy in the way.

Come to think of it, Hail should’ve been the last person with hands on the pod. The knuckledraggers would’ve been all over a piece of strange hardware like that. It’s not every day you get hands on competitor tech.

I frown at the thought. They wouldn’t, surely? Not with Kadi on the line.

The thought barely has time to finish. There’s a clink inside the door, a wheeze and clatter as someone cycles pressure inside the lock. Hail stops dead in her tracks when she sees me, a hand on her hip like there’s a sidearm under her coat.

She frowns. “Rook?”

“That’s the one.”

She straightens, drops the hand. “What are you doing here?”

I shrug, hands in my coat pockets. “Couldn’t sleep. Needed some air.”

“And you decided to get it here?”

“There’s a reason I can’t sleep.” I look her up and down. “You aren’t sleeping either.”

“Decided not to.”

“Too busy?”

She raises an eyebrow, but there’s a strange tilt to it. “I have no idea what you mean.”

“Sure you do. They say inspection missed a chunk of Sigurd steel.”

“Who’s they?”

“Kadi, apparently. Someone ghosted it.”

“No one ghosted anything. There was a transfer error. Miscommunication between the ground crew and inspection. It’s all in the logs, if you want to see them.”

I stand my ground. “What are you doing?”

“Looking for you. At least, that’s what I was about to do. Wasn’t expecting to find you on my doorstep.” She looks past me, and her eyes light up. “Train’s on the way. Come on, let’s go get ourselves a drink.”

I glare at her, but she meets it. Not here.

I’m not budging yet. “What about Salt?”

She flicks me a grin. “You’re welcome to try and wake him up, but you’re gonna need some hardware to do it. He put in a request to medical about an hour after we put down. They sent someone down with a syringe full of sweet dreams.”

“How do you know this?”

“He’s a con. His immediate superiors have to authorise everything, even if we’re cons as well.” She looks up at a whistle from the train line. “Come on.”