Sledge raised a hand to quiet her as he responded. “Received, we’ll double it and then some.” Sledge answered so easily, Caledonia might have believed he meant it.

A dark laugh punctuated the air. “Keep to your tides.”

“Keep to your tides,” Sledge responded automatically, his eyes focused on some distant point. Caledonia realized with a start that it was a valediction, a parting wish passed from one Bullet to another.

“Sledge,” she said eagerly when he’d released the receiver. “Can you ask him if there’ve been any sightings of the Mors Navis?”

Sledge nodded, giving himself a moment to think through his approach. “Lighthouse Three, come back, over.”

It was several seconds before the radio crackled to life. “Miss me, Beacon?”

“Tremendously,” Sledge answered with a wry tone. “We’ve got eyes on a ship that matches the description of the one Fiveson Lir was tracking. Does that match recent reports?”

Again, the radio released only static. Caledonia balled her fists and forced herself to draw even breaths while they waited. It was difficult to find the place to pin her hope. If her crew had been spotted, then they were being pursued. If they hadn’t, then she’d have no idea what had become of them. She wanted to know that they’d punched the Net and were safe on the other side. But most of all she just wanted confirmation that the Bullets didn’t know where they were. That they were safe.

Finally, the radio clicked, and static was replaced by that same Bullet’s voice.

“Negative, Beacon; that ship and her crew were captured two days ago. Except for that red-haired captain of theirs. The rest have been taken to Slipmark for processing. Whatever you’re seeing out there, it isn’t that ship.”

Caledonia saw Sledge’s mouth move. She knew he answered the person on the other end of that terrible radio. But she didn’t hear anything. All she heard was the furious roar of her mind.

Chapter Eleven

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Captured.

The word was a bomb in Caledonia’s chest. Her crew had been taken into Bullet custody. Slipmark, Aric’s northernmost stronghold, was notorious for being the first part of the Bullet empire recruits saw and the last rebels did. It was a prison. It was the place crews like hers went to die. But they wouldn’t simply be executed. They’d be interrogated, tortured, and only finally killed in some cruel, brutal way.

Caledonia held on to the only piece of hopeful information that Bullet had given her: two days. For now, her crew was alive. And if she could get to them soon, they’d stay that way.

If she could get to them.