Tassos snarled, stepping close enough for her to see the thin coat of sweat painting his forehead. “I said I’ll make it work and I will.”

“You need your dose,” Caledonia said, marking the pallor of his lips.

“Mind yourself, girl.”

“Until we take the Holster, your business is my business. Do you have control of your fleet or not?”

The muscles in his jaw flashed and Caledonia had the impression that if he’d been at full strength, he might have done more than glare at her. “I have control,” he growled.

“One more thing,” Caledonia said when he’d swallowed. “I’m calling the shots out there.”

Now Tassos moved. He stepped forward, reminding her that he was the punishing wave and she the tumbling stone. “No one commands my fleet.”

“In this fight, it’s my fleet.”

“And why shouldn’t it be mine?”

Caledonia raised her eyes, holding her ground. Tassos liked to try to obscure the truth with his size or his might, but Caledonia had had several days to study him, to peel back the layers and find what lay just beneath his mask. He wasn’t as cunning as Lir, but he didn’t like to lose. And he would do whatever it took not to lose to Lir. Even if that meant giving ground to Caledonia.

“Because you can’t do what I can.” She pushed her chin forward and Tassos moved back so slightly she almost missed it. “You may know how to defend your Net, but you don’t know how to fight at sea. This is my plan, my strategy. You have your hands full minding your own clip, so I’m calling the shots. Agreed?”

Tassos narrowed his eyes. “I look forward to the moment our alliance ends, Caledonia.”

Caledonia heard the threat in his words. Lir would have been more explicit, but then, Lir had been dreaming of her death for a lot longer than Tassos.

“Ready your ships, Fiveson.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

They sailed out in double-arrow formation, like two giant birds skimming low across the waves. In their wake, the stationary ships of the Net stood like silent sentinels. Each bore a cohort of ten Bullets. More than enough to keep watch and hold the line if necessary.

No additional ships had responded to Caledonia’s call. She couldn’t blame them, but the absence of any additional aid hung heavy in her heart. The thirty-seven ships of Fiveson Tassos, each marked with deep purple starbursts, brought their total fleet to fifty-six. Their scouts, who could only surveil the Holster from a distance, estimated Lir’s fleet to be at least three times that number.

That wouldn’t matter as long as their teams got control of those gun towers. But they wouldn’t know if those teams had been successful until the battle begun.