The entire setup disturbed her. Epyc Ro waved her people in closer. “What were you hoping? We’d ‘capture’ you, you embed yourself in the alliance, and you would deliver a pocketful of misinformation to distract us.”

“I hate me some fake-ass allies,” Robin said.

“Don’t get me wrong.” Epyc Ro cleared the weapons from the dead soldiers. “In some ways, I respect how the CO/IN units do their business. Come out of nowhere, strike hard. No fucks to give.”

“And disappear when you’re done. I like a tidy operation,” Robin added.

Epyc Ro patted Car’Annie down for more weapons, glyphs, or data skimmers. “You know what our merry little band of misfits have in common?”

“Oppositional defiance disorder?” Car’Annie asked.

“We don’t let rules—don’t matter if they’re orders, theology, or laws—keep us from doing what’s right. Your CO/IN units are filled with soldiers who may swear allegiance to the Interstellar Alliance. And more than a few who simply like being cruel.” Epyc Ro signaled for Chandra to do a scan for implants. After studying the woman in grim appraisal, Chandra waved Robin over.

“You dress up your outlaws in pretty-sounding rhetoric, but deep inside, you know we’re the same way.” Car’Annie tracked Robin’s movement once the gbeto gathered her complete attention by producing her panga blade. Robin jammed her blade into the woman’s left scapula. Chandra directed her incision. Car’Annie grunted without further comment. Satisfied, Robin fished her finger into the wound and removed a data fiche, little more than a thread, but it could relay her position and other data. Chandra handed it to Epyc Ro.

“Maybe, but we don’t revel in what we do. We’re simply good at it.” The captain held the strand up to her eye. “We’ll have to do this the hard way.”

“That’s the way we do,” Robin said.

“Chandra, you got her?” Epyc Ro said.

Chandra glared at the woman before fastening Car’Annie’s hands behind her back with fashioned cuffs.

“Your continued resistance is only hurting what could be the new stellar federation,” Car’Annie said.

“Look here, man-bun Becky,” Robin said. “You done earned the look from Chandra. That was the look that said, ‘You got one more time, then I will kick you straight in your sunken place.’”

“Let’s get out of here,” Epyc Ro announced.

They doubled back down the hallways they came. The corridors began to look the same. Epyc Ro could think only of the torture rooms of the other housing unit. The echoes of screams scratching at the back of her mind. She slowed as they neared their exit.

“It doesn’t even matter if you kill me. CO/IN units are ready to sacrifice anything for the sake of their mission,” Car’Annie said.

“You ain’t worth the wave your voice travels on,” Epyc Ro said. “Anitra, you got us?”