“You mean the pirates are going to either come away with their prize or make sure he’s dead.”

“Yes.”

“And if we all happen to die too, then that’s just the way it goes.”

“Yes.”

“Well, then, shit, Pinton,” Kiva said. She looked back to Chat. “I guess we better give them what they want.”

Chapter 12

Marce’s tablet pinged with the command for him to report to Nubt Pinton, the Yes, Sir’s head of security. He briefly considered not responding to the order, but then did anyway, moving through the ship with a gradually increasing awareness of and comfort with his surroundings. Because the ship was under acceleration at the moment, the ship’s artificial gravity was more push fields than ring rotation, and Marce felt pressed down. But he noticed that it was bothering him less even a couple of days in. A body could get used to it, it seemed.

Nubt Pinton was in the Yes, Sir’s brig, a small and unhappy room with even smaller and more unhappy cells, inside one of which was Chat Ubdal. Marce looked in at Chat, who looked back, balefully.

“He’s a mess,” Marce said.

“Yes, well. Lady Kiva tossed him out an airlock,” Pinton answered.

“You threw him into space?”

“Yup.”

“And he didn’t die?”

“We only threw him out a little bit.”

Marce looked again at Chat, whose eyeballs looked spray-painted red. “I almost feel sorry for him.”

“Don’t get too broken up, Lord Marce. He’d still murder you if he had a chance.”

“You asked to see me, sir,” Marce said, turning away from Chat.

“I did. I needed to get a good look at you.”

“All right. Why?”

“We’re being tailed by pirates. Your would-be assassin here tells us that their plan is to take you off the ship. We suspect that if they can’t manage that they’d rather destroy the Yes, Sir than let you escape. We could fight them but if their goal is to blow us up rather than board us then our options are limited.”

“Are you planning to turn me over?”

“If I were planning that I wouldn’t be talking to you. I would have had you stunned when you weren’t looking and then prepped you for delivery.”

“Good to know.”

Pinton nodded. “What I need from you is your willingness to help us save ourselves, and save you, and in the process maybe cause a little pain to these pirates, and the people behind them.”

“You mean Ghreni Nohamapetan.”

“Yes, that’s the one.”

“I’m in.”

“It won’t be entirely risk free for you.”

“I don’t care. I’m in.”

“Good.”

“How do we do this?”

Pinton pointed to Chat. “The first thing we do is make it look like this one was successful.”

“In killing me?”