Because of their lack of clothes, it took her a moment to recognize the two people as the Entropists, Veera and Jorrus.

She was still invisible and too far away to hear, and yet somehow the Entropists detected her. Never looking her direction, Jorrus said, “Ah, Prisoner Navárez—”

“—you were able to join us. We—”

“—hoped as much.”

Then the Entropists wrenched something within the wall, and the pressure door snapped open to reveal a stark holding cell.

Falconi stepped out. “Well, about time,” he said.

3.

Kira allowed her invisibility to subside, and Falconi spotted her. “There you are,” he said. “I was afraid we were going to have to go hunting for you.”

“Nope,” she said. She trotted over. The Entropists had moved on to the next door.

“Were you locked up too?” Falconi asked.

She jerked her chin. “You know it.”

“Don’t suppose you got free without being noticed?”

“Not a chance.”

He bared his teeth. “Shit. We gotta move fast.”

“How did you manage to escape?” she asked.

Veera laughed, a quick, high sound, full of tension. “Always they take the robes and think—”

“—that is enough. We are more than our many-colored garments, Prisoner.”

Falconi grunted. “Lucky for us.” To Kira he said, “Any idea who’s hitting the station?”

She was about to say no, but then she stopped to think for a moment. No hint existed of the compulsion she always felt when the Jelly ships were near. Which meant … “Pretty sure it’s the nightmares,” she said.

“Great. Even more reason to move fast. There’ll be plenty of confusion to cover our departure.”

“Are you sure?” Kira said.

Falconi caught her meaning at once. If he and the rest of the crew broke out, their pardons would be null and void, and unlike the local government at Ruslan, the UMC wouldn’t stop pursuing them at the system border. The Wallfish crew would be fugitives throughout the entirety of known space, with the possible exception of Shin-Zar and various tiny freeholdings out on the fringes.

“You’re damn right I am,” he said, and Kira felt an immediate glow of comradery. At least she wouldn’t be alone. “Veera. Jorrus. Have you managed to get a line open to Gregorovich yet?”

The Entropists shook their heads. They were still fiddling with the wiring in the wall alongside the next pressure door. “Access to the station’s system is restricted and—”

“—we do not have transmitters powerful enough to reach the Wallfish through all these walls.”

“Shit,” said Falconi.

“Where’s security?” said Kira. She’d expected to find a whole squad of Marines stationed by the holding cells.

Falconi jerked his chin toward the Entropists. “Not sure. Those two hacked the cameras to buy us time. We’ve got about five minutes before the station control gets eyes on us again.”

Veera held up a finger without taking her attention from the inside of the hatch. “We may be able to spoof the—”

“—station’s sensors and buy us some more time,” said Jorrus.