“Shuttle docks,” Gairad said. She gave the long, ugly sniff of someone determined to be functional. “Unmarked short-range capsule. I tracked the first bit of its flight on the public system.”

Chapter 25

“You are a vision of staggering brilliance,” Kiem said fervently. “Come in.

When Bel gets here we’re making a battle plan.” He passed her a handkerchief and set the door to admit Bel and no one else.

By the time she arrived, Kiem and Gairad had trawled his room in the hope that Jainan had left a message, then had a tense conversation with the Thean Ambassador, and now were obsessively poring over the flight clues Gairad had collected. “I’m back,” Bel said from the door, her luggage hovering behind her.

She sounded tentative.

Kiem didn’t even think before he shoved back his chair and hugged her. She obviously wasn’t expecting it, and it only occurred to him he probably shouldn’t have done it after he had, but Bel was already patting him cautiously on the back. “You are the only person right now apart from Jainan that could make me feel better,” Kiem said. “That wasn’t workplace-appropriate, was it. Sorry. I have some ideas about your blackmail thing—”

“Later,” Bel said. She let down her capsule, neatened her tunic, and straightened up, gathering her confidence back with the movement. “Sorry I’m late. I stopped to pick some things up. What do you know about Jainan?”

Gairad looked up as well, so Kiem told both of them. He started with the emergency conference with the Emperor and Rakal, adding what Rakal had said about interrogation, but his explanation was jagged and all over the place. He skipped back to Audel’s hacking attempts and the folder of blackmail material they’d found on Aren and the other senior officers. Then he stopped. “Sorry, Gairad, give us a minute,” he said, and pulled Bel aside to tell her about the video.

As Bel listened, her expression grew flatter. “Explains a lot” was all she said.

“You knew?”

“No,” Bel said. “I felt something was wrong, but you can probably guess why I wasn’t going to push someone to give up their secrets. We all have something

to hide. I think Saffer knew, though.”

Saffer. Everything came back to Aren Saffer, Taam’s best friend. “And he was blackmailing you?”

Bel glanced at Gairad, who was hunched over the flight plan and scowling as if she could intimidate it into giving her Jainan’s exact coordinates. “That shithead was in deep enough with Evn Afkeli and the Blue Star to pick up that I’m a raider. I thought he was just scared I’d figure him out. I should have realized he had a reason to make me leave just now—but I didn’t know he was going after Jainan.” She eyed Kiem. “Jury’s out, but I’m thinking he may have misjudged the blackmail.”