“His grasp has gotten very far and strong indeed if it extends all the way to TwiceFar,” she observed. “What about Ettilan Eff? What about Frenetic Slim?”

“Your scat’s out of date,” he said. “Slim died two weeks ago.”

“What did he die of?”

“Someone thought he’d told an author too much.” He laughed again, satisfied with himself, stroking his whiskers with a flourish as he grinned at her. “Think you’re the first to come armed with knowledge from Skullduggery and Sacred Space Vessels, trying to steal from us?”

She shrugged as the bubble juddered to a stop, tucking into a grim white wall, and Turo gestured for her and Dabry to precede him. The others were already in the corridor, waiting.

“How’s all the planning going, Captain?” Dabry asked in an undertone.

“Could be better,” she said.

“I noticed that.”

“Did you plan to offer something actually helpful, or just general kibitzing?”

“More of the latter than the former, sir. As ever, I trust that you have the situation well in hand.”

Sometimes Niko wished they still shared the mind link that the Holy Hive Mind had imposed on them. It had been a painful, brutal acclimation, particularly the blunt-edged but overpowering emotions of adolescent were-lions, but she missed that connection, that being able to know what each other was thinking, the ability to collaborate in split-second strategy sessions. That was why they had functioned so effectively, her ability to coordinate them and bring out the best in them. Not so much anything she brought to the team other than her ability to do that, she thought, knowing that it was something that would have elicited an admonition from Dabry if they’d been linked.

“Close now,” Turo said. “Nervous?”

“Why do you care?” Niko asked. “What’s Tubal Last to you?”

“He’s my boss.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s more than that. You’re needling me because you’re jealous that I impressed him. You want to know how I did it because you dream about doing something like it yourself. Did you not get enough approval as a child? Which parent is he standing in for, which one told you that you weren’t good enough, to the point where you go seeking the love and validation of a gangster?”

He stared at her, jaw working for a moment, before he took a deep breath. He spat on the flooring between them, close enough that edges of it hit her big toe, and said, “Who the fuck are you to try amateur psych on me? Think you’re something special, just because you had the highest bounty on your head in station history?”

“See?” Niko said to Dabry. “Celebrate your accomplishments.”

“Point acknowledged, sir. You are the victor in this arena.”