“Nothing like that,” they said in answer to her questioning look. “We’re not looking for a payoff. But as we said—others are trying to get out. They may come to you.”

“The Hive Mind won’t be happy about that,” she said. “That’s a trend they’ll want to discourage.”

“They will,” the admiral said. “The trick is to get it trending strongly enough that they cannot stop it, no matter how hard they try—and they will try. Hard. There is no doubt of that.”

“I didn’t sign on to lead a rebellion,” Niko said. “That was not my intent at all.”

“No,” the admiral said. “But there are people in this universe who do things, and there are those who do not. You are definitely one of the former.”

“I will not drag my crew into a war with the Holy Hive Mind.”

“You may not have a choice.” They paused. “We would be careful, if we were you. Some of the reports—they have someone close to you, we think, or a method of monitoring you that you don’t know about. We don’t know more than that—it’s a guess, really.

Wild suspicion hit Niko. “The Arranti attack—that was unconnected, surely?”

“Of course it was. Who knows what any Arranti will do next?” The column swiveled in negation. “No, you’ve had a run of bad luck lately, but surely it’s just that.”

Surely just that. The words echoed in Niko’s head. But no one controlled the Arranti. A run of bad luck. Surely just that.

Back at the ship, she went to talk to part of that run of bad luck. “This is the thing,” she said. “You say that you were sent away in the dead of night, by the Empress herself. Can you remember what she told you?”

Atlanta shook her head. “It seems like a lifetime ago now, so much has happened.” She tried to remember, wishing once again that she’d recorded it, but the presence of the Empress turned off all recording devices, even small personal ones.

“She said that she was sending me to Nicolette Larsen, who was someone who could help me, but not who that was or how or why.”

“Could she have been testing you in some way?” Dabry asked.

Atlanta blushed. “That’s what I thought was happening too. It’s certainly possible. Anything is possible. But sending me into danger—surely that wasn’t her intention. She had no way of knowing things would start exploding.”