I paused just long enough to check the news, then ran for my closet. Someone had done a remarkably good job of painting me as a traitor, one who worked with House Rockhurst to betray Ferdinand and House von Hasenberg.
Even if Father didn’t believe the story—and I hoped he wouldn’t—he would be furious about my meeting with Evelyn Rockhurst. And despite my preference for electronic sleuthing, eventually I’d run into a lead I’d need to track down the old-fashioned way. I couldn’t find Ferdinand if I was locked in my suite.
My hands shook as I stood frozen in my closet. I didn’t have time for a breakdown. I shoved a change of clothes and a pair of blasters in a protective case into a tote. I strapped a stun pistol in a holster around my waist and threw on a cloak over my blouse and pants. Finally, I added my purse with the silencer still inside to the tote.
Good enough.
I headed for the door, but it did not open on my approach and the manual open button did nothing. “Alfred, open the suite door.”
After a few seconds, the suite computer responded. “Request unavailable. Your suite is locked for your safety. Please remain where you are.” The computer didn’t have emotions, but I still thought it sounded contrite.
If Ian Bishop thought I’d remain locked in my own damn suite until he could be bothered to come collect me for Father, then he was about to get a rude awakening.
I darted into my study for a pair of smart glasses. They connected to my com and displayed information hands-free. These were a high-end version that featured both hand and eye tracking, allowing me to leave my com in my pocket but still interact with it.
The glasses turned on automatically when I put them on. The standard information overlay—time, location, calendar—came up in my peripheral vision, but I swiped my hands up and the menu appeared front and center.
With no time to waste, I tapped into the House’s security system and checked on the cameras outside my suite. The video came up on the bottom half of the glasses. So far, the hallway was clear, but that would change once I overrode the lock. I’d need to move fast, because while I could take down the whole system, doing that while we were at war was unwise.
First and foremost, I needed a ship. I briefly considered stealing Polaris, the Rockhurst prototype ship, but I didn’t know if it was still space-worthy. For all I knew, the scientists had it in pieces in the hangar. And Ada would kill me if I damaged her baby. She’d grown attached to that ship.
My own ship, Aurora, was less than a year old. I’d bought it after Gregory’s death. His family had kept my previous ship when I returned to House von Hasenberg. What’s mine was his and what’s his was his.
House marriages were the best.
Luckily, I’d kept the vast majority of my money in numbered accounts he couldn’t access or I’d be broke in addition to homeless and shipless.
I shook myself out of my angry thoughts. Aurora was one of the nicest personal ships in our fleet. I could probably find and steal Ferdinand’s ship if I had to, but I wanted Aurora—Ada wasn’t the only one attached to her ship.
My ship was in the secondary House hangar. To get to it, I’d have to travel the length of the House, then either skirt around the primary hangar or go through it. The secondary hangar should be less busy, but getting there undetected would be tricky.
Stalling wouldn’t make it any easier, so I put the cameras outside my door on a two-minute loop, then unlocked my suite. I raised the hood of my cloak and took a deep breath. Leaving would make me look guilty as hell, but I couldn’t just sit around and wait for Ferdinand to turn up dead. Holding that thought close, I stepped out into the hall and locked the door behind me.
For once, my modified nanos came in handy as I monitored the security frequency. A security team was headed my way, but they were still thirty seconds out. I ducked into a dimly lit hidden passage with ten seconds to spare. Adrenaline made me shaky, but I kept moving.
Ian would probably be monitoring these passageways, but the surveillance was spottier and I knew exactly where all of the cameras were and how to avoid them. Ian had been advocating for additional security for these tunnels for years, but Father had resisted. We all assumed that he, too, wanted to be able to slip out of the House unseen.
I pulled the bottom of my cloak up and carefully stepped over the first laser tripwire. Breaking the beam would send a security alert directly to Ian. At the next intersection, I edged along the inside corner, just out of view of the camera. Avoiding security meant I took a meandering route to the hangar.
I kept one eye on the security footage on my smart glasses while also monitoring wireless communications. Because I hadn’t answered the door, the security team was debating whether or not to breach my quarters without my permission.
By the time Ian gave the order, I was nearly to the primary hangar. There was a flurry of communication as the team found they couldn’t get my door to unlock. Ian’s voice took on an annoyed tone that made me smirk, but I couldn’t gloat yet. He wasn’t the head of security for nothing, and I still had a busy hangar to cross.
My com vibrated and Ian’s contact information popped up on the glasses. He was requesting a video connection. I rolled my eyes and swiped his contact information offscreen to decline.
Unfortunately, Ian was nothing if not persistent. He tried again with a voice-only connection. I swiped that one away, too, then blocked him for five minutes. He’d try to track me with my com signal, but I’d made a few modifications that would make that more difficult. It wouldn’t fool him for long, but I just needed a few more minutes.
I performed the complicated hand gesture that activated the highly illegal secondary identity chip in my right arm. The secondary chip was a von Hasenberg specialty, allowing multiple identities to be stored on a single chip. Specific identities could be selected by a series of finger movements. It was perfect for covert work because switching identities made a trail much harder to follow. And it was untraceable—even by our own security teams.
As far as I knew, only von Hasenberg family members had these exact chips, but I would be surprised if the other Houses didn’t have something similar.
I touched my right thumb and pinky together. The primary chip in my left arm held my real identity, but scanning into the hangar as myself would let Ian know exactly where I was. Scanning in as Isabella Blanc, a high-level House von Hasenberg advisor, wouldn’t set off any alarms. At least not right away. As soon as Ian did any digging, the identity would fold, but it wasn’t meant for long-term use.
I stopped at the end of the hidden passageway. Opening the final door required a House von Hasenberg ID, complete with House seal, but it was one of the few doors that didn’t log access unless it was opened without the proper credentials. It also didn’t open from the outside, so once I left the building, I’d be stuck.
I unlocked the door with my primary identity chip and stepped out into the hidden alcove. I’d be completely exposed in the hangar, but the diplomatic seal on my false identity meant the security guard wouldn’t look too closely at me. It wasn’t unusual for a cloaked figure to be seen coming and going from the hangar—not everyone wanted to shout that they were working with one House over another.
Now I just needed to pop back up on the video surveillance somewhere that wouldn’t be too suspicious. I took a twisting path to the hangar entrance. It looked like I couldn’t make up my mind which way I wanted to go, but really it was to skirt the cameras. I came back into view as I swiped my right arm over the chip reader.
The door opened and the guard inside waved me through with a brief glance. I didn’t envy him the dressing-down he was about to receive. I advanced through the building with a purposeful stride, moving as fast as I dared. A few other people were milling around, giving me a tiny bit of cover.
I hit the exit at the same time that the security team found my suite empty. My head throbbed with splinters of agony as I tried to keep track of the security frequency while filtering out everything else. I gritted my teeth and kept going.
I made it into the secondary hangar without anyone stopping me, but Ian had ordered my ship watched. I stopped in an alcove out of sight of the main landing bay and tapped into the security system.
The video showed Aurora was in the first berth. Four men in House von Hasenberg uniforms lingered near the ship’s cargo ramp. They weren’t even trying to be inconspicuous.
I set off a fire alarm in the storage area on the far side of the hangar. The guards in the video looked at one another. Come on, come on. Finally, three of them shrugged and ambled off toward the back of the hangar while the fourth reported it.
I drew the shock pistol from the holster. It had been years since I’d actually needed to shoot someone. I hoped that muscle memory would be enough or this escape would be going nowhere fast.
I was already in motion by the time Ian’s voice ordered the men back to their posts. I ran silently toward Aurora. The sole remaining guard stood next to the cargo ramp, facing away, toward the alarm. The other guards had not reappeared.
I said a prayer of thanks for small favors, then waited until I was close enough that I couldn’t miss. I shot the guard in the back with a silent apology.
He screamed as he fell, but I was already climbing the cargo ramp. I swiped my real identity chip over the control panel and the cargo door slid upward. The other guards shouted a question, but they would be too late.
Once the door was high enough, I ducked inside. “Aurora, how many people are onboard?”
“You are the only passenger, Captain,” the ship replied.
“That’s what I like to hear,” I murmured. I used the cargo bay control panel to close and lock the door and retract the ramp. “Aurora, take us into orbit.” The ship chimed, and I felt the subtle vibration of the engines engaging.
I had to get off the ground before Ian locked the hangar doors or denied me launch clearance. I would worry about a destination once I was free of the building.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough.
“Permission to launch denied,” Aurora said. “Ground control requests an immediate shutdown.”
“Emergency override code F8H07Z4.” It was Ferdinand’s personal override code. If they hadn’t locked it down, it would have priority access to nearly any von Hasenberg system.
I held my breath until the ship said, “Override approved.” The engine noise changed as the ship launched.
My com vibrated and Ian’s info reappeared on my glasses. The five-minute block had expired. I confirmed Aurora was on course for orbit, then accepted the video link as voice-only on my side—I could see him, but he couldn’t see me.
If I’d thought I’d seen Ian at his angriest before my meeting with Evelyn, I’d been dead wrong. I’d never seen him as furious as he was right now. His face was set in lines of granite and his eyes blazed with temper. His jaw was clenched so hard I was afraid he’d break his teeth.
It seemingly took him a force of will to open his mouth. “Lady Bianca, return to the ground. Now,” he gritted out.
“No.”
“Every resource I have to waste tracking you is a resource that’s not looking for Lord Ferdinand. Is that what you want? Your brother to die because you’re being stubborn?”
Adrenaline and fear and anxiety mixed into a potent tempest that pounded through my system. “My brothers and sisters are everything to me,” I argued, deeply insulted. I pressed my lips together to prevent an angry tirade from spilling out.
There were so many things I could add: how Ferdinand used to take my punishments when I was sick or injured, all the way back to the faint edge of my earliest memories; how Hannah had shown up after Gregory’s death and bundled me home without a single question, despite the righteous fury in her eyes at my weak condition; how my siblings were the only people in the ’verse who loved me for me.
I would personally storm the gates of hell for any of my brothers or sisters. To claim otherwise was to fundamentally misunderstand me as a person.
Realization dawned. Ian was far too clever to make such a mistake; he was trying to use my love for Ferdinand against me. It would be so easy to underestimate Ian Bishop, to be blinded by his gorgeous features and miss the intelligent, patient predator lurking beneath the surface.
I vowed not to make that mistake.
“You have an interesting way of showing you care,” Ian said. Even knowing what he was up to, it was good that he was currently on the ground or I might be tempted to throttle him.
“You don’t have to track me. You can keep looking for Ferdinand while I do the same.”
“You think Lord von Hasenberg is just going to let you gallivant across the universe when it’s being implied that you’re a traitor? You don’t know your father very well.”
Actually, I knew Albrecht von Hasenberg better than nearly anyone. He’d want to keep me close to save face, sure, but also because he knew I was the best intelligence officer in the House. He didn’t know about my network, but he knew that I could find information no one else could, an invaluable skill to a House with secrets to hide and arms to twist.
And also because he knew I had a trove of information that would likely cripple the Consortium if it got out—which it would if I died and couldn’t reset the auto-release timer.
“Just because you tell Father you’re searching for me doesn’t mean you have to actually search for me. I’m tracking down a lead on Ferdinand. Once I find my brother, I’ll return.”
“Bianca, I can’t protect you if you run,” he said, his expression taut and urgent. “Return and give me the lead. We’ll find Ferdinand faster if we work together.”
“I can take care of myself, and I refuse to be a prisoner in my own house. Instead of hunting me, you should figure out why someone would want to frame me as a traitor. Perhaps they have useful information.”
“I already have a team on it. I don’t need you to tell me how to run an investigation,” he said stiffly.
I almost slipped up and let him know that his heavy-handed raid had scattered one of the best sources of information in HIVE. I clamped my lips on the words at the last second. He didn’t know I was Fenix and I preferred keeping it that way.
“In that case, it seems we’re at an impasse. If you agree not to search for me, I’ll send you any information I find that I won’t have time to investigate.”
“Albrecht has already demanded your capture. It’s the same priority as the search for Ferdinand. I don’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice,” I murmured.
“Not this time.” His voice was flinty.
“I am not returning until I find Ferdinand, so if you want to find me, find him.” With that, I ended the connection.
My head pulsed in time with my heart and my blood pressure felt dangerously high. Of all the frustrating men in the world, I had to have Ian Bishop dogging my steps. I groaned. If I’d learned anything during Ada’s time on the run, it was that Ian never gave up. Maybe I’d get lucky and he’d send a team after me, rather than coming himself. And maybe pigs would fly.
At least I wouldn’t have to worry about the RCDF. Neither Father nor Ian would want to air our dirty laundry in front of the enforcers of the Consortium. House von Hasenberg would handle my retrieval on its own, which meant that I’d escaped, for now, because the House didn’t have anything in orbit capable of capturing Aurora.
I headed upstairs to the flight deck. Aurora was a relatively small ship with just four levels. The flight deck, captain’s quarters, and guest suite were on the top level. Because it was my personal ship, I’d reconfigured the standard layout. Instead of crew quarters, level two held the mess hall and medbay. The crew quarters were moved to level three, and level four included the exercise room and maintenance access.
The cargo bay was at the aft of the ship and spanned two stories from level four up to level three. Right now, it was nearly empty. The ship was kept stocked with essentials, but I’d need supplies if I planned to track down Ferdinand.
And I knew just who to contact for the kind of supplies I needed.
When my sister Ada had been banished from Earth, she relocated to Sedition on Alpha Phoenicis Dwarf Zero. APD Zero was a planet-wide black market, and Sedition was its largest city. It was also the first place Ian would look for me, so I couldn’t go there directly.
But Ada was also friends with Rhys Sebastian, a well-known smuggler, and Veronica Karim, a former fence. Between the three of them, they could get me anything I needed, no matter how rare or illegal, and Rhys had the ships required to meet me anywhere in known space.
So where could I go that would be convenient for Ada but unlikely to be the first place Ian would look?
I pondered the question as I entered the flight deck. In the center of the room, the captain’s chair stood in front of a half-circle console made of sleek glass. The tactical and navigation stations flanked the captain’s chair on the left and right, respectively. I’d kept them more for tradition than need; I could control the entire ship from my console.
I slipped into my chair and logged in. The window shutters were closed for launch, but the video screens showed Earth falling away and the darkness of space opening up in front of the ship.
Thanks to its excellent computers, Aurora was capable of jumping nearly three thousand light-years at a time on its own, but getting far enough away that Ian couldn’t track me down in a matter of hours would require the help of a gate. Gates were giant supercomputers that could plot safe jump points millions of light-years away.
Gates usually operated in sets of two or more. The second gate wasn’t required, but if you jumped into deep space with no gate to calculate your return trip, then you’d have to risk jumping back using bad data. No one would voluntarily jump with bad data if it could be avoided.
I owned a small hotel in Atlantia, the fifth-largest city on the popular resort planet of Gamma Carinae Dwarf One. I’d purchased the property through a series of subsidiary and shell companies. The paper trail was so convoluted that it was highly unlikely anyone could ever link the building back to me. GCD One had a nearby gate and a constant stream of traffic—two more ships wouldn’t even register.
I plotted a course for Atlantia and routed it through two gates, just in case Ian managed to talk the RCDF into giving him my first jump coordinates. It added a six-hour cooldown for the FTL drive, but it would take Ada time to gather supplies anyway.
Earth’s gate was one of the fastest available, so although I was forty-ninth in the queue, my estimated wait time was only five minutes. I dashed off a quick message to Ada while I waited and encrypted it with our shared secret key: pegasaurus. We’d made up the creature as children then promptly forgotten about it until we had needed a secure, hard to guess but easy to remember key.
It was very early morning on APD Zero. I felt a little bad about flagging the message as an emergency because it would cause a ridiculous alarm on her end, but this was technically an emergency. Ada could catch up on her beauty sleep later.
Aurora chimed as the ship got a jump point from the gate. A few seconds later, the sound of the engine changed as the FTL drive engaged. The screen flickered as the ship switched to auxiliary power, then the engine noise reached a peak and fell silent.
The window shutters retracted. I’d chosen a gate outside a busy space station, but you’d never know it from looking. Even at just fifteen minutes away, the station was a faint light against the inky darkness of deep space. I’d like to visit but that was asking for trouble. If Ian followed me, he would assume the station was my final destination. It was safer for me to stay on Aurora and wait out the FTL cooldown, even if sitting on my hands for six hours felt like an eternity.
The main engine restarted and I directed the ship away from the pull of the lights. Aurora automatically tracked and avoided the dozens of ships around us. Without a nearby star, visual reconnaissance was worthless. There was, however, a neighboring asteroid field brimming with valuable resources for those brave enough to mine them—hence the station.
The proximity to the gate meant that communication was nearly as fast as on Earth. Ada’s message, when it arrived, came with a truly astonishing number of expletives. Ian wasn’t her favorite person to begin with and he wasn’t winning any more points with this latest stunt. Neither was Father.
She promised to get the supplies I needed and meet me on GCD One in a few hours. Now that I had more time, I sent her the coordinates and access codes she’d need in case she got there first. I also added a few things to my supplies list. I didn’t know what I’d be facing, so better to be overprepared than underprepared. Though, knowing Ada, she’d show up with an armory in tow. The real trick would be convincing her to remain behind while I went in search of Silva.
Perhaps what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.