“Are you clear?”

It was probably a good thing that the secret agent council’s first concern was for their safety.

“We had a tail for a few jumps,” Tooley grunted. “Unknown craft, it ditched as we got closer to Centerpoint. We should be clear now.”

The ship’s scanners had been unable to get a clear read on the mystery craft, but it was easy enough to assume it was some Sturit scout ship that had followed them in hopes of vengeance. The thought of it sent an itch down Tooley’s spine, for some reason, but she had much bigger and more immediate problems.

“Good.”

“Are we good to go on the disaster wrapup?” Kamak said. “Because I want it on record that this is all Tooley’s fault.”

Tooley made a brand new rude gesture at Kamak. After two years, Corey was pretty certain he’d seen all the rude gestures the universe had to offer, but apparently Tooley still had a few in reserve. Or maybe she was inventing new ones. He added the new gesture to his catalogue as Doprel finished patching up the bite wound on his arm.

“We’re not particularly interested in blame, Kamak,” said one of the many voices on the call with them today. In the absence of any given names, Corey had designated them as Angry Voice, Smart Voice, and Boring Voice. The one who had just scolded Kamak was, of course, Angry Voice.

“The Sturit are already a pariah state,” Smart Voice said. “The large-scale diplomatic repercussions of this will be minimal.”

“You’ll excuse us if we don’t offer you any more diplomatic favor, however,” Boring Voice added.

“And we’ll be thinking twice before allowing you any front-line investigative responsibilities as we go forward,” Angry Voice said. “So far you’ve given us more trouble than results.”

“Okay, let’s compare, what have you and your spooky ghost cabal gotten done so far?”

A few half-hearted responses rang out from the three voices, but even they knew they didn’t have much of a leg to stand on. Everything they could list was something they’d learned from security features as basic as security camera’s, and that was very little. Even the recent attempted bombing of Khem had turned up almost nothing -the Butcher had evaded the view of cameras as much as possible, and in what little was visible, they were disguised as an entirely nondescript hangar worker.

“As it stands, none of us have anything to show for our efforts,” Kamak said. “Cutting us off now just costs you assets. Even if we never turned up anything, us being on the move means the Butcher has to stay on the move too. Keeps them active, ups the odds of them making a mistake.”

“You’re vastly overestimating your importance,” Angry Voice said.

“As we gain a deeper understanding of the so-called ‘Bad Luck Butcher’s’ motives, we have been preparing a long-term plan of action,” Boring Voice continued. “One that does not necessarily involve you.”

“Any chance you want to share that long-term plan?” Corey said. “Y’know, for the sake of our ongoing partnership.”

“We’re working in theory as of now,” Smart Voice said. “If the plan proves viable, and your efforts are necessary, you’ll be looped in. If neither of those two circumstances apply, there’s no reason for you to know.”

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“And I’m sure you’re just jumping at every chance to get us more involved,” Kamak said.

“We don’t make stupid, impulsive decisions based on our own biases,” Angry Voice said. “Speaking of. Tooley Keeber Obertas.”

“Fuck,” Tooley mumbled. She had known this was going to come back to her one way or another.

“We can only put so much spin on the fact that you murdered your own mother,” Smart Voice said.

“You could try mentioning how she deserved it,” Tooley grunted.

“The universe is aware of how the average Sturit acts, but that reputation can only do so much,” Boring Voice said. “There are systems in which matricide in any form is punishable by death. The long term consequences are-”

“Oh, fuck it,” Tooley said. “Whatever you’re about to say, keep it to yourself. As soon as this serial killer shit is over I’m joining the Outbound program.”

That turned a few heads inside the ship, and Corey could only imagine the various voices were surprised too.

“Five years outside the known universe ought to be plenty of time for people to forget about me, right?” Tooley said. “By the time I get back there’ll be some other bullshit absorbing people’s attention, and I’ll be nothing but the rude bitch I was before.”

“That would certainly smooth over certain diplomatic...difficulties,” Boring Voice said. It would be a lot easier to ignore extradition requests if Tooley was in the unknown reaches of space.

“Solves everybody’s problems,” Tooley said. “People that hate me don’t have to deal with me, and I don’t have to deal with anyone else.”

“We’ll have someone lay the groundwork,” Boring Voice said.

“Yes, more work for us to do on your behalf,” Angry Voice grunted.

“We’ll be in touch,” Smart Voice concluded. “If you don’t have any other hunches you’d like to follow, we’d invite you to return to Centerpoint. That’s where we’ll be taking our next steps.”

“Haven’t got anything better to do,” Kamak said. He shut down the call before anyone else could get a word in, and looked at Tooley. “Outbound? Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Tooley said. “What about it?”

“Were you planning to discuss this with the rest of us, or what?”

“There’s nothing to discuss,” Tooley said. “This is my ship, I do what I want with it, and what I want is to get out of the fucking universe. You can find someone else to haul your asses around.”

“What if-”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Tooley snapped. Doprel shut up. “It’s not up for discussion. You can join me if you want—not you, Kamak—or you can find another ride. End of story.”

“Didn’t want to join anyway,” Kamak said. “I just think you’re making an impulsive, kneejerk reaction to an emotion you don’t know how to handle. Again.”

Tooley made another brand new rude gesture at him and stormed into her room.

“At least you don’t have any more moms to kill,” Kamak said. Corey gave him a dirty look and followed Tooley into her room. The room was in its usual state of disarray, and its occupant was in an unusual state. She was trying to pry the stopper off a bottle of wine with her teeth, but had accidentally bitten through it in her frustration. Corey helpfully located a corkscrew, since he actually knew where things were, and held it over the bottle.

“You sure you want a drink right now?”

“I need something to wash the taste of blood out of my mouth,” Tooley mumbled. Corey dutifully uncorked the bottle and handed it over, to let the strong alcohol wash out the metallic taste of blood. Tooley tilted the bottle in his direction briefly, but took it back once Corey shook his head.

“So, this Outbound Program thing-”

“I’m not accepting arguments from anyone, Corvash,” Tooley said. “Not even you.”

“Well, good thing I’m not here to argue, then,” Corey said. He shared Kamak’s suspicions that Tooley was making an impulsive decision, but was more willing to let her cool off before trying to pull that particular thread. “I was just going to ask if I was invited.”

Tooley rolled her eyes and choked down more wine.

“Do you ever get tired of being such a sap?”

“No.”

“Very direct, that’s what I like about you,” Tooley said. “I don’t know. You still willing to put up with me after I bashed my mom’s skull in?”

“Tooley, I literally dropped a boulder on my dad,” Corey said. “I get it.”

“I don’t know how your pathology manifests, alright? Mommy issues are fickle things,” Tooley said. “If you think you can tolerate five years stuck on this ship with me, fine, you can tag along.”

“I could tolerate a lot more than five years with you,” Corey said.

“God, it must suck to have standards that low.”

“Tooley.”

“Just letting you know what you’re signing on for, champ.”