The dull ache woke Tate from his uneasy sleep. He grudgingly opened his eyes and tried to look around. When he flexed his stomach to sit up, agony roared through his side.

“Ode?” he called.

“She’s gone. She went home for the night.”

Tate raised his head and looked at the figure beside him. “Hey, Doc. How long was I out?”

“Only four hours,” Jane said. “Odette laughed when I asked if you’d sleep through the night.”

Tate echoed the laugh. “Yeah. Not likely. Did the surgery go all right?”

“I have to guess yes. You did wake up. I asked her about any warning signs that something had gone wrong—”

“If I’m not smart enough to get help when I need it, I deserve to die.”

“That’s what she said.”

“I know. She’s said it before.”

There was a short silence.

“You served together,” Jane said. “With Alix.”

“Who?” There was a much shorter silence, then Tate’s weak laugh. “Oh. Right. Sarge. I always forget she has a first name.”

“Who are you really? Is Joseph Tate even your real name?”

Tate leaned back on his pillow and stared up at the ceiling. “It is by now. The name my mother gave me is buried. I worked for the Rising for years, under Sergeant Reyer for most of the time. I was transferred to something else a few months before Sarge died—”

“What?! Alix is dead?”

“Whoa! Whoa! Calm down, Doc! She’s not—she’s not dead. She’s fine. Sorry. I don’t know how much you know.” He sighed. “I don’t know how much I can tell you.”

Tate heard Jane grumble a string of objectionable language with the word “war” making an occasional appearance.

When the profanity petered out, he continued. “I was exposed by a traitor not long after Reyer’s injury. I had to leave the Rising, and I’ve been in hiding ever since.”

“So the Rising isn’t giving you orders?”

“No. Reyer called me and asked me for a favor.”

“And you dropped everything—your whole life—to come and be my assistant?”

Tate chuckled. “It wasn’t some massive sacrifice, Doc. I went from selling books to learning biology. The cram session before I got here was pretty rough, but they set up a good study program for me—”

“How many of you did Reyer sic on me?”

“Only me and Ode. I was here to protect you and keep her informed if anything happened. Ode was here in case I screwed up. She could at least get the information back to Sarge.”

Jane took a deep breath. Joseph had been with her long enough he could appreciate how calm she was trying to be.

“What’s Ode’s story?” Jane asked. “Is she in hiding too?”

Tate sucked some air in through his teeth. “Well, I wouldn’t go handing her name and ID into the Supremacy to find out, but I don’t think she’s known to them. She left the Rising for her own reasons, and I’m sorry, Doc, but we don’t talk about them.”

Jane thought back on the woman. Her bright white smile was only a momentary flash—a rare one. Her dignity felt heavy and worn, as if she’d earned it the hard way. A shiver crawled down Jane’s arms.

“And she owed Alix a favor too?”

Tate closed his eyes. “Jane, Reyer could have called on anyone in the squad, and we would’ve come.” He let that sink in for a few seconds, then added, “She chose us because she knew you’d resent it if the Rising was interfering in your work.”

“And that’s supposed to make it okay?” Jane’s facade of patience dissolved. “She’s still interfering! She didn’t talk to me! She probably ordered—”

“She asked,” Tate insisted. “She said please and everything.”

Jane glowered. “She asked you to keep it secret from me. She told you to lie to me.”

“Would you have hired me if you knew I used to work for the Rising?”

Jane didn’t answer.

Tate raised a lazy finger to point at her. “There you go.”

“I didn’t say no!”

“You didn’t instantly say yes either. And Reyer wasn’t okay with that.” Tate tried to lean forward. He did his best to ignore the pain. “Sarge doesn’t leave her friends alone. There was a chance you’d be in danger, and she made sure you were protected. No hesitation.”

He lowered himself back to the bed.

“God,” Jane growled. “She’s so—she’s so…ugh!”

“Yeah. You can tell her when you see her.”

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Jane looked up. “She’s coming here?”

Joseph took in a huge breath of air, stopping only when his expanding chest caused a shot of pain to roll through his stomach. “Come on, Doc,” he whispered. “Time for you to help me.”

With Jane’s help, he made it to a sitting position. Only when he was mostly upright did he get the chance to look around. It was the small attic on the second floor of Odyssey. He’d only seen it once before, but it was where he’d expected to be. Moric Sipos was sitting in a corner on a wooden chair. He’d been watching the entire exchange with one hand up by his mouth. A single finger was resting over his lips.

Tate hadn’t realized the other biologist was there. He forced himself to relax his body and look away. “Tell me Ode left me something.”

Jane nodded to the bedside table. There was a small pill bottle. “For the pain.”

Tate smiled. “Excellent. I’ll be taking one of those and putting on my boots.”

“Joseph, I hate to break this to you, but you’re going to get a little attention if you run around without a shirt on.”

“Oh. Great. And here I’ve been trying to keep fit to get the girls.”

“Why do you think you’ll be getting the attention? Oh, wait. Maybe it’s the three holes stuck in you.”

He nodded to the bedside table. “Bottom drawer.”

Jane opened it. Inside was a small rucksack. Among its contents was a change of clothes.

She held out the shirt. “You certainly are prepared.”

Tate only took it after he’d finished swallowing one of the pills. “Of course. A good assistant always is. And I know how hard Ode can be on clothes.”

He looked around the room after he got the shirt over his head. “Where’s Cuss?”

Jane’s numb despair gave way to laughter. She couldn’t help it. The absurdity of the situation and the shock of it all made her giddy. “Ode got me a cat carrier. She said she had an extra. Cuss is down in the kitchen, sleeping.”

“You’re going to have to decide what to do with her, Dr. Jane.” Tate managed to raise himself to his feet with only a little help.

“Why would I do anything with her?”

“We can’t stay here. There are xenos after you. They know where you live. We have to get someplace safe.”

“I need to go home then—” She stopped herself. “That explosion. That was my house, wasn’t it?”

“You have the notes, right?”

Jane sighed, but she also nodded.

“Now, what happens—” Tate started to say.

“What did you do to my computers?”

“Excuse me?”

“As we were leaving, you did something to my computers.”

“I was wiping them all so they couldn’t find the servers where you keep your site. That information is more important than ever. We want as many copies of it as possible. You can bet the xenos are going to try to destroy it.”

“How…how did you manage to get that program into my system? I should’ve noticed something. A program like that would take a lot of time to code and hide.” Jane blinked. “I didn’t even know you had the know-how.”

“Oh, I don’t. I know enough about computers to get around. Someone else did it for me.”

Dr. Jane stared at Tate. Seconds passed . “Who prepared the crash course on biology you studied before you got here?”

“Ciro Vas.”

She’d found the last Easter egg. “And let me guess, Adan Vas dropped you off?”

“Sarge’s captain? Yes, he did.”

A faint smile pulled up one of Jane’s cheeks. “She owns him now, does she?”

“Have you seen the way he looks at her?” Joseph slung the rucksack over his shoulder.

Jane noticed his grin. “You like him?”

“I do. Nice guy.”

Jane swore. “They were all in on it.”

“Yes, they were, Dr. Jane. Now, about what happens next.” He waited until she looked at him to continue. “Obviously, I can’t order you around, and I’m under strict instructions not to kidnap you again.”

“Gee. I’m so glad they stopped short of that this time.”

“But if you’re not sure what to do, I have a suggestion.”

“I’m listening.”

“Let me call Sarge. We’ll find somewhere to hide out for a few days, then she’ll get here, and she can take us off-planet. Once that happens, I can teach you everything I know about living incognito.”

“Fine.” Jane stood up. “I know where we can go. And there’s something I have to do.”

Tate nodded, then turned to face Sipos. “What about you? What are you going to do?”

Dr. Sipos finally moved. The hand dropped away from his face, and he lifted his shoulder in a shrug that seemed to draw him out of his chair. “I thought you’d forgotten I was here.”

Tate stared at him.

“There’s a small problem,” Sipos said.

“What?” Tate said.

“My ID and my chip-card were in my jacket. The jacket was in the house you blew up, so I have no way to leave.”

“You don’t need an ID to leave Gaoyun. This is a free-plane.”

“But you do need money. I can’t get a new chip-card without an ID, and I can’t get a Supremacy ID on a free-plane.”

“That is a problem,” Tate admitted. “So, what are you going to do?”

Sipos turned and smiled at Jane. “These friends of yours—I hate to impose, but is there a chance that I could get a ride? I have to admit, I’m more than a little shaken by what’s happened. I’m not sure what to do or where to go next—”

“You’ll go to the Supremacy!” Jane said. “You’ll tell them what’s happened.”

“What makes you think they don’t know?” Sipos asked.

Jane pressed her lips together.

“We don’t really know what’s going on,” Tate said. “That’s something we’ll work on—”

“Who’s we?” Sipos demanded.

“The Rising.”

“I thought you weren’t a part of the Rising? Or was that another lie you told Jane?”

Joseph unclenched his jaw enough to hiss, “I’m no longer a member of the Rising. But the Rising has more than a little interest in tracking down the human-xenos.”

“Why?”

“I’m not telling you!”

Jane put her hands on their chests. The unexpected gesture brought them up short. “Can we all agree that fighting right now isn’t going to help anything?” She turned to Tate. “And I don’t think Alix will mind.”

Tate grit his teeth and looked away. “Can I talk to you for a minute.” He took her arm. “In private.”

Jane jerked it free. “All you have to do is ask.”

Joseph drew her far enough away there was some hope Sipos wouldn’t overhear their whispers.

“Doctor, she might mind.”

“Who? Alix? No, she wouldn’t.”

“I’m not saying that Sarge would mind personally. She doesn’t mind doing favors for friends, but you have to remember that she works with the rebellion and she’s careful about protecting information.”

“She’s retired.”

“She’s working with people who aren’t. And even if she is retired, this whole…” He gestured with an arm. “…thing—all of this—needs to be kept quiet. The less people who know what we’re doing, the less chance the xenos have of finding you.”

“So the first thing we’ll do is drop Sipos off somewhere he can get an ID.”

“He could manage without us. There are ways.”

“Tate, we owe him. He volunteered to help me as long as he could, and then we went and blew up his chip-card and ID. Dropping him off somewhere is the least we can do.”

“As your security personnel, I recommend against it!”

“You’re my lab assistant. And I don’t have a lab anymore!”

“But you’re still at risk, so maybe I can get a little credit for doing something I’m actually good at.”

Jane hesitated. “Tate…” There didn’t seem to be any right words. She sighed and settled for, “Thank you.”

Joseph blinked. “You’re welcome.”

“You don’t have to sound so surprised! I’m not an idiot. I know you probably saved my life.”

Now that he had his credit, Tate seemed uncomfortable with it.

Jane found her scattered thoughts. “It was stupid of me to assume I wasn’t in any danger. It’d be even more stupid for me to pretend I don’t need your help now.” She looked up at him. “But I’m not going to leave Sipos stranded here all by himself.”

She had that damn-stubborn look on her face again.

“And if Captain Vas and Sarge do have a problem with it?” Tate asked.

“I’ll deal with that if it happens.”

Tate struggled to get the words out: “It’s your choice, Doctor.”

They walked back across the room and stood in front of Sipos. Joseph couldn’t even look at him.

“If you want to come with us, you can,” Tate said.

Moric let out a sigh of relief, turned his shoulder to Tate, and said, “Thank you, Jane.”