I watch the ships on patrol whiz around. They don’t seem to have noticed us at all. “How are they not seeing us?” I ask.

“We’re cloaked,” Kiera says.

“Where’s the team?”

“Back where I told them to go,” Laura says. “We’re scouting ahead first. You know, like smart people.”

I hold up my hands. “Hey! I’m just using them for spaceball players. I never said I bought into the crazy.”

“You were crazy already, baby.”

“Just crazy for you, honey.”

Kiera makes a gagging sound. “I’m gonna barf.”

Laura fiddles with some controls and a comlink comes up. It’s Kissy.

“Hey, Steel Tits,” Laura says.

“They’re not actually steel,” Kissy replies. “You should know, you made them.”

More fiddling with controls and a holographic map of the asteroid appears above panel Laura’s working on. A tiny blinking blue dot that I can only assume is Kissy, is down near the bottom of the station. My stomach lurches. She’s a lot closer than I thought she’d get.

“Did you find Dexter?” Laura asks.

“Yes, he’s being held near my position. His IIDS tag is twenty meters away.”

“What’s the closest access point to your location?”

“An airlock. I think he’s in it.”

The floating map zooms in on the airlock in question. “They might as well have just handed him to us,” Kiera says. “That’s on an exposed section. We can fit right up against it and cut through. We’ll have him out in less than forty-five seconds.”

“You can cut through the hull of another ship in less than forty-five seconds?” I ask.

“In one second. Most of the actual time is just going to be flying over there.”

That’s good to know.” It isn’t, though. All that does is make my fear of space travel all that sharper. One second to cut through a ship’s hull and expose all of its soft parts to the cold vacuum? “Why don’t people get hijacked more often?”

“It’s a military-grade boarding assault cutter, combined with atmospheric shielding. A little hard to get, these days.”

“Oh.”

Kiera looks at Laura. “Well, do we go in and get him?”

“We can’t,” Laura says. “Not yet.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because Jager and the Blood Suns came for blood, and they’re going to get it whether Dexter is safe or not. We’ll go back and pick them up, give them the suits, and then come back here and give them their proper battle.”

Kiera’s eyes widen. “Oh, no! I am not letting that band of hooligans on this ship!”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby, Kiera,” Laura says. “What are you going to do, let us assault the station in the team bus? We’ll all be killed before we even get within visual range.”

Kiera holds up her closed fist and raises her index finger. “One. You asked for a ship to go in and rescue a hostage. You didn’t say anything about an embedded station assault.”

Laura rolls her eyes.

Another finger goes up. “Two. I’m not an idiot, I’ve seen the vids. Your team bus is a blockade runner. It’s armored to the gills. You could drive that thing right up to their front door and knock – hell, you could crash right into it – without worrying about a hull breach.”

Laura huffs and looks away.

A third finger. “Three. We grab the hostage and take him out of the equation. We get the kid out of danger. Jager will adapt, he’ll just attack the Scorpions out of retribution instead.”

“Fine, fine!” Laura says. “But just so you know, we don’t think it’s a kidnapping at all. We think the boy’s mother coordinated it and has other ideas about today’s outcome. And if we run in there and take Dexter, we may never find out what the real story is.”

Kiera stares at her. “His mother had him kidnapped?”

“She’s Echelon,” I say. Not because I have a lock on some of the information to be dispensed in this conversation, but because I’d like to be included and not just standing here like some kind of ornament.

Kiera doesn’t even flinch at that information. “Which means her son is, too.”

“He’s fifteen.”

“Doubt it. I bet he’s older. Maybe not by much, but Echelon trains their agents young.”

“He is her son, though. Jager’s, too. DNA match and everything.”

“How do you know that?” Laura asks. “They don’t seem like the kind of people who’d just let you take a DNA sample.”

I tell them about my excursion through Kissy’s eyes.

“You knew about that and you didn’t tell me?” Laura demands.

“I forgot about it, actually. I’ve had other things on my mind.” I get skeptical face. It’s that stare from Laura where she’s not sure if I’m telling the truth or not, and she’s waiting for me to confirm the lie so she can continue believing her assumptions. I shrug at her.

Kiera taps her fingers on the arm of her chair. “She planned to use that as leverage somehow.”

“I dunno,” I say, “she seemed genuinely surprised when I told her Jager was helping out with the team.”

“Fake, I’d wager. Echelon agents are good at seeming all sorts of things. It doesn’t matter. You’d never get the real story out of either of them, anyway. In fact, if you really want to know what’s going on, we’re better off just asking Mabel.”

“Who’s Mabel?” I ask.

“The leader of the Scorpion clan.”

“The Scorpion Lady is named Mabel? Huh.”

“Huh, what?” Kiera asks.

“Well, I guess I just don’t look at the vids and think ‘Mabel’.”

“That’s not her.”

“What?”

“The Scorpion Lady is an actress named Lahu. She’s just a figurehead. Mabel Ereban is sixty-years old. She did a recruiting campaign a few years back with Lahu and it was so successful that the story went further than the Rim - which is why it’s on the vids and you believe it’s true. Everybody out here knows exactly who the real leader of the Scorpions is.”

“That’s awful,” I say.

“Why?”

“It’s such a letdown!”

Laura gives me a sort-of kidding kick to the shin. “Stop it.”

“It really is!” I say. “I’m getting really disenchanted with everything out here. Everything is fake, it’s a big melodramatic play designed to make everybody feel scared, or in awe, and the people in charge are charlatans who’re just as grubby as everybody else.”

Kiera fixes me with a look that makes me want to step back several meters. “Who’re you calling ‘grubby’?”

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Laura steps in front of me and grabs Kiera’s shoulders. “Mabel isn’t going to tell us what we want to know if we take Dexter from her. Especially if we cut a hole in her station to do it.”

Kiera stops glaring at me and smiles at Laura. “Oh, we won’t have to steal him. Mabel will give him to us. Or to me, rather. Then I’ll sell him to you.”

That didn’t compute at all. “Sell?”

“I’m going to be the one getting him, not you. Left up to her, Mabel would take you and ransom you to Chippers. Hell, I want to ransom you to Chippers, but Laura wouldn’t like that.”

“Not much, no,” Laura says.

“How much do you want for him?” I ask.

“Oh, it’s not what I want,” Kiera says. “It’s what Laura wants.”

No. This isn’t happening. This is the broadcasted apology all over again. “She can already have whatever she wants from me.” Laura’s got that greedy expression on her face that I only see when she’s lusting after those miniature Christmas villages that come in four hundred different sets and each cost a month’s worth of credits. “Oh, gods, what do you want?”

“A pony.”

I stare at her. “Are you serious? Where the hell am I supposed to get a pony? And where are we going to keep it? Feed it? And you do know those things shit, right? All over the place?”

“Not an actual pony, you jackass. P.O.N.I. A Personal Omnicutter and Nanotool Interface. Military issue. Fleet ordered them from Chippers Conglomerates right before war broke out. They’re sitting in a warehouse on Pronos, still in their boxes. I saw the requisition order. Brand new. I want one.”

“And five pallets for me,” Kiera says.

Laura nods. “And five pallets for Moo-Moo.”

I look back and forth between them. “And you think Chippers is just going to hand them over? One, I can see. But a pallet? Five of them? Don’t you think you’re being a little greedy?”

“Do you want your kicker or not?”

“We could just as soon run down there and grab him ourselves, now that you mention it. Who gives a shit what Jint’s up to?”

“We can figure out today what her game really is,” Laura says. “She might try something else again and we’ll right back here. We ask Mabel and find out for sure.”

“You says she even knows? She could be caught up in this, just like us, dancing on Echelon’s strings.” I look at Kiera. “You were all gung-ho to run over and snatch him.”

“And now there’s six pallets of PONIs on the table.”

“Six? You said five.”

“I said seven, and the number is going up the longer you argue.”

“Jesus Christ, I’m not a skeleton key to Chipper’s stuff!”

“Eight.”

“Fuck, fine! I’ll get Maurice on it. He’ll know how to talk to Chippers in his own language.”

“Works for me,” Kiera says. She pilots us toward the Scorpions’ base. I realize that we’re flying toward the top of the asteroid, not the bottom. “Hey, we aren’t going to get Kissy. Where are we going?”

“To talk to Mabel,” Kiera says. “Have you forgotten already?”

“What’s wrong with a vidlink?”

Kiera shrugged. “You want to do business with someone out here, you do it face to face. How many of your conversations with Jager have been over the vid?”

“Now that you mention it, none.”

Kiera nods. “That’s right. To them, the vid is impersonal, cold. You can’t see a person’s entire body language on the vid. It’s fine for commands and reports, but not business transactions. But you want to know the biggest reason?”

“What’s that?”

“A person is a lot harder to fake.”

“That’s a problem?” Laura asks. “It’s really easy to tell if the vid is a simulation.”

“Not a few hundred years ago, it wasn’t,” Kiera says. “All the counterfeit signal detection software in the vid links we have today didn’t exist back them. They used to have real issues with vid hacking and clan wars over fake signals. So they stopped using the vid for business, even after the anti-spoofing protocols were invented. It just stuck.”

“Hold on a second,” I say. “I thought we’d talk via vid, not go in there. The only way I’m going along with this is if we get Jager and the team first. None of this lone wolf stuff. If it goes sideways on us, and I pretty much guarantee it will, we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

“Fine,” Kiera says. “We’ll go and fetch them. But they don’t set foot on this ship. We’ll transfer the suits to the team bus.”

“Also fine,” I say.

“Are you done adding stipulations?”

I make a show of thinking about it. There isn’t anything I want from Kiera. Everything she has to offer likely comes with a price tag measured in bodies. “Yes.”

“Good. Let’s pick up Kissy and get this over with.”

The ship stops down at Kissy’s position, but I don’t see her anywhere. We’re really close to the asteroid now, less than a spaceball field’s distance. It’s mostly rock where we are, the closest exposed section of the station is a few hundred meters away. The airlock. With Dexter in it. He’s right there. Kiera said it would take less than thirty seconds to get him out. We could get him right now and get the hell out of here, and I wouldn’t have to tell Maurice to ask Chippers for eight pallets of military hardware to give to a gunrunner.

I get a sending from Jager. Mr. Stern, where are you?

“Jager wants to know where we are,” I say.

“Tell him we’re coming to get him,” Laura says, “and we know where Dexter is. Tell him we have the suits.”

I relay all of that.

I get Good. We are here. Waiting.

Then I hear grappling sounds on the ship’s hull. A green light on the dashboard turns red, and then turns green again.

“Kissy’s onboard,” Kiera says.

My quarterback arrives at the cockpit dressed like she’s just been at a cocktail party. No battle armor, no harness. Not even boots. She’s wearing a little black dress and heels.

You know, it never occurred to me when I got up this morning that my day would progress is this madhouse fashion. I figured that by lunch, I’d be working on plays, watching drills, and thinking about our next game against the Varyin Stonemen. They’re not actual stone, that would be weird. No, their planet’s prime export is stone and yes, that threw me the first time I heard it, too. The universe has no shortage of rocks, they’re spread out all over the place. There’s so many that they bang into each other and make rock babies. But none of it is like Varyin marble, which glows softly after being polished. The colors depend on the emotional state of the sculptor. There’s a cottage industry around not only interpreting abstract sculpture and what it means, but now interpreting that same abstract art along with its glow, and what that means - as if art critics didn’t get paid too much already dreaming up random shit to go along with other people’s dreamed-up random shit. I thought the whole thing was very fascinating right up until I learned about the black market industry of torturing sculptors to produce deep red and black glows.

Speaking of torture, there’s a surprise waiting for us at the rendezvous point.

Oh, the team bus is there, all safe and sound. It’s not the only ship, though. Collected around it in a giant ball are thousands of starfighters, a couple hundred frigates, fifty cruisers, sixteen dreadnoughts, and hovering directly above the bus is what looks like — “Is that a Fleet battleship?” Nobody answers me. They’re taking it in. “I said, is that a battleship?” I ask again.

“That’s Jager’s ship,” Kiera says.

“It’s his? How did he get it? That thing is enormous. It looks like it can barely squeeze through a Gate.”

Nobody comments on that, either. Kiera looks upset. Laura looks awed. Kissy looks like Kissy.

“I take it this is a new thing for everybody.” I observe.

“That’s gotta be all of them,” Laura says. “It’s got to be.”

“All of who?”

“The clans. He brought all the clans.”

“That’s not all of them,” Kiera says. “I’ve never seen this many in one place before, but he’s definitely short.”

“How do you know?” Laura asks.

“Jager couldn’t have gathered them all by himself. He’s not … He doesn’t have that authority.”

“Doesn’t matter if it’s all of them or not,” I say, “We don’t have to bargain with Mabel now.”

Kiera snorts. “Where did you get that idea?”

“Well, I’m looking at enough firepower to turn that rock of hers to dust.”

“Aside from the precedent he’s setting here, none of that means anything to her. She’s got Dexter. Jager wants him, and she knows it. He’s not going to blow up her station with him on it.”

“He probably would if turns out his son is Echelon,” Laura says.

“We don’t know that,” Kiera says, “and until we do, we’re not saying anything.”

“Please don’t,” I agree. “I’d have to find another kicker.”

Kiera gives me an astonished look. “You’ll still field him after this?”

“Sure. He’s got an amazing leg.”

She looks ready to make another retort and gets a faraway look instead. “Jager’s calling,” Kiera says.

Jager’s head appears before us. He looks pleased with himself. Or hungry. I can’t really tell. “Mr. Stern!” he booms. “Good! Everyone is here! We can begin, and—”

Jager notices Kiera for the first time. He blinks. A slow smile creeps across his face and then it’s gone. He ducks his head at her and without a hint of sarcasm says, “Welcome to our little gathering, Your Grace.”

Kiera looks frosty. She inclines her head and says, “What did I tell you would happen if you ever called me that again?”

“You said I would no longer get my special deliveries.”

“Consider them revoked.”

Jager doesn’t flinch. “So sad. But, you are not the only supplier.”

“Bartrand’s quality is terrible, Jager,” Kiera says. “You’ll come to regret it.”

A slight smile from the grizzled clanmaster. I realize this is a game, of sorts, and whatever they’re talking about isn’t reason to spike my blood pressure more than it already is. “Jager, what’s with the army?”

“We will be assaulting a stronghold. I did not know what reinforcements you would be able to acquire on such short notice. I was right to do this.” He gestures at us. “One ship will not be sufficient in this endeavor.”

Kiera doesn’t correct him about which ship this is. So I don’t, either.

“We can’t just go in there guns blazing,” Laura says. “They’ve got Dexter in an airlock.”

Jager shrugs. “Is old ploy. He is not there.”

“What? His IIDS node–”

“Fake. You were tempted to bargain with Mabel directly, were you not?”

“How did you know that?” Kiera demands.

Jager laughs at her. “You are lucky you did not. We would not be speaking now if you did. Mabel is getting a better offer from Echelon for weapons, ships, supplies. Lots lying around after war. You and your ship would be a nice bonus.”

“Why did she kidnap Dexter, then?”

Another knowing smile. He’s starting to freak me out. “Where’s Jint right now?” I ask.

“She is on the team bus,” Jager says. “Regardless of our relationship, it’s prudent Echelon stays off my ship.”

Well, that answers that question. Jager knows who Jint is. Probably has known from the start, and didn’t say anything. I’m not sure what his agenda is here, and I decided that not knowing isn’t in my best interests anymore. “Jager, how long have you known that Dexter is your son?”

“Since he was born, of course. I would not be good clanmaster if I lost track of children.”

I’m getting a headache. I rub my temple. “So, you know that Jint is orchestrating this thing?”

Jager’s smile widens. “Of course. This is a game. I have not been challenged in long time. Mabel thinks with her new Echelon friends that she can do this. I am here today to show her she is mistaken in this regard.”

“I take it you’ve planned this already?”

“Of course! Did you think I just run around shouting foolish things and charging into battle without a plan? Good! That’s what you are supposed to believe. You will go and negotiate with Mabel for his release. She will attempt to capture you. When this happens, we will attack. During the confusion, you will grab her and my son. Once you are safely away from the station with them, I will obliterate it. What fun this is!”