“It’s true,” Straik says, picking up where Mathiras left off. “I was able to access a few reports when I was hunting for the ship myself. The family filed one notice of a missing ship with the last port the Star had left, and nothing after that. Given that nothing was posted by my family after that, I’m convinced my mother was aware of the contents of the ship and didn’t want to send the authorities looking for a cargo ship full of illegally cloned slaves.” His mouth goes flat. “Then there’s the fact that she tried to have me killed when I told her what I found.”
“Fucking bitch,” Zoey mutters.
It’s nothing I haven’t heard before. We’ve all heard from Ruth about what happened after Lord Straik abandoned the Buoyant Star, but I like that Zoey sums it up better than I could. Fucking bitch, indeed.
“So if we assume that Lady sa’Rin is behind all this, that means we have someone with deep pockets and is very organized,” Mathiras speaks again. “We’re going to split up to cover as much ground as possible. We have to work quickly and stealthily.” He turns toward the screen where Zoey’s concerned face dominates the comm channel, the faces of some of the crew of the Jabberwock behind her. “I’ve talked with the Jabberwock and they’ve agreed to stake out Homeworld space. They’ll be posing as mercenaries, but the real goal is to keep watch over Lady sa’Rin’s movements. They’re going to see if she leaves the planet, or if she sends someone out to handle her dirty work. We’ll need to keep tabs on her at all times.”
“We’re on it, big bro,” Zoey says with a confident smile and a thumbs up.
Mathiras nods and turns toward the screen where Sophie and Jerrok have comm’d in from the junk station. “Jerrok’s station will be a base of operations for both the Scarlet Gaze and the Little Sister while we tackle this problem. His station isn’t located on any maps and off of any major travel lanes, so it should be safe. If not, Jerrok reassures me he and Sophie can handle themselves. If we need to refuel or simply to lie low for a while, go there. In addition, if you need to communicate with either the Scarlet Gaze or the Sister, go through Jerrok and leave a message there. We’ll check in regularly, and once we set out, we won’t be able to contact each other directly until things are resolved. That’s for the safety of everyone. If the Sister gets in trouble or gets tracked, the last thing I want is to lead anyone directly to the Gaze, understand?”
“Just to me, instead,” Jerrok mutters.
“It won’t seem out of the norm for a corsair ship to contact a black market junk dealer about fuel. You’ll be fine.” Mathiras turns and looks at all of us on the bridge, his expression solemn. “The Little Sister and the Scarlet Gaze will be splitting up. Time is going to be of the essence. If we catch the slavers, we don’t want the clone lab aware that we’re onto them. So here’s what I propose.”
I clasp my hands in front of me with excitement. This all sounds dangerous, sure, but we’re leaving Port, and I’m going to be with Mathiras. That’s all I care about.
CHAPTER 6
MATHIRAS
Now comes the hard part—convincing everyone that my plan is the right one.
“Here’s what I propose,” I begin. “We got a lead recently from one of the Jabberwock’s contacts that there’s a slaver ship that’s been seen repeatedly near the Kopan system. It’s heavily armed, which suggests it has something to protect. That’s one avenue. The other avenue is to go looking for the cloning operation.”
“I know which one I’m voting for,” Kaspar says, rubbing his hands together. Adiron reaches forward and musses Kaspar’s hair, a big grin on his face. He looks excited.
I figured as much, which is why they’re really going to hate my suggestion. “I think the Scarlet Gaze should go after the slavers.”
“What? Why?” Kaspar looks furious.
I raise a hand in the air to silence my brother, glancing over at Straik’s comm channel. We’ve already discussed this, but my brothers don’t need to know that. “The Scarlet Gaze is a top-of-the-line ship. It’s got a big, well-equipped crew, and high-end weaponry. She’s fast. She can go toe-to-toe with a slave ship. It’s the obvious choice. So the Gaze will go after the slavers and take them down.”
Kaspar glares, arms crossed. Alice nudges him and his expression softens a little. I know my brother hates missing out on a good fight, but he needs to realize that this is the wisest choice.
Now comes the hard part. “Since the Little Sister will be hunting for the location of the cloning operation, we’re going to operate with a stripped-down crew since this will primarily be an information-gathering excursion. Once we determine how large the cloning operation is, we can regroup and take it out.”