Zenos looked at Isaak over my shoulder then let go of the necklace and moved away.
“Gara, turn toward me.”
I spun around in the chair eager to have it off. Knowing it wasn’t supposed to be there, that it was not a typical Trion adornment, made me feel as if a snake were wrapped around my neck. He pulled some weird tool from his belt, held it up. “This won’t hurt. Much.”
My eyes widened. “Much?”
He grinned then winked. I exhaled.
“Those are hard to come by,” Ivy said, her voice sounding impressed. “Looks like you hit the jackpot in Hive tech.”
As Isaak worked on removing the necklace, I stayed still, noticed the color of his eyes, the sharpness of his jaw. Those full lips. “Hard to come by? For you, maybe.” Those full lips moved, and I watched as the corner tipped up.
“That’s right, Space Pirate,” Ivy countered. “You can get anything.”
With an audible click, the necklace loosened. Isaak looked up and winked at me, slid the metal from my skin and handed it to Zenos, who’d settled back across the table.
Zenos looked at it closely, Ivy’s head moving beside his to stare as well. “This is Tryphite. It’s only found in one mine on Rogue 5’s home planet, Hyperion. You can tell by the silver sheen but the tinge of green. It’s heavy, yet pliable. It can’t be forged with any other metal, no matter the melting point. It’s like the stuff has a mind of its own.” He spoke like a scientist who knew his stuff.
“Why did Bertok have it?” I wondered.
Zenos flicked his gaze to me. “I do not know, but it proves the connection between Bertok and Rogue 5.”
Ivy reached for the medallion and ran her fingernail along the edges. “It looks like a locket. There must be something inside.”
Zenos grunted. “Onl
y one way to find out.” He walked to the bar top until he came to the very end. There, sitting alone and looking angry, was a single male wearing a wine-red arm band.
“Oh, shit.” Ivy shot to her feet.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
When I made a move to step around the table, Isaak’s arm wrapped around my waist from behind and held me back. I hadn’t even noticed that he stood. “Leave him, gara. It’s too dangerous.”
I wanted to argue, I really did, but he was warm and strong, and Ivy had stopped moving too, her hands on her hips like an annoyed wife.
Zenos walked to the male who looked up from his drink. Zenos said something I could not hear, lifted his fist and swung. Hard.
The Cerberus male, who had lines on his face and a thin, sunken face, flew back into the wall and slumped there unconscious.
“What the hell is he doing?” I asked.
Ivy turned to me, shrugged and turned back to watch Zenos bend down, wipe something from the male’s mouth and return to the table.
“Give me the medallion.”
Ivy handed it over without question.
Zenos lifted his thumb, and I saw a drop of blood on the tip. He rubbed the liquid on the surface of the medallion and set it back down on the table. “Cerberus codes all of his tech to artificial DNA that every member of his legion is required to carry.”
“What?”
Ivy scowled as she watched the medallion. “It’s crazy out here, Zara. And even worse on Rogue 5. Don’t ask.”
I didn’t want to, and even if I did, I doubted I would understand her answer. I had to work two jobs just to eat. I barely finished high school. DNA sounded like science to me, and that was so not my territory.
A pale light appeared along the edges of the medallion, and as one, we all four sank back down into our chairs to watch as the medallion opened up, the top sliding back and away into the sides like a collapsing accordion with metallic ridges.