A heavy sigh escapes my lips. I’ve got a big job ahead of me. I need to convince her to remain with us, thereby saving this female from herself, and the only tools at my disposal will be my charm and winning personality, both of which I often find lacking.
Hallie takes the couch nearest all of us. And I quietly stand and move so that I’m seated beside her. She gives me a nervous smile and then looks back at my other brothers.
“Start with the House,” Scar says. “You said Royal Pigment. Which one?”
“House Vaszneth.”
The name drops into the room and I watch it land on my brothers’ faces. Even Scar goes still.
“You know it?” Hallie asks.
“I knowofit,” Scar responds. “The way you know of a storm on the far side of the planet. They are one of the oldest, richest Royal Pigment Houses on Chronos.”
“I kept their records.” She wraps both hands around the traq but doesn’t drink. “Which means I saw how the orders moved. Who signed what, where the currency went and who it went to.”
“Can you give us names?” Chief questions.
“Researchers, mostly. Everything was kept quiet, off the main ledgers and paid through accounts that don’t have the House’s name anywhere near them. And there were lots of shipments I was never able to trace, going out to coordinates that aren’t on any registry I had access to.”
Chief leans forward. “Going where?”
“I don’t know. That’s the point. Someone took a great deal of trouble to make sure the Keeper couldn’t follow those particular records.” Her mouth twists. “Which is how I knew they were the ones that mattered.”
“And you can prove all this,” Scar says.
For a moment she just looks at him. Then she reaches into the bag she hasn’t let leave her side since she arrived, and she lays a single document on the low table between us.
The whole room goes still.
Because it’s real and signed.
Scar takes it like it’s made of glass. I watch his eyes move down as he reads it. “Kryzon,” he murmurs. “This document proves he was in the Royal Pigment district on Chronos. The residence he kept visiting, late, that I could never put a name to.” He looks up at Hallie. “He wasn’t visiting a person, he was reporting to a House.”
“I don’t know anyone named Kryzon,” Hallie says carefully.
“No,” Scar responds. “But your House does.” He sets the document down. “This connects. I don’t have all of it yet. But thisconnects.”
Hallie shifts in her seat. “So,” she says, and her voice goes brisk and falsely light, the voice of someone already planning her way out. “Now you have hard evidence so you can start unraveling all the details. Please use this to find a way to stop this from happening. They’ve already started the theft of Illibrium, pretending to be buying it for power stations, and thenusing it instead as a test subject, trying to get it to bond to Royal Pigment Xylan. It’s best if I’m not here, in this compound with you anymore.” Hallie starts to stand. “You don’t need me sitting here painting a target on your families. I should?—”
“Stay,” I boom.
Her eyes widen and she sits back down in her seat.
I soften my voice. “You leaving doesn’t make us safer. The line that leads here is already drawn. Scar has already done intel and we know about the visa and the transporter station. We need you with us because you know all the details in that smart mind of yours and we’ll need to be constantly asking you questions and helping us to unravel what you’ve learned.” I hold her gaze. “You’re not a danger we’re tolerating, Hallie. You’re the only one alive who’s read the whole plan. We don’t need you gone. We need youhere.”
“But I am bringing danger to you, your brothers, the women and the children here. I refuse to be the reason any of you are hurt.”
“I refuse to be the reasonyouget hurt.”
She licks her lips. “That’s annoyingly logical,” she mutters.
“I have my moments.”
And then Chief lays out the rest of the plan plainly, exactly as he said earlier. The crew keeps working the mine, normal as any cycle, because routine is the best camouflage there is. Her presence stays secret, as far as Timbur knows, no one arrived. And someone stays back in the compound with her.
“Who?” Hallie questions. She’s already looking at me.
“Me,” I say.
