His mouth firmed into a hard line she’d never seen. “Right. The righteous Captain Sander wants more substance. Maybe a nice, law-abiding GSS officer would be perfect, right?”
She saw storms building in his eyes. Yes, that was the kind of man she’d pictured. It was the kind of man her father was always setting her up with whenever she made it home for a visit.
Justyn gave a vicious shake of his head. “I get the message loud and clear, Captain. I won’t sully your presence with mine any longer.”
He stormed out of her quarters, the doors closing behind him.
Her lips quivered before she smashed them together and breathed through her nose. This was for the best. He was gone and out of her life. Except if she had to arrest him again. Although something told her she’d be seeing less of theMercuryon theResolute Freedom’ssensors.
She rubbed at the ache in her chest before she pulled herself together. All those duties and responsibilities were waiting for her.
Her timepiece pinged, as if reinforcing her thoughts. She stabbed the screen. “Sander.”
“Captain?” Luciana’s voice came through loud and clear. “We have a problem. Can you please come down to the Science Lab?”
“On my way.” As Nissa walked out of her quarters, she couldn’t help a glance down the corridor to see if she spotted familiar broad shoulders and lean hips.
The corridor was empty.
Justyn slammedthrough the doors to the Science Lab. “I got the urgent message. What the hell’s the problem?”
He saw Lieutenant Galen standing over a light bench, a scanner in her hand. The Constitution was laid out on the table before her.
He dragged in a breath, taking in the black ink scrawled on the delicate paper turned yellow with age. He suspected that without the super-slim plas overlay that coated the document, it would have crumbled to dust thousands of years ago.
But the priceless artifact didn’t hold his attention for long. Nissa stood, on the other side of the table, back rigid, her palms pressed to the edge of the bench. For the first time since he’d known her, her face was white.
Despite what happened in her quarters, he felt the urge to go to her. He steeled himself and crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s wrong?”
Nissa lifted her head, her gaze slamming into his. “It’s a fake.”
He frowned. “What’s a fake?”
She swept an arm above the table. “This document is a fake.”
Every drop of fluid in his body went ice cold. “It can’t be.”
“It is.” Luciana bustled forward. “A brilliant one. It’s old, too, just not old enough.” She touched a holo-screen mounted over the workbench. “The paper tests to nine hundred years old. The ink to around the same age.”
Justyn dropped onto a nearby stool. Nowhere near old enough to have come from Earth before it was turned into a nuclear wasteland by the Great Terran War. He looked at Nissa. “We need to talk to Solomon. He must have the original.” But when the hell had he found time to put this very good fake together?
“Security’s already bringing him up,” Nissa said.
When Tryker brought the young treasure hunter in, Solomon studied the lab with interest, and shot Luciana a flirtatious smile.
“Knock it off, Solomon.” Justyn stepped in front of the other man. “Where is the US Constitution?”
Solomon’s brows winged upward. “You get knocked on the head, Phoenix? It’s right there before you on the table, in all its ancient glory.”
“That—” Justyn stabbed a finger at the offending document “—is a fake.”
The treasure hunter blinked. “No way. I verified it myself.”
“Then someone relieved you of it between you conking Kenth over the head and us catching you on Alchemia.”
Solomon shook his head fiercely, the electro-cuffs on his wrists blinking as he moved. “Not possible. It was with me every second.”
“How did you verify it?” Nissa asked in a cool voice. “Did you run dating tests?”
