The three of them were standing in the shadow of theSkyNomadwhen Ry pulled up on an anti-grav bike, followed by three of his team.
Rynan jumped off the bike, then hauled the body draped on the back of it off and dumped it on the ground.
“You killed him?” Justyn said.
“Nope. He shot himself.”
Nissa crouched and turned the body over. She gasped. “One of the monks!”
“I doubt he was really a monk,” Justyn said.
“Correct.” Ry’s voice was dark. “I suspect we’ll find he’s a recent convert. He was working for someone else.”
Who?Justyn didn’t like not knowing who else was out there gunning for them.
“I have more bad news,” Rynan said.
Justyn’s gut cramped.
“I just received a long-range transmission from a friend at Galaxy’s Edge. Word’s out that the US Constitution was a fake. The…criminal element of the galaxy is using it as an excuse to ignore the law. Prisoners are appealing their sentences. The GSS has its hands full quelling uprisings on about a dozen planets and stations.”
“Goddess,” Nissa breathed.
“It gets worse. A small fleet of starships passed through the Edge. They asked questions about us, the convoy’s route, and about Nissa.”
She cursed. “So we’re going to have company soon?”
“Yes. Of the unwelcome kind. The convoy is being led by a treasure hunter called Alexei Gunn. I contacted Dathan and apparently this Gunn is a bad guy. Likes to tail other hunters, steal their research so they can find the treasure, and then kill them.”
“Nice,” Justyn mumbled.
“Did you find out anything to help you find the Constitution?” Dare asked.
“Yes,” Justyn said. “The Memory Keeper showed us some artwork by aNerocrewmember’s descendant, and Nissa put it together with info from the diary.”
She stepped forward. “We think something happened to theNeronear a gas giant.”
Dare frowned. “A gas giant? But if theNerohad gotten too close, there’d be nothing left.”
“Not if it crashed on the planet’s moon. A freighter rescued some of theNero’screw, so it can’t have been in the gas giant at the time. There’s a chance—a slim one—that the wreckage still exists.”
Ry’s eyes narrowed. “So we need to find all gas giants within range of here?”
“It’s a green gas giant, if that helps,” Nissa added.
Dare and Ry traded a look. Justyn straightened. He knew that look. “You know where it is.”
Dare nodded. “It’s called Sargasso. It’s thirty-six hours from here.”
Rynan continued. “We avoid it, as do most convoys. In the past, many ships were destroyed there or barely escaped, usually with massive damage. Old convoy crews talked about strange forces, mysterious lights, and giant creatures that attacked ships.” He shook his head. “Old space tales but there’s usually a seed of truth in there somewhere.”
Justyn and Nissa stared at each other. “The diary talked about space monsters.”
Rynan shrugged. “We’ve heard it all before and not once on a convoy have we seen a space monster. More likely some strange anomaly took out the ship.”
“You said most convoys avoid Sargasso?” she asked.
“Yes.”
