“Rynan, drop a warning beacon. I want to make sure any travelers coming this way avoid Sargasso,” Dare said.
“On it.”
“So, you found it.” Dare eyed the cylinder, then looked at Justyn.
Justyn flopped back in his seat. “Yep. And I’ll show it to you…later. Right now, I want a rare steak, a shot of kila—” he waggled his eyebrows at Nissa “—and a beautiful, naked woman. Oh, and no interruptions for several hours.”
Nissa stood. “Well, Phoenix, you are out of luck.” She shot him a simmering look. “I don’t cook.”
Her words took a second to register. He leaped to his feet. “I have a food printer in my cabin. It does a pretty good steak.”
“Sorry to interrupt your plans,” Rynan said dryly. “There’s a ship on an intercept course and an incoming transmission…for Nissa.”
Nissa frowned. “Who is it?”
Rynan tapped the console screen. “They haven’t responded to hails.”
She stalked over to the comms console. “Put it through.”
She was aware of Justyn stepping up beside her. Adrenaline was still humming through her veins. She wanted nothing more than to rip Justyn’s clothes off, work off her excess energy, then cuddle with the man she loved and fall asleep for a few hours.
A face flashed on the screen.
Nissa stared. “Admiral DeRuyter?”
In her neatly pressed GSS uniform and her hair in its usual starched bob, Admiral DeRuyter was the last person Nissa expected to see this far beyond the galaxy’s edge.
“Captain Sander. Were you successful? Did you recover the Constitution?”
“Yes—”
“Excellent. I’ll have you and the artifact teletransported aboard my ship?—”
“Ma’am, with all due respect, what the hell are you doing out here?”
“I wanted to ensure the artifact was secured. It is imperative?—”
As the admiral droned on, Nissa’s gut tightened. Her neck was prickling. “How did you know where we were?”
“What?” The admiral’s face went blank.
“You can’t have known where we were. I haven’t reported in to you since before Hydrae.”
“Ah…well, I simply followed Gunn and his ships.”
Disappointed sadness swamped Nissa, followed swiftly by anger. “You meanhiredGunn and his ships.”
The admiral’s brow creased. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Nissa. Now, prepare for teletransportation and ensure you have the document?—”
Nissa could almost smell the woman’s desperation through the screen. “Was it money? Are you planning to sell it? If so, you wouldn’t be able to leave any witnesses.”Please, let me be wrong.
The admiral’s face hardened, all traces of confusion vanishing. “No, I plan to use it to gain a seat on the Galactic Council.”
The highest authority in the galaxy. “Bribe your way on.”
The admiral shrugged. “I’ve spent years working my way to the top of the GSS. DedicatedeverythingI have to it. Theyturned down my application for the Galactic Council…again. With the Constitution as a bargaining chip, they’ll have no choice but to see I’m the right woman for the job. I’m doing this for the greater good of the galaxy, Nissa.”
It was like Nissa was staring at a stranger, not a woman she’d admired her entire career. “You hired the mole. The monk on theNomad.”
