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continued, “they’ll know now. I think that’s a given. I think it’s also a given that this will alter how they’ll deal with you, both of you.
    “I’ll repeat what I said three months ago: Chaz is safer with me, even though I’m no innocent in this mess. But I’m a Guthrie. Tage will have to tread carefully around that fact. What you are, Sullivan, will not make them fear you. It will make them hunt you.” He leaned back in his chair. “The Loviti has legitimate business on the A-B that will put us within a shipday’s range of Dock Five. We’re scheduled for a meetpoint at Raft Thirty in about six shipdays. Meet me there, let Chaz transfer to my ship. At least until the Admirals’ Council can do something about the information you gave me about Burke’s jukor labs.”
    Philip held up one hand. “Don’t say no, yet. Think about it. Raft Thirty. Until then, for God’s sake, be careful. I am. Tage has a lot of power and Burke has a reputation for playing hard and dirty. You know how to reach me if you need me.”
    The screen blanked. I half-turned in my chair to glance at Sully and caught a flash of something that looked like anguish on his face. Then it was gone. A light warmth still trickled through my senses, but he’d pulled back.
    A sigh of exasperation blew through his lips. “This is not good news.”
    “I never thought Thad would do something like that.”
    “I should have.” His voice was bitter, thick with blame.
    “Sully—”
    He waved away my comment before I could make it. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault. He wasn’t omniscient.
    He stepped away from the desk.
    “Sully.”
    Hush, Chasidah. Let me think. He paced to the outer bulkhead wall and stared out the viewport, hands shoved in his pockets, shoulders stiff. I didn’t need any kind of mental connection to guess at what was whirling through his mind: the rejection by his crew, his contacts, possibly even Drogue if his Ragkiril talents were revealed. No, not if. When.
    “If we have to,” I said softly, “Verno, Ren, and I can run the Karn .”
    He turned, then leaned back against the wall. “The problem is larger than that. People on the rim—people who work outside the Empire’s laws, as I have—don’t trust easily. It’s taken me years to develop contacts like Pops, Junior, and Newlin. Like Nathaniel Milo.” He dropped his gaze, staring at the carpet for a long moment. Captain Nathaniel Milo’s Diligent Keeper was supposed to be my ticket off Moabar, but Milo was killed by Ministry of Corrections officers, tipped off the ship was going to be used in a prison break. Not mine—Sheldon Blaine’s. The MOC would never have taken such aggressive action over mere Captain Chasidah Bergren.
    The false lead had come from Burke’s people, of that we were fairly sure. But even though it was false, Milo had died because of us. That had affected Sully deeply. And, judging from the tight line of his mouth, it still did.
    “If my damned crew doesn’t mutiny on me,” he said, raising his gaze back to mine, “then the dockhands on the rafts or Narfial will sell me out because they’ll believe I manipulated them.”
    I thought of the money he’d won playing cards with Junior on Dock Five. Stolorths were banned from Imperial casinos for that reason.
    “Does Drogue know you’re—?”
    “I doubt he’d offer sanctuary, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
    I was and he wasn’t reading my thoughts. He shut himself off from me again, his usual reaction when he was hurt or angry.
    “Drogue doesn’t know,” he continued, “and while professionally he’d accept what I am, personally it would destroy our friendship. Not just because of what I am but because I never told him.”
    I knew that feeling. When I’d found out Sully was a Ragkiril, all I’d wanted was to put as much distance between him and myself as possible. And I wasn’t a follower of a religion that believed Kyi-Ragkirils were spawns of hell.
    He