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in registration.”
    Brom stared at Raesa. How did she know
any of this? He was careful to cover his tracks. “Get to the
point.”
    “The children were split up and sent
through different outposts. Ten of them came through mine.” She
wrapped her hair in a fascinating knot. The first stiletto slid
through her tresses, somehow holding it place. “The kids told me
something very interesting. It seems a majority of them weren’t
hybrids, but you painted them that way. Why?”
    He sat on the edge of the bed and added
a carmine dye capsule to etcher. “What happened to the kids?” He’d
never asked, never wanted to know. If they met again, he’d bring
them back into danger.
    “They were all placed with good
families.”
    “Naive.”
    “No. Who do you think created their
identities and found them new homes?” She sat beside him. Her
stunning blue eyes captivated him. They were rare in this universe
and perfect for his little hellcat hacker.
    “A hybrid is less than human to the
Andovian Republic and their Imperial allies. No one cares about a
bunch of hybrid brats. It was easier to slip them through the
system that way.” He held out his hand. “It appears you know me a
lot better than I’d anticipated.”
    “I’ve been following you and Captain
Na’varr for a long time.”
    Why? He wanted to ask but knew he wouldn’t. “Tell me your
plan.”
    She slid her fingers against his. “It
seems like you and I did this once before.” Her expressions were
fascinating. The joy in her eyes matched the smile on her face.
“You held out your hand like this in the cargo bay, too. Thank you
for trusting me.”
    Warmth spread from her touch. To trust
her would be the most dangerous thing of all.
     
    ***
     
    Raesa’s skin tightened and ached where
his etcher did its magic. It was a temporary pigment adjustment.
Three weeks and it would be back to normal. No matter how many
times she’d talked to those kids, it had never occurred to her to
ask how uncomfortable it made them.
    With guilt she realized her
irritation was selfish. Of course, they
were used to hell. What was this to them? She pinched the bridge of her nose while he injected a new
cartridge.
    “I’ll keep it to your face, neck and
shoulders. There’s no point in going any lower.” Brom seemed
uncomfortable, almost angry.
    “You don’t like the plan.”
    “I don’t like putting you in harm’s
way.”
    “Do you have any other record-breaking
hackers on your ship? If so, I’d be happy to step aside,” she
snapped at him and hated it, but he’d been poking at her plan for
the past forty minutes.
    “It’s not about your skill level,
Raesa. Do you know what happens to hybrid women in captivity?” His
jaw clenched.
    Raesa’s anger deflated in an instant.
“Yeah. I know.” Their brutal deaths were burned into her retinas
along with the broken female children who’d been brutalized on the
mining colony. “Don’t think being fully human makes us immune to
it, Brom.”
    He put in a new cartridge and started
it up. “I know that. One more stripe and we’ll have enough to fool
my own mother.” His smile was grim.
    No, he didn’t like the plan, but they
were limited in resources and trust until their mole was
caught.
    Their. After it all went down, she wanted to take them to Sakura and
let Brom see the children he’d saved. The records for all the kids
were buried in a safe away from their home. Unless the Outpost had
a major cleanup of their ship graveyard, it was waiting for
her.
    There was another side to this plan. If
they managed to get free, their traitor would still be able to
compromise their mission. She needed to create a communication
deadspace. The only way to do that was from the border satellite.
It was black crystal. Four years ago, she’d seen what shattered
black crystal could do to a site. Every sliver would create a
dissonance with each sound, effectively destroying the possibility
of sending or receiving messages until it