It was hard not to freak out before, but until Kal and Mary were safely headed back to the ship, it was even harder. Even after they were out of harm’s way, I still could barely let out my held breath, but I could at least inhale a bit more. At that point I’d take whatever breathing capabilities I could get my lungs on.

“Let’s not cause more of a fuss than we already have!” Boss Riggh said from within the walls of his ship. “Let’s talk like civilized folk, eh?”

Ava stood, hesitant, holding her blaster by the barrel. I could see it shaking, slightly, but her voice was calm. “Tell your men to stand by the loading bay. At a distance. I don’t care if they’re armed, but they need to be well out of arm’s reach. You better have something worth talking about.” She growled the last bit under her breath.

Boss Riggh peeked out from his hiding spot, setting down his gun and shuffling into the open. His men trailed behind him, sullen, jostling each other with menacing bravado.

“Spread out,” Riggh told them.

“Get your men all the way to the edge of the platform,” Ava said. “If there’s a shootout, me and you are at the crossfire.”

Riggh grinned. “Mutually assured destruction.”

“Exactly,” I said, standing as well. “But on a much, much smaller scale, thank you very much.”

Boss Riggh’s crew sauntered to the far edge of the platform. Sage retreated to the other side, behind me, lugging her enormous laser rifle. I was relieved to see it.

Ava strode out to meet Riggh, and I scurried to keep up. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, buddy,” she barked at him. He eyed me and Sage behind me, and sneered widely.

“This is your whole crew? What, do ye treat your people like trash?”

“I’ve got snipers on both those buildings, you piece of—”

“Bluffing. You’re bluffing,” Boss Riggh said. But there was hesitation in his voice.

Ava read his nerves. She played on it, smirking silently. “You want to take those odds, Boss? I’m not feeling merciful. So tell me. Did you betray us? Or did a miracle angel step in at the last second and rescue your sweet—”

“What about your sweet?” Boss Riggh gave Ava a knowing look. “Your ‘friend’, Oren. I almost forgot to tell ye, but he could be alive! I certainly am, so it’s possible.”

Ava clenched and unclenched her jaw a few times. When she spoke, each word was spaced out, deliberate and menacing. “Do you know something I don't, Riggh?”

“Well!” he said. “First off, I’ve turned a new leaf. I would never—”

“So you did betray us. “

Boss Riggh grimaced. “Technically I was coerced, but I can see how—”

“Tell me one reason,” Ava said through gritted teeth. “Why it wouldn’t honor my fiancé’s memory to end you. Right here, right now.”

There was a lethal pause. I took the opportunity to barge in. “What Ava —ahem— what the Captain means to say is, well... New leaf or not, you owe us. Big time. Supernova big time. Now’s your chance to pay up via the ‘words and actions’ method,” I said, doing my best to sound professional. “As opposed to the ‘big sleep’ method.”

Boss Riggh pouted, looking sickeningly apologetic. “It would be a pleasure to help ye track down Oren. I don’t know where he is—”

Ava inhaled sharply, turning away in barely contained fury. I motioned for him to continue.

“—or whether, for sure, he is alive.”

I watched a vein begin to throb at Ava’s temple and yanked my hand across my throat, opening my eyes wide and warningly to Boss Riggh.

“—But I know the guy who knows both those things.”

“Then spit out the name already,” Ava commanded.

I interjected with the less threatening translation: “If you could be so kind as to identify this individual.”

“As much as I would love to send ye on your way…” Here, Boss looked, for the first time, genuinely remorseful. “The man ain’t exactly what ye’d call reputable. Ye’ll need an introduction if ye want any information from him.”

“Then you’re our guy?” I asked before Ava could grill him some more.

“Unfortunately,” he admitted.

“Why do we trust you to not simply betray us? Again,” Ava asked, a bit of the fury receding from her voice, replaced by bitterness.

“Ye’ll just have to… trust me.”

I gave him my most unsatisfied eyebrow raise.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to fess up a few scant details. I was put up to it by a guy in the Belt,” Riggh said. “I’m not about to go blabbing his name in the open, but ye’ll meet him soon enough. I thought it was a simple space mugging. I hadnae idea the thugs would be actual scarships. If I’d known that, I’d have turned myself in to the Artship Collective rather than work for those—”

“For what? What did this guy have on you?”

“It turned out to be nothing. But I thought he’d framed me for fraud. He had excellent forgeries, but it turned out to be a bluff.”

Ava thought about this for a brief moment. “You said this guy operates out on the Belt?”

“Sure thing, Captain.”

“And he can tell us what happened to Oren?”

“If anyone can, he’s your man. He’s got a mean racket, but he’s in the know.”

Ava took a deep breath. “Sounds like we’re going to the belt then.”