Page 82 of Kryxis

She kissed him then turned for the door, opening it wide enough to make sure no one was outside before she slipped out.

She made her way to the upper levels, accepting she might be facing termination. It had to be the only reason they were calling for her with such urgency. It was painful knowing how many years she put in for the company, her whole life really. She wasn’t getting her blue suit and that hurt too. But they weren’t getting the datachip. No matter how much they threatened her.

She hopped off the elevator and bee-lined for the meeting room. A security officer at the door gave her a stern look. “They’re waiting for you.”

“I know.”

They stepped aside and let the door slide open. Dani marched inside ready for a fight—then froze at the door.

“Dani, you made it just in time,” Nadine said near the head of the table. The other heads were there too, along with her crew. They looked over at her with pale, grim faces. She glanced between them before slowly approaching the table.

“Why don’t you have a seat.”

Cautiously, she took a seat. “What is—”

“We are going to get right to the point, Ms. Alveraz,” another head by the name of Leland started. “It’s come to our attention, that you and your crew have brought onboard our vessel a dangerous individual. Something from X110. Crewmen have seen it. And it has been tampering with our power.”

Her heart sank to her stomach. She clutched her seat, unable to speak.

“Do you deny it, Ms. Alveraz?”

She looked over at the others, feeling cold. “I…I don’t…know what you mean.”

The heads stared at her, disappointed.

“Dani…it’s no use,” Nadine said. “We know about the vrisha.”

Dani shook her head. No. No, this couldn’t be happening now. Why now? “How…how could you.” Her gaze drifted back to her crew. How could they give him up now? Now that they were so close?

Lex gave her a guilty look, shaking their head. “We’re sorry, Dani.”

“Lex…you told them?”

“No,” Nadine spoke first. “Your crew was loyal to the end, no matter how much we questioned them. So, we had to get our sources elsewhere.” Her gaze fell on Tom.

Tom’s head was bowed, unable to look at her. “I should have secured my network better. Should have known. I’m sorry, Dani. My messages were—” He looked up at Nadine, guilty. “Leaked.”

Leaked…no. More like Nexacor hacked into his computer and found his messages. They must have broken into all their computers just to see what they could find and found Tom’s message sent out to the alliance.

“So, we called your team back and they confessed once we showed them the message,” Leland continued. “But they say it was your idea, and that only you know where the vrisha is. Because of your decision to endanger this ship and its crew, you will be terminated immediately. You will be held at the next port for questioning. Your rights to privacy onboard this ship have been stripped, and a team has been sent to your unit to search and seize—”

Dani leaped from her seat. “No!”

“You can’t!” Myrell shouted.

“We can and we will,” said Leland. “And we will have no choice but to put the ship in code-red lockdown. You will return to your units, and we will have every security team available searching the ship top to bottom for the vrisha. Once captured it will be contained and given up to governing officials of the Earthen systems.”

The Earthen systems.No fucking way.“You can’t just give him away to those militant bastards!” Dani snapped. They would lock him away, study him like some experiment. No. No way would she let them. “Who made this call?”

“Your father.”

The blood drained from her face. She sank back in her seat.

“This is monstrous,” Sheek said.

“We only wanted to help,” Phen blurted. “The vrisha might have attacked on my home world once, and hurt some of my people, but this one is different!”

“Phen, I don’t think that’s helping,” Lex said.

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