Page 19 of Stars in Mist

Mirage didn’t have eyes inside the vessel he was in, so Riv flicked over an image over their link of the woman who’d just left the compartment.

A moment of silence fell before Mirage spoke.You’re confident this is no joke or entrapment scam, Riv?

Nada. It is her.

She was the one following you. The dark-robed kinai?

Riv nodded in the gloominess.Naam.

Any idea why?

She wants Glimmer for a long-range run. To Eden knows where.

Mirage paused for a beat.How do you feel?

He scoffed under his breath.Like my entire world has turned upside down. Élisa, of course, has yet to learn who I am. I have to know more about where she’s taking me and why before I reveal myself.

Mirage commiserated with him.I hear you. Please don’t worry. You’re tethered to me via our neural network, and I won’t let anything happen to you. Might I add, I am delighted you have found the one person you’ve been searching for all these years.

Sable’s A.I. sounded almost too merry for the situation at hand.

Riv shook his head, still shaking in shock.I must speak with Kainan. We’re too far off for node contact. Please dispatch a relay drone so I can bounce my signal to it and reach the Sable Riders.

Mirage clucked in dissent.Riv, the turbulence around Neron N13 makes initiating live streams or holo calls to the other side of the System hard. But I’ll hunt down a solution. Perhaps we can leave a beacon here, letting them know where we might be headed, and they can follow us.

Naam, look into it.

As you’d like. Settle in. I’ll be in touch.

Sante. One more thing, Mirage, discover everything you can about one Noab Hakim. He’s an operator in the Badlands—a spy for hire and not the good kind. Find out what he’s been up to and what contracts he’s been working on. Go back a few years, maybe even to when Élisa disappeared. Perhaps he was after her back then.

On it.

‘Hey!’

It had been some time since his beguiling and sexy captor checked in on him.

He kept calling every so often to attract her attention.

Hours passed before the steel door to the outer door opened, and Élisa appeared.

His heart lurched as she strolled to the energy shield and stared down at him. ‘What say you? Will you take me where I need to go?’

He gave her a long look, appearing to mull her words. In reality, his mind, soul, and body were still rocked by the realization that she was here, with him, breathing the same air.

‘Hey!’

Impatience flashed in her eyes at his hesitance, but he saw a vulnerability lurking in her eyes that brute-forced him into the present.

‘Will I be compensated for my efforts?’

She inclined her head. ‘You’ll be a lot richer for it.’

Some of her silver hair was loose from her ponytail and feathered around her face, giving it an ethereal glow that set his desire ratcheting.

‘And if I refuse?’As if he’d ever endeavor to.

Her shoulders lifted in a blasé shrug. ‘I’ll find someone else.’

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