Spy to Die For

“I promise I’ll be careful,” Rikki was saying.

“You better.” Jack glanced at Skye. Outside of the visual range of the communicator he held up a single finger, clearly asking her to wait. It wouldn’t be long now.

He opened his mouth, and Skye could tell that he was about to sign off. Then Rikki said, “Jack? One more question.”

He leaned back. Something in Rikki’s tone didn’t sound right. Skye didn’t know her and even she could hear it.

“Yeah?” he said.

“You hear any rumblings about the Guild? About someone trying to bring it down?”

Skye suppressed a gasp. She wouldn’t have thought Misha was involved in anything. Why would someone like Rikki know about problems at the Guild?

Skye was about to gesture to Jack to ask if she could communicate with Rikki when Jack said testily, “What’s he got you into?”

And the moment was lost. Skye wouldn’t confide in anyone using that tone either. Still, she thought maybe she could salvage it by asking Jack if she could talk.

“He hasn’t gotten me into anything,” Rikki said.

Skye gestured so that Jack could see her. Skye pointed at herself, then raised her eyebrows, asking if she could talk.

But Rikki was continuing. “It’s just—I can’t talk with you about it over any kind of net. But I was thinking, you know, with the Rovers—”

“I have nothing to do with them,” Jack said curtly. “I have to go, Rik.”

He had completely misunderstood the gesture. He severed the connection and turned to Skye.

“What?” he said.

“I wanted to talk with her,” Skye said.

Jack shook his head. “It wouldn’t have done any good. I know Rikki. That last was about something she was finding. She says that Orlinski didn’t get her involved in anything, and I believe her.”

Skye handed him the coffee. “I do too. But maybe they had information we don’t.”

“Rikki thought she was being monitored, and you and I are worried about being monitored. I don’t think it would have been appropriate to talk with her about it just now.”

“You should contact her again,” Skye said.

Jack stood, then slipped the CFA off the wall and into his pocket as if he worried that Skye would try to override him.

“Have you thought,” he said, “that they’re already getting to her?”

“Who is ‘they’?” Skye asked.

“The Rovers. She’s asking questions about them and the Guild. What made her put that together?”

“Maybe you did,” Skye said. “She thinks you’re still part of the Rovers.”

“Not after that,” he said. He sighed, then sipped the coffee. “Thanks for this.”

“I think you should contact her again,” Skye said.

He shook his head. “It sounds like she and Orlinski are working things out. I just gave them an excuse not to leave wherever they are for a few days.”

He said that as if it were important.

“And?” Skye asked.

“And I think we’ve got to finish this,” he said.

“Finish what, exactly?” she asked.

“We have to get Heller off my back and we need to figure out what’s going on at the Guild.”

“From here?” Skye asked.

He looked at her, and the look was sad. “No,” he said. “I think it’s time to go back.”

Chapter 44

She had known he would say that after talking to Rikki. Skye just wasn’t prepared for how it made her feel.

Her breath caught, and the disappointment made her stomach ache. But she kept her expression impassive. She didn’t want him to know how startled she was by her own reaction.

“I think we need to meld our research into some kind of chart,” he said. “I think that might give us hints as to what’s going on. Then we might be able to figure out who to talk to at the Guild.”

She nodded. He used the same methods she did, organized, responsible, double checking everything. She still thought it odd that they were so compatible. She had thought before she met him that she—and her methods—were unique to her.

“Then we’d best get at it,” she said.

He caught her hand, almost making her spill her coffee. “I’m sorry, Skye. I don’t want to go back.”

She almost said, Then don’t. But she didn’t. They’d had that conversation. She knew what he was saying. He was saying he was sorry he had to go back.

And she understood that. She really did.

“It had to come to an end sometime, didn’t it?” she asked. She tried not to sound bitter. She hoped she wasn’t sounding bitter. She felt sad too.

“I… hope not,” he said. “I mean, this has to end, but we can still…”

He trailed off. She waited. Still what? Sleep together? Be together? Become partners in detection and rove the universe searching for information?

She didn’t say any of that.

Instead, she leaned over and kissed him on top of his head. He looked startled. She would wager hardly anyone had ever done that to him.

“We’ll worry about what we can still do when we’re done doing this,” she said. “We have more steps before we’re done with any of this. We’re not even sure…”

She didn’t want to finish that sentence, so Jack finished it for her.

“…that I’ll survive it,” he said.

She laughed without humor. “I meant to say that we would survive it,” she said.

“I’m going to make sure you survive,” he said. “You can count on that.”

But they both knew that she couldn’t. No one controlled the future. And no one controlled people like the Rovers.

But she pretended to agree with him. And then they got back to work.

Chapter 45

They had found different things on their research, things they hadn’t told each other until they sat at the large gaming table in the entertainment area, the tabletop divided into a dozen screens, each with information flowing across it.

Jack used one main screen in the center to chart all the information. Skye hated to admit that he was better at charting than she was. Faster, better organized, with all kinds of additions that clarified things instead of making them more confusing.

He sat in front of the chart, adding to it as she added information. She wandered around the table, glancing at screens. She also maintained one other screen toward the far end of the table, and that screen scanned for connections that neither Jack nor Skye had seen.

That screen found the thing that nearly made Jack crazy. Apparently Liora Olliver had once been involved with Misha Orlinski.