Blast, he just kept inadvertently giving her useful information. Well, it wasn't very likely she'd be able to solve the mystery of the HAE world eater and colossal refinery and shipyard. Not even if she somehow managed to capture his ship and scour his computers, torture his crew, and try to trace his route after Recluse.
Ali had been too thorough for that.
“Be that as it may, I'm afraid it's the truth,” Aiden replied, trying to appear casual as he leaned back in his chair. “Normally I'd keep the advance payment, for the trouble I went through keeping up my end of the deal, only to have you break yours with a hidden condition you knew I'd never keep. But in the interest of keeping things amicable, I'm willing to return it to you.”
The stern woman had been shaking her head sadly throughout his speech. “Oh Aiden, Aiden,” she said with a sigh. “You made the wrong choice.”
He'd been afraid that would be her response. No help for it now but to keep on the path he'd chosen. “I'd say that was you. You knew who I am, what I'd do, and you still thought you could try to strong-arm me into doing this job for you.”
Elyssa sighed again. “The scientists, then. What the void were they thinking, turning down my offer just to go hide in a doomed HAE facility? I assume you presented the situation to them?”
Even though he was trying to win the facilitator over, he couldn't help but curl his lip at that. “Oh, I did my best to sell them on your offer of a gilded cage. They just found a better one.” A gilded cage, that is, not an offer. And may it be all they hoped for.
“Well, they'll likely come to regret that,” his old crew member said grimly. “But I suppose they're no longer a concern of ours, eh? Which just leaves blowing your ship to the void for crossing me.”
Well, that was blunt. “You really want to go there, Elyssa? Whatever you might be capable of on the allnet, the real universe is a far different place. A place where my name rings very loud.”
It was her turn to curl her lip in contempt. “And once again, you display that I know far more about you than you know about me, Thorne. Do you have any idea what sort of resources I can bring to bear against you?”
Anything to rival an entire Deek task force? he thought in grim amusement. I'm afraid you'll have to stand in line to get at me.
Not that he was about to admit that his situation was that precarious. “I've been living under an enormous bounty for most of a decade,” he replied, putting steel in the quiet words. “You want to throw your hat in the ring, you'll discover those resources you have are going to be wasted, same as all the others who've come at me. You really want to commit to that sort of fight, those losses, when I'm offering to give you back what you paid me and call it done?”
Elyssa's eyes narrowed dangerously. “You have any idea how much it cost to find out about the HAE scientists being captured, trace them to that ERI facility, and compromise its defenses?” she demanded. “Your fee was a drop in the bucket, and I was expecting a huge return on investment. That's what you cost me, and I'm going to take that cost out of your ship's hull and your miserable pirate hide, Thorne.”
“You'll try,” Aiden said, tone still ice. “That's the thing about a fight . . . everyone's eager to start one, right up until they do and then realize they're going to lose. Then suddenly they don't want to fight anymore, at which point it's too late.”
Elyssa gave him a contemptuous smile. “You telling me I should be afraid to go after you? I haven't gotten where I am today by backing down from a fight when someone spits in my face. I know your reputation, but I also know your ship. I know you. You, however, have no idea just who you made an enemy of when you broke a deal with me.”
She leaned forward ominously, staring daggers at him through the display. “But you're about to find out.”
“This isn't necessary,” Aiden pressed. “Why throw away our past and resort to something that will cost us both in the end? There has to be some other solution.”
The facilitator shook her head, once again full of grim resolve. “I didn't make the universe the way it is. Worked as hard as I knew how to change it, truth be told. Of course I don't have to tell you that.” She gave him a hard smile. “But we failed, didn't we? The universe is the way it is and we have to live in it, little as we may like that fact. And in this universe, the only way this ends is with me blowing you to the void for your betrayal.”
“Maybe we can't change the universe,” Aiden agreed. “But we can change ourselves. That's the one variable humanity has control of.” He gave the severe woman a sad look. “Shame you choose to be completely powerless instead.”
Elyssa's lips thinned. “I'll mourn your death, Thorne. I owe you that much.” Her image winked off the display.
Aiden bit back a sigh, turning to his crew. “Let's get out of here.”
“I've got a rift jump calculated,” Ali said. “We can go now.”
“Speaking of “now”, what exactly are we doing here?” Barix demanded, scowling. “You've somehow succeeded in burning us in this galaxy, even though we just arrived. So, what? We going to spend another few months flying on to the next nearest one? Assuming our old friend's influence doesn't extend that far.”
Belix nodded, looking equally furious. “I didn't sign on for your war, oh glorious Captain. I signed on
