Chapter 22 · That's Not a Name

The jump dumped us three systems spinward and my skull felt like someone had run it through a juicer.

I was still hearing it. That voice. My mentor's voice, except it wasn't, because she'd been dead ten years and dead people don't leave you tactical advice through stolen med ships.

"Kira." Senna's hand on my shoulder. "We need to move."

I shook her off. My fingers were still white-knuckled on the edge of the console. "Where."

"Anywhere that's not here. They'll have our exit vector in twenty minutes. Thirty if we're lucky."

"Lucky." I laughed. It came out wrong. "Yeah. That's us."

She pulled up a nav chart. Three possible routes, all of them bad. Contested space. Quarantine zones. And one that made my stomach drop.

Sector Seven.

I knew that designation. Knew it the way you know the smell of your own blood.

"No," I said.

"It's the only place they won't follow."

"There's a reason they won't follow."

Senna's jaw tightened. "I know what it is."

"Do you." I turned to face her. "You know what they did there? You know what they built?"

She didn't look away. "I know my father died there.