Chapter 17 · The Body in the Ice

The proximity alarm screams before Briar finishes backing away.

"Contact, contact, contact." Ivo's voice cracks over comms. "Three hulls dropping out of skip, bearing two-seven-mark-fifteen. They're painting us."

I'm still staring at the holo. At the coordinates. At the bio-monitor tag that says my body—my real body, maybe—is still frozen somewhere in the Rimward Dark, waiting for pickup. Active status. Three months since last refresh.

"Sable." Briar's got her sidearm out but she's not aiming it at me. She's aiming at the deck like she forgot it's in her hand. "We need to move."

"Who are they?" I don't recognize my own voice.

"Debt recovery." Vey's on comms now, clipped and cold. "Long Invoice just lit up every repo flag in the subsector when you unlocked that contract. They think we're sitting on a four-hundred-year salvage bounty."

"Are we?"

"I don't know." He sounds pissed. "You're the one with the admin key. Ask your ship."

I look at Briar. She's still backing toward the hatch.

"Don't," I say.

She stops. Barely.

"You knew." It's not a question. "You knew there was another me."

Her jaw works. No answer.

"Briar."

"I knew the body got sold," she says finally.