Hal gestured for the other lab rats to stop, then took up a position right beside me. I silently cursed my bad luck, but I couldn’t move, given the crowd of people inside the conference room. Corporate types, mostly. Members of the board of directors and other important, wealthy shareholders who wanted Kent Corp to keep making them as much money as possible. Those folks were seated at a long table made of real wood in the center of the room, while the lab rats, salespeople, and other workers were forced to stand along the walls.
Tivona was with the other negotiators in one of the corners. She waved at me, and I waved back. While I had been part of the team investigating the Velorum crash, she had been among the negotiators tasked with handing out payments to the victims’ families in hopes of staving off lawsuits. According to Tivona, most of the families had taken the payments, although a few folks were threatening to sue, wanting more credits than the meager crumbs Kent Corp was willing to dole out.
If money had a smell, it would be the sour eagerness that permeated the conference room at the thought of the new cruiser launch and the trillions of credits it would bring into Kent Corp. No matter how rich they were, the Regals were always striving for more—more wealth, more power, more workers and resources and production plants.
Sabine Kent swept into the room, followed by Conrad, who had shed his white lab coat for a slick, shiny dark brown suit that made him blend right in with the other higher-ups. Conrad pulled out a chair for Sabine near the head of the table before dropping into the seat beside her. He beamed at her, and she gave him an adoring smile in return.
Not for the first time, several fingers of jealousy pinched my heart tight. Not because I still cared about Conrad. That ship had crashed, burned, and disintegrated into ash the instant I realized he’d been cheating on me with Sabine. No, I was jealous of the power Sabine Kent so easily wielded, the way she could walk into a room and have people sit up and take notice and think about all the many, many ways she could help someone—or destroy them.
Another woman followed Sabine into the conference room. All the conversations abruptly ceased, and not so much as a piece of plastipaper rustled to break the sudden, tense silence. Sabine might have power, but this woman was the true force behind Kent Corp.
Rowena Kent was roughly thirty years older than her daughter, in her mid-sixties, although she had the wrinkle-free face of a much younger woman, thanks to skinbonds, serums, and other enhancements. She had the same green eyes that Sabine did, although her face was even paler, as though she never dared to let any sun on any planet touch her alabaster skin. Not a single strand of silver glinted in her short, tousled black hair, and her dark gray pantsuit looked even sleeker and more expensive than the lighter one Sabine wore.
Rowena took the seat at the head of the table. Just like so many Kents before her, Rowena was a spelltech, someone capable of infusing psionic power into weapons and other objects. Sabine was also a spelltech, although I didn’t sense any magic rippling off either woman. Curious.
A man scurried forward and poured Rowena a glass of sparkling water, which she ignored. Instead, her gaze swept over everyone in the room. She studied me for a moment before moving on to the next person.
Cold dread washed over me yet again, but I forced myself to ignore my feelings and think logically. If security had discovered my illegal downloads, I would have already been in a holding cell being beaten, shocked, and otherwise tortured by Hal until I coughed up the two microdot drives. I might be safe on that front, but my magic kept pricking my skin, a clear warning that something was wrong. I just couldn’t puzzle out what it was.
Rowena snapped her fingers three times, and everyone leaned forward, their gazes locked on her. “Where are we at with the investigation?” she demanded. “Are you ready to present your final findings?”
Sabine gestured at Conrad, who stood up and waved his hand, activating the holoscreen embedded in the table. A light flared, and reports and schematics hovered in the air like a cluster of colorful clouds.
“We’ve spent the last two months investigating the crash.” Conrad launched into his spiel. “After eliminating sabotage, we studied the design specs, along with other factors, including pilot error . . .”
He recapped all the simulations and experiments that I and the other lab rats had conducted over the past several weeks and all the ways we had tested an identical space cruiser, trying to replicate the Velorum crash. After about ten minutes, everyone’s eyes glazed over, and Sabine pointedly cleared her throat.
“. . . and so we’ve concluded pilot error is to blame for the crash,” Conrad finished, and sat back down.
Even though I’d known what he was going to say, disgust still surged through me. Why had I ever cared about Conrad? Or believed he cared about me? He was just like the rest of the higher-ups, more concerned with what would benefit him the most rather than the actual truth.
But I kept my mouth shut, as did all the other lab rats, although a few of them gave me curious looks, clearly wondering if I was going to speak up. In the beginning, I’d been quite vocal about pilot error not causing the crash, but as it had become clear that no one cared about what had really happened and that my reports weren’t going to change anything, I had stopped protesting. I might not have a lot of magic, but I had a healthy sense of self-preservation, and I wasn’t stupid enough to keep drawing unwanted attention to myself.
“Very well,” Rowena said. “I want the press release sent out today, revealing the final, official cause of the crash. I also want the new space cruisers delivered to Corios as planned for the showcase during the spring ball.”
Everyone nodded, including me.
Rowena waved her hand, making a diamond ring flash on her finger. “Everyone is dismissed, except for my special guest.”
Special guest? Who was that?
Hal clamped his hand around my upper arm. “Stand still, and keep your mouth shut, Vesper,” he hissed in my ear. “Or I’ll rip your arm off the rest of your body.”
His fingers dug painfully into my skin, a clear reminder of his enhanced strength. I couldn’t have broken away from him even if I’d tried. Worry churned inside me like a blender had been shoved into my stomach. What did Rowena Kent want with me? Had security discovered my downloads after all?
Everyone else filed out of the room. Tivona shot me a worried look, but some people came up behind her, and she had no choice but to leave. Relief washed through me. At least I hadn’t dragged my friend down with me.
Hal maintained his viselike grip on my arm, while another guard took up a position on my other side, his hand curling around the shock baton on his belt.
Rowena smiled at me, but it was the sharp, toothy grin of a shark about to swallow up the guppy in its path. She gestured at a chair on the opposite side of the table from Sabine and Conrad. “Please. Sit.”
It wasn’t a request, but I wasn’t about to let them see my worry, so I wrenched my arm out of Hal’s grasp, stalked forward, and dropped down into the chair. Sabine ignored me in favor of swiping through screens on her tablet, while Conrad tapped his fingers on the tabletop, something he did whenever he was anxious or nervous. Despite his cool façade, he was far more concerned than he let on.
Me too.
Rowena rocked back in her chair and steepled her hands over her stomach, making the diamond chips on her polished white fingernails glitter. Unlike the plastic blue eyes adorning my thumbs, her jewels were very, very real and another indication of just how much wealth and power she had.