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Lilac grins, an expression I never would’ve expected froly "I see we’re all experts here at see thread inside my mind I’o into a detailed explanation, relaying what I told hi Lee’s told ht"

"Whispers?" Her face in the glow of herstronger People here are going mad, like the researchers in the station did, but much quicker"

Lilac’s eyes close, the features so suited to laughter and frivolity now bearing signs of a deep, biting grief "I knew it," she murmurs "I told you I could feel--"

"I believe you," Tarver interrupts her, and though he doesn’t look back at us, I know he’s unwilling to share the whole story behind their cryptic conversation "I’ain"

Lilac’s eyes fly open then, refocusing on her screen "Are your friends okay? Have they…Are you okay?" She’s addressing me and Flynn directly now There’s such a shift in her voice, her compassion so clear, her expression transforh But how? It’s her own father’s company; what could it have possibly done to her?

My voice tangles with uncertainty "I--I’ure it out We’ll help the I’ll try to find out what I can, but if what’s happening there is connected to the whispers, then your poking around will only draw the wrong kind of attention They’re watching us constantly as it is; it’ll only get worse"

Who’s watching? Her father? But their conversation isquick, and I don’t have ti on

"I know I’ve only got two days here before I’m due off-world with the report But Lee and Corht have here, somewhere out in no-man’s-land It’s not the first time they’ve used another corporation’s territory in secret, so they’ve had practice burying the records"

"Patron" Lilac’s face is gri to read the minute details of Merendsen’s face

He nods "But this one would have been ot to leave a paper trail soet into ed his passwords, but I can…" She hesitates "I’ll talk to the Knave"

Merendsen gri hi him with more of our secrets"

Lilac shakes her head "Coht us how to protect ourselves, keep our lives private Without hi this conversation We have to trust hirowl, but he nods

I clear my throat "The Knave?" I can hear the dubiousness inin Merendsen and to let hi out of my control

"The Knave of Hearts," says Lilac "A hacker based somewhere on Corinth Don’t worry, Captain He can be trusted"

Merendsen’s eyes are still on the screen, and when he speaks his voice is soft Heyou into it, Lilac Weup a completely secure line under the best of circuh somehow," she says confidently

Hackers, socialites with hidden tech skills--it’s all toostares froaze to Merendsen "I expected you to helpthis up the chain of command It’s what I should’ve done in the first place" I can feel Flynn’s eyes on me

"You can’t" Lilac’s voice cracks whip-like fro to help, Miss LaRoux" Speaking to her, this creature froe "But if I take this to General Macintosh, he’ll have the power to actually do so"

Lilac LaRoux doesn’t answer iht this battle for her, but instead he waits, watching the girl on the screen Finally, she tilts her head to one side and speaks "The planet we crashed on, Captain, was not what the reports later said it was By the time Tarver and I were rescued, we had discovered amy father’s company in a conspiracy that would have ruined hi for Flynn, who has finally pulled his gaze up off the floor "So why not go public with it?"

"Because he destroyed it"

"No one can destroy all the evidence of a conspiracy like that," Flynn argues, and I know he’s thinking of the LaRoux Industries ident chip I found in the swamp