Chapter 26

Bren flicked the jammer so that it spun gently in place on the tiny table that folded down between the pilot's and navi's chairs. The egg-shaped device was small enough to fit in a pocket, and when activated it emitted a low hiss interrupted randomly by a soft popping noise. "It's annoying." He finally said.

"It does what it's designed to do." Sophia leaned back in the pilot's chair and closed her eyes with a long sigh. Bren watched her for signs that the awkward scramble up the side of the Warlock had done any damage to her still-healing body. She looked exhausted, but not in any real pain.

After a moment, she tilted her head down to meet his gaze again. "This is all I have for you. Just a trick to buy us a few minutes of privacy."

"It's a start." He flicked the jammer so that it spun again. "I assumed you wouldn't allow me to use any kind of jamming equipment. What changed your mind?"

"Nothing." She smiled wryly, "I didn't even think of jamming equipment. Everything that could be a danger or a boon to me, I've forgotten." Her gaze turned inward, and he could tell that she was about to start brooding again.

"I'm still here." He reminded her.

Sophia inclined her head slightly toward Bren, "I haven't forgotten you." He nodded abruptly and picked up the device for a closer look. It was a flattened egg-shaped piece of metal with a slight depression in one end that held a covered switch. Other than that, it was completely featureless.

"I could have my crew put jammers on all our comms, but that would look like we had something to hide, right?"

"Precisely."

"Then how are we getting away with this?" He asked as he put the device back down on the table.

"Royal privilege. This jammer has a special signature that all comm snoops are expected to recognize. They are supposed to ignore any message scrambled with this signature."

Bren gave Sophia a look full of disbelief, "So the only thing that makes this work is everyone agreeing to ignore it? We've got a man on board who has no intention of doing that."

Sophia turned the pilot's chair to one side and reached into a compartment near her knee, "While I would not expect Philip to abide by the laws concerning listening devices, I think he would think twice about contravening this one. The nobility gets very irrational when someone takes away their little privileges." She pulled a protein bar out of the compartment, unwrapped it, and took a huge bite out of the tasteless brick.

Bren couldn't help but laugh.

"Laugh all you want, but I'm hungry." She said around another bite, "Dinner was excellent, but I could barely eat with Philip staring me down, waiting for me to make a mistake."

Her complaint reminded Bren that Esterhazy was more than just an intellectual exercise. He checked his chron and decided they didn't dare leave the jammer on for much longer. "Could we wire it into the Silvana's comms and scramble a single pair of messages? One outgoing, one incoming. That wouldn't look suspicious."

Sophia winced and finished her protein bar before answering, "Yes ... You could. What would you send?"

Bren ignored her obvious discomfort. He knew she was just being paranoid again. It was a good way to stay alive — he'd worked the same way when he was younger — but she needed to grow up. "A request for information. Where were Esterhazy and your brother when Carolina took the Warlock out on that mission? I want to know if they had any contact with Lexington Port personnel before or after."

He waited patiently as she thought about his idea, but he could tell almost immediately that she was going to reject it. Eventually, she shook her head. "I don't think it's enough, Bren. It might be worth trying to find some kind of link at Lexington Port, but while the communications themselves might remain secret, that strange of a request would immediately become gossip. It would be mere hours before Sik or Philip heard about it. That's too much risk for an uncertain reward."

"We're running out of time." He handed her the jammer, and she accepted it with an expression as unhappy as he knew his own to be. "We need something that connects them to the crash. What else is there?"

Sophia shrugged, staring down at the device as it hissed and popped in the palm of her hand, "Go up in the Warlock and hope one of them tries to sabotage it?"

Bren gave her a disgusted look, and she smiled when she looked up and saw it. "It would be proof."

"Think of something else." He commanded, fighting the savage desire to pin her down and burn every self-destructive impulse out of her by force of will. He'd been tolerant while she healed, but he could still hear the whisper of her voice, damning him. It wasn't more than a few weeks ago that she'd sat in that chair and made the decision to take her life into her own hands. And now she was threatening to do it again. He couldn't completely ignore the frustration that boiled up inside.