“Dez?”
He startled and glanced up with narrowed yellow eyes. His gray skin blended better than her own.
“Get down.”
Blaize crouched, using the length of the wrench as a prop. Dez gave her a puzzled look before returning his attention to the child.
“Do you remember what the ship looked like?” Dez asked in a gentle tone.
The kid shook his head.
“Big or small?” Blaize asked.
The child glanced around. “Small.”
Blaize gave him an approving smile. “Dirty or clean?”
“Clean?”
“Very good. That’s so helpful.”
The child gave a shaky nod.
“Okay, last question.” Because a kid that age with that much trauma could only be expected to do so much. “Can you point to where you think it might be?”
With a nod, the child spun, hesitated, and then thrust out a finger.
“That’s so good. I’m going to get a sled to take you to a friend of mine. Have you ever ridden in a sled?”
The child nodded, surprising Blaize. “Will you be okay to find my friend? I’m going to text her to tell her to expect you. She’ll be waiting when the sled stops.”
Another shaky nod. Blaize fired off a text to Director Glinchart with a line of explanation and a promise to tell all later. She pinned Dez with a glare. “Wait for me.”
Dez opened his mouth, closed it, and nodded.
Thankfully, the sled she’d arrived in hadn’t been contracted. She uploaded the address and her credits. “You’re going to be okay.”
The child’s wide-eyed gaze ripped through her chest. The urge to get in the vehicle and see him safely to the orphanage was difficult to fight. But there were likely more kids. And Blaize had to find out how Cifer was involved. Because if he had anything to do with making that child cry, she was going to brain him with the wrench and have zero regrets. Well, maybe one. Sleeping with him. But she’d carried the regret of Varik for galactic years. Cifer wouldn’t be that much more emotional weight.
As soon as the sled was moving, Blaize raced back to Dez.
“I think Cifer is on one of the ships.”
“His tracker isn’t here, is it?” Blaize had more to say, but that was the most important question.
“I found his abandoned pad at the entrance. Not sure why he would have left it.”
Blaize could guess. He was up to shady shit, and he didn’t really want Dez and Cyra to know. Same as when he’d left her at his apartment.
Crouched over, Dez slow-walked along the dumpster ships.
Blaize mimicked his movements, but there was no hiding her hair, as Cifer had helpfully pointed out. A flash of the moment in the mirror when he’d taken on her coloring and she’d blended perfectly took over her vision. She blinked it away.
Dez froze and lowered himself farther. Blaize did the same. He held a finger to his lips. Like she was going to talk at a moment like that. Although she did have plenty of questions. Dez pointed, and Blaize traced the imaginary vector to a shiny ship with hardly a scratch on it, as if it hadn’t spent much time in space. She shifted past Dez to get a different angle. Cain’s Alibi. That’s the ship that had attacked them—Varik’s vessel. That weasel.
She gripped her wrench tighter.
Dez moved around behind her. The ship was closed up tight. Whatever method the kid had used to escape, it was likely Varik was aware of the loss and had battened down the hatches. Dez wrapped his hand around his stump and stared at the ship as if he could read it somehow.
