Silver Tongued Devils by Dawn Montgomery Page A

personnel who requested leave or
participated in our supply restock for every location in the past
year. Cross reference those names against the allies we lost. Our
traitor is probably newer to the crew.”
    “Like a little over a year old,
maybe?”
    “Yeah.”
    “On it.” Brom hesitated.
    Na’varr saw the uncertainty in his
friend. “Touch her. She’s yours as much as mine.”
    Brom clenched his jaw and Na’varr let
his eyes close. The hybrid touched her hair and bent down to press
a light kiss on her head.
    “You’ll be able to kiss her again
soon.”
    “Not soon enough.”

 
Chapter Six
    Raesa was jerked from a deep sleep by
Na’varr’s insistent voice.
    “Raesa.” He shook her gently and she
cracked open her eyelids.
    Her entire body ached.
“What?”
    “I need you awake. We have a
problem.”
    Raesa rubbed at her eyes. Why did it
feel like she’d been slammed by a meteor? “What is it?”
    “We’ve been grounded at a border
control facility. I need you alert.”
    He took the sheet from her hands and
replaced it with a warm beverage. A tentative sip told her it was a
hot stim drink. She drained the cup before the bitter after-taste
had a chance to do its worst on her tongue.
    Na’varr took the mug from her and
handed over a robe. Urgency was apparent in his rigid movements.
She shrugged into the cloth and leapt off the bed. “Give me access
to your ship’s mainframe.”
    Na’varr caught her before she reached
the door and tied her robe shut. He then set her down in a
comfortable arm chair.
    “You’re very demanding when you wake up
in the morning.”
    Raesa’s heart did a little leap at his
tender touch. “You wouldn’t need me if this was a paperwork issue.
What are they using to prevent our escape?”
    “A stasis chain. Our systems are dead
and any attempts to start them will—”
    “Wreck your ship. Yeah I know. Pretty
nasty shit. Get me to your datapad. I need to know what we’re
working with.”
    She glanced around. “Where’s
Brom?”
    “We have a traitor among us. He’s
sniffing out the bastard right now.”
    “They knew we were coming, but why
would you be on lockdown?” Surely it wasn’t for a mere runaway
slave.
    “Here.” He handed her the datapad and
she began running through his security protocols. She recognized
the name of their port. Haven Crisis. The armpit of the outer ring.
Great. “They haven’t locked down your environment controls, but
communications have been cut off.” She chewed on the pad of her
thumb and stared at the netlock they’d slapped up. “I have to do it
from inside.”
    “Inside their facility?”
    She nodded. “Once I have their main
system, I can unlock the stasis chain and we can bail.”
    “You want to walk into an Imperial
station, take over their security system, enable a pirate ship to
escape and do all this without getting killed or
caught?”
    Raesa glanced up and a smile tugged at
her lips. “I didn’t say it was a good plan. You told me you needed
to break free. Getting me inside is the only way it’s going to
happen.”
    “Your plan sucks. Come up with a better
one.”
    “Bribery isn’t an option, I take
it.”
    “No.”
    “We need to know why they’re holding
onto us. Ransom?”
    Na’varr remained silent and she glanced
his way. He knew something about why they were stuck, but wouldn’t
say it. That just irked the hell out of her.
    “If you’ve got a card up your sleeve,
Captain, now is the time to play it.”
    “I can claim diplomatic
immunity.”
    Raesa clamped her mouth shut on the
immediate question that popped into her mind. Diplomatic immunity
for a pirate? What the hell kind of man was Anderson Na’varr? “If
you declare it, what happens next?”
    “I can request an escort to the main
facility.”
    She sat back in the chair and racked
her brain for options. Hours of political asylum laws came back to
her sluggish mind. “You have diplomatic immunity under what flag