The emergency meeting had already stretched into its third minute of silence. Hunter had been walking back and forth, and the slight swaying of her pouch made Gravel frown. He didn’t have a joke ready, and her pouch was only distracting him further. Sloan was busy making herself look invisible at the edge of the sofa, and Priest and Fang hadn’t settled down on the couch yet.

  “Again, rule one,” Hunter repeated. “Never trust the gov. There’s no way they didn’t know about a bunch of mutated animals down there. And they refused to do anything about it.”

  “I looked into the credentials of the person posting the job,” Fang said. “It was listed under a generic city council account, which means it could be any of a dozen bureaucrats signing off without knowing the details.”

  “Mendax is a rogue planet. There’s no central authority strong enough to cover up the information from the mass,” Hunter deduced. “I think somebody’s been intentionally keeping the gov in the dark. They might still think the poacher syndicate are going about their standard criminal activity as we speak.”

  If it was any other day, Gravel would’ve just said ‘not our problem if we get the hell out of this planet’, but he was the one who told them to follow the trail of the drive. They couldn’t back out now.

  As if a lightbulb had lit up in his head, Gravel snapped his fingers. “That Elsa woman told me another guy came down there just last week and went back up yesterday. He couldn’t have survived if he’d faced the same monstrosity those guys faced.”

  Hunter frowned. “What Elsa? You mean the guard at the rocky station?”

  “The very one.”

  “Why are you only telling us that now?”

  “My brain malfunctioned,” Gravel replied dryly. “My bad. But if he made it back up unscathed, it means he knew something we didn’t. We need a solid description of him.”

  “Time to ring up your new girlfriend I guess,” Hunter shrugged.

  “I looked up the public database for any Gonzo that could be related to Hashimoto,” Priest interjected. “Not much to go on. Only a couple of low-ranked recruits.” He turned to Gravel. “Give Fang your local carrier card. Two people digging the local planetary database is better than one.”

  Gravel did as told, and Fang got to work. Another fifteen minutes of furiously tapping on the datapad passed before she announced, “Got something. Gonzo Kashiwagi—confirmed supplier, previously affiliated with Hashimoto Syndicate. Last known location was the country of Lokoae, across the continent on the other side of Mendax.”

  Hunter walked over and peeked at the report. “Do we know if he’s still there?”

  “He resurfaced three weeks ago, according to this,” Fang continued. “Apparently, he had a run-in with a local faction that’s been making waves in Lokoae. There’s no public bounty on him, but someone flagged his presence.”

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  Gravel sighed and leaned forward. “Alright, we’re splitting up. We need to cover more ground if we want answers before another merc team gets chewed up.”

  Fang nodded. “I’ll head to Lokoae with Hunter. We need boots on the ground to confirm if Gonzo is still alive and what he knows.”

  Hunter interjected. “How are we supposed to find this Gonzo in a foreign city with no lead?”

  “I can access all the needed databases.” Fang then gave Hunter a wink; the fun kind. “And you can ring up Raiq. Remember? That fling of yours.”

  “He’s not a fling,” Hunter groaned. “He’s a strategic partner.”

  Fang smirked. “Strategic partner, huh? Is that why you ended up drinking on his tab last time we were on Enzo?”

  Hunter rolled her eyes. “That was a negotiation—he wanted me to put in a good word with his old employer on Haret, who I happened to know. Which, by the way, I did, and in return, he owed me a favor.”

  She left out the part where Raiq’s "favor" turned into a half-hour of sweet-talking him through a botched deal with a local cartel. The man was a decent info broker, but he had the kind of confidence that got people shot. If she called him now, she wasn’t sure if he’d still be running his operation or if he’d already pissed off the wrong people.

  But she knew for sure that his sphere of information gathering spanned across the five different star systems, which would include Mendax-12.

  “That settled, then.” Gravel tapped his fingers against the table. “Priest, you’re with me. We’re gonna dig up what we can on Elsa’s mystery man.”

  Then Gravel turned his eyes to Sloan, who stared back at him.

  “. . . Yes?” She furrowed her brow.

  “You know your way around classified intel better than any of us,” Gravel said. “See if you can get access to the planetary database and find anything on Project Variant dealings. Specifically, anything tied to Mendax-2 or 4.”

  Sloan folded her arms. “I don’t have any contacts on this planet. I can’t do this alone.”

  Before Gravel could respond, the ship’s comms flared to life with an incoming call. Xaxx’s familiar voice crackled through the voicemail as soon as Gravel opened it. “How are you enjoying your day, my favorite idiots?”

  “There’s your contact.” Gravel shrugged.

  Priest cleared his throat. “Gravel, you and Xaxx should handle the mysterious man. I will be with Sloan. Her task needs secrecy.”

  Gravel had realized his judgment was quite off today, moreso than usual. Sloan wasn’t even a part of the team yet, and nothing could stop her from simply abandoning the mission and dissipating to the crowd, never to be heard again. Of course, she couldn’t do this alone.

  Nonetheless, he still groaned because groaning was a necessary part of his daily ritual, or else he would involuntarily sacrifice himself to the Dark Lord. “Here I thought I was gonna get away from that guy for a second. Guess not. You’re right, though. Let’s get this over with before I lose more brain cells.”

  “Didn’t see you complain when you were stuck with that chick Nastija,” Hunter snorted and rolled her eyes.

  Gravel shot her a flat look. “That was different.”

  Hunter crossed her arms. “Oh yeah? How?”

  Priest interrupted, “Focus. We move fast, keep our comms clean, and check in every three hours. If something goes wrong, we pull out.”

  Gravel exhaled, standing up and stretching his arms. “I’ll return Xaxx’s call. Someone remind me to drink after this.”

  “I thought you were cutting back,” Hunter asked.

  “I am,” Gravel replied. “That’s why I said ‘remind me’ and not ‘stop me.’”