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I looked at her. “What face?”

Talia stared at me as though the answer should have been obvious. “That one.”

“I am not making a face.”

Her eyebrows rose.

She had already learned enough about me to recognize the difference between stillness and tension.

Inconvenient.

“You absolutely are.”

I shut the terminal before she could study me any longer. “We are leaving.”

“Still no destination?”

“I have one now.”

“That sounds suspiciously like you just invented one.”

“It is secure.”

She glanced toward the hidden safehouse behind us. “So was this place.”

I said nothing.

Her expression flattened. “Right.”

I started the transport. The bay opened, and we lifted away from the mountain without incident.

For several minutes, Talia remained quiet. I appreciated it.

Then she said, “Your record bothered you.”

I kept my eyes ahead. “Yes.”

At least the silence had lasted several minutes.

“You said you were officially dead.”

“Yes.”

“But you didn’t say why.”

“No.”

“Are you going to?”

“No.”

She exhaled, but there was less irritation in it than before. “Worth trying.”

The landscape passed beneath us. Rock. Dry vegetation. Sparse structures along distant transport routes.

Talia shifted in her seat. “Sera’n knew.”

My attention moved to her. “Knew what?”