They gathered in Luca's hotel room after lunch, the mood darker than it had been since they'd left Alpha Centauri.
"We still have the gym equipnt appointnt," Emily said, checking her tablet. "Two o'clock. Sabine set it up weeks ago."
"I'm not going." Luca was standing by the window, staring out at Houston's skyline. Sowhere out there, three executives in expensive suits were probably patting themselves on the back. Karen would deal with Orion eventually. It wasn't his problem. But the Roughnecks were. "I need to find out what happened to them."
"Luca..." Emily's voice trailed off.
"Six people, Em. A whole fucking team. They were supposed to et us, and instead they vanished." He turned to face the room. "Orion Horizons made them disappear. I want to know how."
Ryan was sitting on the edge of the bed, brow furrowed. "We should go back in there and ask them directly."
"We should sneak in tonight," Zoe said. "Get inside, and I'll find out exactly what they're hiding."
"No." Luca shook his head. "That's exactly what they want. We pick a fight, they spin it as the IFC going off the rails. We're not giving them that."
Danny hadn't said much since the Orion eting. He was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed and his expression dark. Luca had seen the way he'd looked at Keane when the guy ntioned New Hampshire.
Danny didn't have family. But Zoe did.
"We are splitting up," Luca said. "Emily, you take Chris and Joey to the gym equipnt eting. Keep Sabine's schedule on track."
"Hey," Chris started to protest. "I want to help find those guys too."
"You will." Luca nodded at him. "You made friends at the honky-tonk last night. Local adventurers. Call them. Soone is bound to know the Roughnecks."
Chris perked up. He pulled out his phone, already scrolling. "I got a few numbers. There was this girl, Jazmine, great legs. Said she runs portals out near Galveston. Knows everybody."
Oh, of course. That answered that question, Luca thought. "Good. Make the call."
Emily stood, clutching her tablet to her chest. "And what are you going to do while we're shopping for weights?"
"Follow up on whatever Chris finds." Luca t her eyes. "I'm not infiltrating anything. I'm just asking questions."
She didn't look convinced. But she knew him well enough to know he wasn't going to sit this out.
"Don't do anything stupid," she said.
"I never do anything stupid."
"You do things exclusively stupid. That's your whole brand."
He crossed the room and kissed her forehead. "I'll be careful."
"You'd better," she replied, pulling herself closer to him.
"Ahem," Ryan muttered.
"Awkward," Zoe said, trailing off.
With a last tug, Emily finally pulled herself off and grabbed Chris by the arm. "Co on, gym boy. You're with . And I'm managing the budget, so don't even think about ordering the fancy machines."
"But the Japanese squat racks—"
"Budget, Christopher."
Joey followed them out, shaking his head. That left Luca with Zoe, Ryan, and Danny.
"So," Zoe said. "What's the actual plan?"
---
Chris's "friend" ca through faster than expected.
They were sitting in a coffee shop three blocks from the hotel, going over their coursework, when his text arrived. Jazmine knew the Roughnecks. More importantly, she knew where to find Tyler Cole, the team's leader.
The address led them to a bar on the outskirts of downtown. Not a honky-tonk like the one from the rodeo, but a quieter place with dim lighting and sticky floors that reeked of stale beer.
Tyler Cole was sitting alone at a corner booth, nursing a whiskey that looked like it wasn't his first. He was maybe twenty-two or twenty-three, unshaven, with thick sideburns that didn't quite work on his young face.
Luca slid into the booth across from him. Zoe and Ryan hung back near the door, giving him space. Danny stayed at the bar and ordered a drink.
"Tyler Cole?"
The man looked up at him. Bloodshot eyes, tired. "Who's asking?"
"Luca Rossi. Triumph Initiative."
Sothing flickered across Tyler's face. Recognition, maybe. Or guilt. "Ah. You're the kid who flew to Alpha Centauri."
"That's . We were supposed to et your team this morning. At Lone Star Brews."
Tyler took a long drink and set the glass down. "Yeah. About that."
"Where's your crew, Tyler?"
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"Gone." The word ca out flat. "Scattered. Took the money and walked."
Luca felt the bottom of his stomach drop. "What money?"
Tyler laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Orion Horizons ca to us two days ago. Said they'd heard we were eting with you. Said they wanted to make sure that eting didn't happen." He spun the glass between his fingers, staring at it like it held answers. "Offered us 250k each to cancel and keep our mouths shut. Plus access to the Mars portals."
"Mars portals?"
"Don't." Tyler's voice hardened. "Don't you dare judge , kid. You've got a ship. You've got backing from Karen Stevens and the whole damn IFC. You've got options." He leaned forward. "After level sixty, there's not much left. Earth portals max out at thirty-two. You can't even go in anymore."
He laughed bitterly. "Best we can do is monitor them. Check they're not about to blow. And if they do, we shoot at whatever cos out. That's the job now. Security guards with fancy gear." He shrugged. "Mars has Level 60 portals. Real delves, real loot. And Orion controls who gets slots."
He spread his hands. "We've got a contract with Orion Horizons. They hold the portal managent contract for the entire region, Texas through Florida. They can reassign us anywhere in that zone. You know what that ans? It ans if we piss them off, we're clearing swamp overflows in the Louisiana bayou for the next five years. Waist-deep in gator-infested muck while you're flying around in your fancy starship. But if we play ball?" He shrugged. "Mars. Actual adventuring again."
"So you took the deal."
"I told my team about the offer. Gave them the choice." Tyler slumped back in the booth, all the fight gone out of him. "The way they saw it, it was simple. et with the IFC and hope we had a chance at sothing else, or take the deal for a guaranteed future. Four of us took the sure thing. Another two wanted to tell Orion to go to hell and take their chances with you." His voice dropped. "I haven't heard from either of them in two days."
Luca went cold. "What do you an?"
"I an, they're not answering calls. Not at ho. Not at their usual spots." Tyler drained what was left in his glass. "When the majority votes to fold, you fold. And when you don't..." He shrugged, but his hands were shaking.
Luca studied the man across from him. The slumped shoulders, the shaking hands. This was supposed to be a team leader. Five people had trusted Tyler to have their backs, and he'd sold them out for portal slots and a payout.
"What are you going to do now?"
"Drink. Watch for overflows. Try not to think about it." He waved for another whiskey. "Go on, kid. Go build sothing. Just don't end up like ."
Luca stood. He wanted to say sothing about leadership. About what it ant to have people trust you. About the two teammates Tyler had abandoned to whatever Orion had done to them. But Tyler already knew. That's why he was drinking alone at two in the afternoon.
"Good luck, Tyler."
"Yeah." Tyler didn't look up. "You too."
---
They walked out into the afternoon sun. Houston's heat was oppressive after the bar's dim cool.
"Two people missing," Danny said. His voice was quiet, but Luca heard the anger underneath.
"That's what compliance costs." Zoe's brow furrowed. "They weren't buying the team. They were buying silence. And making an example."
Ryan kicked a piece of gravel across the parking lot hard enough to send it ricocheting off a truck tire. "We should find them. The two who didn't fold."
"And do what?" Luca shook his head. "If Orion's got them, we're not getting them back by asking nicely. And if we go in hard, we prove everything Ashworth wants people to believe about us."
"So we just leave them?" Ryan's voice was sharp.
"We find out what happened." Luca looked back at the bar. "But that team is dead either way. Even if all six had folded together, at least you'd know they were unified. A team that splits four-two was already broken."
Luca's mind was still back in that bar, watching Tyler Cole stare at an empty glass. But sothing else was gnawing at him now. Sothing that had been bothering him since they'd walked out of that glass tower.
"There's a taco place across the street," he said. "Let's talk."
---
The restaurant was nearly empty, too late for lunch and too early for dinner. They grabbed a booth in the back corner, away from the windows. Luca ordered sodas for everyone and waited until the server left.
"The Roughnecks," he said. "They're an Orion-affiliated team."
"Yeah." Ryan's eyes narrowed. "So?"
"So Sabine scheduled us to et with them. Karen's operative." Luca leaned back in the booth. "An Orion-affiliated team in Houston, on Orion's ho turf."
Zoe's expression shifted. Sothing flickered across her face that Luca couldn't quite read.
"You think Karen knew Orion would intercept us?" Ryan asked.
"I think—"
"Probably." Zoe's voice was flat. The others turned to look at her.
Luca stared at her, perplexed. "Explain."
Zoe leaned back in the booth, her arms crossed. "When Karen pulled and Emily aside at Genesis. Before we left. She warned us to expect corporate interference on the tour. Just said the big players would be watching, and so of them would try to intercept." She shrugged. "I didn't put it together until I saw the Roughnecks were Orion-affiliated. On Orion's ho turf. With Orion's CEO just happening to clear his morning."
"And you didn't ntion Karen's warning?" Ryan's voice was sharp.
"It was vague, you know how she is, all cryptic and shit. Could've ant anything." Zoe t Luca's eyes. "But this? This was too clean. Orion's been getting in the way of IFC recruitnt for years. Every team Karen schedules, they know about it within days. Sotis hours. Karen knew we'd hit interference sowhere. She just let us find out what it looked like."
The anger Luca had been building shifted.
"So this was a lesson."
"It was context." Zoe shrugged. "She's not testing you, Luca, or us. She's showing us the board. Orion grew while she was banned from recruiting... and dealing with Barkov. They've got contracts across half the planet. They intimidate competitors; they've been doing it unopposed for years."
Danny spoke quietly. "And now Karen's finally free to fight back."
"But she's not going to do it with us." Luca understood now. The pieces clicked into place. "She's not asking us to be her attack dogs. She's asking us to be sothing Orion can't buy or intimidate."
"Sothing visible," Zoe said. "Sothing that shows people there's another option. Though... I still want to go back to that building and show them what we're capable of."
"I know you do." Luca looked at her. "But that's exactly what they're expecting. We show up angry, they docunt it, spin it as the IFC going off the rails." He shook his head. "We're not playing their ga."
"So what's our ga?" Ryan asked.
"We stop hiding."
The table went quiet.
"Since January," Luca said. "Since we got back from Alpha Centauri, we've been acting like we have sothing to hide. Changing transponder codes, staying in shitty hotels, keeping the Triumph in the Belt where nobody can see it." He looked at each of them in turn. "I'm done. Emily should be able to wear whatever she wants. And once we refuel the Granite Hawk, I'm bringing the Triumph into Earth orbit."
Ryan's eyebrows shot up. "The UER told us to keep it in the Belt."
"The UER wants us to be a symbol of unification? Fine. Let them see the ship." Luca shrugged. "We traveled to Alpha Centauri on the first FTL-capable ship humanity ever built. Then we upgraded it into a frigate. That's who we are. Ti to own it."
"That's a hell of a statent," Zoe said. But she was smiling now.
"It's different from picking a fight with Orion," Luca continued. "Owning who we are isn't the sa as going to war because we're restless. Let them see what they're up against. Let the teams we're recruiting see what's possible, let them dream."
Danny nodded slowly. "If people can see the Triumph, see what we've built... that's harder to spin. Harder to dismiss as rumors."
"Exactly." Luca stood. "We're not Karen's soldiers. We're not the UER's poster children. We're adventurers. We build things. We explore. And we offer people a door to sothing bigger."
Ryan stood, stretching. "So we're done with Houston?"
"Almost." Luca headed for the door. "We've got a gym equipnt eting to crash. Emily's been alone with Chris and Joey for hours. God knows what they've ordered."
"A hundred credits says Chris already ordered the Japanese squat racks," Zoe said.
They walked out into the afternoon sun. Tomorrow they'd be in Arizona. The day after, they'd have their ship in orbit for the whole world to see.
Let Orion Horizons chew on that.
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