Page 68 of Radiant Exception
I made a mental note to inquire about the cost of expanding the shower in the captain’s quarters to be large enough to fit two people.My fingers itched, watching Lark shower, after being invited to do so again. I wanted to keep touching her, I wanted to help her wash her hair, and maybe fuck her against the shower paneling, warmed by the water overhead.
“How long do you think it’ll take them to find Simon?” she asked, her fingers applying a cleanser to her face.
“They already did.” I turned my comm to show her. I wasn’t sure if she could see the headline, declaring the Phoenix to have been caught, through the steam, but I was surprised to see her expression fall at the news.
“Simon? The Phoenix?” She scrunched her face. “It feels too easy.” She shook her head in disbelief. “We’re missing something.”
“He was definitely involved in your abduction.” I folded my arms, trying to covertly adjust my hard-on, knowing we needed to get back to the real world, which meant more sex would have to wait.
“Sure.” She flicked her hand in agreement. “But I know Simon. He’s not smart enough to be the Phoenix. He had too much on the line and is a narcissist. There’s no way he would be able to stand running such a vast underground criminal network from the shadows. He’d need to take credit.”
I scrolled through the article on my comm. “He’s definitely claiming complete innocence and diplomatic immunity on any potential charges,” I told her.
“Exactly. Not to mention, when would he have had the chance to do all of this while he was busy kissing ass to get a leg up in his career and running around and cheating on me with dozens of women for the entirety of our relationship?”
I glanced up at her, an eyebrow raised.
Lark shrugged. “I was lonely and bored, okay?”
I stifled a laugh.
“He’s not a mastermind, Vaughn. Plain and simple. They’ve got the wrong guy, which means we’re back at square one.”
“If he’s found guilty, we’ll still get the bounty.” I leaned back against the counter. “We could try to find the real culprit and not have to worry about Starlane protocol while we do it.”
“Is the encrypted code still running through the ship?”
I opened the program I was using to pull the code, and frowned. “Yeah, it is.” Lark was right. “Whoever’s sending out the encrypted communications has to be on the ship. I’ve got too many fail-safes built in for them to be able to do it remotely.”
Lark shook her head, annoyed that we were so close, yet so far.
“What do you want to do, Trouble?”
“The code is the best clue we have. I’ll keep going through it, looking for patterns and seeing if I can figure out the cipher.” She turned off the water, and I held up the towel for her to step into, wrapping my arms and the towel around her simultaneously. “I have access to the files from my brother’s last comm. I might be able to find an old version of one of his decryption programs, which could help.”
“If anyone can crack it, it’s you.” I kissed her shoulder.
She relaxed in my hold, nodding her head in hopeful agreement.
For the next week, I continued to pore over the encrypted code fragments. Most of Xavier’s files were password-protected, and knowing him, I might only have a single shot at guessing the password correctly, so I focused on the coding instead.
I couldn’t help but also run back through what I knew of the crew. Which of my suspects had the means, motive, and opportunity?
Really, anyone on the ship could’ve had the opportunity, so that wouldn’t be as helpful. Motive was so much harder because every member of the crew had their own horror stories about how Meridian or Elysian had affected them. I had no way of truly knowing if any of them were lying without tipping them off to my suspicions, as I’d need a lot more information to run down every last detail of their claims.
And figuring out means was complicated. Because it was so much more than just the intelligence and know-how to utilize such a complicated, frequently changing encryption communication system, but also they had to have the right personality that could simultaneouslyinfluence, intimidate, and motivate others to do their bidding and keep it quiet.
I didn’t think anyone on the ship was outwardly manipulative, but the Phoenix would be a master at living a double life, so it wouldn’t be so simple to catch them in a lie or being two-faced.
Jordan was still the most ostensibly intelligent, Natalie the most influential, Rion the most technologically savvy, and Ethan the most guarded.
Then there was Cassidy.
Vaughn refused to allow me to rule him out. I still felt lack of opportunity could rule him out, but Vaughn felt strongly about the innocence of the rest of the crew. Cassidy certainly had the technological capabilities, perhaps more so then the others, because of his knowledge and experience with communications systems and tech, but he was quiet and awkward around the crew, keeping to himself almost more than Rion, who probably would have preferred to be more of a hermit except that he was too enamored with Natalie to stay away for long.
While there was always the potential that the Phoenix was multiple people, or a consortium, as many conspiracy theorists suggested, I had always believed that, at least at the beginning, there was a singular individual. And to believe that there were both multiple people and that more than one was on the ship seemed too big of a leap.
So I remained stuck…until I wasn’t.
