27
MELATI DIDN’T NEED to get her list of code phrases. This one she knew: it had been right at the bottom of the list and it meant that Jas and Nysa, and possibly the entire mission, were in grave danger.
“What happened?” she asked Ari.
He shook his head. “That’s all I have.”
“What about Hasegawa and the shuttle?”
“I think that maybe even the shuttle is in trouble. I’ve been thinking about the two thugs we met, and I’m wondering if they were sent to get rid of us, and were surprised to meet people on the hull. They basically had the same idea as we did. We were extremely lucky that we could take them by surprise. If they’d known that we were there, we wouldn’t have made it.”
That was a disturbing thought, and it also made a lot of sense.
“Is this the only communication you’ve had fr
