Rene shook his head. He wasn’t the person to make this kind of decision and it felt intrusive to look at the private data so soon after it had come into Solae’s possession.

“Ten did give me a couple of possibilities,” Rene explained. Under normal circumstances the kingpin himself might have been the right man for the job, but his recent antagonism to Ralch meant that the Duke’s flunky was unlikely to trust anything that Ten told him, plus it laid him open to retaliation before Imperial Forces could arrive. Ten’s compound was only a few minutes away and the air was growing more cluttered as the afternoon traffic began to increase. Even with his desire to steal a few more minutes with Solae it was time to return to Ten’s compound.

“One was a woman named Alayla Thorne,” Rene told his paramour, his hands tensing sightly on the controls.

“Apparently she control most of the trade in Syshin slaves. I think Ten is a little afraid of her,” Rene went on, his stomach twisting slightly in the memory of the hold of the Bonaventure when they had first captured it. The idea of blackmailing someone involved in such a vile trade was an appealing one, but he was reluctant to let his personal feelings dictate an important tactical choice. He knew that Solae’s feelings were even stronger than his, with her greater familiarity with the aliens.

“Ralch apparently does some business with her,” he added evenly.

“Is there anything in the files that we could use to force her to cooperate?”

It was foolish to think that they could right the wrongs of the Eastern Cross single handedly, but if they were going to put someone in danger of Duke Tan’s retribution, Rene would prefer it was someone who actually deserved it.