Ivan picked up the headset, but Annie stopped him before he put it on.

"Keep it on speaker so Jordan and I can hear."

Ivan caught the nod of approval Jordan gave her.

"Sure," he said.

He flicked the switch. A green light came on, and he leaned close to the microphone.

"Kyros. You there?"

Nothing.

"Kyros! I know you're listening."

He made a few adjustments. Looked at Annie.

"We're broadcasting full spectrum," she said "If he's out there, he can-"

A sudden wash of loud static filled the cockpit, but then nothing.

"Do you read me, Kyros. This is-"

"I know ... who this is." The voice was low, almost sleepy-sounding-instantly recognizable.

Ivan locked eyes with Annie and nodded. Then he cleared his throat. "Brother. We have to talk."

FIVE.

OMEGA NINE.

34.

AN INVITATION.

"Can we get a visual?" Annie whispered, leaning close.

Ivan shrugged, knowing that Kyros could hear her as well.

"Who's your company?"

The voice, no more than a growl. Like he was drugged.

"No one you'd know," Ivan replied. "For now, it's just you and me."

Kyros laughed. More of a cough.

A faint click came over the speaker, and then a low hum filled the cockpit. Within seconds, a clear hologram of Kyros drifted in front of them.

He looked about the same as he had two years ago. A bit heavier, maybe. His hair longer. Unkempt.

The way he sat? Confident. Like a king. An all-powerful ruler.

Leaning back with both hands clasped on the arms of his chair.

And the chair. Strange. Not designed for a human. Someone or something much larger, taller.

An alien design?

Within the arc of the hologram, Ivan could also see that Kyros sat at a semicircular console. But like the chair, totally unknown and unfamiliar.

What the hell is it?

"Did you go soft in prison, brother? Get stupid? Lose your edge?"

Ivan caught a strange reverberation-a quaver-in his brother's voice.

Is that from the transmission equipment or is it the room he's in?

"What do you mean?" Ivan asked. His muscles tensed. He didn't like what he was seeing-the odd arrogance of his brother, the strange chair, whatever the machine was he sat beside.

"There's nothing left to talk about."

"What happened here? At the camp? Where are my men?"

"Your men?" Kyros let out a sharp burst of laughter. "Brother, you betrayed your men. You double-crossed us all."

Ivan shook his head.

"I did no-"

"You sold us out to the World Council."

Well, that game's over. Time to put all the cards on the table.

And as he stared at the lifelike holo, he realized that something else had changed about Kyros. Something internal, not visible.

And in his gut, Ivan knew his brother was much more dangerous.

No point in pretending.

"You're right. I made a deal." It took considerable effort to keep his voice neutral. "Not just for my life, but for all of our lives."

Kyros's laughter rose even louder, the sound swelling.

Insane.

His face turned bright red.

"You don't fucking get it, do you, brother?"

"Get what?"

"That you no longer command the Runners. I do."

"Hang on. Listen. We've been granted a pardon-total amnesty. All of us. We're free to go anywh-"

"Anywhere except wherever the hell we want to go on the Star Road."

Kyros's face was livid now.

"All along-as soon as you got yourself captured, I suspected you'd do this." Kyros trembled, staring straight into the camera lens. "That's why we had to set a few examples along the way to prove that the Runners weren't broken."

Kyros's tongue snaked out of his mouth.

"That we aren't all gutless traitors."

"The pack of warrows in the way station?" Ivan said. "Looked pretty gutless to me."

"They did the job we wanted done." Kyros took a deep breath. Shifted in the massive seat.

"And you-I don't need your approval, brother. In fact, there's only one thing I need that you have."

Kyros gripped both chair arms tightly as he glared into the camera.

Has he really gone insane? Ivan wondered.

"And what would that be?"

"Send me Nahara within two hours, or you and everyone on board that bucket of bolts will be incinerated."

"No," Ivan said sharply. "First, we talk. You and me. Face-to-face. Then you can have Nahara."

"You don't have any cards to play here!"

"I have Nahara."

Kyros, wide-eyed with rage, veins throbbing in his neck, pounded his console. Then he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his cheeks with the flats of his hands. When he gazed up at the ceiling, the view of the hologram made it look as if his eyes had rolled back in his head, exposing nothing but the whites.

Madness.

Finally: "All right then, brother. We'll talk." A hollow laugh. "Maybe you can convince me to accept this amnesty of yours."

As if I can't tell he wants to kill me the instant he sees me, Ivan thought.

"Where are you?"

Ivan still couldn't make out his brother's surroundings. He shifted back and forth while gazing at the hologram, but the image held tight on Kyros.

His brother smiled.

"See that cave opening due west of the settlement?" A pause. "Let me send you coordinates."

He turned around and tapped something on a keypad out of sight.

Ivan glanced at Annie, who checked the readings and then pointed toward the range of mountains off to the port side.

"Got it," she whispered.

Ivan felt a nudge on his shoulder and, turning, saw Jordan pointing to another screen, scanning the rocky slope that towered into the green-tinged sky.

After a few sweeps, the movement stopped.

He saw something-a dark, gaping opening.

"You're in the old mine? I checked that out a long time ago."

"You didn't check carefully enough," Kyros said. "That's your problem. You quit too easily, Ivan." A beat. "Wait and see."

And there was that loud, braying laugh again.

"So what are you waiting for? Come on up and visit me. Alone!"

"You know better than that," Ivan replied.

"You want to bring your friends along? Fine. Dangerous cave, though. You never know what might happen."

With that, Kyros leaned forward, his arm moved, and then the hologram dissolved in a static-filled hiss.

"Well," Ivan said, straightening up. "That's my brother."

Neither Annie nor Jordan said anything.

Then he added: "What say we go find the bastard."