Elyot stared at the code on the screen. “No way! She wrote that? I thought she was a scavenger.”

Cruncher chuckled at Elyot’s reaction. “Yeah. That’s what I thought too. This is the same code she wrote to distract Ramiro so she could steal the Aurelia Data Cube.”

Elyot let out a low whistle and gestured to his sister. “Lisia, you’re a tech. You should see this.”

“I’ll pass.” She waved him off, not bothering to turn away from her screen. Elyot started to make a comment but fell silent when he noticed Carl standing in the doorway.

“Hey, Boss. Didn’t know if we would see you today.”

“Yeah, I’ve been on my commlink all morning.” Carl leaned over the desk to see what they were working on. “What’s this?”

Cruncher sat back in his chair and gestured to the monitor in front of him. “I was showing Elyot the code Kayla wrote when she stole the data cube. She modified it so it’ll protect our system from the same type of attack. Apparently, some of our critical base systems were vulnerable.”

At Carl’s obvious interest, Cruncher entered a few commands. The new code appeared on the screen, along with the overlay system Kayla modified.

Carl looked at the code in surprise. “When did she do this?”

“She started working on it yesterday. Then, this morning when she woke up, she insisted I hook her into the system so she could work on it from the med room. For the past several hours that girl has been tearing apart our security and rebuilding it.”

Carl chuckled, imagining the scene. “She’s been doing all this from the med room?”

“Yeah, she was pretty pissed with Veridian for not letting her get up. Veridian compromised by letting her work from the med room. That girl is something else. I’ve never seen anyone with her skills either above or below ground. I don’t know how the hell she does it.”

Lisia turned away from her screen and stared at the three men, not bothering to hide her disgust. “How much longer are you going to keep going on about this? I’m sick and tired of listening to you guys fawn over her.”

Cruncher raised an eyebrow. “When you start bringing in a fraction of the credits that girl does in a week, let me know. Then I’ll start singing your praises too.”

Elyot moved between them and held up his hands. “Come on, Cruncher. Leave her alone.”

Lisia shook her head and pushed away from her desk. “No, Elyot, I’m sick of this. Every single one of you has been going on about her since she came up on your radar. But how much of it is her so-called talent you’re admiring? From the looks of things, she’s been nothing but trouble since you first saw her. She’s got us on lockdown over here, and we’re working around the clock because of her. Personally, I think it’s her assets that have you drooling.”

Carl had just about reached his limit with her attitude. Cruncher wasn’t helping matters either; he’d never been fond of Lisia. “That’s enough. All of you. Lisia, you’re a good tech and we appreciate everything you do. You and Kayla are both valuable members of this team. We need to work together and try to get along.”

Lisia let out a forced laugh. “So maybe I should mimic your behavior and try sleeping with her? Because from where I’m standing, that’s what it looks like you want.”

Elyot’s eyes widened. “Lisia… don’t,” he said in a low whisper.

Anger floored Carl, but he managed to rein it in. “This conversation is over.”

“Fine.” Lisia slammed her monitoring station shut. Without another word, she stormed out of the room.

Elyot looked sheepish and ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry about that, Boss. I’ll talk to her.”

Carl shook his head. He’d put off dealing with Lisia long enough. “No. I appreciate the offer, but I’ll speak with her. I’ve given her more leeway than I should have because of what happened. That was my fault. I need to be the one to work this out with her.”

Elyot hesitated. “I suppose you’re right. I’ll stay out of it as much as I can, but she’s still my sister, Carl.”

“I know. That’s why I haven’t pushed until now.”

Elyot nodded and sat back down. With a deep breath, Carl headed down the hallway after Lisia. When he reached the crew’s quarters, he found her talking to Zane. Judging by Zane’s discomfort and relief at seeing Carl, it was clear she was complaining again. Carl clenched his jaw and tried to maintain his composure. “Lisia, I need to speak with you in my office.”

Her shoulders stiffened, but she gave him a curt nod before turning to Zane. “Sorry, I’ll catch you later.”

Carl ignored the questioning look on Zane’s face and followed Lisia. She flounced into his office and turned to him when she reached the desk.

Even in her anger, Carl couldn’t deny she was extraordinarily pretty. Her long, blond hair was piled on top of her head with a few curls falling around her face. She was tall and slender with delicate features. Her blue eyes were full of a mixture of hostility and apprehensiveness. Unfortunately, her once sweet nature had been replaced by an angry bitterness.

“You need something, Carl?”

He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he engaged the privacy controls. There would be enough rumors circulating over their previous argument in the tech room. He didn’t need to add more fuel to the fire. “We need to talk about your attitude, Lisia.”

She leaned against his desk and crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s to discuss? You’ve made it clear you’re no longer interested in me.”

Carl sighed and tried to remain diplomatic. “Lisia, you’re a good person and a good tech. What happened between us shouldn’t have happened. I crossed a line when I kissed you. I gave you the wrong impression and I apologize.”

Lisia’s expression clouded as her shoulders slumped. “I thought there was something between us. I don’t understand what changed. I care about you.”

Carl could see the pain in her eyes. He wanted to be gentle with her, but she’d gone too far. “I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve never wanted to hurt you. But this has got to stop.”

She frowned. “This is because of Kayla, isn’t it? Until she came into the picture, everything was fine. What’s so special about her?”

“You’re wrong. This has nothing to do with her,” Carl insisted, although part of him wondered if she might have a point. The more he was around Kayla, the more he wanted her, even to the point of being distracted from his responsibilities. On some level, he recognized he was approaching dangerous territory. A relationship between a ruin rat and a trader could be disastrous.

“I don’t believe that. I’ve seen the way you look at her. She has every single man in this camp practically falling over himself trying to get her attention. It’s too bad Vex wasn’t able to finish what he started.” Her hand flew to her mouth. She shook her head and whispered, “I didn’t mean that.”

Her words were the last straw. Carl gave her a hard look. “Are you sure about that?”

She didn’t answer. Carl leaned across his desk. “You signed a one-year contract with me. That contract is up in two months. Unless I see a dramatic shift in your attitude and you begin treating everyone on this team with respect, your contract will not be renewed.”

Her blue eyes widened in shock at his declaration. “Elyot won’t stay without me.”

“If that’s what happens, so be it. I’m prepared to lose both of you, if that’s what you decide. You need to figure out if that’s what you want, and if you’re willing to go back to your old life.”

Lisia swallowed and straightened her shoulders. She placed her hands on her hips and gave him a cold stare. “I understand. Is there anything else you wanted to discuss with me?”

“No, that’s all.”

She started to turn away, but Carl held up his hand to stop her. “Lisia, I hope you consider this carefully. Your decision will also affect your brother.”

“You’ve made yourself clear, Carl.” Lisia turned on her heels and left his office.

Carl slumped down in his chair and ran his hands over his face in frustration. He supposed his confrontation with her could have gone worse. At least she hadn’t tried to take a swing at him.

A beep from his commlink interrupted his musing. Flipping it open, he stared at the message from OmniLab. A representative from the towers was coming to the camp to discuss the situation with Ramiro. He sighed and tossed it on his desk. If it wasn’t one thing, it was something else.

He pushed away from his desk. If OmniLab was coming, he needed to let Kayla know and prepare her. There was no doubt they were going to want to speak with her about the Aurelia Data Cube incident. The representatives from OmniLab would probably be in for a shock when they realized how large of a rift there was between themselves and the so-called ruin rats.