Chapter Thirty-One
Alina was waiting for Erik and Jia in the Argo’s hangar when they arrived, which should have set off the alarms.
Lanara and Raphael weren’t anywhere in sight, which probably meant they were inside the ship working on something.
Erik didn’t mind.
Lanara was good at what she did, but she could be difficult to handle, and Raphael might try to corner him and ask him for every detail of his last mission. Being loved was superior to being hated, but he wasn’t sure being overly loved was better.
Erik exited his flitter and made his way to Alina, thinking about the engineer and the scientist. Alina didn’t speak until Jia joined them.
“Thank you for coming so promptly,” Alina offered. “I know how hard it is to be permanently on call, and I can be flippant sometimes, but let
