To bury both past identities, Conrad applies for citizenship on Bluefall as Nathaniel Gates. Wayne applies as himself to secure dual citizenship.
Relations sour between the Thuldans and VoidCorp, with the Thuldans switching their few external support contracts over to Insight. Publicly, everyone denies the existence of an unauthorised surface-to-space laser and a rogue AI operating on a shadow Grid. The short-lived chaos is attributed to various terrorist groups. CFN release a statement taking credit and threaten more action if Concord do not close their embassy on Bluefall.
The Sparrow picks up a few passengers for the trip to Oberon – Gemini McCarthy and a pair of StarMech engineers, who Mayhem granted passage in return for a better repayment deal on the most recent repair bill.
En route, Cinque discovers a suspicious device has been installed as part of the stardrive refit. Gus confirms it is waiting for an external signal. Cinque disconnects the link from the comms system to prevent this.
In Tribon, Gus receives a bunch of 3-month-old messages from Lissa, the part-time office admin managing Carpe Noctem. Gus visits the office and discovers that Lissa had to make a costly decision in her absence. However, because of this, the contract was completed on schedule. Payment is secured, in addition to a smaller ongoing maintenance contract.
Nathaniel meets Kat and allows her to read between the lines regarding who he is. She agrees to nudge a few office staff to process his “inheritance” of Kier’s assets. They arrange to meet up that night to… finalise details.
Wayne gets a call from Loralai, who he can’t remember but whose contact details are stored in his comm. She offers in on a job she needs more hands for; recovery of some stolen documents. Wayne accepts and ropes in Nathaniel and a reluctant Cinque. Loralai will send them details of the meet as soon as she has them.
Gus is approached by Jako’bek, who asks her to deliver a crystal to a t’sa called Tripwire at the Steel Grid. She was apparently recommended to him by “the Spark she employs”. She agrees but decides to check the 3D’s contents. Discovering an unencrypted cache of illegal documents – leaked classified files, banned publications, and the like – she takes a copy before going to meet Tripwire.
At the Steel Grid, Wayne and Nathaniel discover Gus and Tripwire are their targets. Before they can start trying to figure out what to do next, a trio of armed thugs enter and head directly for them. Nathaniel finally gets to try out the hallucinogenic grenades P’zu cooked up for them. They are super effective.
As the dust settles, Loralai shows up to claim the 3D. Wayne uses his personal charm (no, really) to sweet talk her into accepting a payoff instead. Gus hands the crystal over the Tripwire, who needs the data for some undisclosed, but not-at-all-nefarious, research project. Gus learns the assailants likely knew nothing about the 3D but were actually after Tripwire for an outstanding debt; he had borrowed money to pay the original data thief up front.