Chapter 16: Serrath Applies Pressure to Ysolde

The vessel appeared in her anchor coordinates at 1347.

Ysolde heard it before she saw it — a low-frequency throb that didn't match the harbor traffic pattern, too even, too maintained, the sound of a hull running on reserve power to minimize acoustic signature. She was at her secondary workstation by the porthole when it materialized through the afternoon overcast, a Compact patrol sloop, grey-hulled and running no identifying pennants, setting anchor forty meters off her station's eastern float with the practiced ease of a crew that had done this before.

She had thirty seconds to decide what expression to put on her face.