In Serenity’s cargo bay Kaylee was crawling all over the mule, muttering to herself as she tried to find the tag.

Hank, standing by with her tool box, ready to help if needed, winced at the liberal use of Chinese swear words, and the vehemence behind them. “Sweetie, we’ll find it.”

“Gorramit, I knew he wasn’t to be trusted.”

“Hey, at least that Cobb feller told us it was there. We wouldn’t’a known otherwise.”

Her head popped up from the footwell. “And what’s all that about? A Cobb?”

“We can’t be responsible for what our relatives do. My gran told me we were direct descendants of General Slade, but that don’t mean I’m not still lovable and cuddly.”

She let her jaw drop. “ Slaughter Slade? The Kowloon Butcher?”

Hank coloured. “I heard he loved his pets.”

Kaylee laughed. “I’m not judging. I mean, look at us, a bunch of smugglers and thieves. I’m kinda thinking when Bethie’s grandkids are running the empire, they’ll be wanting to disown us.”

“Empire?”

“She has plans.” She ducked back down.

Hank smiled. At least she wasn’t cussing anymore. He let his eyes run along the yellow vehicle, planning to look outside and see if the sun was still shining, but … “Uh, Kaylee?”

“What?”

“I think I found it.”

Kaylee appeared like a jack rabbit from a hat. “Where?”

“There.” He pointed to a small circle that looked like nothing more than a flaw in the metal, but in the shadows there was something about it that wasn’t natural.

Keeping her eyes on it Kaylee climbed down, then ran her gauge across it. “Damn.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Hi-tech. Brand new. It’s got a cloak, too.”

He nodded slowly, understanding exactly what she meant. In the long days out in the black, when they had nothing much to do beyond tinker, he and Kaylee would spend hours poring over the Cortex, looking at all the developments in anything mechanical, and the kind of camouflage this tag was exhibiting had been the talk of various sites a few months back. “It’s pretty expensive for a