“So you won’t help me rescue Mom?”
“No, I didn’t say that. On the contrary, you’re going to help me rescue her, and not the other way around.”
Aerie was confused. “Why are you going to rescue her if you think she deserves to die?”
“Because I love her, of course.” The General’s gaze softened as he looked at Aerie. “I have always, always loved her. She has always been my best friend and the one person with whom I could be free.”
“Even after all her meddling and her ... relentless fighting?”
“Yes.”
Aerie felt a new level of shock as she watched her father’s eyes, so similar to her own. She could almost see her father as he met Merra for the first time, she could almost feel the thick layer of conviction as he married her, and she could almost sense the disorientation he felt in being kept from her.
Once she realized she was staring at him with her mouth open, Aerie cleared her throat. “Well, Gerard talked to me,” she said. “And he said he would give up Merra in exchange for you and Exton.”
“He seems to have developed quite the vendetta against the two of us,” General St. Cloud mused. “I’m not surprised.”
“He told me that Phoebe is with him, helping to take care of Mom.”
The General’s eyes held a sudden sparkle. “I can’t imagine that he’s doing either of them a favor. I told you before I was married to Phoebe against my will. I only agreed to it because Grant—Dictator Osgood—insisted it would be better for me and you kids.”
“I didn’t think you cared enough to like her,” Aerie admitted.
“I didn’t care at all,” the General assured her. “But I knew she was a spy. She was handpicked by Osgood, and it would have warranted even more concern if I refused him. I’d managed to keep him at bay for a year with excuses. She was the ultimate punishment in many ways.”
“I see.” Aerie felt much better knowing her father loved her mother and hated her stepmother. “I guess that’s why Mom hates her, too.”
“More or less. I’m sure she can fill you in on the specifics later,” General St. Cloud said. “She’ll likely be happy to. I never enjoyed listening to her complain about her. There was very little I could do. Another death in my family would have—”
“—warranted concern.” Aerie did a double-take, as she finished his sentence and another revelation came to her. “That’s why you wouldn’t let me stay with Exton initially.”
“You’re young, Aerie. I know you love him, but you’re going to find out the hard way that marriage and true love have their price.”
“There’s no need to worry about me there,” Aerie said, thinking of her earlier conversation with Exton. “Exton’s already warned me.”
“I can assure you, whatever he said before, he was being nice about it. He’s a man who has a duty to fulfill, and he knows it. You’ll never be satisfied being number two in his life. Right now he has to choose between the war and you, and you’re upset about it. But if it’ll get us out of here so we can save your mother, I’m willing to use it to my advantage.”
Aerie shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Before she could ask her father if it would be better for her to leave, he changed the subject.
“Now,” he said. “Let’s go over the plan.”
Aerie said nothing. She had spent the better half of her shift trying to formulate a plan of her own, but she had come up with nothing substantial. A part of her knew she was still hoping to talk herself out of it, but she knew the General was right. She didn’t agree with Merra’s methods, and her mother definitely wound up in a trap she had set herself. But she still loved her, and there was nothing else to be done.
She gave him a small nod. Time to step up, she told herself. “Okay.”
♦16♦
It had been many hours since the sunlight gracing Petra’s landscape slipped under the horizon when Exton headed into the main hangar.
He sighed and put his comm device in his pocket, but not before he fought off the urge to throw it away. It had been too many times that he’d tried to get a hold of Aerie, only to get a bunch of half-muttered excuses or blatant ignorance. Even his own crewmembers were too curious as to why they needed to help him get ahold of his wife.
Exton looked down from his position on the walkway over Petra’s hangar. He considered powering up his shuttle and flying to the Perdition just to find her and demand they finish their earlier argument before they moved onto a new one about communication etiquette.
Exton was just imagining the look on Aerie’s face when he heard footsteps behind him.
“What’s wrong? Missing your sweetheart?” Tyler asked, as he came up beside him.
“Shut up.”
Tyler gave him a wicked grin. “Oh, I guess I’m right.”
“I said shut up about it.”
The smile fell away from his face. “I guess I was wrong,” Tyler said. “You’re not missing her. You’re upset with her.”
“More myself, but yes, I’m upset with her.” Exton glared at him from over the railing. The two of them were on the second level of Petra’s hangar, looking down at the small array of fighters and shuttles, as any NETech was getting disabled. The ships would then be refitted with frequency scramblers and monitors, just to make sure that they would never face another Panama situation.
“What did you do?” Tyler asked.
“Why are you assuming it’s my fault?”
“Because Aerie’s still in that honeymoon phase, and you’ve been forced out of it,” Tyler replied. When Exton gave him a quizzical look, he explained, “When I see or hear about her, she’s always trying to help you, or to keep you from getting upset. She wants you to be happy that you married her.”
“I am happy that I married her,” Exton growled.
“But you’re both stuck in an international conflict. It’s bound to get in the way of some things.”
Exton snorted. “You have a point.”
“So it’s more than likely your fault. After she’s tried to be so appeasing, you likely pushed her too hard and she pushed back.”
“That’s about right,” Exton agreed, thinking of Aerie’s harsh words about her father, and how she was quick to compare her mother’s actions with his father’s. There was still a soreness he felt when he thought about that. He tried to call her earlier to see if they could work things out in a more civilized way, but he had to commend her on her wisdom in turning his messages away. He was still ready to fight.
“I imagine it’s hard on her, too,” Tyler said. “She’s upset about her mother and her family.”
“At least know I called it right, way back at the beginning. She wants her family’s acceptance still, even if she has our affections.”
“Who doesn’t want both of those things?” Tyler laughed. “She’ll try for both, until she sees that it’s pointless, or until she’s hurt too much to continue to be disappointed.”
“That is the way she seems to work.” Exton waved his hand down at the ships. “I’ll try to call her again later, after dinner. In the meantime, what are we going to do about Merra?”
“I know your aunt is pretty distressed,” Tyler said. “She’s been twice as snappy today.”
“Must be a family trait,” Emery said, as she came up behind them. “I heard you’ve had a fight with Aerie, Exton.”
“Shut up,” Exton said, before he stuck his tongue out at her, like they used to when they were younger.
“See? Family trait. Good thing it skipped over me.”
“It’s none of your business.”
Emery didn’t give him a pass. “Really? You’re going to try to charm your way out of this mess?”
“Hasn’t failed me yet.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
“How did you hear about it anyway?” Exton asked. “I didn’t think I was broadcasting my relationship throughout the community.”
“I have friends other than you,” Emery rem
inded him. “Olga’s daughter told Alice that Aerie was upset today. Alice mentioned it to me, hoping that Aerie was doing okay.”
“We really need to stop the gossip lines between Petra and the Perdition,” Exton muttered.
“It’s not my fault everyone’s always enjoyed commenting on your personal life.”
“I would make the argument that it is a security concern.”
Tyler laughed. “You know my friends would catch any disruption,” he said. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
“I know that,” Exton assured him. “But it would stop a lot of the chatter.”
“Well, if that’s all you have to worry about, it seems that I’m leaving Petra in good hands while I’m away,” Emery said.
Exton frowned. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going up to Cartagena,” Emery told him. “There’s a small research team I’ve been checking in with here while keeping up with your demands. They’re the ones who are making sure that the nuclear waste isn’t leaking from the Craftcarrier,” she explained, nodding toward the open hangar doors, where a sliver of the fallen Craftcarrier could be seen in the shadowy waters.
“Why are you going?”
“I asked to go,” Emery said, mimicking his irritated tone. “You know I’ve missed studying horticulture. This is a chance for me to assess the area, to see what Merra’s ecobomb has done, if anything, and to see what kind of effect it’s having on the environment.”
“Will you be able to even see anything from Cartagena?” Tyler asked. “Panama is still pretty far out.”
“From the data we gathered, it’s a safe place for us to land for a few days. We’ll be able to send out divers from there.”
“I don’t like this,” Exton said. “We just lost a bunch of our fighters.”
“It’s a small group, with plenty of armed guards,” Emery insisted. “And anyway, the URS won’t be looking for scientists. From what I know of the ecobomb, they’ll likely be looking for a cure. If they can still move.”
“I still can’t believe Merra had the nerve to do that,” Exton said with a sigh.
“I’m not surprised she did it now that it’s done,” Emery said. “But I didn’t see it coming ahead of time.”
“Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” Tyler offered.
Exton leaned down on the railing, looking down at Captain Chainsword’s shuttle as it was inspected. “Aerie said Merra’s actions weren’t any different from Papa’s, except Papa was stopped.”
“She said that?” Emery frowned. “Seems a bit harsh.”
Tyler shrugged. “We can’t know for sure,” he said. “No matter what St. Cloud told you, we don’t have much evidence to suggest he was going to attack New Hope.”
“I saw the evidence,” Exton said. “I found it in his notes. He was planning on making the Paradise the Ecclesia’s new home while the nuclear radiation effects wore off.”
Tyler shrunk back ever so slightly. “Oh.”
“Exton.” Emery reached over, rubbing his back with her hand, just like their mother used to.
It did little to comfort him; rather, he felt even worse now that he was missing his mother as well. “St. Cloud was right.”
“It didn’t mean that he was right to kill Silas,” Tyler said.
“I agree with you there,” Exton said. “But I’m not sure I would agree with you if I was considering Merra’s actions.”
“You think she should die for it?” Emery looked thoughtful. “I wouldn’t object to putting her in prison for war crimes, especially if the ecobomb is as devastating as I’ve heard. But death? I’m not sure ... ”
“Even if your father was planning terrible things,” Tyler said, “you have to consider that he might not have gone through with it in the end.”
“You mean like I didn’t?” Exton retorted.
Tyler skipped over his derision and nodded. “Merra actually went through with her plans. So that’s different.”
“I don’t know if it’s different enough,” Exton admitted. “Maybe Aerie is right.”
“If that’s what made you mad at her, I can understand. But she is upset about her mother and her family,” Emery said. “So give her some time. Although,” she added with a smirk, “ten years might be too long.”
“Gerard gave us three days to decide what to do with his offer. He said he would trade Merra for me and St. Cloud.”
“Well, you’re not going to take that deal,” Emery said. “So what are we supposed to do?”
“I don’t know. We don’t know enough to make a solid move. And with things as they are, I’m not sure there is something we can do that will make any difference. Gerard can easily force our hand, like St. Cloud did at Nova Scotia.”
“Well, we know some things. We know Merra was behind the ecobomb,” Tyler said.
“And the URS was behind the fighters’ kamikazes,” Exton said.
“And now Gerard has Merra at the base in Panama?” Emery asked.
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t you just try to go and rescue her?” Tyler asked. “Seems like a small group could infiltrate the base there easily enough.”
“We don’t exactly have the layout.”
“Don’t you? It would be in the Boötes system.”
Exton glanced over at him. “That’s true,” he said. He’d forgotten about that. “The blueprints would be in there, just like the ones for Paradise are in there.”
“You have three days, right? We can buy you some time there, too, if you need it. We’ll just ignore his hailing frequency, or even better, reroute it,” Tyler said. “It’ll be some good fun, trying to watch him communicate with the Perdition only to end up hearing something from some other URS outpost.”
“Can your tech guys do that for—”
“Okay, I think that’s my cue to head out. I’m leaving,” Emery interrupted. “I’ve got to get packed and ready for tomorrow.”
“Please promise me you’ll be careful,” Exton said. He wrapped his arm around her neck and rubbed her hair affectionately.
“I will. I know you can’t survive without me for long.” Emery grinned. Her gaze softened for a moment. “In return, you can promise me that you’ll make up with Aerie. She’s my family too, now.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Exton said, careful to keep his tone even. He was still hurt.
“Fine,” Emery said. She gave him a smile. “I’ll be in contact with you and Aunt Patty soon.” She turned around and headed out of the hangar.
“She’ll be okay,” Tyler said. “I have a list of the people going with her, and I know she’ll be good. Serena even volunteered to go with her, just to help keep track of her health, believe it or not.”
“Emery said Serena was warming up to her.”
“It’s always a matter of trust,” Tyler said with a shrug. “New people, especially people from the URS, have become cynical when it comes to trust. And we still fail to meet every expectation. It takes a while for expectations to become more realistic and for bonds to build, so when there is an infraction, it can be overcome.”
Exton said nothing to that, privately wondering if Tyler was trying to make a secondary point to him about Aerie. He decided not to focus on it; he hated how Tyler seemed like some relationship guru at the worst times. Of course, Exton was glad Tyler was around to help him out, too, but he hated that he was glad for all the help.
Just because you don’t believe it is a bad thing for a person to accept help doesn’t mean you want to be the one who needs it.
He pulled out the comm device again, fiddling with it as he turned back to Tyler. Before he reached out to Aerie once more, he had other things he wanted to discuss. As important as she was, he had other priorities to attend to.
“I wanted to ask you about your family,” Exton said. “How are they doing? Tell me what you found out when you talked to them.”
“They’re doing as well as can be expected,” Tyler said. “There is still a crackdown going on in New
Hope, but their community center is pretty tight. No one has said anything, and they’re able to get by without much hassle.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah. Meredith said to pass on her hello to you and Aerie.”
“I’ll take it.” Exton pursed his lips. “How is she, since seeing Gerard again?”
“She’s been worse, even though she won’t say anything,” Tyler said. “My mother told me Mer’s been having a hard time sleeping, and she’s been losing weight since she’s so worried. She thinks something is going to happen because St. Cloud has been outed as a defector. She knows, firsthand, how many people on our side are skeptical of him.”
“I don’t know what to do with him still,” Exton admitted. “Keeping him away from all of this is the only low-risk solution. Considering how much trouble Merra’s given us, especially now that she’s been captured, it seems to be the wise thing to keep him where he’s at.”
“He might be able to help us with Gerard,” Tyler offered. “He’s at Panama now, as we know. Meredith’s keeping an ear to the ground for information about him. She said he’s been promoted to General St. Cloud’s old position.”
“We know that too.”
“She also said he was expecting a transfer again, one after Panama. Any ideas?”
“Nope.” Exton shook his head. “Where he goes, I don’t care right now. I just wish it was away from Aerie and the rest of her family.”
“Well, you know better than most you don’t always get what you wish for.”
“I’m careful about what I wish for. I know what it means to pay for my pleasures. I know how to count the cost of my decisions.”
“I don’t know what to tell you then, since you seem to have it all figured out.” Tyler’s tone was teasing, but Exton knew that he was serious.
Exton, thinking of Dorian and Jared, and all the others they’d lost at Panama, said nothing in reply. He knew Tyler had a point, but he didn’t think he was entirely wrong, either.
He’d tried to follow the path where the prize was worth the cost. He thought he’d lost Aerie for good after General St. Cloud captured her at Nova Scotia. He’d gone to war not only to make the URS pay for his pain, but also to pay on his own debt toward Meredith. Merra’s information, and her contacts with other nation-state leaders around the world, proved that there were enough weak points in the States’ military strategy that it would be easy to take them out. Everything seemed to work out after they liberated Chaya. He even managed to get Aerie back, and they were able to fight off one of the Craftcarriers, easily the States’ largest military investments.
The Price of Paradise Page 16
