by Natalie Grey
“She can’t protect it anymore,” Nyx said slowly. She rubbed her nails over the pad of her thumb as she considered. “That’s quite a hard decision: try to hide and risk discovery, or give it all up and run from human society entirely.”
“It’s not a hard decision,” Dess said, without thinking. Her mind was still in the mode of hostage negotiation. “She can’t possibly keep what she had, which is an entire planet in thrall to her—a safe haven where no one could find her if she wanted to retire from her life as a senator or as a smuggler. For generations, the family had the best of both worlds: a planet entirely in their control, very prosperous, and a good stake in the world outside. They didn’t have to choose between being cut off and being the lords of their own kingdom. Now they do. They can have one or the other.”
“You said it wasn’t a hard choice,” Talon said.
“Mmm. That might be a hard choice. What’s not a hard choice is whether or not to try to keep Eternas hidden, because she can’t, and she knows it. But I think she also feels a very normal, human desire to try. It’s how things have been for a very long time. Tradition is important and giving up control of a planet is no small matter.” Dess lifted a shoulder. She turned back to John Hugo. “She’ll want to meet with you in order to secure your agreement—my guess is there will be several assassinations you will be expected to carry out, as well as making sure that no one follows her convoy of ships when they leave.”
“How?” Lesedi asked crisply.
Dess lifted a shoulder. “Again, guesswork, but I’d say that if you meet all her demands, she’s probably going to have Rhea placed in a secure facility with an automated self-destruct that activates if any ship passes through a certain area, or areas, during a set time frame. This will make sure that her fleet can get away without anyone following, yes? Then the facility will unlock at some sort of signal or interval, at which point you’ll be able to retrieve Rhea.”
There was a long pause, and John Hugo nodded.
“There are certain things to consider,” Dess said. “She will demand proof of the things she asks of you, and if she wants you here, you won’t be able to meet with people privately, away from surveillance—the way you’d be able to on Seneca. So you couldn’t, for instance, give orders over a channel she can control, then rescind them in person.” Hugo sighed, and she smiled. “Yes, I know.”
Lesedi was considering, her eyes distant. Talon had much the same expression, and Nyx was inclining her head to listen as Centurion murmured in her ear. She nodded in response to whatever he said.
They had accepted this victory, they were pleased with it. Their relief was obvious, and this was a victory of sorts, but Dess still could not bring herself to look at Tersi and see what he thought of all of this. She wasn’t sure anything she could do would be enough to make this up to him.
To John Hugo she said, “She knows, I would guess, not to push you too far. You have limits, even in this—as do the people around you. She knows the Dragons would stop you if they needed to. So she’ll ask for things right up to that limit. But she’s very dangerous on her own account, with the information she’s seen over the years.
“The other thing to consider is that we have to determine as closely as possible where Rhea is, and I actually do have some idea of that. When we were speaking, Gee said that Harry had been brought back to a place ‘where he could serve multiple purposes.’ The purposes they have are for leverage and revenge, against Mr. Hugo via me, and against my family as a whole, and then also for his talent as an engineer.
“Now, for leverage, she could have him anywhere. For revenge, though, Ghost will want to terrify and hurt him herself. She always does that personally. For his purpose as an engineer, she’ll want him somewhere she’s designing ships—and that’s probably on one of the larger unnamed stations she has. There are two of those, and if we know the general direction of where Aunt Gee came from or any signals that ship sent—”
“We do have a set of coordinates vaguely towards Crius,” Lesedi said. “They were sent with a distress signal indicating a missing child.”
“Right!” Nyx sat up straighter. “We found them when we went after Integrative Staffing—whatever, those bastards. I wondered what happened with that.”
“We couldn’t get there without tipping our hand pretty obviously,” Lesedi said. “That’s what happened with it. But if it might be useful….” She looked at Dess.
“Yes,” Dess said simply. “That’s it. I’ll send the ones I have to you for verification. And, as I mentioned, she made reference to him and Rhea comforting one another, so now we know where Rhea is, too.”
“I have a question,” Talon said after a moment.
“Yes?” Dess looked over at him.
“You looked nervous when you left the ship, when you went into the room alone, when your aunt entered. You cried.” He frowned. “You fooled all of us—or, at least you fooled me.” He admitted it with a small grimace. “Do you think you fooled her, though?”
“It wasn’t an act,” Dess said honestly.
There was a silence.
She managed a smile, though she knew her face had gone pale again. “I’m terrified for Harry, Mr. Rift.”
His lips curved slightly at the formal address, but he said nothing.
“I told myself that if I tried not to feel what I really felt, I—well, it was impossible.” Dess gave a tiny, helpless shrug. “Then I remembered that it was part of why they wanted me there. They wanted me to hurt. And that was the key to them—if I played my part, they wouldn’t look any deeper. So, no, Mr. Rift, I don’t think I fooled them. I think they didn’t think to look for anything other than what they wanted to see. I just gave them that. I gave them whatever I could that didn’t compromise the operation. Like you do in a hostage negotiation.”
He hesitated before giving her a nod, but when he did, she saw something new in his eyes: respect.
“Well,” Lesedi said lightly, breaking the moment. “It seems we have a mission to plan.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“—WHICH leaves us taking out the station,” Nyx said, for the third time. She twirled a pen between her fingers and grinned.
On the screen, Talon was glowering at her.
Nyx gave him a shrug. “You find a way that it makes sense for you to do the hostage rescue and us to be at Station X.”
“Station X?” His voice, on the comms, was amused.
“We had to call it something, and according to Dess, it has no name. So. Station X.” She spread her hands. “We good?”
Talon still looked sulky. “We haven’t gotten any action on this mission. You’re hogging it all.”
“Well, you know what they say in the Navy. A good mission’s a boring mission.” She saw his face and gave him a small smile. “Action means your team’s in danger, Talon. You know you don’t want that.”
“Right, and you wouldn’t happen to know anything about enjoying exciting missions.” He scored the point with a ready grin. “You just left the Navy so you could do more good in the world. Entirely altruistic.”
“That is why I left the Navy!” She was laughing, not really stung, but at least with her pride pricked.
“Sure, sure. That’s what you say. Too much oversight, getting hamstrung by the brass on mission planning, not able to go hunt down the people you knew were doing the bad stuff.”
“Right. Exactly that.”
“I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that if you don’t see action for a few weeks, you get stir-crazy.” He lounged in his chair with a knowing smile, and Aegis must have been somewhere off-screen, because Nyx heard his snort.
“I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about,” she said loftily.
“Of course you wouldn’t.” He grinned, but then blew out his breath in a sigh of frustration. “Unfortunately for me, you’ve got logic on your side this time. You’re sure you can take that station out?”
“What is this, my first day? I can get
a couple of hostages off a station.”
“What the captain means,” Aegis said, poking his head around the side of the frame for the first time, “is that he’d really prefer it if you’d say you need our help, so we could come get in on all the shooty bits.”
Nyx grinned at Aegis, who was now on the receiving end of one of Talon’s glares. She gave her former team commander a smile. “Think that through, captain.”
“Don’t you start with the ‘captain’ shit. I put up with ‘boss.’ That’s okay.” Talon gave Aegis a look. “But this new ‘captain’ business is unacceptable. And what do you mean, ‘think it through’?”
“I mean,” Nyx said sweetly, “that you coming to help us leaves the Io as a ship Ghost knows about, because that’s the ship that’ll dock at Tian Station, and it means that Tera is then on Tian Station, and who knows what she’ll get up to.”
“She is an assassin,” Talon said. “Realistically speaking, you should want her on Station X with you, to take Ghost down.”
“Nuh-uh,” Nyx said at once. “Ghost is mine.”
“Ha! I knew it!” Talon stabbed at the screen triumphantly.
“…Eh?”
“You stacked the deck early on in this game, you son of a bitch. Daughter of a bitch? Not important.” Talon waved his hands. “You had us take Dess because you knew at some point, we’d get stuck in negotiations and you’d get a shot at Ghost, yourself.”
“There’s no way I could have known that,” Nyx protested, laughing, “and if you recall, we had you take Dess because she and Tersi were practically writing hearts with each other’s initials in them. Speaking of which, what’s up with those two?”
Talon looked faintly evasive.
“…What did you do, Rift?”
“Nothing. Why would you ask that?” He gave her an innocent look.
“Aegis?”
“I don’t know, actually.” Aegis sounded bemused. “Where is Tersi?”
“Nowhere,” Talon said, innocence still dripping from his every gesture. “I wouldn’t know. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Nyx’s shoulders were shaking with silent laughter. “Poor Tersi. He never even had a chance, did he? All right, I’m out for now, kids. Got a mission to plan. That’s right,” she added, when Talon grimaced, “I get all the shooty, stabby action.” She smiled sweetly as she ended the call, neatly getting in the last word.
A knock sounded on her door and it slid open a moment later to show Centurion, carefully balancing three bowls of soup, and Wraith walking behind him with rolls, water, and a stack of documents clutched under one arm.
“Did we miss the planning?” Centurion asked.
“Just the call.” Nyx hastily got out of her chair to help him with the soup. “The planning is just us. They have to go figure out the Io rendezvous and all of that. Apparently, they are going to bring Hugo. They think it’s enough of a distraction for our mission to get Rhea, and with the negotiations at Tian Station, they feel confident that Ghost’s people won’t try to abduct him, too.” She snagged two of the water glasses from Wraith. “Did either of you get spoons?”
“I knew we forgot something,” Wraith muttered. “I’ll go get them.”
“Nah, we’ll eat like barbarians, it’s fine.” Nyx handed her a bowl of soup, gestured for the two of them to sit on the bed, and leaned against the wall as she started drinking her own soup directly from the bowl. “This is good, who cooked?”
“Doc,” Centurion reported. “Anytime the food tastes better than usual, it’s Doc cooking. Anytime it’s worse, it’s probably me or Maple.”
“Maple could burn a glass of water if you gave her a few tries,” Wraith agreed.
Nyx gave a snort of amusement. “All right. So. We have two hostages to get off the station, and Ghost to take down. She’s overseeing Harry’s torture—let’s be honest, that’s what’s happening at this point—and the ship-building. Which is another layer to this mess, because we don’t know what kind of fleet we’ll have to get through in order to land. And get out.”
Centurion considered this as he sipped at his soup. He was surprisingly neat about it. “The question is,” he said finally, “do we go in silent, or do we let them know we’re there?”
“Both,” Wraith opined, before Nyx could say anything. She dipped her roll in the soup, took a big bite of it, and kept speaking as she chewed. “Let them know the Conway’s there, send Nyx in all guns blazing, yelling about Ghost, and then a second team goes in dark to get to the hostages.”
“I like that,” Nyx said. “So we’ll want to find the closest airlock to where the hostages are, then. Did Dess send any guesses of where that would be?”
“She did.” Wraith nodded towards the stack of papers. “Along with where Ghost’s office is, and the factory sort of area for the ships.”
“Stupid as hell to be building ships on a station,” Centurion grumbled. “One spark and the whole thing goes up. A carrier’s one thing, but this is just ridiculous.”
“You know,” Nyx said, with a gleam in her eye, “maybe we should demonstrate that principle on the way out.”
“Oooh,” Wraith agreed. “Yes. But let’s start with the hostages.”
“We’ll need two plans, anyway,” Nyx pointed out, “in case Ghost decides to get to them and have her personal entourage guarding both at once. We’ll try to keep that from happening, but she might be right there when we land.”
“Good point.” Wraith drained her soup and set the bowl down on the desk with a clatter. “Okay,” she said, pulling the paperwork towards herself. She spread the blueprints out on the bed and all three of them leaned forward to look. “So, here’s where Dess says the hostages are….”
Harry Tasper slumped against the back of the chair and reveled in the moment of blessed relief from the pain. He could feel the faint itch of the electrodes attached all down his spine. It wouldn’t be long until the agony started again. He’d known about these chairs for years, but he’d always hoped he’d make it through his life without sitting in one.
When he’d gotten old enough to understand what his parents were doing with all the drills and the hushed talk of escape, he’d thought they were very brave. His father was his idol when he was younger. Dess was scared, but Harry always promised her it would be okay.
Then the years passed and they didn’t leave and his admiration for his father had turned into contempt. His father liked to say he stood against Aunt Maryam, but he never actually did anything about it.
Harry had been cruel—and then it had been Dess who made the peace and tried to smooth things over. Somewhere along the line, the two of them had switched places. She’d become quietly more assured of the fact that they should defect, while Harry—
The pain burst through him again, searing agony, and he screamed before he thought to stop himself. Dess wouldn’t scream, he thought. She would keep silent and not give their aunt any satisfaction. But Harry didn’t have that kind of resolve. When things hurt, he didn’t hide it. And so he screamed, and he hated himself for doing it.
What was the point of being brave, though? Despair came in a wave, adding hopelessness to the pain. He was never going to get out of this alive. He knew that. He’d tried to secure his escape when he saw the Dragons at Qaryat, but in his heart, he’d known Ghost would never let him get away.
He just hoped that Dess didn’t hold herself responsible for it all. Because if she came to find him….
Ghost would have a trap waiting for her.
“Stay away,” Harry whispered. Or maybe he screamed it. It was hard to know.
“What did you say, dear?” His Aunt Maryam’s face swam into view, both familiar and uncannily different now.
For himself, Harry might not bother keeping his mouth shut—but for Dess, it was different. He pressed his lips together.
“Harry?”
He could not look at her, so he fixed his eyes on the ceiling and prayed. Stay away, Dess. Whatever you do, just leave
me to die and get out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
HIS SIDE TWINGED as Tersi leveled another kick at the bag. The movement might hurt, but to his satisfaction, the bag swung just as hard as it should have.
Workout by workout, he was getting back to where he’d been. The mission that took Sphinx’s life had given him an injury that sidelined him—and he’d had no choice, after, but to sit in the hospital, useless, unable to fight or train to distract himself from his thoughts.
He’d thought he would go mad.
His personal comm crackled. “Tersi.”
It was Talon, and Tersi stilled. He’d known he was going to have to talk to Talon eventually, but frankly, he hadn’t been looking forward to it. Metaphorically speaking, he’d kicked Talon while the other man was down, and he wasn’t proud of the fact.
But he was going to have to talk to him sometime. Two people couldn’t coexist on a ship without running into one another. “Yeah?”
“You in the gym?”
“Yep.”
“All right, one sec.”
Tersi made sure his comm was off before he groaned. Please, let Talon bring Aegis. The man had a talent for getting both of them to cool down.
He went to towel off and take a drink of water as he heard steps on the metal grating above. He tried to clear his mind and come up with something to say. You were being an ass, for instance, was true, but not especially helpful.
When he turned around, however, it was Dess in the doorway, not Talon. She stared at Tersi as though she’d very much like to flee, but squared her shoulders instead and said, “Is Talon here? He told me to come down.”
“Not yet. Waiting for him.” Fuck. The last thing Tersi wanted was some group chat with Talon and Dess. What was Talon even going to say?
Then, as Dess stepped into the room, the door came down behind her—and there was the undeniable sound of it locking. She looked around, confusion plain on her features. “Did I do something?” She tapped on the metal. “How do I make it go back up? I, uh … Tersi, if you’d—” She broke off. “Why are you laughing?”
