“Great, where are they?” Darius asked, letting breathing deep in relief.
“In the megaron.”
“Of course. Because it’s easy to break into the central area of the government. No big deal!” Darius shook his head and added a note to the keycode bullet point.
“Well, at least one step will be easy—taking the SC Olavia Apollo to wherever you need to go. Because I’m so reliable.” Trip smiled and tilted her head at them, challenging them to disagree with her.
“Which brings us to this step,” Darius said, gesturing at the next one on the list. “Where do we get the tanker?”
“What are our options?” Holly asked. She turned and picked up her drink to sip it again.
“Either at the base, or at Po, where the fuel is stored,” Trip offered.
“Benefits of both, as well as the cons?” Holly asked.
Odeon stopped playing the instrument. “After a tanker drops its fuel on Po, it’s lighter. And it’ll still be fueled enough to get back to Ixion.”
“He’s right,” Darius agreed. “But then we have to fly it all the way back to the base. And what do we do with the crew once we hijack it?”
“Leave them on the Po spaceport?” Odeon offered.
“That sounds simple enough, eh chap?” Shiro agreed. “That’s not the issue, it seems to me. The issue is, why take that many days just to get a tanker we’ve stolen to the base, when the base itself is rich with tankers just waiting for us to run off with?”
“That’s also a good thing to consider,” Holly said. “How long does it take to get from Po back to the base?”
“Obviously that will depend, but usually it’s two to four days.” Trip would know, the one pilot amongst them who dealt with flight times and orbits.
“So, then, is there a reason to not just take a ship from the base?” Holly asked.
No one said anything for a minute. Charly finally cleared her throat. “Trip? Seems to me that you’d know better than any of us.”
“Yes. Well, one thing I consider is how long it takes to leave the base. If you take the tanker from the base, what do you do with the crew there? Leave them behind or tie them up and throw them in the brig? And let them take the ship when you’re done?”
“Yeah, so why haven’t we just asked someone if we could borrow the tanker?” Charly asked. She chuckled as though the obvious nature of the question was funny.
“The Centau don’t just let someone borrow a tanker,” Odeon answered.
“Precisely. They’re not the most generous overlords,” Shiro added. “No offense, Trip.”
“I agree. We are not,” Trip said. “It isn’t a matter of feelings, but an issue of practicality. Like how we approach everything, to the Centau the question always comes down to what benefits them the most. Does it make sense to loan a very expensive, specialized ship to a group of motley rescuers for a job that the Centau won’t understand? Children in our race are made responsible at very early ages, and taught all the ways that they can serve the greater good.”
“The Centau are wonderful. I admire them immensely. OK, so we can’t get permission to borrow a ship,” Holly said, taking the reins before they devolved further into discussion about what the Centau thought. As far as Holly knew, Trip wasn’t a spokesperson for the race, although she meant well. “Then we have to borrow it without permission. And taking it from the base is a bad idea. So we either need to hit one at Po or one of the other fuel depots. That way we avoid the awkward conversation about where the crew is, why did their voices just change over the communications, why are there people calling for help in our brig.”
The next topic was the distraction—how they would conceal what they were doing when they boarded and then took the tanker in the first place. Not only that, somehow they needed to distract the Shadow Coalition thugs and the leaders on the base as they took the children. This was assigned to Shiro and Odeon, simply because they would be working together.
“And Drake, about the children,” Darius said.
Holly groaned on the inside. She didn’t want to discuss the topic of how they’d take care of the children with the team. It was the only thing she could think about at the moment, but she wasn’t prepared to go over the details with her team. It would invite questions and curiosity that she wasn’t ready to field. Her idea seemed to be the only correct answer. There was no other way to solve it, short of hiring a bunch of people. No, these would need to be volunteers that Holly implicitly knew she could trust.
She looked at the time—it was too late to go find out the answer to what she knew was the proper question about how to handle the children. She would have to go in the morning.
“The children, yes. Don’t worry about that. I’ll get that one figured out soon,” Holly said, reassuringly. She felt anything but confident. Her stomach was a swirl of anxiety, but she couldn’t show that to her team. They didn’t need to know. All they needed to know was that it was handled.
“Anyone else notice that Holly gets weirded out the minute we bring up the children to her?” Charly asked, laughing.
“Sounds like the drink has gotten to you, Char,” Holly shot back with a smile.
“I think Holly is right, Charly,” Shiro said, looking between the two women. “Never trust a club owner that drinks at the club.”
“Please, Shiro, you and I both know it takes more drinks to get me that crazy.”
Holly laughed and turned to Trip. “Thanks for coming to the meeting. I guess the Olavia Apollo will be ready to fly in four days when we leave?”
“Yes. So long as you get the keycodes for the tanker. I will be ready.” Trip stood and bowed slightly. “For now, I’m going to go check on my baby.”
14
The school looked more like an office building. Holly had never liked that part of it, but there were worse things. It could have looked like prison.
The children she’d taught were too young to think of school like they were trapped. That mentality came when they were older. Holly’s students had loved school and Holly had loved teaching it. Some days were better than others, but overall, nothing had made her happier than being a part of the children’s lives when they finally understood a concept.
Morning sun and the reflected light from Ixion drenched the front of the school in soft yellow hues. The windows glittered and the sign across the entrance announced that it was “Primary School #432 Black Jade District.” Holly climbed the stairs and went inside. Summer was coming to an end, and because the schooling system had been set up by humans, it ran the way they wanted it to. Centau children did not usually attend school, however, Holly had herself taught one or two Centau during her tenure at the school.
Teachers and administrative staff were currently in the building preparing for the year that would start soon. Knowing this brought a pang of sorrow to Holly. She should be getting ready for the next year. She went inside, the familiar smells of a school on the tail end of the warm season struck her. There was the odor of sun baking the glass and the scent of disturbed dust. She could make out the underlying fragrances of school books and writing utensils. The school could have been run entirely on v-screens, but the pedagogy of this one clung to the idea that hands-on learning was best for the students. If they trained the muscles in their hands to grip a writing instrument, their brains stored the information much longer than what was accomplished with the interface of a v-screen.
“I don’t believe it. Holly Drake. I wondered if we’d ever see you again.”
Holly jumped, startled by the near silent approach of the person speaking. She turned to look and blinked. “Val? Valentine Carey. Wow.” The woman speaking to Holly stood with her hands out in surprise, and like she was inviting Holly in for a hug. So Holly moved toward her and they exchanged a long embrace. Val slapped Holly on the back a few times, squeezing her surprisingly hard.
She sniffed. “I just. I can’t believe it. Seeing you. Wow, I didn’t know I’d get emotional.” Val touched h
er cheek like she was wiping a tear away. “This is embarrassing. But I mean, what happened to you? It was so wrong. So unfair.” Valentine shook her head, frowning, then she laughed.
“Thanks, Val. It was, yeah, it was so crazy.” Holly shook her head, uncertain what to say. Did she just own that she’d killed her ex-husband to an old colleague, or did she simply avoid the fundamental ideas of what happened? “Thank you, you know, for all the cards you and Estelle sent to me. From the kids. From you. It really kept me going when things were hard.”
“Oh my gosh, yes, Holly. It was so wrong. We knew, you know? Or at least we suspected. Some of us. We saw the signs. But we were never . . . We never knew what to say or do.”
Holly swallowed and bit her lip. They were standing right outside the office, in the corridor that led to the cafeteria and the greenhouse area, where students could learn to care for plants and grow the food they prepared for lunch. She didn’t want to delve into the past with Valentine Carey. Val was wonderful. Real. Engaged. Friendly as hell. And Holly liked her. But it wasn’t why she came. It wasn’t what she wanted to be discussing. “Well, honestly, no one knew. I didn’t know.” I thought I deserved it. I thought he was right. I thought I was being strong for both of us because I owed it to our marriage. Was that what she was supposed to say? Those were the weak things that led to her sticking with Graf so long that he nearly killed her.
Valentine suddenly clapped her hands together. “But you’re out! Is that why you’re here? To come back to teaching?” She beamed at Holly.
Oh god. “No, do you think they’d let me? I don’t think that would be possible for me, Val.”
Val clapped her hands to her mouth. “Oh my. I’m sorry. Yes, yeah. I understand. Right, right. I’m so embarrassed.”
Holly laughed and took her former colleague by the arm, and looped her own arm through it, and together they walked down the corridor. “Don’t worry about it. I’m here for something else.” Holly steeled herself to endure the oncoming assault of old memories. They would be good memories, many of them. But some would be haunting and painful.
“What? What is it you’re here for? I’m so, just so glad to see you. Wondering what happened to you was just one of those things that has bothered me ever since it happened. It just niggled at the back of my head, a curiosity, the knowledge that how you were treated was wrong.”
They moved past a supply closet and Holly kept her face averted. But it didn’t matter. She could almost see the ghosts of herself and Elan entering together, her hand held softly in the gentle grip of Elan’s fingers.
“So, is Estelle still here? I came to see you both. I need a favor. And I have one question that’s been bothering me for ages. You could help with it.”
“Oh, I know the sound of that. I can hear it in your voice, Holly. I heard it in your voice all the time back before . . . before your trial.”
Holly blinked as they went up two flights of stairs to the second floor. There were times when Valentine surprised her. This was one of them. She was so bubbly and friendly that the moments when the gushing facade slipped away and she displayed rare signs of serious clarity. They were few, but when they happened, it startled everyone.
“What do you mean? You said Estelle is here, right?”
“No, I didn’t. But she is.”
“Good. In the same room?”
“Yes, it’s only been a year and a half, really. Haven’t been any shake-ups since you left. Except that Elan left.”
Holly’s breath froze in her mouth. “He did?”
“Well, as you know, he came back. Left a few years ago. But when the trial began, they called him in and he replaced you. But once your sentence landed, he left again.”
“What is it you can hear in my voice?” Holly asked, as they rounded the corner at the top of the stairs and approached the area where the teachers the preliminary grades were—children ranging from five to nine were in these classes.
Valentine laughed and patted Holly’s hand, which was still lightly holding Val’s bicep. “You know.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You’re going to ask about Elan.”
Holly’s heart plummeted, then beat itself rapidly back up to its place in her chest, thundering at the mention of his name. “I have a proposition. For you and Estelle. But let’s find her first, shall we?” Holly heard herself dropping into an educated elocution, which she did when she slipped into teacher mode, or when she was nervous.
They made it to the classroom that belonged to Estelle. Outside the door, Holly let go of Valentine and pulled her arm out of the crook of the other woman’s arm. Valentine knocked, then cracked the door and peeked her head inside.
“Hey, Estie! Someone’s here to see you. You’ll never guess. You never will. I’d explode if you guessed.”
Holly heard a chittering response, to which Val laughed, emitting a high pitched squeal of delight. Val leaned back and glanced at Holly, her eyes dancing in glee. She whispered coarsely, “You know how Estelle is. My gosh, I don’t know how she survives teaching.”
Holly knew. Estelle’s cold heart kept her going. It was like the stone inside a golem, churning it along on autopilot. No, that was mean. Estelle wasn’t that bad. She was the complete opposite of Valentine, which was why they’d be a good team to lead the rescue-children.
“Come on, let’s go inside. She did not guess, so if she pretends she did, she’s an absolute liar.” Valentine opened the door and led the way inside. When Holly got inside, Valentine did a little jump replete with a flourish of her hands back at Holly. “Holly Drake! Can you believe it?”
Estelle blinked, her round face quivering. Holly thought the other woman would begin to cuss her out, but soon a large grin broke over Estelle’s face and Holly realized the quivering was from attempting to hold back the smile. “Well, good goddamn, Holly Drake. I wasn’t expecting to see you for at least another eight years.”
“Yes, my release was a complete surprise to me as well.” She grinned at her former colleague.
Estelle moved from the lecturn where she’d been standing as though rehearsing, and approached Holly. They hugged each other briefly, exchanged quick besos, and separated.
“Well, how was prison?” Estelle asked. “A shambles?”
“It was fun. You know? I enjoyed the controlled environment.” Holly infused her voice with sarcasm.
“I’ve heard it’s similar to a vacation on Itzcap. Relaxing. Sunny.”
“Oh, yeah. Why go to Itzcap when you can have an all-expenses paid trip to prison?”
“Lovely.”
“Yes,” Holly agreed. They became silent, then burst into laughter, the three of them. “God I missed you guys.”
“We missed you too!” Valentine gushed.
“But really, Holly. Why are you here? You know you can’t teach.” Estelle gave her a pained expression. What she said bit, but she was right. Valentine made a futile gesture as though to pat Holly’s back encouragingly. But Holly stepped back.
“Of course not. That’s not why I’m here,” she said, sighing, avoiding Estelle’s gaze for a moment, to recover her pride and lick the wound caused by her cynical comment. “I need a favor.”
Valentine exchanged a glance with Estelle. “Of course, anything. What is it?”
“Hang on, Val. Goodness. Tell us what it is first, Holly.”
“First, do you know where Elan is? I need his help as well.”
Again with the exchanging of looks. Then admissions that neither of them knew. “He was, well, he was worried about you. That was why he came back to take your place during your trial. When you were convicted, falsely, he seemed crushed. He left without even telling anyone.”
“Ok. Yeah. Wow.” Why didn’t he find her? Why hadn’t he come to her? The fact that he’d been back on Kota and said nothing . . . It smarted. Did he believe that she’d killed Graf for him? Not being able to defend herself to Elan, that stung more than anything she could think of at the moment.
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Valentine stepped close to her and patted Holly consolingly on the back. “Sorry.”
Holly cleared her throat and lifted her gaze to her two colleagues. She gave them a grin. “Not a big deal. I need your help. We can do it without him.”
“Well, spit it out, for the love of God, Holly,” Estelle said. She crossed her arms like she was going to turn the favor down no matter what it was.
“I need someone I can trust to join me on a mission. About two thousand kids or so are about to come under my watch. But I can’t take care of them all by myself. I need someone to help me.”
“Uh, excuse me, question?” Val said. Estelle was quiet.
“Yes. Go for it,” Holly said.
“Why are you going to have that many kids in your care? Where are they from?”
“That’s part of the issue,” Holly explained. “I don’t want to tell you too much. But in a few days, I’ll be heading off-planet to get them. I don’t want to give you too many details until you agree to do it. So I understand if you don’t want to help without knowing more. But once you agree, I promise, you’ll know everything.”
“Why us?” Estelle asked. “And what in the hell?”
“It’ll make sense at some point. For now, I’m picking you because I trust you. You manage kids for your jobs. And you’ve done it for a while. I’m not going to recruit strangers to guard these kids. They’re more important than anything. They require kindness and care, and adults who are confident in their skills.”
Estelle nodded. Valentine saw it, and immediately accepted. “I’m in. You know what? No, it doesn’t matter. I’m just in. I am in.”
“Great, Val. It’s going to be dangerous and exciting, but you’ll only be taking care of the kids. You’ll never forget this.”
Holly and Valentine exchanged a quick embrace and Valentine let out an excited squeal again. “This is going to be so awesome.”
“Estie?” Holly asked, turning to the more serious of the two.
“Sounds dangerous. I’m not sure. I have a cat. You know?”
The Colossus Collection Page 59
