Ghost Pirate Gambit, page 19
In his anger and confusion he’d almost forgotten: Anton had arranged to meet them in Icaba to give them the device in person. Given the fact that their meeting has changed locations, they must have realized the danger in time.
His relief is short-lived; understanding sinks through him like a stone.
Raj will no longer be under suspicion just for trying to steal the device. They’ll assume he intended to kill the NMLF leadership committee, as well.
“Welcome back,” Vasavada says to Anton and Lasadi. “I take it you were successful?”
“We were, Commander,” Anton answers. He turns to the committee, holds out the device to the woman — Commander Abi. It glimmers blue in the palm of her hand. “Anton Kato. It’s a pleasure to meet you all in person.”
“This device could change the course of the war,” Abi says. “It seemed worth the risk to meet.”
Anton gives her a bright smile. “Getting it was a fascinating tale. I look forward to telling you over dinner.
“We shouldn’t linger,” says the tall man, Commander Beram. “It’s good you got here sooner than expected.”
“That was my decision,” says Lasadi. “Once we realized the original meeting was compromised.”
“A sound decision,” Anton says before he turns back to the committee. “I’m glad the change in plans didn’t disrupt your schedule. Still. We still have much to discuss about the future partnership between our two causes. I hoped we could spend some time in conversation.”
“We’ll discuss it,” says the stocky man. Commander Cael’s voice is raspy and familiar; it’s he who most often voices their announcements and manifestos. He turns to Raj, piercing him with blue eyes. “It seems you had trouble.” Those eyes are stony, impassive. The look of someone who would execute him in cold blood and sit down to an unbothered breakfast.
It’s the same look his father had given him, right before he’d ordered Raj be thrown in the brig for threatening to tell the world the Alliance was about to bomb civilians at Tannis. Raj will never forget that expression: calm, unworried. Almost disinterested in his son’s fate. Had his father known then that he would order his own son killed? Had he already made the calculation that winning the war was more important in the end? Did he already have a story in mind to tell Raj’s mother?
Raj won’t get a chance to ask him, now.
“There was a traitor in our midst,” Anton says to the committee. “An Arquellian. Trying to steal the device for the Alliance instead.”
Raj growls at him, frustrated by his inability to speak for himself; a half-dozen rifles swing to his chest and he stills.
“He has connections,” says Vasavada. “His father’s an admiral.”
“His death would send a message,” says Abi.
“Or escalate the Alliance’s response before we’re ready,” says Beram. “He would make a valuable hostage.”
“Or a complicated one,” points out Cael. “Why would we treat him different from any other traitor?”
“If you’ll excuse me, Commanders.” Lasadi has stepped forward, and whether it’s intentional or not, she’s shielding Raj from the raised rifles. “The reason I made the decision to return early was because I feared even if we secured the committee’s safety, the Alliance might still act against Icaba like they did Tannis. We have an idea of how to stop them.”
Lasadi glances at Raj, and he didn’t think it was possible to feel even more betrayed. But she has one more arrow she can use against him, doesn’t she? She knows what’s in his sealed court-martial records — that he was found guilty in absentia of destroying the medical transport that sparked the Battle of Tannis — and she’s going to use it to seal his fate.
“What is it, soldier?” Abi asks.
“We need to deal with the traitor first,” Lasadi says. She turns back to Raj, reaching to untie the gag. Where Anton had been rough, Lasadi’s fingers are careful as they disentangle the knot from strands of his hair. The gentleness ends in her fingers, though — her expression is still hard, her jaw is set firm.
Raj spits the gag onto the ground, working saliva back over his tongue and waiting for her to speak.
She doesn’t.
“You know me, Las,” he finally says.
“Do I?” Her eyes flash pain. “We’ve just met. And Anton, I’ve known him since I was twenty. You’re a grifter and a deserter. He’s a war hero and a senator. Which one of you should I trust?”
Raj could shout this — gods he wants to. But he keeps his voice pitched low. This is for her, only. “I know I haven’t told you everything,” he murmurs. “I know I haven’t been completely open with you. But you know one thing about me: I would never hurt you. I would never hurt Jay. Ruby. Alex. Any of you. If I haven’t shown you that, then I deserve what comes next.”
She studies his face a moment, then leans in. “I do know that,” she says — or he thinks she says, it’s so quiet he’s not sure he heard her.
She turns away, and he realizes with a sinking heart that he most definitely misheard. Because what she says to the committee is:
“We have an Alliance traitor to make an example of.”
The rifles rise again, pointing at Raj, and he can’t remember how to breathe. This is it, his final moment, and he can’t think of any of the prayers his mother used to hide from his father. The gag’s gone, but he doesn’t have any last words — or know why it would matter to speak them, since the only people who will hear are former friends who now apparently believe beyond doubt he’s the kind of man who would betray them.
He straightens his spine, ready to meet his death with dignity. The fear will be worse, he tells himself. The fear will be harder to weather than the hail of bullets about to tear into him.
Do it, he wills the soldiers, Make it fast.
Lasadi glances his way, so brief and cold his heart would break if it wasn’t in pieces at her feet already. And she turns to Anton, like she was always going to in the end. The asshole is smiling at her with a possessive gleam in his eyes, like he knows he won, like she’s some prize instead of the complicated, razor-sharp woman Raj missed his chance to be good enough for.
Lasadi raises a single finger to brush against Anton’s chest.
“You,” she says, and his smile falters. “The traitor is you.”
CHAPTER 26
LASADI
She doesn’t bother to see how anyone else takes the revelation — all Lasadi wants is to enjoy the wash of shock, fear, and fury over Anton’s face as he processes what she’s said.
“What fantasy is this?” he asks.
“It’s the truth, Anton,” she says. “You’ve been working with the Alliance this whole time.”
His eyes narrow. “I want you to be very, very clear you’re choosing an Arquellian defector’s word over mine.”
“I’m extremely clear.” She takes a step back, but she doesn’t let down her guard. “Ruby? Tell them what you found.”
Ruby clears her throat. “Anton’s been receiving large, anonymous campaign donations. I couldn’t trace them at first, but he told us they’re from the NMLF.” She turns to Commander Vasavada. “And that you’d confirm it.”
Vasavada shares a look with the three members of the NMLF leadership committee, but doesn’t answer.
“I got the key I needed to trace the deposits about an hour ago,” Ruby says. “They’re from the Alliance.”
“Lies.” Anton laughs like he’s in complete shock at the absurdity of the accusations.
“Qacha?” Lasadi prompts.
The NMLF soldier steps forward, saluting Vasavada and the committee. “Commanders,” she says, voice clear and spine straight. “When we returned to the Figment, we discovered a coded transmission had been sent to a vessel in orbit — the Alliance flagship. The message contained two pieces of information: the coordinates to Icaba, and a time. Tonight. I traced the time of the message, and it was sent right before we all returned.” She turns to Anton, apologetic. “While you were alone at the Figment.”
“I was unconscious!” Anton says.
“You weren’t,” Lasadi says. “The cut on your temple came from a knife, not a blow. When you realized the device wasn’t in the box, you killed Bryant so he couldn’t talk, then made it seem like you’d been injured.”
For the first time, Anton’s expression shifts into uncertainty; it shivers through Lasadi like an earthquake, leaving cracks in the foundation of her world. Some part of her had expected him to have an explanation, she realizes, some secret master plan he hadn’t let her in on yet. But no. There’s a glimmer of real fear simmering beneath his anger. All the facts she and Ruby and Qacha are laying out amount to the naked truth. He betrayed them, nothing more complicated or honorable about it.
“Anton Kato laid a trap for you,” Lasadi says, turning to meet the gazes of the three NMLF committee members. “He found something so valuable it would lure you out of hiding to meet with him in person, and then he tipped the Alliance off to where you’d be, and when.”
“We agreed to contribute to his campaign, but after the device was delivered,” says Commander Cael.
“He was insistent we stay for dinner,” notes Beram.
Abi lifts her chin, dark eyes glittering. “Is all this true, Senator Kato?”
“Of course not!” Anton gives Lasadi a withering look, then turns back to Commander Abi. “I’m the most anti-Alliance senator in Corusca. I don’t know how the Arquellian found out about our meeting, but he’s the one who sent the message.”
“I’m the one who found out about the meeting,” Ruby says. “Because I hacked into your messages. Even after I traced the donation to the Alliance I couldn’t figure out why — it’s a lot of risk for some money, only. But then I found this.” She flicks on the mini holoprojector in her palm, and a bust flickers into view. Lasadi doesn’t recognize the old woman with the shaved head, gold hoop earrings, and piercing blue eyes, but she knows the name when Ruby says, “Felice Evander, Alliance ambassador to Corusca. You need to do more than delete a message from your comm if you want it to disappear forever.”
“I don’t know whose bed you crawled into, Kato,” Evander is saying, her voice rough-edged with static and age, her figure flickering in the humid jungle air. “But whatever you offered the gold stars back home must be pretty valuable. I’ve been authorized to provide you with the support you need to pass the Limitations Act. We’ll discuss details once you’ve returned from your trip.”
“You’d do anything for the cause,” Lasadi says to Anton. “But your cause stops at Corusca’s borders, doesn’t it?”
Lasadi’s been waiting for the moment when the realization kicks in, when Anton understands this isn’t a joke. And there it is — the sharp intake of breath, his nostrils flaring. He reaches for his gun with one hand, for her arm with the other, but she’s faster.
She whirls into him, left hand held like a blade and snapping into his wrist as he raises the gun to her head — it goes flying out of his grip, and she breaks his hold on her arm easily and steps back, her own pistol in her hands and aimed between his eyes.
“It’s over, Anton,” she says, quiet.
Vasavada raises her chin to two of the soldiers on her left, and they step forward to cuff Anton’s hands behind his back.
“We’ll deal with him,” says Abi.
“You should go immediately,” Lasadi says. She holsters her weapon and glances back at her crew. Jay has uncuffed Raj, and she can’t bear the wounded look he gives her: You didn’t trust me enough to let me know what was going on?
She had trusted him. But she hadn’t trusted herself to convince Anton to play along, not unless she put her all into the ruse. If Anton had suspected, he could have contacted the Alliance again and changed the plan, and the NMLF leadership committee could have been caught by them anyway.
She’d done the only thing she thought would work at the time. Doesn’t mean it was the right thing.
“Icaba office to Commander Vasavada.”
A voice from Vasavada’s gauntlet cuts through Lasadi’s thoughts.
“Vasavada here.”
“Someone’s requesting permission to land in Icaba,” says the voice. “She says she’s a reporter.”
Qacha grins. “She came!” And at Vasavada’s lifted eyebrow, Qacha straightens her spine again. “We knew we needed to come straight here to warn the committee the Alliance are on their way, but even if they got out in time, the captain and I worried what they might do to Icaba.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time they’d shelled civilians to make an example of what happens if you harbor guerrillas,” Lasadi says, and she can’t help but turn to Anton again, trying to find the man she used to know beneath. Hadn’t he been as horrified as she was at how the Alliance leveled Tannis? All those lives lost, simply because the CLA had chosen to make their base in the Tannis Valley. Though, maybe those lives were just another step on his way to power, sacrificed as easily as he’d tried to sacrifice Lasadi and her crew today.
She wants to be shocked, but she’s been through this before — along with everyone under her command on Mercury Squadron. She’d told herself back then it was for the good of the cause. But had it been? Or has everything actually been just for the good of Anton?
The Limitations Act would loosen the Alliance’s noose around Corusca, but is it worth it if it comes at the expense of New Manila’s freedom? She knows what the Anton she’d fallen in love with as a young woman would have said — she still has his early speeches memorized. Where one group suffers under Alliance rule, we all do.
Had he ever believed the lofty ideals she’d idolized him for? Or had his rhetoric always been a path to power?
Lasadi doesn’t have it in her to care; her loyalty now is to her crew, the crew she’s shattered to make her own point. A hollow ache eats at her gut. Maybe she’s learned more from Anton than she thought.
She forces away the thought, turning back to the committee. “We knew people would wonder what happened if we left the race abruptly. A reporter had been trying to interview me back in Moie, so I had Qacha call her and explain the situation.”
“I told her I was a member of the NMLF Committee for Community in Icaba,” Qacha says. “Racing in the Star Run to demonstrate a more unified New Manila. I said the Alliance was going to make an example of Icaba, and I had to leave the race to warn my people, and I invited her to see the community projects we’ve built here for herself. I apologize, Commander, if I overstepped.”
Vasavada lifts a hand. “Let her land,” she says over the radio. “And let’s give her the best tour we can. She can broadcast it live, we have nothing to hide. Let the Alliance know there are eyes on what they’re about to do in Icaba.”
“And we’ll be on our way out,” says Abi. She holds out a hand to Lasadi. “Thank you for your heroism.”
Lasadi shakes her head. “I’m just flying these days. The real heroes are here fighting.”
“You should go as well,” Vasavada says once Commanders Abi, Beram, and Cael head across the clearing to their separate planes. A handful of soldiers are accompanying them, marching Anton along. “Your presence might cause distracting questions. I’ll have someone take you to your shuttles.”
“I’ll do it,” says Qacha quick, with a glance at Alex. “That is — ”
Vasavada follows Qacha’s gaze with a faint smile. “Hurry back,” she says, kind. “You have a reporter to talk with.”
Lasadi is glad for the excuse to leave — she wants to put as much distance as she can between this place and herself. It’s not New Manila she wants to run from, though. It’s the person she knows she’s wounded. Raj will be returning with her to the Nanshe, and she doesn’t know the first thing about how to make amends.
To all of them, not just him. Two nights ago she was worried about harming their newfound bond by going out to a simple dinner with Raj; today she may have shattered the fledgling crew beyond repair.
She may not be able to make this right, but she has to try. No more running away.
Lasadi shakes Vasavada’s hand. “Thank you for your hospitality, Commander. And best of luck.”
“Luck to you all.” Vasavada nods at each member of the crew individually, giving an extra bow of respect to Raj before turning to her own plane.
Lasadi turns to Qacha. “Can we stop in town before we go to the shuttle? I need some supplies.”
It’s going to be a difficult conversation regardless, but she can at least start with a peace offering.
CHAPTER 27
RAJ
Raj has never been happier to see Indira’s clouds swirling below him, a veil over the brilliant blues, emerald greens, snowy whites of the planet’s surface. Last time he left Indira was on a troop transport; he’d craned his neck to make out the outline of his homeland. Today his attention is captured by the bright speck above them, growing brighter and larger by the minute in the screen of the shuttle he and Jay are sharing.
The Nanshe, waiting in orbit for them all to return home.
Lasadi and the others have already docked. Now a prompt on the controls asks if they want to engage the auto-docking systems, and Jay hits Y and leans back in his seat. Takes a deep breath.
“I’m sorry.” Jay glances at Raj, then back to monitor the controls. “About the ruse back there. That was pretty shitty.”
“You’re both better actors than I gave you credit for,” Raj says. “I legitimately thought you were handing me over to the NMLF to die.”
Jay winces.
“I meant that as a compliment.”
“I want you to know I never suspected you for a minute.”
“Thanks, man. Lasadi did, though.”
Jay rubs his jaw as he considers. “She would have considered all the possibilities,” he finally says. “But by the time she told me to cuff you she’d made up her mind it was Anton.”
“How do you know? Ah — wait. Jerez City.” Raj has been there. It’s hardly worth the name city, it’s a crime-infested junk pit bored into the core of Artemis. “You weren’t going to cuff me until she said ‘remember Jerez City.’”
