The shuttle neared the outskirts of Presidio, the city stretching far below her. Annika took a deep breath and popped the hatch. The wind whipped around her, and she dove into it, not able to suppress a cry that was half joy and half terror. She let her training take over, kept her arms tight, and flew toward the ground like a dart. Her heart was pounding, but she had to keep herself from crying out again, this time in pure happiness. She hadn’t been skydiving since that part of her training two years ago, and she’d missed it.
When the suit’s alarm beeped in her ear, she spread her arms, deploying bat-like wings to slow her descent. When she was close enough to the ground to be inconspicuous, she deployed her chute. The whole thing went as her training had, like clockwork, and she was happy she’d insisted that Ama include skydiving in her list of skills. Her grandmother hadn’t seen the point at the time, but she had capitulated. Every skill might someday be useful.
She aimed for a clump of forest, and the chute tangled in the trees, dangling her about ten feet off the ground. Annika detached, rolled when she hit, and was up and running as fast as she could in the direction of the city. If anyone had seen the shuttle or the chute, she needed to be long gone from both.
There were all sorts of things to consider as she moved: how she would break into the net, how she would get access to a computer in the first place, how she would get off the planet once she had what she was looking for. But all those considerations got lost in the joy she felt to be using all her training for something she believed in. She’d used her combat skills when she’d been kidnapped, to get herself and Noal to safety, but that had been tempered by Noal’s disgust and the way she’d had to lie to him, never mind that the lying was for his own good.
But now, running through the trees, she could do as she wished, as she was always meant to do. Judit would finally see how valuable an asset she was.
And why was that so important? She and Judit loved each other, but even at the time she’d said it, Annika hadn’t really known what it meant. She’d cared about what happened to Judit, cared about her feelings as well as her body. At the time, that had been love. Now, though, she wanted to be important to Judit, to be an asset. Maybe that was part of love, too. Judit’s opinion was important, more important than anyone else’s.
Even Ama’s.
That had to be love, even though Annika couldn’t think of anything to compare it to. She could get her heart pumping harder just by thinking of the moments they’d shared, that they’d continue to share if all went well. And she could chill herself to the bone by thinking of Judit in danger.
Love, then. Truly. And since it was love, Annika supposed she had to fully commit herself to this plan to help the galaxy come back from chaos. So far, Judit had been the one with the ship, the plan. Annika had been more than willing to leave their problems behind, to run away if they had to, but now she saw how she could help; she could do things Judit couldn’t or wasn’t willing to do. She supposed she should have realized that when she’d first volunteered for this mission, but part of her desire to come to Prime had been to see if she could break into the net of her homeworld. Now the cause itself was important because Judit was important to her.
Funny, it only took jumping from one little shuttle for her to realize it.
Chapter Fifteen
Judit’s father was taking too long. She could feel time ticking away as she and Noal waited in the small garden. Her father hadn’t gotten to eat, probably wouldn’t get to that day. She tried to shake off the guilt, then chuckled at herself. If missing lunch was the only thing that went wrong, they could count themselves very lucky.
Judit had given up pacing and sat with Noal on a bench made to look like stone. Where stone would have been cool, this was slightly heated, situated as they were in shade. She tried to think of all the materials it might be made out of but couldn’t distract herself for long.
“How much time now?” Judit asked.
“Since he’s been gone? Thirty-five minutes. Since you last asked? Five minutes.”
That didn’t help her worry. “He should have been back by now. He said a few minutes.”
“He probably got pulled into some meeting, and he can’t tear away, or it will look suspicious.”
“For this long?”
“Maybe people feel they can waste your time if you’re not Blood.”
The thought made her cringe. “He’s close enough.”
“Okay, then maybe everyone wants some of his time.” But he sounded less sure. He’d never been one for pacing, but he’d given up all attempts at idle conversation. He hadn’t even tried teasing her in fifteen minutes.
“We should go.” As much as it pained her to leave, it couldn’t hurt more than her father not wanting to come with her in the first place. “We can’t wait forever.”
“Give him a few more minutes.”
“Why would a few more minutes make any difference?”
He paused. “You don’t think…”
“What?”
“He wouldn’t tell anyone, would he?”
She jumped to her feet, her belly gone cold. Turn them in? Could he do such a thing? Might if he thought it was for her own good, for Meridian’s own good? Or maybe he’d accessed the wrong database in his quest to give them information. Maybe he’d gone about it in the wrong way and attracted attention.
Now that the idea had been presented, it stuck. “Let’s go.”
This time, Noal didn’t argue. She forced herself to walk toward the tram, holding on to Noal’s arm as if they were strolling. Their path would take them past her father’s building; she wanted to see if anything was out of the ordinary. If her father had gotten into trouble over her, she wanted to see if she could help him, even if it meant risking herself. Even if he’d hurt her, he was still family.
But the outside of the building seemed as normal as ever. If she wanted to know more, she’d have to go inside.
“Go on to the tram,” she said quietly. “I’ll find out what’s going on.”
“You’re not going anywhere without me.”
Her temper flared, but she tried to keep a pleasant face. “One of us has to make it back to the ship.”
“Fine. You go, and I’ll see what’s happened.”
She fought a snarl. “Who’s had the guardian training, you or me?”
“Who’s actually the chosen one?” He gave her a sharp look. “It’s your ship, Jude. And as you’ve pointed out, you’re more equipped than I am to handle a firefight.”
Judit looked to the building again. No horde of guards loitered out front; no one loitered at all, just as when they’d first approached. Judit looked to where the tram waited to take her to the shuttle bay, but when she tried to separate from Noal, she couldn’t do it.
He gave her a look, but before he could speak, she said, “It’s both of us or nothing.”
After a sigh, he nodded. “Think casual. Let me do the talking.” He took a deep breath. “And at the first sign of trouble, pick me up and get us both out of here. I’m terrible at running.”
She snorted a laugh and coughed over it, fearing the tension had made it too loud. “Done.”
They sidled into the lobby, trying for nonchalant. A few people filed in from lunch, all dressed in business suits. The receptionists were still on the desk. Security still guarded the staircases. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. There didn’t seem to be any secret guards hiding in the potted plants.
Noal turned to Judit. “Maybe it is just taking longer than he thought.” He took a slow look around. “Maybe we can get up to see him. My receptionist is still on duty.”
“We could go back to the garden,” Judit said, not knowing if she should be irritated or relieved. Probably both. “Wait some more.”
Noal shushed her as her father crested a staircase. Relieved, definitely. She’d been too impatient again, that was all. She took Noal’s arm to lead him outside but froze when two people in military uniforms followed her fathe
r. They walked too close to him, and one had her stare pinned on his neck. His hands were unbound, but Judit had no doubt he was in their custody.
Her father’s gaze raked the small crowd in the lobby, and when his eyes met hers, they widened, and he shook his head ever so slightly. She couldn’t help staring, but luckily, she wasn’t the only one. Her father had been caught. She tightened her jaw to keep her mouth from falling open. Waves of cold passed through her, and she thought she might be sick.
People made way for the guards and their prisoner, and their passage sparked pockets of quiet chatter. Many people on Freemen would know who he was, but they couldn’t know what was going on, and speculation had to be flying wildly. She heard one frantic whisper of “Has the system been breached?”
An enemy intrusion would send the military running for her father, but by the calm way he walked, Judit didn’t think that was so. If she could have transformed this situation into that one by sheer will, she would have. At least then he’d have been safe, even if she didn’t get the information she was looking for.
Her father and the guards passed through the doors. Noal and Judit waited a heartbeat before following along with several others. They were taking her father to the tram, and a desperate part of her said this was the last time she’d ever see him. She should have been nicer to him, should have said something better!
Noal mumbled something about staying calm, but all Judit wanted to do was rush the two guards and grab her father. It could work. They wouldn’t be expecting an attack. A few well-placed kicks and punches, and she could take them out. Then they could sprint for the tram.
No, too slow.
Noal’s grip on her arm tightened. “Don’t even think it.”
There was more security in the building, probably around every corner, and her arrest would mean Noal’s arrest and that of her whole crew. She and Noal would be all right, but everyone on the Damat?
Her father stumbled, and the guards steadied him, but she saw something wink as it fell from his hands to the grass, and then they were walking on.
Judit’s eyes fixed on the grass, her whole body numb as if attached to a biobed. Her father had nearly disappeared into the tram station. She could separate from Noal, send him to the Damat. Then she’d take her father and find a place to hide here on Freemen until they had a chance to get away.
“Jude,” Noal said softly. “You can’t help him now.”
“He’s my dad. I have to try.”
“He warned you off for a reason.”
But watching him go was the hardest thing she’d ever done, harder than watching Annika’s and Noal’s engagement. She took a step.
Noal’s fingers felt like claws. She’d have to shake him off or convince him to let go.
“Get to the Damat,” she said. “You can pick us up later.”
“You cannot help him. You’ll be caught! Where will that leave the rest of us? Where will that leave Annika?”
Judit froze. If the Damat was busy trying to retrieve her or running from Meridian warships, Annika would be stranded. What if she needed help? “Darkness, Noal,” Judit whispered.
“I know.”
When her father and his guards had gone, Noal coaxed her forward, neck craned as if still trying to catch sight of an intriguing scandal. He stopped at the spot where the glittery thing had fallen and turned to her. “Are you all right?”
She couldn’t speak.
“No, I know you’re not, but I need to say something so it looks as if we’re having a conversation.” He pulled a wrapped candy out of his pocket and offered it to her.
She reached for it woodenly, knowing what he was doing, trying to play along.
He dropped it before she could grab it, and when he bent down then straightened, she knew he had whatever her father had dropped. It disappeared into his sleeve, and the candy was offered to her again.
She took it this time, knowing the other thing had to be a data chip. Her father had managed to hide it in his own sleeve before they’d caught him. Even being arrested, he’d still thought of her.
“We have to do something,” she said.
“Yes, we have to leave.”
“Maybe Beatrice can break into the Meridian net.”
“If she could, she’d have done that in the first place,” he said more sternly. “Things will only be worse for your father if they find us here. He risked his safety to get this to us.”
“He wouldn’t have had to risk anything if—”
“Jude, someone clearly found out what files he was accessing. If we leave, he can make up some excuse, but if they catch us…”
“They’ll know he planned to give the information to us without authorization.”
He nodded slowly. “Best thing we can do is nothing at all. He’s smart. Give him a chance to talk his way out of this.”
He was right, and at the moment, she hated him a little for that. She let him lead her toward the tram, but she kept running scenarios and then discarding them when she factored the odds of success. Her father was good at negotiating. She had to trust that he could do it again. It was the plan that had the greatest chance of working.
It was an uneventful trip back to the shuttle station. Judit parked herself in front of one of the vid feeds as they waited, scanning for any story that would give her a clue as to what had happened, but if her father had been charged with anything, it hadn’t made the news yet. She was tempted to tip off one of the news agencies so she could find out more, but she didn’t want to force anyone’s hand. Maybe after a bit of questioning, they’d let her father go. He did have clout, and he had her mother to speak for him, the woman he wanted to stay and help more than he wanted to help his own daughter. That had to count for something besides making a bitter taste flood her mouth.
“I got someone else bumped,” Noal said as he came back from the passenger kiosk. This waiting room was small enough that it didn’t have a special section for Blood, but they’d still taken the most comfortable chairs.
“Good.”
He stared at the vids. “Anything?”
She shook her head, her stomach sinking with every passing moment. “There had to be a way to help.”
His sigh spoke volumes. “Could you have beaten up every guard between there and here? And everyone in this station? In the space station above? When all it takes is one call to the planetary defense grid to disable or destroy the Damat?”
A nasty voice inside her said that she’d hesitated only because she wanted to see Annika again. She’d had a chance to act, and she hadn’t done it because she was selfish at heart.
“Come on,” Noal said. “Our shuttle’s here.”
She let him lead her again. Judit buckled herself into her seat, not noticing anything except Noal trying to keep up their casual façade. She ground her teeth as he flirted with the attendant who put the curtain around their chairs, but she kept her face turned to the side so no one could see her expression. Let him keep up the fakery so she wouldn’t have to. It was what he was best at.
Once on the station, she nearly ran to the Damat. Only Noal’s hand hooked in her elbow slowed her pace. If he tried to argue with how fast she was walking, she didn’t hear him. The moment they were aboard the Damat, she stopped in the hall, letting the familiar smell and feel of her ship surround her. Evie was waiting, staring at her expectantly, looking out at the station as if wondering why Judit had stopped.
Judit closed the hatch behind her, then kicked the side of her ship hard, causing Noal to draw back, but he wisely said nothing.
“Get us out of here,” Judit said, barely able to talk through the tightness in her throat. “Noal, give that data chip to Beatrice. Tell Roberts to scour the feeds. Find out everything you can about what’s happened to my father.”
She could have spoken over her comm, but she didn’t want to talk to anyone else. Noal hurried away, but Evie paused, watching her, and Judit could see the questions in her eyes. Judit had never been as close to
her tactical officer as she was to Beatrice. Evie didn’t seem to mind. Her expression seemed sympathetic with a bit of caution, as if Judit was a wounded animal rather than a captain.
And Judit couldn’t go on like that, couldn’t let her ship down as she’d let her father down. She took a deep breath. “My father…is not coming. We need to go to the rendezvous point.”
Evie nodded slowly. “Do you need Dr. Sewell?”
Judit blinked, momentarily perplexed out of her angst. “Why?”
Evie pointed to Judit’s chest, and Judit realized she was holding her clenched fist tight to her abdomen as if trying to keep her guts from pouring out. Or maybe it was keeping more emotional outbursts inside.
“I’m fine,” Judit said, straightening and lowering her arm. She couldn’t fail her ship, and she wouldn’t fail Annika either. “Please, go to the bridge, Evie, and make sure we get under way. I’ll be right behind you.”
* * *
As she raced toward Presidio, Annika was glad she’d thought to bring her bag along. She couldn’t walk around the city dressed in a flight suit. As soon as she’d gone some distance from the chute, she put on a regular outfit, a dark green jacket and trousers. She checked her face in a small mirror to make sure her implants were where she wanted and added heavier eye makeup and a bold lip. She fixed her purple-dyed hair on top of her head. She’d still have to avoid any deep scans, but there wouldn’t be any random checks in a place as big as Presidio. Though they might be a problem when she tried to gain access to the net.
The edges of Presidio were still occupied by single houses, dwellings for those who eschewed city life but wanted to be close to its conveniences. A tram ran on a narrow track between rows of houses, and Annika headed for the nearest stop. The architecture was limited only by the owners’ imaginations. She passed mansions that resembled castles and fashionable houses with nary a right angle. One resembled a large circus tent, and she saw its neighbors—their house a dazzling collection of stained glass—staring at it in disdain from their lawn. If others on the street felt the same way, she couldn’t imagine the tent house would last long. Of course, those who lived out here could no doubt afford to change their houses as easily as they changed their minds.
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