Jai Florian. Match: 100%
“Raines?” Chief said.
One chance. He had this one chance to find out what Jai knew about his mother before the chief talked to him. Jai scanned his shift card and headed into the corridor.
“Yes, sir.”
Tadeo switched off his comm and pushed through the crowd, in search of Jai. There.
He walked up beside the short man who glanced up at Tadeo and stumbled right into the wall panel. Tadeo grabbed him by the arm and led him a little further down the corridor, to the first cubic he saw.
“What… what’s this about? I’m scheduled for questioning tomorrow.”
“Not anymore.”
Colonists openly stared at them as Tadeo pulled his shift card from his pocket and scanned it across the cubic’s scanner.
“This is a storage cubic—”
“Good,” Tadeo said.
The door opened, and Tadeo pushed Jai inside and stepped in after him. Lume bars lit up the cramped space as the door shut behind them. Narrow shelves lined the cubic, filled with bins of bolts and tools.
“What’s going on?” Jai gripped the shelf beside him, his hand shaking. “What do you want?”
Tadeo carefully removed his eyepiece and placed it and his handheld on the shelf beside him. His heart rate sped up as he approached Jai.
The man’s eyes widened, and he swallowed. “I—”
Tadeo slammed Jai to the ground and pressed his back into the chipped tiles. “Are you a terrorist?”
“What?”
“Answer me!”
The man shook, and Tadeo pressed him harder into the floor.
“No… I—”
“Did you work with Tatiana Carizo?”
The man went paler than hulled quin.
“Chief Petroff is on his way right now,” Tadeo said. “What they’re about to do to you is far worse than what I’m doing.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know what?” Spittle flew from Tadeo’s mouth and landed on Jai’s cheek. “Did you aid the terrorists? Did you smuggle goods on and off this ship? Did you send comms illegally to the Meso?”
“No, I would never—”
“Who do you work for?”
Jai blinked rapidly and pressed his shoulders into the tile as if trying to escape through the floor. Then his expression brightened. “Wait. You’re—you’re Tadeo Raines.”
Tadeo’s breath caught, and he lifted him by the collar, then slammed him into the floor again. Jai groaned in pain.
“I know you worked with Tatiana,” Tadeo said, his voice a low growl. “They’ll airlock you for this. But if you confess before I turn you over to them… you might have a chance to survive all this.”
Jai stared up at him, his face a twisted mask of fear.
Tadeo let go of the man in disgust and stood up. “Tell me what you know.”
The man stumbled to his feet and took a few steps back, crashing into the shelf. “Trading’s never been punishable by death. It’s not treason.”
Tadeo took a threatening step toward him. “Trading? Or aiding the black market?”
Jai licked his lips. “Tatiana came to me when she got here, asking for my help. But I swear I had nothing to do with what she—”
“I have evidence right now that links you with all the terrorists we airlocked.”
“I didn’t do nothin’!”
“I don’t care about your little black market operation. You aided the terrorists.”
He stepped toward Tadeo and grabbed his sleeve, his eyes pleading. “No. Please believe me, I had nothing to do with that hull breach. I’m just a go-between. I’m no traitor. I get things from imports, and I move them. Tatiana came to pick them up. Half the time, I don’t even look at what I pass on.”
Tadeo shrugged off the man’s grasp. “And exports?”
Florian wiped at his mouth and shook his head. “Tatiana had me send cubes. Messages. You gotta believe me. If I’d thought she was a traitor—”
“Listen to me carefully,” Tadeo said, his voice low but harsh. “Other guards will be coming soon. You’re going to tell me who you work for. Then you’re going to tell me everything you ever gave Tatiana or sent her. Right now. Or the guards will torture it out of you. And then you’ll be airlocked.”
“I…”
“Who do you work for?” Tadeo slammed his hand into the man’s chest, knocking him into the metal shelf again.”
The man held up his hands, palms out. “Please—I’ll tell you.”
“Now.”
Jai bit his lip and tried to move away from Tadeo, but there was nowhere to go. “I work for your mother, sir. Captain Raines of the Meso.”
Tadeo’s pulse quickened, and he took a step away from Jai, his stomach twisting. “If you’re lying—”
“I’m not. I’m loyal to her—I’m loyal to you, sir. You have to believe me.”
Bile rose in Tadeo’s throat, because he knew in that moment that he’d kill this man himself if he had to—to protect his mother and her secrets.
“Tell me what you gave Tatiana,” Tadeo said, his voice hard.
“I just hand over cases,” Jai said. “I don’t ask questions.”
“From where?”
“From every deka… through the Moscow. I pull marked cases off the pallets and hand them to whoever asked for them. Tatiana… I think most of her cases came from the Meso. It’s easy to hide things in the quin grain. No one checks.”
Tadeo’s throat tightened. “So… do people in supply on the Moscow put these illegal items in the cases? Or… or did Tatiana’s shipments all come from the Meso? What did you give her?”
“I don’t know who packages it. I always assumed it got packed on the Meso. And I don’t look in every case. It was always just things like… like exec standard lavender soap or some soyad meant for command level.”
“Is there anyone else here working for my mother?”
The man paused, then shook his head. “If there is, I don’t know about ’em. Everything was for Tatiana. The other stuff I get, it’s… it’s just black market trading. Not like the arrangement I have with Captain Raines.”
Arrangement. If the Artex and Zenith canisters had come in a quin crate, they might have come from the Meso. But how had explosive powder gotten on the Meso in the first place? And why would his mother send it here? Heat flooded Tadeo, and he got in Jai’s face again.
“There might be a bomb on this ship right now. You’ll be blamed—for giving Tatiana explosives.”
Jai’s mouth dropped, and his eyes went wild. “What? No!” His voice cracked. “I’d never give anyone that if I knew.”
“Think carefully now—was there ever a time she got anything from a different ship?”
Jai squinted down at the tiles and rubbed his eyes. He wrapped his hands around his temples as if he were trying to extract his memories by force. Then his face jerked up. “A few days before… before the hull breach and her sentencing. The Beijing. She asked for something from there that wasn’t on my list.”
The Beijing. Where they manufactured Zenith. Tadeo grabbed the man by his suit again, and Jai blanched. “Another case?”
“Yes.”
“I remember, because it was hard for me to get to. It was a tough job, but Tatiana worked for Captain Raines, and I was supposed to get her anything she asked me for.”
“Why was it a tough job?”
“Because… the case she wanted was hidden in a shipment of power cell inserts.”
Power cell inserts. Like the insert in Dritan’s cubic.
“Why would inserts be hard to access?”
“Because they were meant for the power core. Hardly anyone could get near them.”
The power core.
What had his mother said? Tatiana had done maintenance work in sensitive areas on the Meso. Silo sector, transports, command level, power core.
Tadeo released his hold on Jai’s suit. “Turn around.”
The man hesitantly turned, and Tadeo grabbed his wrists and cuffed both to the shelf.
“I thought you said if I—”
“Shut up. Don’t talk. Don’t move.” Tadeo pushed his hair out of his eyes and grabbed his eyepiece and handheld from the shelf.
The power core on every ship was closely guarded and well-protected. Only a few maintenance crews had access, and all were carefully vetted. There was no way Tatiana could have gained illegal access. But… she knew her way around a core. She knew the safeguards. And if you wanted to plant a bomb somewhere where it could do the most damage… Exploding a bomb in the power core could blow up the entire ship.
Tadeo gestured with damp palms, bringing up the files he’d saved in his handheld.
He pulled up the shift card access for every one of the terrorists, Dritan, and Era. “Search shift card access to power core or any access on level P2."
A list of results popped up. The sublevel workers had accessed level P2 hundreds of times as part of their normal duties.
“Sort by proximity to power core entrance.”
The list sorted, bringing up the cubics they’d entered near the entrance. Several identical entries appeared at the top. All Tatiana. She’d visited the same spot next to the corridor on dozens of occasions. In the final entry, she’d stayed there for over two hours, in the middle of a work shift, before she’d entered another corridor in P2.
Tadeo tapped the last entry, and the date appeared.
The morning after the hull breach—only days after the Beijing shipment would have arrived, Tatiana had spent two hours right next to the power core. If someone had met her there, their card wasn’t showing up in his data.
Tatiana had been scheduled to fix an air recyc fan in caretaker sector with Samuel Smith, Jonas Keen, and Dritan Corinth that day. The work schedule claimed they’d all been there, that they’d all checked in with their shift cards. But Tatiana had left and gone to the power core. The traitors had covered for her.
Tadeo rested a hand on his pulsegun and whirled back to Jai. “You’ll be the one to die for this, and I’m not letting you take my family down with you.”
“But—but I’m loyal! What are you going to do?” Jai’s eyes shone, and he darted a glance at Tadeo’s gun. He tried to back further away, but the cuffs stopped him.
Tadeo’s mind raced through the scenarios. Sending Jai out the nearest airlock. Pulsing him right here and dragging his body to the airlock to get rid of the evidence. But the corridor outside was teeming with people, so neither of those alternatives worked.
Plus, his mind was a mess—he wasn’t thinking straight—and Chief wanted him at stairwell C.
Tadeo swallowed. “I should kill you. You know too much. But you’re staying here for now. I’ll come back when I decide what to do with you. You don’t make a sound, you don’t try to escape, and maybe I’ll find a way to let you live…”
Dread filled Tadeo as he turned and left Jai cuffed in the room. This situation had suddenly spun far, far out of his control.
But none of it would matter if there was a bomb in the core, and he didn’t get to it in time.
A deep voice woke Zephyr, and she knew he was in a rage, coming for her. She’d screwed up again, gotten in trouble. He would beat her, leave her bruised and broken, and her mother would look away—doing nothing—like always. Whatever Zephyr had done wrong, it wouldn’t be worth the pain he’d inflict.
“Tell me again,” the man demanded. “Why is this medic in here?”
Zephyr’s eyes fluttered open, and she rolled off the metal bunk onto unforgiving tile.
“I don’t know, sir. Lieutenant Raines brought her in here. For questioning, sir. I’m supposed to call him as soon as she wakes from sedation… which should be soon.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” the deep voice said. “I’m comming medlevel. You’re to release her back to their care immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
Zephyr blinked against the bright lights and groaned at the pain shooting through her back. This wasn’t her bunk, and she wasn’t on the London anymore. Her father wasn’t coming for her, but that realization didn’t bring relief. She was still trapped.
She looked through the bars and saw Chief Petroff exiting the brig. “You get that medic out of here, Holt.”
“Yes, sir. I will.”
Zephyr peeled her palms from the tile. Her hands were covered in dried blood and small cuts. Even her forearms were spattered with sticky red-brown. Zephyr’s chest lightened. Most of it was Paige’s blood. This punishment was well-worth the crime. But she was done with Tadeo. Kakface. She was done with this ship and these people. As soon as she got out of there, she’d demand the president release her back to the London.
She flexed one hand, and bits of blood flaked off and drifted lazily to the floor.
Holt, the guard, approached the cell beside hers. The old woman lying in it had been sleeping since Zephyr arrived. She was one of Tadeo’s other prisoners. What could this ancient woman possibly have done wrong?
“Medic Faust,” Holt said.
Medic Faust. That name sounded familiar. Why?
“Are you awake?”
“Yes,” came the creaking reply. The woman was wearing the white, loose suit of a medlevel patient, not the light blue suit a medic ought to be wearing. Maybe she was sick.
“You should get up now. You’re going back to hospice.”
Not just sick, then. Dying. Wow, Tadeo really was screwed up. Why had he imprisoned an old, dying woman?
The gray-haired medic struggled to sit up on her bunk. “I’m aware. I do have ears, you know. Shall I collect my things?” She gestured around her cell, eyes wide, as if to point out just how empty it was.
Holt gave her an awkward nod before shuffling back to his place behind the counter.
Idiot. So many people on this ship were idiots. Medic Faust threw Zephyr an annoyed look, like she’d heard Zephyr’s unspoken thought and agreed. Then she lay back down.
Medic Faust.
Era had said that name. After Dritan had left for Soren, Era had told her she needed to schedule her follow-up appointment with a Medic Faust.
The woman was from population management. This medic was the reason Era killed herself.
Zephyr jumped up from the floor and went to the bars separating the medic’s cell from her own. The medic’s bunk was within arm’s reach, and Zephyr pulled on her suit through the bars.
“Medic Faust.” Zephyr’s voice came out rough. “Did you have a patient named Era Corinth?”
The medic’s eyes opened. They were gray, the color of newly forged panels. She sat up and inched away from Zephyr. “I’m Nora. I’m no longer a medic.”
“Were you Era’s medic?” Zephyr repeated, her pulse buzzing in her ears.
Nora licked her lips and looked down at her hands. Her old skin was thin, and her veins protruded through. “I did provide care for that girl,” she said quietly. Then she waved a hand, as if dismissing the thought of Era. “Just not well enough.”
Zephyr’s heart beat faster, and hate for the woman flooded her. “You know, she died because of you. She killed herself.”
Nora met her gaze. “I know. But I didn’t kill her.”
“But it was your fault.”
“I don’t make the rules.”
Zephyr fought to keep her breathing even and darted a glance at Holt. He was staring at them.
“You, two,” Holt said. “You can’t be talking in there.”
Zephyr crouched down so her face was even with the medic’s. “Did she ever say anything to you? Did she give you even the slightest hint she might want to kill herself because you were going to terminate her pregnancy?”
The medic’s expression didn’t change, and that made Zephyr want to throw the medic’s failure in her face, make her ears ring with it until she died. “It’s your job as a medic to prevent suicides—you should have kept her on medlevel—made sure she started the grimp.”<
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Nora blinked slowly and nodded. She scooted an inch further away. After a long pause, she responded, her steely gaze meeting Zephyr’s square on. “There are things in this fleet people would kill for. And things that people would die for.”
“What? What do you mean?”
Nora laughed, and Zephyr’s rage flared. She pushed her hand through the bars, trying to snatch at the medic’s short gray hair, to rip it out until she felt the pain Zephyr felt.
The medic moved further away, avoiding Zephyr’s grasp.
“Did Era say something to you?”
The medic gave a stiff nod but didn’t respond.
“Tell me what she said.”
“Does it matter?” Nora asked. “Your friend is gone.”
“Did she—did you know she’d try to kill herself?”
The old woman stared out across the small cell, then swung her legs to the floor, wincing against the apparent pain the movement caused. “My biggest mistake has been knowing too much and doing too little. But here I am, still alive after all these years. And your friend… she’s dead. Let that be a lesson to you.”
“What…” Zephyr said, her voice rising, “did she say to you?” All of Zephyr’s senses were on fire, and her skin felt as if a thousand-volt charge ran through it. She got to her feet and pressed herself closer to the bars.
There are things in this fleet people would kill for. And things that people would die for. What the medic was saying was important. Zephyr didn’t know how she knew it—but she knew. And she desperately wanted to know what Era had said. Had she hinted to the medic that she’d planned to take her own life, even before they’d gotten news of Dritan’s death?
“Tell me what you’re talking about!”
The medic blinked like she’d forgotten Zephyr was there. “I won’t.”
“Kerrigan. Uh-Exec Kerrigan,” Holt said, standing up. “Get back to your bunk.”
Zephyr stared him down, and his pale, freckled skin reddened.
The door to the brig slid open, and two blue-suited medics carrying a stretcher entered.
Panic surged through Zephyr, making her sick, and she banged on the bars. This woman knew something about Era’s last days. Something Zephyr didn’t. Tears pricked her eyes. “Please. Just tell me what Era said. I need to know.”
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