by K. B. Wagers
“The usual kind of message?” Grant’s voice was still fresh in Jenks’s memory and she recognized it immediately.
“Don’t kill anyone, but find one of Zuma’s crew and tell them the NeoG needs to back off or more people will get hurt.”
D’Arcy stiffened and Jenks looked up at him. “What is it?”
“I know that voice,” he said, and the room fell into silence.
He slipped away from her. Jenks set her mug on the table and followed. Stephan was frowning. D’Arcy pulled up a news article and threw it onto the screen.
Nika took a step forward and frowned. “Captain Melanie Karenina.”
“It can’t be,” Stephan said. “Fuck. I went over every inch of Trappist Express and couldn’t find a single thing to indicate they were involved.”
“We were just talking about her.” Max looked at D’Arcy. “Are you sure?”
“I won’t ever forget her voice,” D’Arcy replied, and Jenks moved a little closer, wrapping her hand around his closed fist. He looked down at her and some of the tension bled out of his shoulders.
“Can someone clue the rest of us in on who this is?”
Stephan looked up at the ceiling and exhaled, but before he could answer Jenks’s question, Max spoke up.
“She’s the CEO of Trappist Express. The company the CHN uses to ship most of the supplies from Earth to Trappist-1.”
Twenty-Three
Max read through the debrief of Stephan’s interrogation as the argument raged in the conference room around her. Sapphi was by her side, the hacker having been released from the hospital that afternoon. She was a little wobbly, but mostly back to normal.
The only physical signs of her brush with death were a pair of Lichtenberg figures decorating the backs of her hands and forearms, the white scars standing out in stark relief against her tan skin. She also now had a tendency to forget she was talking in midsentence, or continue with a stream of consciousness that no one could follow.
“Why don’t we push them back harder? Shit, we’ve got Trappist Express pinned as the source of the shitty goods, right?” Jenks pointed at the wall. “We can hit a few of their ships after Chae feeds them some false info.”
“And then what?” Luis asked. “All those freighter captains work on contract, not directly for Trappist Express. We hit them without something to tie it straight to the shipping company, it does us no good. And the captains either end up dead or refuse to talk. And then the people we’re chasing will know Chae’s turned on them, which puts their family at risk.”
“You could do your jobs and keep Chae’s family safe.”
Luis sighed and dragged both hands through his hair. “Dai, I swear, can you think for two seconds rather than just throwing a fist at a problem—”
“You go fuck yourself.”
Max stopped reading and looked up, calculating whether she could make it over the table before Jenks threw the first punch. But her friend surprised her and backed off with her hands up. “I’m going for a walk.” She slammed the door open and left the room, Doge trailing behind.
“Tamago,” Nika said. “Go with her.”
Tamago got to their feet. “Yup.” They gave Luis a withering look on the way by and the big man rubbed a hand over his face.
“Of all the shitty things you could have said,”—Max stood—“that was a pretty impressive choice. Jenks thinks things through, she just does it faster than most people realize. Plus she’s got her priorities straight.” She gestured at the men on the other side of the room. “She’s thinking about her crew, the way you all should have been. What she’s proposing will put the bullseye right where it’s supposed to be—on us, instead of civilians. And this time we’ll actually be prepared.”
Luis’s jaw tightened but he didn’t say a word.
“They want us to back off. Are we really going to do that? Are we going to let these criminals dictate how the NeoG runs their investigations? Or are we going to come at them full force with all the power we have?”
“The problem is we’re not full force,” Stephan noted. He put a hand up when she turned on him. “I hear what you’re saying, Max, and I don’t disagree. However, both of your crews are without ships right now, and while I have testimony on Melanie’s involvement in this, it’s from a man with a lengthy criminal background. I need more evidence to bring the whole thing down, because if I arrest Grant or Melanie right now, that just puts their operation on pause until Tieg finds new partners or gets them freed from custody.”
“Whose fault is it we don’t have ships? No, don’t answer that,” Max said. “Answer me this instead: You don’t think they’d turn on Tieg with their asses on the line?”
“They might, but do we really want to put all this on a maybe?” Stephan met her glare with a sympathetic expression. “I think you know as well as I do how dangerous powerful people are, especially when they think they’re untouchable.”
Max knew he was right on that front, but she wasn’t willing to let go of the rest. “What do you have planned?”
“I’m sending you all back to Jupiter Station. The prelims are six weeks out, and it’s going to take about that long to get the ships fixed. You’ll be stuck on station until Zuma is back up to spec, and you can spend most of your time training for the prelims—which has the added benefit of making Tieg and the rest think you’re done with them. But during that time you can also—quietly—follow up on the leads I have on the station itself. Someone, or several someones, are helping with transport and schedules. I know it wasn’t all coming from Chae.”
Max had seen the files labeled Jupiter Station but hadn’t yet looked through them. She nodded tentatively. “It could work. What will you do?”
“We’ll go back to Earth and see what we can dig up on that end. Scott and his team can keep patrolling as part of the task force, just to give us an idea of how many ships they’re pushing through. But we’ll pull the other two task force crews to make them think we took the warning about backing off seriously.”
“That’s not a bad plan,” she conceded. “You think that up all by yourself?”
“I’m Stephan Yevchenko, Intelligence. Have we met?”
She couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “I’m still mad at you, don’t forget it.”
“Duly noted. I messed up, Max, and I’m sorry. You and Jenks are right. This mission is important, but thinking of our people first is more important and I should have done a better job of that. I will do a better job.”
“It’s all I can hope for.”
“No, you can always expect better of the people you work with, Lieutenant.” A rare grin slid across his face. “Go get packed and train your asses off in between work. I’d rather Zuma’s Ghost was in fighting shape when we show you how winners actually get the job done.”
“You’re just begging to get beat now, aren’t you?” Nika countered, and Max found herself grinning along with him.
“The bravado is impressive,” Stephan replied. “Misplaced, but that’s fine.”
“Actually, the numbers look pretty good,” Sapphi said with a thoughtful look. “And if we have a few weeks to really practice . . .”
Stephan’s grin faded. “See, that worries me.” He pointed in Sapphi’s direction, but then he laughed. “Get out of here, all of you. The Laika will be coming in today and we’ll get you headed back to Jupiter Station.”
Max nodded and headed for the door, then stopped and turned back to him. “Stephan, I’m sorry for what I said earlier about you not understanding love. It was cruel and unnecessary.”
“Apology accepted.” He dipped his head.
“LifeEx uses Trappist Express for a lot of their shipping,” Max said. “Would it be helpful for me to come up with a reason to convince Ria to start shifting their contracts with LifeEx to Portsmith or some of the smaller companies?”
“To what end?”
“It’ll make them more desperate when we start hitting their illegal activities.”
Max shrugged. “I can do it so that Ria’s got a legitimate reason why, I just need a little time to figure out what that might be. So before I dig in, I want to make sure it’s worth it for us.”
Stephan ran his tongue over his teeth as he considered it and then finally nodded. “It’s got merit. Run your idea about how they make the change through me before you do it, though, okay? I want to make sure we’re not spooking them too much. We want to have as much control of that desperation as we can.”
“Noted.” Max tapped her hand on the tabletop. “We’ll see you at the prelims, then.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” He pointed past her. “Nika and I get to go for real.”
“Should be fun,” Nika said, heading for the door.
“Max.” Luis followed her to the doorway. “Did Dai head for your quarters?”
“I don’t know.” Max watched the tangle of emotions race over Luis’s face—pain and worry at the forefront—and she softened a bit. “Do you want me to ask her where she is? You can walk with us.”
“No. I—it’s fine.” He sighed. “I’ll let her cool off and decide when to get in touch. Have a good trip, Max.”
She reached out, touching his arm before he turned away. “She knows you love her, you just went about it wrong.”
“By trying to protect her?”
“Exactly.”
“Max.”
“I’m serious. Has Jenks ever asked for your protection?”
“Does she ever ask for anything?”
“Again: exactly. Because she usually has an answer already . . . since she doesn’t make a move without thinking of the angles,” she said, pointed. “That’s not the only issue, though. She’s trying to find her feet—living up to what she thinks Ma brought to the team. It’s hard for her to ask for what she doesn’t know she needs.”
He looked abashed as her words sank in and Max couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Do you need a hug?”
He laughed. “You know, I kinda do. Thanks for asking.”
Max wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. “Take care of yourself, okay? You two will be all right. Just give her a little time.” She let him go and patted him twice on the chest. “And then maybe listen a little more instead of thinking you know the answers to questions she hasn’t even asked.”
Nika exhaled in relief as he stepped off the Laika onto Jupiter Station. It hadn’t been a long trip, thankfully, but Jenks on a Navy vessel without the refuge of her ship was just asking for trouble.
Especially with the mood she was in.
That mood seemed to dissipate the moment she put her boots on the station deck, though. She slipped an arm around Chae’s shoulders. “You doing okay, kid?” she asked as they headed out of the docking bay and down the corridor toward their quarters.
“I am—” Chae took a deep breath, let it out. “Relieved.”
“So what did you learn?”
“Learn?”
“Yeah. I’ll help you out this time: when you’re in a jam, you tell me straight up. Okay? I promise you, I’ll back you no matter what it is. You fuck up, we’ll fix it. You need help, we’re here. You did what you did to protect your family, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, remember this: We’re family now. I’ll protect you. You’ll protect me. We’ll protect your fathers. We’ll protect each other. Got it?”
“Yes, Chief.”
Jenks yanked Chae down into a headlock and ground her knuckle into their head until they yelped and laughed.
“Jenks, stop abusing your Neo.”
“Tell them to stop with the Chief thing,” she called back to Nika as she let Chae go.
“This is the same as the shoelace, isn’t it?” he asked Max.
Max smiled as she watched Jenks and Chae continue down the corridor in front of them, and the sight of it made his chest ache. “It is. Though in this case it’s Jenks wrestling with feeling like she’s not good enough and needing us to remind her that she is a chief.”
“Confidence issues is the last thing I’d expect from my sister.”
“That’s because you weren’t paying attention to a word I said to Luis.” There was a snap in her reply that reminded him he was nowhere close to being in her good graces again, even though she’d been pleasant enough on the ride back to Jupiter. “She’s desperately afraid of not living up to Ma’s example, and we didn’t make things very easy for her.”
“You mean I didn’t.” He held up a hand at her flat look. “I’m not being combative, Max. I’m trying to take ownership of this. You were trying. I wasn’t. I’m sorry.” Nika stopped and waved Sapphi and Tamago ahead of them. He knew it wasn’t only Jenks’s confidence that had taken a beating over the last few months. “I’ve thought of five thousand things I should have done or said. The truth is you were right about all of it. I came into this whole thing thinking like an intelligence agent rather than the commander of an Interceptor crew. I let you all down and for that I am deeply sorry.” He took a deep breath. “But I am more sorry for how I hurt you.”
Max closed her eyes for a moment. “I didn’t want to have this conversation in the middle of everything.”
“It can wait. I can wait.”
“No.” She shook her head, opened her eyes, and looked right at him. “I don’t know how we survive this. I trusted you and you used the one thing you knew would hurt me the most against me. That makes me furious.”
She took a deep breath and continued down the corridor, leaving Nika to scramble and catch up. “God help me, but I really want to forgive you even in spite of that. Maybe that makes me weak or a fool, but I love you and I’m fairly sure I’d regret it if I walked away from you.”
I love you.
The words hurt more than they should have and Nika only just barely managed not to blurt them back at her. He’d messed up more than just his professional relationship with her and that painful truth was only now sinking in. He swallowed down the fear.
“Max, I am so sorry. I know I failed you—as a commander, as someone who wanted to be your partner. I was so wrapped up in how difficult this was for me that I didn’t think about how much it hurt you.” He stopped and shook his head. “That’s not even true. I knew that what I said would hurt you, that it would hurt you even more when you found out the truth; but I did it anyway.
“You’re a far better officer of the NeoG than I have been. A better lieutenant than I deserved. I understand if you don’t want to continue a relationship on any level, but I did promise you we would be friends no matter what and I need you to know I meant that, if it’s something you want. If it isn’t, I understand that, too.”
She stopped at the entrance to the NeoG quarters and turned before opening the door. Nika held his breath, unsure of what was coming next. “I appreciate that. Truly. Beyond that, I don’t have an answer for you, Nika. At least, not right now. I need to think about it.”
“I get it and I’m not going to push you. Take whatever time is necessary.” He wanted to hold his free hand out but instead shoved it into his pocket. “Whatever happens, Max, from here on out I’ve got your back.”
She smiled then, a soft light of hope in the darkness, and nodded once. “I’ve got yours.”
Twenty-Four
“So, you going to talk to me about this or just sit on it until the universe tears itself apart?” Jenks asked, dodging Max’s punch.
“I’m reasonably sure we agreed that I wouldn’t talk to you about my relationship with your brother.”
“Yeah, well, we’ve been back a week and you haven’t talked to anyone,” Jenks singsonged.
Max laughed and avoided the hook kick Jenks attempted. “You’re a fine one to give me shit.”
“I don’t need to talk about anything. I made my decision,” Jenks lied. Max didn’t need to know about the eighteen letters to Luis and Tivo sitting in her drafts folder.
“Hmm. How many emails have you started?”
Jenks was so shocked
she missed the block and only just managed to lean out of the way of the punch Max had thrown, scrambling backward to avoid the follow-up she knew was right on the heels of it.
It wasn’t enough. Max had sensed her distraction and the sweep caught Jenks right in the sweet spot. Refocused, she landed hard, but rolled into Max, rather than away from the lieutenant.
The squawk of surprise was followed by laughter as Max wasn’t able to get out of the way fast enough and hit the mat herself. Jenks swarmed over the top of her, locking her into a hold before Max could get away.
“I yield. I yield, you brat,” Max gasped through her laughter.
Jenks gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek as she let her go and leaned back on her heels. “I love you, Max. I know you’re hurting. Nika hurt you. I get that. He didn’t have to—he chose to. He knew what he did was wrong and that’s hard to find forgiveness for. I also know you want to forgive Nika, and that’s okay—in case you need permission. It’s easier for you to make peace for the sake of the team, that’s just who you are. You don’t have to, though.”
“I know I’m too soft-hearted,” Max whispered.
“That’s not a judgment, it’s just fact. And honestly, I’m more than a little jealous. They’ll have to pry my grudges out of my cold, dead hands.”
Max laughed, but the joy in her eyes faded quickly. “I keep asking myself if I have the right to be so mad when they were just doing their jobs.”
“Yeah.” Jenks scrubbed at the back of her head, trying to ignore the wound in her heart Max’s words opened up. “But this isn’t about the job here. I’m not willing to put aside the fact that Sapphi died because they chose not to tell us the truth, even if she came back to life and walked away with some cooler-than-shit scars she’ll be showing everyone until the end of time.”
Max got to her feet and offered her hand, pulling Jenks upright when she took it. “I know. That’s what keeps rolling around in my head, too. Because the team means everything to us. I also know Nika’s sick over it. That he never would have forgiven himself if Sapphi had died. I’m sure Luis feels the same way.”