Chapter 22
Nadando Contra La Corriente
It was still the night cycle when the giant robot carried them through the darkness of the home-trees at the outskirts of Rilia, to the base where Dr. Lucien and Felsira awaited them. Not even the faintest twinkle of starlight was visible through the thick canopy of leaves above, and Eva’s spacesuit informed her the air was even colder and damper than it had been when they left. Various nocturnal animals and Attuned fell silent as they passed, no doubt cowed by the perceived predator in their midst, or maybe because giant robots were weird and scary. Hell, Eva was riding the damn thing and, as exhilarating as it was, she couldn’t wait to get down. Still, they were alive, and safe for the moment, and it was enough given the circumstances.
Felsira rested in her hammock and Dr. Lucien checked Jei and his dog-bot for damage as they gravely listened to the story of what happened at the lab. Pink, in the meantime, did the same for everyone’s organic components, which had generally avoided more than bruising thanks to their suits. They’d been incredibly lucky, and Eva couldn’t help but feel like that meant the karmic balance of the universe was waiting to shift in the other direction.
“Those obstinate fools,” Felsira said finally. “Did they not consider that they will be interrogated about more than this single incident? Our entire operation will be jeopardized over this.” Her psychic emanations were more intense than any she’d exhibited before. Anger, disgust, sadness . . . Her emotions were like a ball of cats wrestling with each other.
“They made their choice,” Eva said.
“And we will pay for it with our blood,” Felsira replied coldly.
Dr. Lucien replaced Jei’s prosthetic with a loud click. “Problems will not end,” he said. “But we are still alive, and free, and with that we may accomplish much.”
“Maybe you will,” Pink said sourly, kneeling next to Sue and shining a light in her eyes.
“I do not understand,” Dr. Lucien said.
“Our mission is screwed.” Pink clicked off her light and stood, glaring at no one in particular. “We had to get Sue’s brother and we didn’t. So now we don’t get paid, and we’ve lost two weeks of other work running all over the galaxy.” She scowled. “I don’t even want to think about how many of my patients are waiting in my queue or left to another practice.”
Eva cringed. Pink was right. For all that they’d had a string of successes with The Fridge leading up to this debacle, now they were arguably worse off than when they’d started. Pink’s work was backed up or gone, Vakar was in deep shit with his bosses and would have to leave as soon as they got back to civilization, Sue would probably never see her brother again since he was likely going to jail forever . . .
“At least we got half up front,” Eva muttered. “And Min got all the fuel she needed.”
The room was silent for a few moments as everyone present got lost in their own separate mazes of thought. Eva wondered how she was going to explain it all to Mari. We found the guy, but then we lost him, sorry, you can bust him out of BOFA custody if you want. Hell, maybe they could; Eva didn’t know what The Forge was capable of. They managed to infiltrate The Fridge, certainly, so maybe BOFA would be easy for them.
Ah, The Fridge. Architects of the utter fuckening of so many people’s lives. If it hadn’t been for them, poor Sue would probably still be happily fussing with her robots at her parents’ house, and Josh would be engineering spaceships and whatever else. And he wasn’t the only scientist-type they’d kidnapped for their many illegal experiments . . .
Eva stood up so fast it made Mala hiss. “Alabao!”
“What?” Pink asked.
“Josh wasn’t working alone at The Fridge, and he didn’t escape alone.” She turned to Jei, who was staring at her like she’d grown an extra head. “I need your help.”
“Mine?” Jei asked. “What do you want?”
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this,” Eva said, “but I want . . . Miles Erck.”
Getting back to La Sirena Negra was a challenge. The lockdown at the spaceport was in full swing, leaving literally thousands of travelers stuck on Garilia, including a lot of angry rich people who weren’t accustomed to being told what to do. Unfortunately for them, no amount of waving money around was going to make BOFA budge on letting them off-planet, not with each of them potentially carrying illegal Proarkhe technology in a conveniently portable capsule. Everyone had to be searched with special devices, of which only two were currently available; more were on the way from the nearest Gate, along with additional personnel and a more robust quarantine setup that would virtually halt all ingress and egress to the entire system.
Fortunately, because BOFA didn’t have the manpower and tech already on hand, there were still ways to get out for those who knew them. Vakar had apparently gotten word about the lockdown with enough time to have Min take off, so they were in orbit nearby rather than stuck at the port. All Eva had to do was borrow a resistance shuttle and take that to the ship, then start the slow cruise to the Gate three cycles away. Some light hacking and cloaking tech were involved to ensure the planetary surveillance systems didn’t notice them sneaking away, but compared to everything else they’d been through, that was practically boring.
As he’d suggested he might, Jei decided to come with them. Eva was a bit surprised given how close he was to Dr. Lucien and the resistance, but it seemed like he thought he could do more good elsewhere; Eva didn’t want to pry, especially since he’d been so hostile to her before. He agreed to be dropped at DS Nor, where Eva could refuel and pick up Vakar’s cruiser in case he had to leave; after that, Jei retreated to the passenger cabin as soon as they were all aboard. Occasionally she caught him skulking around like one of the cats, but any attempts at conversation were met with enough awkwardness to shut them down quickly.
Two related things were more surprising: that Jei was marginally friendlier with Sue, perhaps because of all the help she’d given the resistance or her fight with Josh, and that Min was in the darkest mood Eva had ever seen. The latter would have normally sent Eva running to the bridge to figure out what was up, but she was busy with her own issues.
First, she and Vakar had some extremely personal catching up to do, in more ways than one. Selfish, yes, but they presumably had only a few cycles before his bosses gave him new marching orders.
Second, she had to deal with Miles fucking Erck.
Once Eva had stored up enough patience to tolerate Miles for more than a few seconds, she dragged him to the mess and settled him into a chair. He regarded her sullenly, his limp blond hair falling over his pale face, mouth twisted into a stubborn frown.
“Welcome back,” Eva said. “I hope you’ve had a comfortable ride so far.”
“Well, actually, you locked me in a shipping container,” Miles replied.
“I could move you to the cat box if you’d prefer.”
Miles glared at her and didn’t respond.
Eva smiled. “Gracias, muy amable. You may recall that I was looking for Josh Zafone back on Abelgard.”
Miles remained quiet, so Eva began to make herself a coffee. He watched hungrily, and she wondered whether he was a caffeine addict, too. She made a show of every part of the process, grinding the beans and slowly spooning them into the cafetera, even pausing to sniff them and sigh appreciatively. Once the water was boiling, she turned back to Miles.