Eva’s arm skin prickled. “What did you tell them about The Forge?”
“I did not.”
“You what?” Vakar’s inability to lie was nearly legendary. When he became a Wraith, he’d been forced to work past it to maintain appropriate levels of secrecy, but he relied on tech and meds where physical limitations existed. And he hated doing it on principle anyway, unless absolutely necessary. So for him to decide to not just lie, but lie to his bosses, was a lot for Eva to process.
Vakar’s gray-blue eyes met hers, then looked toward the far wall. “I did not want to jeopardize your own mission inadvertently. I also did not obtain a substantial amount of actionable data from the Forge facility, and so I determined it was prudent to bide my time.”
Prudent. Hah. That sounded like him, at least. Eva flinched as the coffee timer went off, startling her. Reluctantly, she moved away from Vakar, from the comforting licorice smell that nearly always emanated from him. The ritual and rhythm of spooning out sugar, stirring up espumita, and pouring out the rest of the black gold was its own kind of calming, and by the time she took her first sip of scalding sweetness, she was feeling less flustered.
“No sense borrowing trouble,” she said finally. “If your bosses get pissy, we’ll deal with it. Until then, we keep looking for Josh.”
“That was my estimation of the situation as well. But I wanted to be certain you were aware of the potential future difficulties, so you were not taken by surprise.” Vakar ran a gloved hand over her hair affectionately, and she smiled up at him. Mala, meanwhile, had wandered off somewhere, perhaps sensing that no further pets were forthcoming.
That cat always did have a mind of her own, Eva thought. Such was the way of cats, more so the psychic ones.
“Hey, Cap,” Min said through the speakers. “Sorry to bother you, but your mom just left you a message. Want me to play it in there?”
A message? Weird, considering she could have just talked to Eva.
“Sure, go ahead,” Eva said.
The lights dimmed slightly and her mother’s image appeared in the center of the table. Regina wore an openmouthed scowl, as if she had just yelled at someone nearby and was returning her attention to the holoscreen.
“Hola, mijita, discúlpame, I’m on my way to another meeting,” Regina said. “Qué arroz con mango, estoy agotada. They have me running around like a chicken with my head cut off.”
Eva snorted. Her mom, some BOFA big-shot, whatever that meant. Who would have seen it coming?
“Anyway,” the message continued, “I checked what you asked and it looks like there were transactions in a place called Tyet-Ruru, on the planet Abelgard. I hope that helps. I’ll call you back later. Adiós, love you.” The holo image disappeared, and the lights returned to their normal level.
“Abelgard, huh,” Eva said. “Why does that sound familiar?” She took another sip of coffee, staring blankly at the now-empty table. Every new bit of information she obtained felt like a single pixel from some giant holovid: totally useless by itself, almost equally useless when put together, and she had no idea how she would ever manage to find a large enough fragment of the big picture to make any sense of it.
In the doorway, someone gasped: Sue, with a crowbar in one hand and a piece of interior hull paneling in the other, paler than usual.
“What?” Eva asked.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Abelgard!” Min interjected before Sue could answer, her voice shrill with excitement. “Please, you have to let me visit The Sump!”
“Qué coño is a Sump?” Eva asked.
“I forbid you from going to The Sump,” Mari told Eva, her nose wrinkled like she smelled a fart. She had called for an update on their progress about an hour after La Sirena Negra passed through the Gate to the Ashyke System, where Abelgard was located. Eva had to rush her turn in the sonic shower to take the call, so she sat on the edge of her bed wearing nothing but her underwear and a scowl.
Eva stuck her tongue out at her sister’s holo image. “You gonna forbid me from other fun stuff, too, like punching people and setting things on fire?”
“Those things are not fun, you anarchist.”
“Is anarchy bad now? I’ll update my translator nanites.” Eva was enjoying teasing her sister too much, maybe because it was so easy and familiar. Like falling off a hoverbike.
Mari closed her eyes and took a visibly deep breath. “Why are you going to Abelgard in the first place? Medoral made sense, but then you went to Charon, and now this?”
Eva had a ready, and interesting, answer for this one. “Josh went to the university there, and my intel suggests it was one of his stops after leaving Medoral.” Sue had told her as much once Min finally stopped gushing about The Sump, which was a whole other mess Eva was still making up her mind about, despite what she had told Mari.
“Ay, sí, verdad, he did go to Evident Academy for a few years before returning to Katoru,” Mari said. “But how do you know he went there after he escaped The Fridge?”
“I have my ways,” Eva said. She wasn’t about to explain that she’d called their mom; she could already hear the lecture now, and she wasn’t in the mood.
She also didn’t mention that Lashra Damaal had gone to Abelgard as well, because she wasn’t ready to admit to herself that the coincidences surrounding the Garilia connection were piling up to an uncomfortable height.
“Fine, be evasive. No me importa.” Mari squinted at Eva, as if she could read her sister’s mind if she tried, but Eva just smiled back at her.
“Speaking of evasive, you didn’t tell me he was traveling with other people,” Eva said. “Do you know who they are? Might help me find him faster.”
Mari, to Eva’s surprise, froze in the way she always did when she was blindsided. “I wasn’t aware of that, no. How did you find out?”
Eva wiggled her fingers. “Maaagic!” she replied in a singsongy voice.
Mari rolled her eyes and sighed. “Whatever. No, I didn’t know, so I can’t help you there.”
“Bueno. Anything else, before I get back to my, uh, very important preparations?” Eva asked.
“I suppose not.” Mari sighed again and shook her head slightly. “Send me an update if you find anything.”
“Claro que sí,” Eva replied. “Hasta luego.”
“Adiós.” Mari’s image vanished, and almost simultaneously there was a polite knock at the door.
Eva sent a mental command to open it, but there was no one waiting. Confused, she stood and walked over, poking her head out to see who it might have been.
“Surprise!” Vakar said, appearing out of nowhere, and Eva shrieked.
“Qué rayo?” Eva asked, holding a hand to her chest. Her heart was fine, being mechanical, but the gesture was a hard habit to break even after so many years.
Vakar smelled mildly confused. “Have I done something undesirable?”
“You scared the shit out of me, yeah. Why did you . . . ?” Eva gestured dismissively at Pink, who had poked her head out of the med bay and was staring at them with her eyebrows all the way up in her hairline.
“I had inquired of Pink as to ways I might contribute to the ongoing health of our relationship,” he replied, now smelling bashful, like fresh-cut grass.