The long jump used a hefty portion of the Endeavor’s power and left my stomach in even tighter knots than before. I nearly dry heaved when we finally slowed and only managed to control my unruly insides by putting all my focus into steering us through the busy spheres over the capital city. The crowded sky distracted me from the bile rising in my throat.
We eventually landed on the rooftop corresponding to Sanaa’s coordinates. It was empty, a private platform.
I opened the ship and exited, shading my eyes and willing my stomach to settle. It looked like high noon on Galligar Prime, her sun blazing down. Sanaa followed me onto the platform.
“Ready for a showdown?” I asked.
Sanaa’s blade-sharp gaze cut to mine. “Daraja, the general’s not here. I guarantee it.”
Good. I wasn’t ready to face my uncle. Except… I swallowed. I wanted the confrontation. Thoughts and questions flamed inside me, igniting more. I had no outlet for them, and they were starting to burn me up inside.
Shade stood grimly in the doorway with his arms crossed, his steady brown eyes watching me. The rest of the crew came up behind him. I took a few steps away from the Endeavor, bouncing on gravity that was less than the universal standard. My steps lighter than the weight in my mind, I followed Sanaa to the rooftop elevator. She used the key card Uncle Nate had printed out and then punched in a code. I trailed her into the lift and turned. Shade’s eyes met mine as the doors closed.
We hardly moved before the elevator stopped again. Top floor? The doors opened to a security wall that looked as thick as the outside of a spaceship. Sanaa typed in another code, and a machine that wanted a retinal scan emerged. This wasn’t your typical home security. What was this place? Double agent central?
“Even if my uncle had given me the key card and the codes, how would I have passed the retinal scan?” I asked.
“You’re programmed in.”
“What? Why?” And how?
As if that wasn’t weird enough already, Sanaa looked at me hard before offering up her eye to the security machine. “He’s not who you think he is.”
Meaning what? That my uncle wasn’t the asshole I kept shooting my mouth off at? I already knew that. Two-hundred-and-sixty-seven people were better off, free, because he’d messed with our heist and put himself and his own ship in the middle of our escape. Now, assuming he’d placed some information on Galligar Prime, he was helping us rescue Shiori. Because of Sanaa’s involvement, he obviously also knew about Reena Ahern. I wasn’t sure how they communicated, but they did. Nathaniel Bridgebane was there at every turn.
Knowing those lives meant something to him made emotion grow inside me in a way I couldn’t seem to contain anymore. It just pushed and pulled and shoved at everything until I felt insane.
And a little jealous of Sanaa Mwende, who knew my uncle like I never would.
“He really trusts you with everything, doesn’t he?” Yes, there was that small prick of envy, but I was mainly glad that Uncle Nate had someone. Everyone needed a friend.
Sanaa shrugged. “With everything except for what I wanted for a long time.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Himself.”
I stood there, my jaw slack as she completed the retinal scan.
“But I’m over that. Have been for a long time.” Sanaa glanced at me as the security system started to unlock. “I’m ready to stop being lonely just because he is. There’s a small chance he might be ready to stop being lonely, too.”
“With who?” I asked. “You?” I’d seen Sanaa’s interest in Merrick. I hadn’t imagined it.
“Oh no, not with me, Daraja. With you.”
“Me?” Uncle Nate and I were family, but we hardly knew each other. I’d barely seen him in eighteen years. It seemed a little farfetched to think we might suddenly become best buds. “Why do you call me that? Daraja?”
Just then, the double doors parted, revealing a beautiful and comfortable home. Sanaa swept inside, and I followed, looking around. Curiosity and an odd sharp pinch crunched together in my chest. My throat suddenly thickened, a lump expanding in it fast. Mom would have loved this place.
Most of it was a large living space sprinkled with colorful furniture that had been placed at angles around a low glass table that looked perfect for kicking up your feet at the end of the day with a warm drink and a book. Huge windows let in natural light and offered a spectacular view over the capital city. Rooftop gardens. Spires. Some high traffic. Bookshelves, only half-full, lined the whole wall on my right. There was an open kitchen off to the left. It looked pristine, never used. In fact, everything in here looked brand new.
“Daraja means bridge in my language,” Sanaa answered while I stood there in shock. I loved this place. It was welcoming and warm, like the Uncle Nate I used to know. “I call you that because you are what kept him walking between two worlds. Without you, he might have stepped to one side or the other. It would have been easy to embrace the Dark Watch general, to be him. It would have been even easier to strip off that uniform and go back to the Fold.”
My eyes widened. “The Fold?”
“We’ll all die with secrets, Daraja. Even when he didn’t know where you were, without proof that you were dead, you lived in his mind. The thought of you kept him walking the line he’d chosen, when there were days, weeks, years when it was so tempting to simply step off the bridge.”
“Why pretend all this time? Why not just…kill the Overseer?”
“And make that man a martyr? Murdered by his own kin?” Anger boiled in Sanaa’s midnight-sky eyes, darkening them further. “The man you knew as your father has many admirers. Mostly people with much in the way of currency and weapons and little in the way of conscience.”
Isn’t that the truth. “So my uncle’s goal was just to”—I shook my head in question—“limit damage?”
“You make that sound easy. On a galactic scale, I assure you, it’s not.”
“Someone else could kill him.” Every now and then, we heard about attacks on the Overseer’s life. I was always hoping one of those attempts would succeed and we’d finally be rid of him.
Sanaa cocked her head at me. “You?”
I was thinking of her, but yeah, maybe. “If I have the opportunity, I might.” Simon Novalight was probably the only person I could kill in cold blood. “And I’d bet Merrick would be willing.” A memory sprang to mind—Big Guy charging toward the Overseer’s cruiser on Starway 8. “Just seeing Merrick scared the shit out of him the last time they met. Why is that?”
“Merrick got away before the final injection,” she said.