The girl couldn’t be sixteen yet, but her voice had an easy arrogance. Naomi turned to Jim and mouthed, Is that true? He lifted his hands in a Belter shrug.
“Miss,” the admiral said, unconsciously bowing as she did, “you are… I was unaware… This is very irregular, miss. I’m afraid I can’t allow this ship to go anywhere.”
The girl rolled her eyes dramatically. “Is there a protocol? A security protocol?”
“I’m sorry?”
“If I am in distress, being held against my will. Threatened. Whatever. Is there a phrase I use to indicate that? Something innocuous I can slip into any conversation without my captors knowing it?”
“I… That is—”
“It’s a yes-or-no question, Admiral. This isn’t hard.” At this rate, the Whirlwind was going to nuke them to be rid of the girl.
“There is, miss,” Admiral Gujarat said.
“And have I said it?”
“You haven’t.”
“Then we can take it as given that I am not here under duress. That something is going on between the high consul and the leadership of the underground—something with which I have been entrusted and you haven’t. With that in mind? Go. Back. To. Your. Post.”
The woman on the screen squared her shoulders. “I have orders from Admiral Trejo that—”
“Stop,” the girl said. “What’s his name?”
“Whose?”
“Admiral Anton Trejo. What is his last name?”
“Trejo?”
“Yes,” the girl said, and leaned close to the camera so that her whole face filled the screen. She spoke softly and with an incandescent rage. “Mine is Duarte.”
“I’m sorry, miss,” the admiral said. “I can’t let your ship leave.”
“No?” the girl said. “Then shoot me the fuck down.” She dropped the connection and turned to Alex, staring down at her slack jawed. “We can go. That woman is scared to death right now.”
“Prepare for high burn?” Alex announced over the ship-wide channel, and the girl nodded curtly and settled back in her couch.
“Jim?” Naomi said.
“I know,” he said. “It’s been a really weird day.”
“We thought you were dead,” Naomi said as she stepped into the lift.
Amos blinked his unnerving black eyes, then shrugged. “Yeah, I can see that, Boss. What can I tell you? Sorry.”
Eight hours of high burn had taken them out of the Whirlwind’s effective range. Fifteen had increased the distance to the point that she almost felt safe. Not safe safe, but close enough that she could imagine stepping away from the ops deck and starting to make sense of everything that had happened, hearing everything that had brought Jim and Amos back. And how Teresa Duarte fit into it.
And also to tell them what had happened during their long and separate pilgrimages. What they had lost. With the four of them together, Alex had asked for the ceremony. As if the unive
rse had given them a chance, and he was worried that if he didn’t take it now, it would somehow slip away. And she and Amos were heading to the airlock together again, as if the past had returned. But as if it had returned changed.
The changes to Amos were odd. His skin was somehow pale and dark at the same time, like a thin coat of white paint over black. His eyes were darkness, and there was something strange about the way he moved. But after so long, being able to think of him without grief and worry made the alterations only interesting. It was so much better than what she’d already carried with him. With losing him.
“I’d have called earlier, but… Well, I wasn’t ready to go. I was being patient.”
“What happened?”