I was totally surprised. My jaw sagged, and I gave my head a little shake. “Really? There’s more than one tunnel into the ocean?”
Galina and Merton again glanced at one another. They looked suspicious—suspicious of me. “I told you he would never confess everything at once. He admits the minimum, then makes good his escape. Notice how he’s halfway to the doors already?”
“Hold on,” I said.
Merton talked to Galina like I wasn’t there. “I don’t know. He seems as baffled as the rest of us. If he knows so much, how did he end up fighting to the death in that tube down there?”
Merton and Turov were all focused on one another, and I knew that this was the right moment to slip out—but I couldn’t do it. Curiosity got the best of me.
“Sirs? Can I ask exactly why this ship is panicking? I mean, even if we lose the island, it’s not that big of a deal, is it?”
They turned back to me. Merton put his hands behind his back and answered me sternly. “The Skay border guards have discovered us. They’re converging on our location right now, and our codes no longer seem to be working. We don’t have many hours left before we must flee this star system.”
“Oh…” I said, thinking right away of Armel’s predictions. He’d been right, we’d been drawn into his trap and fallen for every trick these rebels had waiting for us all along.
Galina frowned at me. “We need an immediate way to get those troops out of there, McGill. Either that—or the survivors are as good as permed.”
“Shit… could we just have them commit mass-suicide, or something?”
They both looked like they smelled dog shit.
Galina seemed pissed at the mere thought. “That’s against regs, and it wouldn’t look very good on anyone’s track record back at Central, now would it? Besides, we’re out of touch with them.”
That’s when I caught on. This was a losing campaign—or at least, it was a loser at this moment. Galina had learned from Deech long ago that you couldn’t get failures associated with your name if you wanted to climb ranks—and she liked rank-climbing.
They went back to wrangling over the map. I stepped up behind them, and I peeped over their shoulders. Sometimes, being as tall as a streetlight had its advantages.
“We can’t do it,” Galina said. “The brass would never be fooled. They would know we panicked and acted out of desperation.”
“Tribune Turov,” Merton said, “we are beyond the point of worrying about our reputations. The enemy is closing in, and we need a quick solution. Either that, or the people below face capture by the Skay.”
“That’s a lot of lost gear…”
“They don’t have any extremely valuable equipment left. Most of the revival machines and the three lifters are all safely aboard my ship. Surely, you can’t be fussing over a few thousand weapons and spacesuits!”
Galina faced him angrily. “I’m not fussing, Captain. I never fuss.”
Now, right there, that was a flat-out lie. I’d known Galina for decades, and I could swear on a stack of bibles as an eye-witness to at least two dozen acts of fussing—but I calculated it was a bad time to bring that up, so I stayed quiet.
“What’s your solution, then?” Merton asked her in a low tone.
Galina did some hard thinking. I didn’t like to see that. Her eyes were narrow and evil-looking. She had a devilish way about her when she was caught out in a bad situation.
Finally, she turned toward me. She did this slowly, and a smile grew on her face as she contemplated my long arms and befuddled expression.
“We’ll use McGill. He’s done this sort of thing before. Everyone will believe it.”
“Uh…” I said.
Captain Merton was eyeing me now as well, judging me. I felt like a prized pig at the fair. “Yes,” he said as if coming to a sudden, definite decision. “I’ll see that my marines stand down. You arrange the rest of it.”
So saying, he stepped away. I watched him go, frowning. I didn’t like this turn of events—mostly because I had no earthly idea what was going on.
“James…” Galina said in suddenly sweet tone. “Let’s go have a talk, shall we?”
“Uh… okay.”
I followed her like a gorilla following his mistress. The marines smirked as we left the deck, so I gave them a quick look at my middle finger.
This didn’t faze them, however. They just smiled more broadly than ever.
Galina walked me off the bridge and down the passages to her private quarters. She chased away every hog-impersonating guard we met along the way.
At last, she lingered at the doorway to her quarters. There, she turned and touched my arm.
I don’t mind telling you that I was affected. She was just as pretty as she’d been for the last twenty years or so, after her killing back on Tech World and revival as a teen. Nowadays, when she was revived she was physically around twenty-one or so, but I’m not a picky man. She was still well within her prime years.
“James, would you like to come inside and spend some private time with me?”
My eyebrows shot high. I hadn’t hoped for this kind of a direct invitation. Without hesitating an instant, I moved to walk past her.
But I found a small, skinny arm barring my path.
“Hey… I thought that was an invitation.”
“It was. But you have to do something for me, first.”
Our eyes met, and I caught on quick. “This isn’t going to be a nice thing, is it?”
“I’m afraid not.”
Heaving a sigh and crossing my arms, I looked her up and down one more time. Part of me said I should have some pride. That I should just turn around and walk
