Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1)(42)

He quickly took his hand away.

“It’s a Metal,” said Robb before he could freak out, and turned the android’s head to the side to show him a small circle of grooves at the base of its neck.

A port.

“I think it can help Di. Will you tow it over to the Dossier with me?” Robb’s sky-blue eyes met his, and in the shine of the sword light Jax saw something in them that looked like hope.

And Jax didn’t have the heart to tell him that hope was not in his stars.

Instead, he pressed the comm-link on his chest and radioed Wick. “I found Robb. Keep the Dossier idling. We’re bringing something over.”

“Yep. Captain’s returned, too. Standing by,” Wick replied.

Then Jax reached in and grabbed the android under the left shoulder, and Robb grabbed its right, and they pushed their way out of the hidden room and down the hallway, hoping this Metal—whatever it was made of—didn’t mind floating naked in the harshness of space.





Ana


The Tsarina fell into Palavar.

It sparked—small, like a flare—before the darkness of the moon swallowed it whole. The Dossier was heading to a waystation on the far side of Iliad. There they’d lie low for a while. Figure out what to do next. Ana held her breath, watching from a porthole in the galley, clinging to a reality when Di wasn’t . . . when Di was . . .

But he was never coming back.

The crew sat around the table, their heads bent and their faces somber. The loss of Barger and Di left holes in the crew like bullet wounds. The only sound was a soft sniffle from Lenda as she dabbed her eyes.

Barger’s gun, a polished Lancaster .47, lay in the middle of the table. Ana set down the other, a scrappy one dark with age.

Di’s.

It had cooled in the last hour. Now it was nothing more than cold and twisted metal. Like the corpse of her best friend, stowed in the infirmary with Barger’s corpse.

Ana took a seat on the other side of Jax and Robb. She couldn’t look at the crew or the pistols on the table, or the empty chairs. The sound of Barger and Di playing Wicked Luck filled her ears, Barger accusing him of counting cards. She could still hear the laughter, the moments of reverie, now swallowed by this suffocating, blackening cloud.

The captain retrieved an old bottle of bourbon, opened only for rare occasions, and set out five shot glasses, filled them, and slid them to the crew. The liquid looked brackish, like rainwater left out too long, and smelled like the richest spices on Iliad.

“To Barger, the finest mechanic I knew.”

“Aye,” agreed the crew.

“And to Di”—the captain’s voice broke—“who was the best damn medic—no, the best person this kingdom had to offer. He was more human than the rest of us combined.” She raised her shot glass. “To those who set sail into the night, may the stars keep them steady . . .”

“And the iron keep them safe,” the crew replied, drained their shot glasses, and slammed them onto the table.

Ana did not drink.

After a moment, Lenda said, “That ship was cursed. That ship was cursed and we should’a never gone.”

“We didn’t know,” Riggs replied, and Wick nodded quietly.

Lenda turned a tear-filled glare toward him. “Didn’t know? Everyone knew about the Tsarina! It was lost for a reason! And now Barger’s dead because of those bastards!”

“And Di,” Jax reminded her softly, and the words felt like a punch to Ana’s stomach, stealing all her breath away. “Di’s dead, too.”

At the other end of the table, Robb shifted uncomfortably. He looked as though he wanted to leave the galley, too.

“And what do we got to show for it? ” asked Lenda, fisting her hands on the table. “That weird . . . thing Jax and that Ironblood brought onboard?”

“It’s a Metal,” Robb corrected her.

“A Metal?” Riggs balked. “It looks human.”

Robb nodded. “I think Rasovant was trying to keep it hidden. There were red-eyed Metals guarding the room it was in before Di”—he faltered—“before the ship went down.”

“But why would Rasovant hide something like this on that ship?” Jax muttered, a finger tapping his bottom lip thoughtfully. “It’s not illegal or anything. There are human-looking robots in all the best dens on Iliad.”

“And why would he have guards protecting it?” Robb added. “Unless it was different somehow.”

“So basically it’s just an upgraded version of Rasovant’s killing machines,” Lenda concluded, her voice dripping with bitterness. “Half of us were already shot at by Metals—it’d be a real treat for that thing to wake up and kill the rest of us!”

Siege gave the young woman a warning. “Calm down, Lenda.”

“Calm down? Barger is dead!”

“So is D09—”

“He was never alive!”

“Yes, he was!” Ana pushed back her chair with a loud crack and stood. “And I loved him!” Her voice echoed off the metal walls at every place Di would never be again. She heard her own breath hitch, a sob escape her lips—and tore herself away from the table.

“Ana, wait,” the captain called, but she was already out of the galley, her eyes blurring with unshed tears.