The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(14)

Nadashe, not so much these days.

“So here’s the rundown,” Cal Dorick, Nadashe’s personal lawyer, had told her shortly after she was taken into custody. “Murder in the first degree for Amit, murder in the first degree for the shuttle pilot, murder in the second degree for both Grayland and Amit’s security people, attempted murder for all the rest of the security contingents, attempted manslaughter for the starship crew—there are several dozen counts here—attempted murder of the emperox, attempted assassination of the emperox, which is technically a separate offense from attempted murder, and of course, treason.”

“Is that all?” Nadashe asked.

Dorick looked at her oddly, but went on. “For the moment. I understand the House of Nohamapetan—your house—is currently debating whether or not to ask the state to charge you with destruction of property. The House of Lagos, whose shuttle you stole, will almost certainly ask for those charges, but has not yet. And further charges may be added to the docket, pending further investigation.”

“So what are we looking at?” Nadashe asked. “In terms of sentencing?”

Dorick was dumbfounded. “Death, Nadashe,” he finally said. “For treason that’s traditionally the go-to sentence. You have a chance for death on the first-degree murder cases. For the second-degree charges, life imprisonment. Attempted assassination is typically a life sentence. Lesser sentences for the multiple attempted murders, but the state has already told me they will argue for them to be served consecutively, not concurrently.”

Nadashe looked around the drab meeting room the two of them sat in, painted in industrial greens and grays. “So, best-case scenario is something like this, for the rest of my life, and the next several lives to boot.”

“That’s the best-case scenario, yes,” Dorick said. “That’s the highly optimistic scenario.”

“Any deals on the table?”

“Not really,” Dorick said. “When the state believes you tried to assassinate the emperox, it’s going to want to set an example.”

“Well,” Nadashe said, and folded her hands on the table between her and her personal lawyer. “That is simply unacceptable.”

Dorick paused, appeared to be about to say something, and then closed his mouth. He adjusted his suit and then reached for his stylus and pad. “So, ‘not guilty’ is what I’m hearing from you.”

“Of course. I’m entirely innocent.”

“Of everything.”

“Absolutely everything. The idea that I would try to kill Amit, my brother, who I loved, is offensive. And as for Grayland, her brother was once my fiancé. My brother was hoping to be her fiancé. There is no reason, given either of those, that I would want her dead. All of this is ludicrous. I’m not guilty of anything.”

Dorick looked over.

“What?” Nadashe said.

“I mean, you did admit to treason,” Dorick said. “You suborned an entire ship full of Imperial Marines and sent it through the Flow shoal to End in order to support your attempted takeover of that planet. You said it to the emperox herself. And the entire executive committee.”

“Excited utterance,” Nadashe said.

“That’s not how ‘excited utterance’ works legally, but okay.”

“Bravado in the heat of the moment,” Nadashe continued, undeterred. “Brought on by being accused of my own brother’s death. Honestly I don’t remember much of what I said at that point.”

“There are recordings.”

“I’m sure there are. But I’m fuzzy on the details. A psychological evaluation might be in order to confirm I have a gap in my memory there.”

Dorick looked doubtful at this. “Grayland has ordered a top-to-bottom investigation of the service to find out who else you might have suborned.”

“I haven’t suborned anyone. It was Amit.”

“Amit.”

“Yes.”

“Your dead brother who was attempting to marry the emperox.”

“He always believed in having a plan B.”

“His plan B involved killing himself?”

“People do dramatic things,” Nadashe said. “And I think you’ll find in your investigation that Amit had left instructions that in the event of his death the Prophecies of Rachela was to make its way to End.”

“Will I, now,” Dorick said, making a note.

“Absolutely.”

“A claim that is entirely unverifiable because, if the emperox is correct, the Flow stream from End to here has already collapsed.”

“If you believe such a thing, yes.”

“Still, your operational knowledge of Amit’s plans appears extensive.”

“I was investigating him.”

Dorick looked up over his pad, eyebrows arched. “For treason.”

“Among other things, yes.”

“And you didn’t think to bring this to the attention of the emperox, the executive committee, or, for that matter, the appropriate law-enforcement authorities, of which there would be … several.”

“Amit was my brother, Cal,” Nadashe said. “I had to be sure.”

“So, to be clear, all of this…” Dorick waved the hand holding the stylus, in an effort to encompass the enormity of the crimes that Amit had attempted.