Starfall (Starflight #2)(86)
Which put her back at square one.
Her com-bracelet buzzed, and all thoughts of battle plans vanished while her heart leaped in anticipation of news from Renny. She tapped her band and found herself hyperfocused on Renny’s hologram, searching his face for hints of grief or happiness. She detected a duo of lines wrinkling his forehead and immediately asked, “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t draw out the suspense or try to soothe her with small talk. “We found Adel Vice, and we have a lock on Kane’s tracker. It’s in the ocean, twenty miles offshore.”
She lost her breath.
“His tracker is in the ocean,” Gage stressed, boring his gaze into hers from across the room. “That doesn’t mean he’s with it.”
“Exactly,” Renny said. “There seems to be a sewage drain up-current. We’re hoping he lost his tracker in the shower, or it ended up in a waste chute and got flushed out to sea.”
Cassia nodded, blinking away the black spots dancing in her vision. “What do you mean, there seems to be a sewage drain? Can you get a visual?”
“That’s the problem,” Renny told her, and for the first time, she noticed the absence of natural light inside the Banshee. He was in space. “The whole planet is shielded. Right now we’re staying out of range and hacking their transmissions to get a feel for where Kane might be. I can use a surge bomb on their shield, but the minute I do, the mafia will—”
“Shoot you out of the sky,” Cassia finished, remembering the Origin’s firepower. And that was just one ship of many. “What have you learned so far?”
Renny’s typically gentle gaze sharpened with enough anger to make the hair on Cassia’s neck prickle. “It’s a resort for savages and perverts. For enough money, you can come here and live out your most twisted fantasies. And I do mean twisted. It’s hard to listen to some of what’s going on down there. They even have men fighting to the death.”
Those persistent black spots reconverged along her periphery. Now she knew what Ari Zhang had tried to legalize on Earth: a no-holds-barred carnival of bloodshed and depravity within the confines of his resort. “We have to get Kane off that planet.”
“The other workers, too,” Renny said. “After what I’ve heard, I can’t leave any of those settlers behind.”
Cassia agreed, but the real question was how. It wouldn’t do any good to contact the Solar League. Even if the government wanted to help, Adel Vice existed in the outer realm, well beyond the League’s domain. A private fighting force was an option, but paid soldiers would fight for the highest bidder, meaning Zhang could turn them.
There was no easy answer.
“Keep listening to their transmissions,” Cassia said. She remembered the tricks Jordan had used to aid the rebels. “Find out when their security changes shifts and where their weapons are stored. Watch the shuttle schedule, and track where most of the activity happens. I’ll see what kind of help I can put together, and I’ll be in touch.”
She disconnected.
Her heart was flying, but her mind was sharp. She knew she couldn’t help Kane until she’d neutralized the problem at home, so her brain fixed on the quickest solution to taking down Marius. In an instant, she understood what she needed to do.
“Start the injections,” she told Gage while striding out of the lab. “I’m going to the jail to visit my general.”
With any luck, he would still be willing to fight like a dog by her side.
The afternoon sun cut through a gap near the barn ceiling, providing the only light for Cassia’s meeting with the rebels. The glow was more than enough. From her position in the loft, she could see the resentment festering on the faces of everyone below. The men and women in attendance represented the two highest tiers of leadership, and there were more of them than she ever imagined. Their cutting looks and closed-off body language reminded her of what Kane had said weeks ago: that no matter how hard she worked or what she accomplished during her reign, the generations of royals who’d come before her had ruined the people’s trust beyond repair.
She believed it now.
General Jordan stood by her side in a show of solidarity, but there was plenty of resentment radiating off him, too. His arms were folded and locked in place, forming a breastplate of muscle across his chest. His stomach growled, and he slanted her a glare. In retrospect, maybe she should have brought him more than one sandwich after locking him in a cell for twenty-four hours.
Jordan raised a hand to silence the group. “We don’t have much time, so let’s get down to business. The commander and I assembled you here because Miss Rose has made us an offer, and we’d like you to listen to what she has to say.”
He took a half step back, giving her the floor.
Cassia didn’t smile as she gazed down at the men and women filling the barn. She hadn’t come here to win their hearts. “I know you don’t like me, and I won’t pretend to like what you’ve done, either. But Marius Durango is a threat to all of us, and as the saying goes, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’”
A few low murmurs broke out, and she spoke over them. “I asked General Jordan to gather you here because I knew you wouldn’t fight for me, that you’re tired of risking your lives to defend my colony.” She held up the data tablet she’d taken from Jordan’s desk. “Which is why I’m offering to make it your colony. I had intended to give Eturia to the people—slowly, over time. I still believe a gradual transition is best, but if this is what it takes to save us, I’ll make the change now.”