Belatedly, she realized Beth and Rick did not yet know what their sons had done, and sorrow struck her again.
“I have your statements in your files.” Michael lit up one of the table screens, all business. Whatever he felt watching the men who were his friends, he kept hidden. He just shuffled the icons until he had access to their fact files. “Is there anything you want to add at this time?”
Derek’s eyes slid sideways to look at Kevin. Kevin did not look up. “Can you cut us a deal?” asked Derek, a little belligerently, a little hopefully.
Michael’s gaze flickered from Derek to Kevin. “I can make sure the court knows you cooperated fully.”
“But you can’t deal?” pressed Derek.
Helen felt her jaw clench. How can you talk like this? Don’t you realize what you almost did? If there hadn’t been something real out there, you would have killed Venera!
Michael shook his head. “I’m not an officer of the courts, no, but I am recognized as a police officer. It gives me some weight.”
Derek snorted, and Kevin glowered at him. “No,” Derek said. “It’s not enough. The shit’s too deep to be shoveled out with a good report card.”
“Derek.” Ben leaned forward. “Don’t do this to yourselves. Don’t do this to your friends. You’ve been caught. It’s all over. There’s no one to protect anymore.”
Derek said nothing.
Helen swallowed her anger. She stood and walked around the edge of the table. “Kevin?” she said, standing next to him.
Kevin sat silently. Helen let the silence stretch. Then, she said. “You’re a good man, Kevin Cusmanos. You have done so much good work for us.” She meant it, every word. A thousand memories flashed through her head of Kevin, in and out of the scarabs, his attention to detail, his care and diligence in training his people and caring for his equipment. “You’re just trying to help your brother, I’m sure of that.” More memories—the two of them in the playground, Derek always tearing along behind his older, bulkier brother. Kevin at Derek’s promotion ceremony, his chest puffed all the way out. Derek looked so…lost really when Kevin boarded the ship for Earth and his degrees, and Kevin shaking him by the shoulder and telling him to cheer up.
Helen laid her hand on Kevin’s shoulder. “I’m telling you, it doesn’t have to be this bad. We might not even have to send you down there if we can show we know all of what happened.”
Slowly, sadly, Kevin shook his head. “There is no way the yewners are going to let you hang on to us. Too many people are going to look stupid as soon as word gets out. There’s nothing you can do, Helen.”
Regret deep and profound poured through her. That was it then. She touched his shoulder. “There’s nothing you’ll let me do.”
“You’re probably right,” he said to the tabletop.
“Kevin.”
Kevin finally looked up, right into her eyes. Over his shoulder, she saw Derek’s face go white. He’s going to tell us. Hope leaped up inside her. He’s not going to let us down.
But the moment passed, and Kevin’s gaze dropped back to the tabletop. “I can’t,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I, Kevin.” She squeezed his shoulder and turned away. “For both of you.”
Phil stepped into Angela’s cubicle in the infirmary. She was still unconscious. Her face was mottled red and white. The muffling headphones the doctors had strapped over her damaged ears plastered her short hair against her burned scalp. Tubes and patches covered her pale arms lying on top of the rough monitor blanket.
“You’re looking good, Ms. Cleary.” He sat in the stiff chair beside her bed. Why was there no hospital in existence that had comfortable visitor’s chairs? She really did look better. When they’d first let him in to see her, every limb was swollen with bruises and blisters. Her face was a single massive, doughy contusion. He’d seen worse but not on his partner.
They told him she’d been awake briefly, but now what she needed was sleep. She needed to sleep away the pain and the fear and the utter strangeness of what had happened to her. The Veneran doctors were minimalists who did not approve of speed-healing techniques. They repaired the blood vessels and nerves, alleviated the adenoma, and treated the worst of the burns. Other than that, they were leaving her body to take care of itself.
“Well, you’ve been saying you needed a vacation anyway,” said Phil, looking more at the floor than at Angela. She’d been nearly dead when they brought her back. He’d thought it was all over. He’d thought she was gone. He’d been terrified. They’d worked together since he’d joined the U.N. security team. In some ways he was closer to her than to his own wife.