“Mereel…”
“Don’t you always do a backup, Etain? Tut tut…”
“Don’t joke about this, Mereel.” She was starting to get annoyed with him. Skirata had been mortified by it. “Is that what I think it is?”
“We might have behavioral problems, but we’re not stupid. It is. All intact. Ordo meant what he said, but he didn’t use the real set of chips.”
Etain’s ecstatic relief was instantly slapped down by recalling Skirata’s face. “How could you do this to Kal? What if he’d had a seizure or something? He was devastated.”
Mereel replaced the datachips and stood up. “I know, I know. Ordo and I argued over it, but it was the only way I could get Kal’buir to act like it was real. He’s usually a great little actor, our buir, but he isn’t always good at grief. Ko Sai would probably have spotted it.”
“Poor man.”
“I’ll comm Ordo and let him know he can tell Kal’buir.”
“Kal’s going to be furious. He blames himself.”
“Oh, Ord’ika can get away with murder. He’s the number one son.” Mereel went back to the datapad, and smiled again. “And it broke Ko Sai, didn’t it?”
It did. But it had very nearly broken Skirata, too, and Etain could see it.
And I just lied and used my unborn son to do a deal that I know won’t be honored, so where does that leave me?
They were living in desperate times. Whether it meant that the rules no longer applied, or that the times they lived in were down to ordinary people abandoning those rules to start with, Etain wasn’t sure.
Chapter 16
I don’t know why they’re keeping me here. They haven’t demanded information from me or tried to force me to create an antidote to the nanovirus. I’m bored with no work to do, but nobody ever died of boredom. Sometimes I wonder if the man in the cloak-the one who commissioned my research-has been trying to reach me, but they’ve taken away my holoreceiver.
-Dr. Ovolot Qail Uthan, bioengineer and geneticist, creator of the Fett-genome-targeted nanovirus FG36, currently held in a Republic maximum-security prison somewhere on Coruscant.
Republic Central Medcenter neurology unit, Coruscant, 483 days after Geonosis
“I said move it, didn’t I? You deaf or something? Clear the corridor! Armed police!”
Boots clattered outside and Besany heard the sound of doors opening and closing, shouts of “Clear!” and the familiar barked orders of a man who’d once entertained her royally in the CSF Staff and Social Club.
Captain Jailer Obrim-former Senate Guard-loved his work on secondment to the ATU so much that he’d stayed. The doors burst open, and she was staring down the barrel of a police-issue blaster with a red targeting laser blinding her. Ordo said the laser was theatrics to scare targets, and no serious sniper would give away his position with one. It certainly scared her. But she wanted to be sure who was taking her surrender before she laid down her blaster.
“Captain Obrim?”
“Agent Wennen, put the blaster down, will you?” He didn’t lower his weapon, and it struck her that he thought she might open fire on him. “Come on, it’s me. Jailer. Kal called.”
She trusted him. If she was wrong-no, she had to trust him, and Skirata, too. She lowered the blaster, flicked the safety catch on, and put it in her jacket again.
“That’s better,” Obrim said. He held his blaster up in the safety position and leaned out of the doorway. “Clear, boys. Stand down. Prepare to transport a detainee. Paramedics-in here.”
“I’m sorry about this, Captain.” Besany could feel her legs shaking as the adrenaline finished its job. She almost sat down on the edge of Fi’s bed to recover, but matters seemed too urgent now. “I had no idea what else to do.”
Obrim looked over Fi and gripped his hand tightly. “Fierfek, they want to just finish him off? I’ve had officers recover from head wounds when they shouldn’t have, and ones who died when they shouldn’t have, so while I can see him breathing-I want a second opinion. Even a third. As many as it takes.” He straightened up. “Where’s that gurney?”
“Where are we going to take him?” Besany asked. “I appear to be stealing government property. He can stay in my guest room, but I’ve got to find someone to…”
“I’ve got a secure location, don’t you worry. And care laid on.” The CSF paramedics moved in and began detaching Fi from the sensors and wrapping him in blankets. “If they want to play this game, fine. I can play it bigger.”