Page 208 of Star Bringer
“Freedom for the people,” I respond with the second half of the rebel’s toast. I’ve heard it enough on my travels to know when to pull it out. I raise my glass and swallow the shot down in one gulp.
“Okay,” Marlina says. “Talk.”
I’d expected her to have a catch-up chat with Beckett first, but clearly she’s all business.
I hadn’t decided how to broach this—I wanted to meet the woman first. But I’m guessing she’s the sort of person who doesn’t like idle chitchat, so I get straight to the point.
“I need to get someone out of Delta V47. We need weapons to do it, plus Beckett thinks you might be willing to provide a…distraction to help us out.”
“Now why would I do that?”
I smile. “Gratitude.”
“Much as I love my daughter, I’m not sure I’m that grateful. After all, she did just ‘hitch a ride.’ And the Corporation keeps the buildings out there heavily guarded. No one enters the Wilds without a really good reason.” She takes a sip of her drink. “What else is in it for me?”
“A blow to the Corporation is a blow to the Empire,” Max says.
“There is that. And…?”
“You’re welcome to anything that we find there.”
She thinks for a moment. “No one knows what’s in those buildings. It could be nothing.”
“Heavily guarded nothing,” I remind her.
She doesn’t look impressed, so I bring out the last weapon in my arsenal. “My intel tells me that its payroll is six days from now. We could coincide with that. You could snatch it going in.”
She’s starting to look interested.
“Tell me about the prisoners,” she says. “My daughter filled me in a little bit the other night, but I want to hear more.”
“Ian and Max’s…sister”—Beckett sends us an apologetic look—“was on one of the shipments out here. That’s who they’re trying to get out. And it occurred to me that maybe…” She swallows. “That maybe Jarved was there before me. We’ve both seen how he just disappeared from the prison records. And we could never find any evidence of his execution, however many people we bribed.”
Her mother has gone completely still. “You say this, but it’s impossible. Your brother is dead.” She pauses, and we all wait. “Part of me doesn’t want to believe it,” she admits. “Doesn’t want to think that he could have been there. Suffering all these years. I’d killed him off in my heart, and it nearly broke me. But I’m not sure this isn’t worse.Fuck, we let him down. Gave up on him.”
“And we can’t do it again,” Beckett says, her voice fierce. “What if he is still alive? I know it’s a slim chance. But we can’t ignore it. At the very least, we might finally discover what happened to him.”
Marlina sinks back into her chair. She refills her glass with blazketty and sips it in silence. I’m itching to say something.
“Don’t,” Max says in my head, and I clamp my lips closed. “Marlina needs to think it through.”
When the glass is empty, she places it gently on the table. “Tell me what your plan is and how we can help.”
I exhale. We’re not through this yet, but now that we’re this far, I allow myself to think that maybe it will work, that we’ll get Milla back and the nightmare will be over.
I spend a few minutes explaining our plan. Beckett’s mother listens, interjecting here and there to point out flaws or ask questions.
When I’m finished, Marlina thinks for a few more minutes; then, finally, she gives a curt nod, and I have to hold back my whoop of joy. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a distraction,” she says. I lean across and pour myself another drink, then slump back in my chair. I feel drained. I hadn’t realized how tense I was.
“We’re going to get Milla back,” Max says in my head.
“I know.”
“There is one more thing to discuss,” Marlina says.
I raise a brow. “And that is?”
“Between my daughter and me.” She turns to Beckett. “Did you do what I asked?”
