“What? They’re just going to sit back and let them do this?”
“Yes. I’d say they’re more than happy about this move. I told you—the Meridian is finished. There’s nothing else on Trakis Seven worth saving. Except maybe answers. And the Council don’t want answers.” He sipped his drink. This time he didn’t wince. He must be healing fast. “No, they’re probably rubbing their cowardly little hands in glee at this turn of events.”
“Damn. Damn. Damn.” Tannis kicked the table. She was so close. Trust the Church to try and blow her dream out of the sky. “There must be something we can do.”
“I can help.”
At first, she didn’t realize who had spoken. Then the Trog raised his shaggy head.
“You can?” She didn’t mean to sound skeptical, but it came out that way. For a second, she thought she saw a glimmer of humor in his blue eyes, but it was gone before she could be sure.
“So, how can you help?”
“I think I can get someone to take the ship for you.”
“The Church’s ship. The really big Church’s ship that’s going to Trakis Seven?”
He nodded.
“The one guarded by a whole load of other ships?”
“Yes.”
Tannis glanced around the room, curious to see what the others would make of this.
“You mean the Rebels?” Rico asked the question, and the Trog nodded again.
Tannis flung herself into the nearest seat, while she tried to make sense of what was going on. She turned to Rico. “What do you know about the Rebels? And what have they got to do with the Trog?”
“That’s up to the Trog to tell you.”
“But you know something, and you didn’t tell me?” She’d thought Rico told her everything. Obviously not.
“Not my place,” he replied.
She sighed; he was right. It had always been her policy that peoples’ secrets were their own. As long as they didn’t endanger the rest of the crew. She presumed Rico must have suspected that the Trog’s secret might do just that and so questioned him.
“Tell me,” she said.
Rico nodded to the Trog, and the engineer stood. He usually slumped and now, standing up straight, Tannis realized how tall he was, appearing even taller with his lanky build. He had dark blond hair, which looked as if it hadn’t been cut in a long time, and which usually fell over his features, hiding his expression. Now, he pushed it back, revealing high cheekbones and blue-green eyes slanted like a cat.
“So,” Tannis said, “why would the Rebels come and help us?”
“Because I’ll ask them to.”
“And why would they do what you ask?”
“Because the leader of the Rebel Coalition is my brother.”
Alex leaped to her feet. “Holy Meridian. I know who you are.”
The Trog turned his wary eyes on her. “Tell them then. They might as well know the worst.”
Alex stared at him with something close to horror stamped on her expressive features. “Ten years ago, there was an attack on the Cathedral on Trakis Four. Some sort of explosive device went off. It was Christmas Eve and the place was packed. Over two hundred people died, mostly children. For once, the Rebels didn’t try and crow about it—instead they claimed it was a mistake—that the explosives had gone off early.”
Tannis turned to the Trog and frowned. “You did that?”
“I built the device. Someone tampered with the timing mechanism. It was supposed to explode later that night, when the priests were taking the Holy Communion.” The Trog’s tone was flat, expressionless. He put his hands in his pockets, hunched his shoulders, and paced the room. “I found out later that there had been a dispute among the leaders—some wanted to cause maximum casualties and didn’t really care who they were as long as they were Church followers.”
“What happened?” Tannis asked.
“I killed the man who’d done it. Then I left. I’d lost my taste for rebelling. But the Church was after me—I was pretty well known, and the explosive device was my specialty. So I changed my identity.”
Tannis turned to Rico. “You knew all this?”
He nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Anyone else?”
“Me,” Janey said.
“Rico suggested I tell Janey. She helped me with my new identity, and she’s been kept track of anyone who might be coming after me.”
Tannis rubbed a hand over her face, then pressed her eyes.
“We would have told you, if you needed to know,” Rico said. “But you didn’t.”
It came back to her now—the news of the explosion had been splashed all over the comms at the time, but she hadn’t taken too much notice. She shook her head; she needed to forget that half her crew had kept a whopping secret from her and get on with the matter in hand. That’s what was important right now.
“So I take it your brother is still with the Coalition.”
The Trog nodded.
She had a thought. “Hey, what is your name?” She couldn’t remember from the news reports.
“Starke, but the Trog is fine.”