“You need to get laid. And soon. It’s messing with your mind.”
“My mind’s fine.” Maybe he was right. If living with Rico had taught her one thing, it was that sex was no big deal. Or it didn’t have to be. Then again, it was obviously a big deal for Rico with Skylar. And Jon and Alex. This whole sex thing was doing her head in.
She took a deep breath and stood up. “Okay, so let’s work out how we’re going to do this. Janey can you give us the intel?”
“They have the main target, which as far as we’re aware is unarmed except for the weapon intended to destroy Trakis Seven. It’s a Mark Two cruiser, but heavily modified.”
“Crew?”
“Four, we think.”
Tannis frowned. “How reliable is this intel? Where are we getting it from?”
“Mostly from Callum’s friend, the colonel. He’d been feeding us information as he receives it.”
“And he’s getting it from?” She looked at Callum.
“The colonel is head of intelligence. He has people everywhere. I presume he has someone on the inside.”
“Okay. Go on, Janey.”
“There are five vessels guarding the ship. All Mark One cruisers, but the new design, top of the line.”
That didn’t sound good. But expected. “So when are we due to intercept them?”
“We could reach them in two days.”
“Okay. Devlin—what do we have from your people?”
“Six ships that can reach us here in time. But none with the firepower of the new Mark One cruisers.”
Six sounded good, even if they were smaller. They could work with six. She’d been worried that the Rebels were going to turn out to be all mouth and no ships; she was glad that wasn’t the case. She had a good feeling about this and only just resisted rubbing her hands together—it didn’t do to appear too confident.
“That’s seven with El Cazador. Should be plenty,” she said. “So how do we do it?”
“Well, the easiest thing would be to blow them out of the sky, including the weapon,” Rico said. “That would get rid of the threat.”
Sounded good to her. They’d get rid of the weapon, then El Cazador would take them as near to Trakis Seven as was safe—no doubt that bitch Venna could tell them where, and then she, Callum, and Venna would continue on to the planet in the shuttle and arrange to rendezvous with El Cazador when their business was done.
Their business—getting her the Meridian Treatment.
She was finding it hard to believe that it was going to happen at last. It had been her dream for so long. She glanced across at Callum, who watched her out of his inhuman violet eyes. How long would it take her eyes to change color?
The thought made a little shiver run through her. She looked from Callum to Skylar with her identical eyes. Skylar had told her the Collective were a sort of gestalt, all part of a larger being. Tannis didn’t know whether she liked the sound of that. When she had just been dealing with Skylar alone, it had been easy to ignore the fact that she was part of something, but seeing them together sent a prickle of unease down her spine. She pushed the thought away. She would worry about that later.
“So that’s the plan. Sounds simple enough. I like straightforward—less to go wrong.” She looked at Devlin where he sat on the opposite side of the room from Callum. “You happy with that?”
“Straightforward sounds good to me.”
“Well, I think we’re done here then. What’s our estimated time until interception, Janey?”
“Forty-six hours, give or take.”
“That enough time for your people to join us?” she asked Devlin.
“They’ll be with us within the day.”
“Good. We’ll have a meeting with the captains tomorrow.”
“Just one thing,” Devlin said.
“What’s that?”
“I’m in charge.”
Tannis pursed her lips as she considered that. Did she trust him? Did it matter? He’d be on board his own ship by then and she’d be here on El Cazador. She’d follow his lead as long as he didn’t tell her to do something she didn’t want to do. But she would worry about that if it happened.
It occurred to her that there was a lot of worrying she was putting off. She just hoped it wouldn’t all catch up at once and bite her on the butt.
She nodded. “You’re in charge.”
People began to drift away. Callum left with Daisy after sending her a long look that made her toes curl. She tried to remember the research center, and all he had been responsible for, but she couldn’t bring it to mind.
Rico left with Skylar, his arm draped across her shoulder. Jon and Alex left together. She felt edgy and restless.