“My weapon is my mind,” Soyina said with a crazed grin. “You would do well to learn to fight in the same way.”
If only she knew the things I could do with my fists, Andi thought, remembering all the times she’d sparred with Lira in the storage bay of the Marauder. All the months she’d spent with Dex and his bounty-hunting guild, learning how to snap a man’s neck as easily as if she were snapping a thin tree branch in two.
“My cuffs,” Andi said, glancing down at them, “cannot be removed. You’ll see to it that they stay intact.”
Not a question. Rather, a demand.
Soyina nodded. “There are two guards stationed on each level at all times. They are armed with electric gauntlets and whips, programmed to paralytic levels, should you be hit too many times.”
Dex gave a curt nod. “We’ll take care of them. How will we get into Valen’s cell?”
“I’ll leave the key.” She shrugged again. “Seems too simple, doesn’t it? Lucky for you, Lunamere is age-old. It’s worked for centuries without all that tech the Unified Systems are so prideful of.”
“And what about Valen?” Andi asked. “Have you...?”
She wasn’t sure how to ask the question, and yet Soyina seemed to read her thoughts.
“The prisoner,” she said, leaning forward with her chin balanced on her hands, “is a strange one. Easily broken, and yet...” She trailed off, staring past Andi. For a moment, she almost looked haunted. “He’s never died on me.”
Andi wondered what information Soyina had pulled from Valen. He had always been silent, a boy of few words. She’d lived just down the hall from him for several years, and she could scarcely remember a conversation with him that was longer than a passing hello in the hallways. Andi knew that pain had a way of making people, silent or not, spit out the truth. If there wasn’t any truth to be given, they made something up. People would do anything, say anything, to avoid pain.
She wondered what Valen had said.
She also wondered what he would say when he saw her.
“Any questions?” Soyina asked.
The silence hung between them, broken at times by the clink of glasses, the tap of heels, the barking laughter of nearby patrons.
This was too easy. Too simple. Andi stared at the woman across from them, searching her face for some sign of a betrayal, some other plan in the works. But sometimes asking was easier than trying to divine another’s intentions. “Why are you helping us?”
For the first time since meeting her, Soyina’s wild grin fell. In its place was a new expression, something deeper and darker. The woman beyond the mask.
She unbuttoned the top two buttons of her black prison worker’s uniform. When the fabric fell away, Andi frowned.
Soyina’s chest was a patchwork of scars and burn marks, just like the rest of the patrons scattered around them in the poorly lit pub. Her burns were similar to the ones on Andi’s wrists.
Mistakes, they seemed to hiss, itching and squirming on her skin as the tattoos writhed around them, morphing as they passed over the scars.
“My marks,” Soyina said, her voice low and steady, “prove that I am a survivor of The Cataclysm. One would assume that I was born and raised on Xen Ptera, suffering with the rest of them when the Unified Systems struck.” She sighed and began to button her uniform back up, concealing the scars. “I am not of this system. I was here visiting with my family when the war hit, and my own planet refused to allow us reentry for fear that we had become spies.”
Andi had heard stories like this, about the hundreds of refugees who were forced to stay behind in the Olen System when the fighting began. It was a stain on the history of the Unified Systems that many rallied to change. They had tried and failed and failed again. Others tried to sweep it under the mat, as if it had never happened at all.
“My parents and I were forced to fight. They died hating the Unified Systems for leaving us to this fate,” Soyina said with a snarl. Her eyes met Andi’s when she spoke again, flashing like a knife. “But I survived. Many would think my allegiance would still be to the Unified Systems, that I would hate the Olen System even more for forcing us to fight in a war against our own home planets. At first, I did hate Olen. But my allegiances changed when I saw what the Unified Systems put the people of Olen through for nearly a decade.” She sighed. “Ah, well. I guess I’m considering this job a chance to leave Olen behind, head back to what was once my home and rally for change in my own ways.”
“You’ll have a hell of a time,” Dex said.
Soyina smiled a soldier’s smile. Dark, and full of secrets. “I’m prepared to do what I have to. Now, back to work.”
She tapped the map again, drawing Andi’s attention back to the rooms that held the exit door. “One hour to find and rescue the boy. I’ll meet you at that door, no sooner and no later. My partner has mysteriously fallen quite ill, so I will be the only one on body duty. But if you’re caught by any of the patrolling guards...” She laughed again, the mask returning. “Well, I guess we’ll be seeing each other in that room either way. It’s up to you what the circumstances will be.”
Cold dread slithered its way up and down Andi’s spine.
Dead or alive. Andi hoped for the latter.
Soyina glanced between the two of them, laughter tugging at her lips.
“Death is a simple thing. It’s pirates I’ll never understand.” She stood from her chair, turning only once to glance back at the two of them still seated at the table. “One hour. If your plan goes south, you keep your mouths shut about me and I will do the same for you.”
She winked at Dex. Before she left, she leaned down and whispered into Andi’s ear.
“We didn’t, by the way. Earlier, I mean. Your comrade wanted to whine like a baby about his feelings for you.”
Andi’s mouth parted in shock as Soyina backed away and winked once more. Then she turned and left, fading into the crowd, and the two of them were alone.
Dex stared at Andi for a moment. “What did she say?”
“Nothing,” Andi said. Soyina must have been lying. Dex had about as many feelings as a hunk of varillium. “Nothing at all.” Sitting in this pub, alone with Dex, was making her feel slow. The smoke burned in her lungs, and the taste of stale liquor was heavy on her tongue. She sighed and stood up, stretching out her limbs, cracking her knuckles as she readied herself to make a move.
Dex stood, as well, frowning for a moment as he looked at her.
“Do you trust me, Androma?” he asked, taking a step closer.
Long ago, she would have whispered, yes. Her pathetic, traitorous heart skipped a beat. Andi scolded it internally and barked out a laugh. “I’d never be so foolish again.”
He stopped an arm’s length away, close enough that she could see the stubble on his chin. The sleepless lines beneath his eyes. “Then this should be fun,” he said with a sigh. “Play along with me.”
He grinned like he was holding on to a secret.
Then he lurched forward and, in one sweeping movement, mashed his lips up against hers.
Chapter Eighteen
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