“The worst part is the waiting, you know?”
—Allegiant Militarium Infantryman Polus Iliatie, recounted in the memoirs of fellow Infantryman Wemra DuMariit, The Fog of War
A welcome sight waited when they finally trekked back to the landing zone—Reida had already gotten their ship out of her cargo hold. Zaina breathed a sigh of relief.
It’s all going to be over soon.
Smiling, Reida waved to greet them and ran over. “So, what’s the news?”
“We might be waiting until tomorrow,” Zaina said.
Reida’s smile fell. “Is that so? I was hoping we’d be quicker than that.”
“Your Captain bothering you?”
Reida shrugged. “She gave me a bit of extra time when I explained the situation.”
Zaina’s eyes narrowed—that didn’t seem right. She’d only met Captain Danjai once, and that woman didn’t seem the type to give Reida extra leisure time. “Well, that’s nice. So you’ll be staying with us, then?”
“That’s right—if you’ll have me. You know, to be honest,” Reida said, “whatever journey it is you’ve got going on, I want to help see it through.”
“Awfully charitable of you,” Kazlo said in a low voice.
Reida rolled her eyes. “You aren’t even a target anymore, dude. Captain Danjai found another hacker. She doesn’t give a shit about you.”
His eyes glowed. “You mean—”
“Yes. I don’t need you anymore. And I don’t see the point in wasting a bead at this juncture. So, as far as you’re concerned with my captain and my crew, you’re square.”
He put a hand on his chest and released a deep breath. “That’s a relief. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” she said. “Now, what’s going on with this delay?”
Zaina answered, “We need to reach a specific set of coordinates to access Gizmo’s next lock, but right now the Clan is holding a ritual there.”
Reida shrugged. “Why not interrupt? Your time is valuable, too.”
“We can’t do that,” Zaina hissed. “That would be rude, and besides—they’d probably kick us out.”
“If you get the coordinates, who cares what they do?”
Zaina shook her head. “We’re not doing this your way.”
“All right,” Reida said, not seeming bothered at all. “You guys hungry?”
“I could eat,” Kazlo said.
Zaina was a bit peckish, but she didn’t want to eat—food made her sleepy. Her lancer body required neither food nor sleep, and she definitely didn’t want to sleep tonight in case Reida tried to pull something. “I’m fine.”
“You haven’t eaten all day,” Reida remarked. “What, do you lancers feed on sunlight?”
“We’re not plants.”
“Well, come on with. I guess you can watch us eat.”
Zaina shrugged. That was exactly what she wanted—she didn’t trust Reida’s sudden shift in goals. In fact, that only made it seem like whatever scheme she was pulling would come to fruition soon. Otherwise, why would she be throwing them off her trail? Suddenly, they didn’t want Kazlo, but Reida wanted to stick around—something was off.
They made their way to the food pantry, where Reida pulled out two nutria-bars for herself and Kazlo. She offered one to Zaina again and was once more declined.
“By the way,” Reida said, turning to Kazlo after scarfing down her snack. “What did Tralgon have you doing?”
“Oh, they had me on a special project,” he replied. “Some new glyph for coordinating smuggling. They had some absolutely wild ideas.”
“Yeah, well, Big Choffa isn’t exactly known for being down to earth,” Reida said.
“I never met anyone higher up than Kyral. But I have heard stories about Big Choffa.”
“Who?” Zaina asked.
“Tralgon’s leader,” Reida said. “I know you think I’m a piece of shit, but trust me—this guy’s a fucking psychopath. Best bet is to hope you never meet him.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Zaina said. Despite trying to keep her guard up, Reida’s charm was disarming. It was a constant struggle to stay vigilant, especially now that Kazlo was at ease.
He especially should know not to trust anything she says.
Kazlo stood. “So, where are the facilities on this?”
“Down the hall, third door on the right,” Reida replied.
Now Zaina was alone with her enemy.
“By the by,” Reida said. “I did want to talk to you about something.”
Oh, great.
“It’s—something you said earlier. About how you hope I lose sleep.”
“Yeah?”
Reida’s lip twitched. “Well, I have been. Lately I’ve been having these nightmares. About Otmonzas.”
Zaina leaned in. “What kind of nightmares?”
“About—you know, the bombs,” Reida said. “In my nightmare, I’m down there when they detonate—but somehow, I’m also still up there with you, watching from the tower, and you’re looking at me like—like you’re looking at me now. I—I don’t know. I’ve never been able to remember my dreams before.”
“Well,” Zaina replied, “I think, on some level, you should feel bad. A lot of people died for no reason.”
“There was a reason.”
“A shit reason. I think that makes it worse.”
Reida nodded. “Yeah. I know. But I still don’t know what to do about the dreams. This didn’t happen until after our little falling out.”
Zaina rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re growing a conscience.”
“Of course not,” Reida said with a chuckle. “But I—I don’t know. Recently I’ve been feeling like that in real life, too.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m outside myself. Watching. And…”
“You don’t like what you see,” Zaina said. There was real pain, real vulnerability on Reida’s face—was this part of a ploy, or was this genuine?
Reida continued, “I guess I want to say I’m sorry. For everything. I know you aren’t who I really should be apologizing to, but—well, I do feel bad about all of it. If I knew how to begin to make it right, I would.”
To Zaina’s surprise, it was refreshing to hear. It didn’t make anything right or better between the two, but it was a nice sentiment. She decided to put her negative feelings aside and reciprocate. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you this, Reida, but you don’t have to be a pirate if you don’t want. If you don’t like the things you have to do to survive, you can start a new life.”
Reida’s brow furled. Maybe she really hadn’t ever heard that before in her life. “Yeah? What would I do? Where would I go?”
Zaina shrugged. “I don’t know. You seem like a good pilot. I bet you could find something honest with that.”
Reida’s lip twitched again. “Yeah. I don’t know.”
“Something to think about, is all,” Zaina said.
“I’ve been doing too much thinking lately,” Reida said. Then, as suddenly as the conversation had turned serious, Reida changed the subject. “By the way, where’s your friend?”
“Oh, he’s back with the Clan. He’ll be fine.”
“You think that’s a good idea? He’s book-smart, sure, but he doesn’t exactly seem people-smart.”
Zaina doubted there was any danger, but it didn’t hurt to check—and plus, it killed time. Once Kazlo came back the three departed back to Rafol. The sun was starting to descend by the time they arrived. Looks like we’ll need shelter soon. I guess worst comes to worst we can stay on the ship for a night.
As they approached the town once more, Zaina realized she had no clue what to expect. Hopefully Baeus hadn’t been swindled out of too much of the Order’s money.
The Raolgrians were still on their platforms, though both were looking noticeably weak and decrepit. The crowd was starting to thin out as light faded. Baeus was still in the middle of it all, excitedly chatting with the Raolgrians nearby, all of whom seemed happy to have him. Once the scholar noticed Zaina he politely ended his conversation and floated over to her.
“Oh, you guys, I’ve got them good,” he said. “They don’t even know.”
Zaina sighed. “While I’m glad you’re having fun, I think we should consider heading back to the ship for the night.”
“Why go all that way?” Baeus asked. “I’ve already paid for a cabin for the four of us.”
Zaina narrowed her eyes. “Did you use the Order’s money?”
“Technically, yes. On a starting bet. See, the big game is where people get power in the clan, but it’s the games within the game that really make money. I bet Takaro would fall asleep before Unqwyle by three minutes or less—and I got it. So I re-invested in a few other spreads, took a risk on a parley or two, and now I’m in the running for Clan Head.”
After blinking in disbelief a few times, Zaina sighed. “I can’t take you places like this, can I?”
“I don’t know what you mean. I’ve already tripled—”
“I think you might have a gambling problem,” she said. “Maybe you should be the Clan Head. Would they even allow that?”
“You know, I have no idea.”
“Well,” Zaina said, “these two are going to need some sleep, so we should probably get to our cabin. You can tell me all about Paraba Dagaranath when we get there.”
A happy smile came across Baeus’s face. Despite Zaina dreading hearing more about the Raolgrian ritual, she had to admit the scholar’s sheer joy and passion made the idea of it not entirely insufferable. Time would tell, she supposed.
Baeus led them to their cabin, where Reida and Kazlo fell asleep early. The scholar talked Zaina’s ear off into the odd hours of the night until he nodded off, too. Zaina smiled. All day she’d been expecting something bad to happen, but it hadn’t. Not only that, they were closer than ever to discovering what Gir had left behind. Maybe things were taking a turn for the better. Baeus, Kazlo, even Reida—despite Zaina not trusting any of them, they had all helped her. She didn’t quite understand what that meant, and so she put such thoughts out of mind until morning came.