TUELLER: “I think calling another craft here is a bad idea.”
MILLICENT: “Yeah, that would only give us two dead gods.”
MILLICENT: “Oh hey, two dead gods.”
MILLICENT: Millie’s eyes gleam.
MILLICENT: “I bet nobody’s done TWO in a day.”
TUELLER: “Not since the Egyptians.”
ALEJO: Alejo smiles weakly. “That’d be a record for sure.”
TUELLER: “Maybe Ragnarok.”
TUELLER: “Fenris managed it, I think.”
Chapter 43
TUELLER: “You put money on me?”
ALEJO: He nods. “’Course.” Smiles.
TUELLER: “What’re you using for money?”
ALEJO: “I did a little pickpocketing of my own and a few shell game, Titan-street-rat tricks to put together a few funds. If you lose, though, I’m gonna be leveraged in some real bad ways. So . . . please don’t lose.”
TUELLER: “I’ll need to ransom my armor if we lose, too.”
TUELLER: “So I’ll try not to.”
Chapter 42
STORY: “Dragon.”
ALEJO: His eyebrows raise.
TUELLER: “That’s a new one.”
STORY: “They’re real, apparently. And they live here. So. I’m gonna lie down.”
STORY: “Jenny?”
STORY: She nods hurriedly. They both go have a seat and try to chill out just inside the treeline.
ALEJO: “Huh.”
MILLICENT: “No!” Millie punches Kahn on the shoulder
MILLICENT: “No way!”
TUELLER: “I wish we didn’t lose all of our alcohol.”
STORY: Figgan looks up at you. “What’s a dragon?”
TUELLER: “Flying lizard that shoots fire.”
STORY: She nods. “Huh. All right.”
STORY: Akilah just stands there, with her arms dangling at her sides, and drops her briefcase, walking silently into the woods.
ALEJO: “Was that our only tent?”
MILLICENT: “Dragon!” Millie’s almost dancing
Chapter 41
STORY: Loll looks around. “Where is the test master?”
ALEJO: “Incapacitated.”
ALEJO: He looks sidelong at Tueller. “This is gonna get real interesting, real fast.”
TUELLER: “Well, hopefully a steadily increasing amount of interesting.”
TUELLER: “Exponential, not logarithmic.”
TUELLER: “Or maybe the other way around.”
ALEJO: “You’re the smart guy.” Alejo glances back towards Millie. “ETA, Doc?”
Chapter 40
TUELLER: “You want back in?”
TUELLER: “To that?”
STORY: She doesn’t answer, exactly. “Do you ever think about the people on those moons?”
STORY: “How they’d fare without us?”
STORY: She shakes her head. “I dunno, T. I know it was mostly stealing from other bad people, but I think I did more to help people back then than I have since I left.”
STORY: “Is it better to be happy or useful?”
TUELLER: Tueller doesn’t pause at all. “Happy.”
STORY: She nods. “Yeah, I guess.”
Chapter 39
TUELLER: “How long have I been?”
MILLICENT: “Maybe a minute. I think your concussion has a concussion though, so if you try to stand up too fast I’ll burp at you and you’ll go back down.”
TUELLER: “Others?” Tueller looks around wildly to see who is around, and leans over to throw up again.
STORY: Tueller, you’re shaken up and a little cloudy – a four story drop will do that to you – but the damper did its job. Once you shake the cobwebs out you’ll be a little creaky and otherwise ready for action.
MILLICENT: “They’re chasing Miguel, who, and I’m sure you’re just learning this now, is bad?”
TUELLER: “No concussion. Just got punched in the gut by the ground.”
TUELLER: “I learned it about 2 seconds before I went out the window.”
MILLICENT: Under her breath, “Sounds like enough time to tell me. Millie, the cute cop is bad. See?”
MILLICENT: “Anyway, our car service is two minutes away.”
STORY: “You left your family, Alejo.”
STORY: “That’s who we were.”
STORY: He coughs again. More blood.
STORY: He’s not looking good.
ALEJO: Alejo nods, solemnly. “You were, Miguel. Cali was.” Alejo kneels down, palms up, and eases closer, friendly. “And I’m sorry for leaving you. Both. But the RDG. Exodus. Whatever. They used us. All of us. You know that. Right?”
ALEJO: “Let me help you, Miguel.”
STORY: “Too late for that, I think.” You see a dark, wet stain on his belly, previously covered by his arms.
ALEJO: He reaches out and touches Miguel on the shoulder, not reaching for the data file. “Jesus, Miguel. I’m sorry.”
STORY: “Too late for that too, brother.”
Chapter 38
STORY: Miguel puts his hands up, laughing. “Hey now. Let’s all calm down. I did no such thing, Akilah. You’ve been through a lot today.”
STORY: “Let’s talk about this.”
ALEJO: “Never left, huh?” He has his gun trained between Miguel’s eyes.
STORY: “Alejo. Come on. You know me.”
TUELLER: “Her word is good enough for me.”
STORY: Akilah takes another step, still holding the gun on him. She squints.
STORY: “He’s got a damper.” She lowers her gun.
STORY: You both see it too. He’s wearing a necklace with a portable inertial damper, one most likely made to stop bullets.
TUELLER: Tueller charges forward and grapples him.
STORY: “God damn it, we’re just gonna have to do this the hard way.” She drops her shoulder and runs full-tilt into Miguel, throwing her body against his as the three of them sail out the window.
MILLICENT: To Tueller, “Hey, I just crashed a shuttle into the street. It’s not a bomb or anything.”
MILLICENT: “You’re probably busy, but I just, you know. Don’t worry! It’s all good!”
Chapter 36
TUELLER: “We’re doing all this, but if Loll says stop, we’re bugging out of here for as long as we need to, no pun intended.”
TUELLER: “The pun was on ‘bugging.’ They’re insects.” Tueller explains.
TUELLER: “Not sure that was clear.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods. “I have no problem adhering to Loll’s wishes and I got your joke.”
MILLICENT: Millie smiles, trying to be encouraging. “Very funny!”
TUELLER: “Please don’t patronize me just because you’re eight times smarter than me.”
Chapter 35
MILLICENT: Millie comes over the comms. “You’re about to have company. But if you’ve disabled Tigralt’s friend, he should be able to disable the security bot.”
MILLICENT: To the silence, “Tigralt, I mean. Tell him I said hi.”
ALEJO: “He’s gonna have a hell of a hangover headache after the takedown Tueller just gave him,” Alejo says into the com, in response.
TUELLER: “More of a migraine. Comes from the top of the head.”
MILLICENT: A long pause. “Were you guys listening when I said this was an inside job in the briefing?”
TUELLER: “We’re inside now.”
MILLICENT: “I seem to remember there was some kind of squabble over the last cruller.”
TUELLER: “Let’s do the job.”
STORY: Figgan shrugs.
MILLICENT: Millie shrugs.
STORY: Somewhere, Kahn sighs unhappily.
TUELLER: “No, I don’t know what you mean.”
ALEJO: He stands and walks over to Tueller. “I think you do.”
MILLICENT: “I think he means the nigh ceaseless killing.”
ALEJO: “But I agree we need a better chain of command. That’s absolutely true.”
TUELLER: “You’ve killed more than I have, Millie.”
MILLICENT: “Which is, admittedly, why I shouldn’t wear the big hat either.”
TUELLER: “Well, we might be about even.”
MILLICENT: “It’s not a race.”
TUELLER: “It’s a marathon.”
ALEJO: “Yup. Yup. And you both are very smart. Very capable. Amazingly vicious.”
MILLICENT: “We had a meeting last week and decided we’d like to be called indomitably pragmatic.”
Chapter 34
STORY: Wen looks at the group of you, gesturing to Alejo. “You gave me your blessing, man.”
ALEJO: Alejo goes back to get Aki, who is still looking up to Wen. “We gotta go.” He says this softly.
STORY: Alejo, Akilah takes your hand, without looking away from Wen. She shakes her head sadly.
STORY: “Tueller, you were my best man!”
STORY: He’s just sputtering at this point.
TUELLER: “You’re better off not being part of this family, man. I’m sorry.”
TUELLER: Tueller looks mildly sorry.
ALEJO: Alejo closes his eyes for a moment. “Jesus.” He looks up to Wen again. “I’m sorry, Wen. I truly am.” He squeezes Aki’s hand and heads, with her, to the shuttle.
STORY: Wen just looks pathetically at the scene. Akilah turns away and hustles to the shuttle.
MILLICENT: Millie waves at Wen. “Sorry! Good luck with the in-laws!”