STORY: Tueller, Alejo falls to the ground, shaking.
STORY: “Mr. Ya’Makasi,” Chandra begins. “If you’ll sit, I believe we have much to discuss.”
TUELLER: Tueller bends down and looks after Alejo.
STORY: “He’ll be fine. System update.”
STORY: Chandra smiles.
ALEJO: “Ffff,” Alejo tries to talk but can’t form the word.
STORY: “He’s gone years without one! Thank whoever brought his software back online, will you? Was it Dr. Breedlove?”
Chapter 65
MILLICENT: Millie shakes her head. “I’m with Noma, I think. We’re locked up. I broke into Tormod’s room and he locked me up. He wants me to look through Nikau’s deck. There’s. There’s a message there for me. And Noma was working with him. He convinced her, I think, not sure how. But then she betrayed him. Don’t know how that happened either. Just. A lot to parse.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods, trying to follow along.
TUELLER: Tueller interrupts “I became king of the Maitri, by the way.”
TUELLER: “I abdicated shortly afterwards. It was a thing.”
Chapter 64
RYO: “Chandra wants Doctor Breedlove’s help. Needs it, actually. The only way to get that is to give her something that doesn’t matter. I’m giving her an ally. And information that is unimportant.”
RYO: “If you make me make this pitch to Chandra, I will. But that’s not the position you want. You want something over me. You know I’ll win the battle. You want the war.”
SIOBHAN: “That’s your play here? The triple cross?” Siobhan scoffs.
RYO: He shrugs. “Quadruple. But yeah. It’s what I do.”
RYO: “You have your skills. Which I grudgingly respect. I have mine. And you know it.”
SIOBHAN: “You’re freelancing, but you think Tormod will agree with you once you tell him?”
RYO: “You know he will. I have far too much political capital to burn. Will he be pissed? Sure. But if you play this card now, you lose your leverage. You let this play out, it gets me in deeper . . . you might have enough to move me out of second position.”
SIOBHAN: “I’m not political, and I’m not going to go any higher than CTO, so I’m mostly just curious to see how he’ll respond when he sees this. Thanks for talking into the camera.” Siobhan taps the side of her UberGoogle Glass. She turns, and her computer interface spike comes out as she walks to a terminal.
SIOBHAN: “I hope we both see how this goes.”
Chapter 62
ALEJO: Alejo is there, sitting, with a bottle and two glasses. As Tueller walks in, he pours a glass for him and slides it across the table without looking up. Then he pours his own.
ALEJO: “Time for a talk.” He raises the glass.
TUELLER: “I didn’t see what happened, but it looks to me like things got bad and you went off and made them worse. That about right?”
ALEJO: “No,” he takes a modest sip and then a deep breath, collecting himself. “No, what happened is that everyone except Thasht did exactly what I said not to do. Tux wanted to play hero, though he should have never been on a field op. Kahn followed me even though I told him to go back to the ship. You and Millie didn’t leave with the most important item in the fucking galaxy when I told you to.”
ALEJO: “And now Chandra has Millie, Noma, and the deck.”
ALEJO: “Oh, and probably Kahn.” He drinks again.
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!”