TUELLER: “Lah, can you arrange a ship for us?”
FIGGAN: Figgan pours him a refill of the whiskey and coffee while he’s talking to Akilah.
STORY: “A ship?”
STORY: “Kinda figured we could just have you do a crime and I’ll ask the judge to send you there.”
STORY: She points at her chest. “Lawyer? Remember?”
TUELLER: “No, that…that….fuck, yeah, I guess that’s the job.”
FIGGAN: “Aww, this is gonna be hella fun.”
TUELLER: “Get me a new identity.”
STORY: Akilah nods.
STORY: “Jenny, Kahn, you think you can both get hired on as guards?”
STORY: Kahn tilts his head. “Sure, boss.”
STORY: Then you all remember, as I just did, that Kahn also worked for Akilah for years.
JENNY: Jenny nods, smiles. “Aye.”
TUELLER: “Ejo’s going to be so disappointed he missed this.”
Chapter 49
TUELLER: “Sure this is a good idea, Doc?”
STORY: Alejo, two of the ships have started moving towards you. They’re maybe ten minutes from intercept at slow burn, faster if they hustle.
MILLICENT: “Of course, now I’ll just send these off and they’ll be goose chasing for”
TUELLER: Tueller checks on the status of the guns.
MILLICENT: “You know, it’s possible I left the subspace metadata in the message.”
TUELLER: “That’s good, right?”
MILLICENT: “Not in this case, no.”
STORY: “That’s bad.” Loll stands behind the three of you, in the doorway to the bridge.
ALEJO: “Someone’s taken an interest in us,” Alejo says, angling away from the two ships and increasing speed, flying casual, but in a hurry.
MILLICENT: “In this case I think it may have been a bit like jumping into the room screaming our name.”
Chapter 48
MILLICENT: “Noma, will you ever tell us why you brought us here?”
ALEJO: Alejo sits down at the controls, straps in, and takes the helm.
STORY: “I have told you as much as I can, Millie.”
TUELLER: Tueller straps down everything as best he can, and tries to prepare people who haven’t done this before for a radical reorientation of gravity.
MILLICENT: “I miss Noma, Noma.”
MILLICENT: Millie straps herself in
STORY: “I do too, Millie.”
Chapter 47
ALEJO: Alejo leans in towards the fire, warming his hands. “Anyone else feeling like us just patching up and leaving doesn’t sit right?”
MILLICENT: Millie exhales loudly and leans forward. “Oh thank goodness.”
TUELLER: Tueller shrugs wordlessly.
MILLICENT: “We’re the madcap damn the consequences crew and here we were, _minding the consequences_.”
MILLICENT: “I say we get back to damning them.”
TUELLER: “People die.”
TUELLER: “Sometimes people we care about, even.”
ALEJO: Alejo looks at Tueller for a long moment. Then nods once in solidarity.
ALEJO: “We should make the loss mean something, no?”
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 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 33
STORY: You drop something and lean over, whispering as you touch the spot below your neck that activates the walkie, and just as you’re getting through “Kahn, ev–” you are greeted with Ezio’s smiling face, bent down right next to yours.
STORY: He grabs you roughly by the arm. “Wouldn’t do that, Millie.”
MILLICENT: Millie glares daggers at Ezio. “You should leave now and forget you ever saw me. I know you don’t think you’re in danger, but believe you me, if you stick around you’re going to wish you hadn’t.” And Millie closes the channel to Kahn.
STORY: Kahn comes in on the earpiece. “Roger that. Alejo knows the all clear.” And he cuts out.
STORY: Ezio scowls at you. “Aw, and we were just starting to get along. Listen, this is going to go a _lot_ easier if you play nice.”