TUELLER: “Can someone please buy me a drink?”
RYO: Ryo stands. “Whatcha having?”
TUELLER: “Well whiskey.”
RYO: Ryo goes to the bar, and orders three whiskeys.
STORY: The bartender thinks you’re hot, Ryo, and gives you a free upgrade to the good stuff. He also gives you a wink.
RYO: Ryo winks back. And leaves a big tip. He returns with the drinks. “To a plan.” He raises a glass.
MILLICENT: “A plan, at last!”
TUELLER: Tueller drinks his whiskey. “Ugh, well whiskey is going to be the roughest part of this entire affair.”
MILLICENT: Millie drinks. Looks twice at the glass.
Chapter 71
TUELLER: “Huh. No madmen in your family, I guess.”
RYO: “Oh, plenty. Just didn’t pass on to me.”
TUELLER: “No one studies Nixon anymore either, I guess.”
TUELLER: “Or Machiavelli.”
STORY: “Didn’t they lose?”
TUELLER: “Well, sure. That time.”
MILLICENT: “Was. Was there another time?”
RYO: “Unless you think that The Prince sheds some light on this situation, I don’t see what Machiavelli has to offer us right now.”
TUELLER: “Discourses on Livy, technically.”
MILLICENT: “Hey! Book club!” Millie snaps her fingers.
STORY: “Hey. Brain geniuses.”
STORY: Calixta smiles at Millie.
RYO: Ryo frowns.
STORY: “I have an idea.”
MILLICENT: “I don’t like not being the one who is getting lost in an academic aside.” Millie smiles back at Calixta.
Chapter 69
TUELLER: “We’re not pirates, by the way.”
MILLICENT: Millie leads, using the directions from the public message
TUELLER: “Not anymore, and not for years.”
TUELLER: There’s a little steel in that.
STORY: “What are we, then?” Calixta asks.
TUELLER: “Fucked if I know, honestly.”
TUELLER: “Right now, knights in shining armor, I guess?”
RYO: Ryo acknowledges this with a mea culpa bow of his head.
TUELLER: “Though that didn’t work out so well the last time.”
TUELLER: “Let’s go figure out who we are.”
Chapter 68
STORY: “You see that?”
STORY: Calixta points at the screen.
MILLICENT: “It’s a bathroom.”
STORY: “Jump relays aren’t crewed.”
STORY: “What’s a bathroom doing inside one?”
MILLICENT: “It’s kind of a nice bathroom.”
MILLICENT: “What’s living on the jump relays?”
Chapter 67
STORY: You watch dozens of employees converge on the cargo bay, taking up positions around the Augusta King, some armed, some just there to see what they can offer.
STORY: They don’t see you, since you’re on the other side of an air vent, but you’re about 20 meters from the ramp into the belly of Chandra’s ship. It’ll be a quick and dangerous run.
STORY: And as you wait for whatever distraction Calixta’s arranging, you realize you’re not likely to all make it out of this. Tueller, you assume, is onboard. But three people running through a firing squad?
STORY: Your luck is going to run out.
MILLICENT: Millie reaches her hand out, still staring out at the troops.
ALEJO: Alejo gets them both into place, ready to make the run when that distraction comes. “Doc, when the moment comes, you run. You run and don’t look back, alright. That’s a gods damned order. You have to make it. I can’t do this without you. You can without me.” He takes her hand.
MILLICENT: Millie stifles a laugh. “Yes, captain.”
MILLICENT: “Mr. Soto?”
ALEJO: He smiles and shakes his head. “Cap to you.”
ALEJO: He squeezes her hand. And then gets serious again.
MILLICENT: “Cap. I’m so very glad you chose my ship to steal.”
Chapter 66
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 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.”