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 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 31
MILLICENT: “Good evening, Mr. ’Ndrangheta. It’s polite to wait for an invitation to sit.”
STORY: He looks down at the menu, scanning it in a sort of general way. “I wonder if Tueller explained to you why he’s my nemesis and not just another man that I’ve killed.”
STORY: He reviews the wine list on the back, scoffing. “If I were to publicly confront him, that would make things complicated for my family. And if I were to kill him, well, that would make things complicated for his family, which, in turn, makes things complicated for my family. So we circle each other, swatting now and then, both daring the other to finally cross the line.”
STORY: He puts the menu down, making clean eye contact with you. “You, however, my dear, are not afforded the same protection.”
Chapter 30
MILLICENT: “The next time we lose a member of this crew you will put aside your personal feelings and make an announcement. The same goes, but less so, for significant assets like ships and technology.”
STORY: Kahn laughs. “Next time.”
STORY: “Because there’ll always be a next time.”
TUELLER: “We’re a crew. Not slaves. Free to come and go.”
ALEJO: He spins to Millie. “She just left!” Then he turns to Kahn. “Yeah, okay. Enough of your shit. You know it’s a lot more complicated than that I strung her along.”
STORY: “Pretty simple from here.”
TUELLER: “Gotta shit or get off the pot, man.”
ALEJO: “That from the man who clearly understands romance and love.”
STORY: “Go fuck yourself, captain.”
MILLICENT: Millie blows a whistle that she’s wearing. “Stop this childish backbiting immediately. This is a crew meeting. You may discuss your relationship problems in private.
TUELLER: “I can’t see, was that aimed at me?”
MILLICENT: Millie blows the whistle again.
TUELLER: “Seems like it could have been aimed at me.”
Chapter 29
MILLICENT: “I think friends talk about these sorts of things and I would very much like to think we were friends.”
TUELLER: Tueller is silent. Not dismissive. But silently thinking.
TUELLER: “We are friends. Millie. I don’t want you to think what we’re not.”
TUELLER: Another pause.
TUELLER: “But I don’t know who I am or what I can say right now even to myself, much less to my friends.”
ALEJO: “And I’m sorry, Jac. I’m probably just being a fool, as always.”
STORY: “And this is what you always do.”
ALEJO: “Jinx.”
STORY: “Jump to the new thing. Ignore the old one.”
STORY: “What are you running from? We’re free. We got free. You can stop running.”
ALEJO: He looks at her for a long moment. “When’d you get so damned wise?”
STORY: “I do a lot of listening.”
ALEJO: “Maybe I should be listening more to you.” He leans forward. “You’re not wrong.”
STORY: “Not right enough, though.” She leans back and looks away, frustrated.
Chapter 28
MILLICENT: “So, on the one hand the grell have the capacity to turn a large part of the galaxy into the third act of a horror movie. On the other hand the nahar have imprisoned an entire sentient race, used them to develop their technology, and literally eat them.”
STORY: Zura and Vorlou look at each other, the first time this has happened since you entered the room. They both nod. Vorlou: “More or less, yes.”
MILLICENT: Millie looks to Tueller. “I just want to be clear that solving a moral dilemma of two entire races isn’t what I had in mind when I proposed this job.”
MILLICENT: “This is outside of the scope of our original task and I intend to invoice accordingly.”
Chapter 27
TUELLER: Tueller rolls around and punches it hard, holding onto spines like it’s a pommel and pummeling it as he goes.
TUELLER: He snaps off a spine and stabs it into the neck of the lusus and drives it deep.
STORY: Tueller basically rides this creature as it flails around the room, punching it with unnatural force in the spine until he stabs it and it stops bucking him and settles, dead, on the ground.
TUELLER: Punching it with his glove into the general region of the brain.
STORY: You’re surrounded by dead fish.
STORY: Tux stands. “Shit! That was amazing!”
ALEJO: Alejo sort of just collapses to the floor, in a half sit, half just faint. “Well damn. That actually worked.”
STORY: Jac taps on Tux’s console. “You got an alarm there.”
Chapter 26, Part I
TUELLER: “Can you guys…not tell Loll? This is…going to complicate things.”
STORY: Kahn mimes turning a key in front of his mouth.
TUELLER: “I really do like cows, though. That you can talk about.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods, “Is it the number of stomachs?”
MILLICENT: “I’ve always found the number of stomachs to be remarkable.”
STORY: Kahn shakes his head and starts walking.
TUELLER: “Yes. It’s the number of stomachs. That’s definitely it.”
STORY: He may be laughing at his captain.
MILLICENT: “Four.”
Chapter 25
MILLICENT: Millie puts a foot on the rail, using Tueller for some slight leverage
MILLICENT: “1”
TUELLER: Tueller looks at Millie, and then down.
ALEJO: “2?” Alejo adds, still confused. “We really doing this?” He half whispers.
TUELLER: “3!”
TUELLER: Tueller grabs everyone and drags them over the side of the roof.
ALEJO: “Guess so!”
STORY: For a few seconds it’s like flying. Then your stomach drops and so does the world, the ground coming at you impossibly fast.
Chapter 24
TUELLER: Tueller, fairly low: “Come on out. Safe now.”
STORY: There’s a hesitant voice from inside the cabinets.
STORY: “…No.”
MILLICENT: “How can we convince you we’re not the psionic nightmare beings?”
TUELLER: “No. Not really safe. Not yet.”
TUELLER: “But getting there.”
MILLICENT: “Do you know where we might find Vorlou?”
STORY: “…No?”
ALEJO: “Seriously, come out of the cabinets. You’re safer with us than in there.”
STORY: There’s an even longer pause.
STORY: “Is that fuckin Soto?”
TUELLER: Tueller barks laughter.