“A giant?”
“Beckett looking happy.”
He shrugs in a live-and-let-live way.
Finally, the man puts her down and pats her cheek—and she doesn’t even try to bite his hand off. Surreal.
“It’s so good to see you again, Vix!” Beckett says.
Then he turns to Max and me with a frown. “Weapons,” he growls.
“I’m good, thank you.” I pat the laser pistol at my side. I know exactly what he means, but I don’t like handing her over to anyone.
“Weapons,” he says again.
“And here I was hoping for a hug.”
His eyes narrow in warning.
“I trust him, Ian. Give him the gun,” Beckett says. Then she grins. “I promise I’ll protect you.”
“Shit,” I mutter. But I give in to the inevitable and unstrap the holster from my waist. As I hand it over, I see Max is doing the same.
“And the rest,” the big guy orders.
I scowl but pull the knife from under my jacket and slam it on the table. He raises an eyebrow—what is this guy, a mind reader? I bend down and pull the blade from my left boot and, without waiting for another request, the last one from the small of my back. I feel naked.
“Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he says.
“Fucking near impossible,” I reply.
He goes back to the door and taps three times. A few seconds later, it opens, and Beckett’s mom walks in. I know it’s her because there’s a really strong family resemblance. So strong that they look more like sisters than mother and daughter—though her mom definitely looks healthier than Beckett does. She’s medium height, with olive skin, curly black hair pulled into a ponytail, and those distinctive yellow eyes you only ever see from Permunians. She’s wearing khaki pants tucked into long boots and a matching shirt covered by a long leather duster. It’s open, and I can see the laser pistol strapped to her waist and the knife at her thigh.
I’m betting she’s also got even more hidden weapons on her person than I usually do.
Overall, she’s beautiful, but she also looks as tough as shit—it’s easy to see where Beckett gets it. I can’t read anything in her eyes, which I don’t like. But her expression softens a little bit as she looks at Beckett.
“My daughter.” She presses a hand to Beckett’s cheek. “I thought you were dead.”
Beckett grins. “Pretty sure I was at one point or another.”
“I told you that fucking job was too dangerous. But did you listen?”
“No, Mom.”
“Calculated risk, always. That’s what I taught you. You won’t forget next time, will you?”
Beckett shakes her head.
Only then does her mother turn to us. “I’m Marlina Orsgood, and I believe I have you to thank for saving my daughter’s life.”
I shrug. “While I’d like to take credit, I’m pretty sure she saved herself. You could say she just hitched a ride with us.”
“Either way, you have my gratitude.”
“That’s good to know.”
A cagey smile flickers across her face. “Why don’t we sit down, and you can tell me just exactly how you’d like me to express that gratitude.”
Well, this is going well so far. Maybe too well.
“Miserable bastard.” The words echo in my head, but I don’t respond. I need to keep my wits about me and concentrate on the matter at hand. This is our best chance of getting Milla out. Plus, there’s the fact that if this meeting doesn’t go our way, I have a distinct suspicion that we won’t get out of this room alive. So, I do what I’m told and sit. Marlina sits across from me with Beckett beside her while Max takes the chair next to me.
The big guy produces a bottle and four glasses, placing them on the table between us before going to stand by the door, arms folded across his chest.
Marlina pours us all a hefty slug of what I’m guessing is blazketty and then raises her glass. “Death to the Empire,” she murmurs with a challenge in her voice.
“Freedom for the people,” I respond with the second half of the rebel’s toast. I’ve heard it enough on my travels to know when to pull it out. I raise my glass and swallow the shot down in one gulp.
“Okay,” Marlina says. “Talk.”
I’d expected her to have a catch-up chat with Beckett first, but clearly she’s all business.
I hadn’t decided how to broach this—I wanted to meet the woman first. But I’m guessing she’s the sort of person who doesn’t like idle chitchat, so I get straight to the point.
“I need to get someone out of Delta V47. We need weapons to do it, plus Beckett thinks you might be willing to provide a…distraction to help us out.”
“Now why would I do that?”
I smile. “Gratitude.”
“Much as I love my daughter, I’m not sure I’m that grateful. After all, she did just ‘hitch a ride.’ And the Corporation keeps the buildings out there heavily guarded. No one enters the Wilds without a really good reason.” She takes a sip of her drink. “What else is in it for me?”
“A blow to the Corporation is a blow to the Empire,” Max says.
“There is that. And…？”
“You’re welcome to anything that we find there.”
She thinks for a moment. “No one knows what’s in those buildings. It could be nothing.”
“Heavily guarded nothing,” I remind her.
She doesn’t look impressed, so I bring out the last weapon in my arsenal. “My intel tells me that its payroll is six days from now. We could coincide with that. You could snatch it going in.”
She’s starting to look interested.
“Tell me about the prisoners,” she says. “My daughter filled me in a little bit the other night, but I want to hear more.”
“Ian and Max’s…sister”—Beckett sends us an apologetic look—“was on one of the shipments out here. That’s who they’re trying to get out. And it occurred to me that maybe…” She swallows. “That maybe Jarved was there before me. We’ve both seen how he just disappeared from the prison records. And we could never find any evidence of his execution, however many people we bribed.”
Her mother has gone completely still. “You say this, but it’s impossible. Your brother is dead.” She pauses, and we all wait. “Part of me doesn’t want to believe it,” she admits. “Doesn’t want to think that he could have been there. Suffering all these years. I’d killed him off in my heart, and it nearly broke me. But I’m not sure this isn’t worse. Fuck, we let him down. Gave up on him.”
“And we can’t do it again,” Beckett says, her voice fierce. “What if he is still alive? I know it’s a slim chance. But we can’t ignore it. At the very least, we might finally discover what happened to him.”
Marlina sinks back into her chair. She refills her glass with blazketty and sips it in silence. I’m itching to say something.
“Don’t,” Max says in my head, and I clamp my lips closed. “Marlina needs to think it through.”