Hold Fast Through the Fire Read online

  “It’s all right,” he said, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  “It’s really not all right.”

  Nika pressed his cheek to the top of her head. “Max, I don’t know what I want, either, as far as my career goes. I enjoyed working with Stephan, but the chance to be out there again is—”

  “Nika! Did you make Max cry? We are supposed to be celebrating.”

  Great timing, Jenks.

  Nika let go of Max and turned, surprised by the fury on his sister’s face as Max covered her eyes with a hand.

  “Jenks, not now,” Nika pleaded.

  “Damn right, now,” she said.

  He groaned and looked at Luis and Tivo standing behind his sister like a pair of hulking sentinels. “You two want to do something about this?” He was referring to his sister, but they didn’t take it that way.

  “Depends. Did you make Max cry?”

  It was an interesting thing to see the frown on the Navy lieutenant’s face and the slight narrowing of his eyes. Luis he could understand, but when had Parsikov become protective of Max?

  When your sister did, idiot. Because Jenks has the gravitational pull of a black hole and everyone ends up in her orbit.

  Maybe that’s why he ended up with that shiner.

  Nika could see it clear as daylight now. It was like Tivo to try to take it easy on Max in the cage—consciously or not—and end up with a fist in the face for his mistake.

  Stephan’s lessons have rubbed off on me.

  Max peeked out from between her fingers. “Oh my god. He didn’t, Tiv. I’m fine.”

  “All right.” Tivo winked at Max, grabbed Jenks around the waist, and tossed her over his shoulder.

  “But Max—”

  “She’s fine,” Tivo said, and then her further shouts of protest were lost to the noise of the crowd. Luis gave Nika a nod and then followed the pair.

  “Max.” Nika brushed his fingers over the back of her hand and she reluctantly dropped it into her lap. “You want to go outside?” he asked. “Get some air?”

  They somehow slipped out of Drinking Games without being accosted by dozens of well-wishers, though Max found herself caught between hoping and fearing someone would delay their path out into the cool night air. It had been bad enough in public, but to discuss this in private . . . it might be too much.

  And yet, she let him pull her along.

  Nika had taken her right hand with his left—his real hand. She hated that description, tried so hard not to use it, but she also noticed that he didn’t touch her much with his right.

  She’d barely been able to tell the difference when he was cupping her face. The skin on the prosthetic had been slightly cooler, but it had flexed in time with the left.

  Be honest, Max, your thoughts weren’t exactly focused on assessing the differences anyway.

  That was the truth. She’d been too wound up, was still wound up as they walked along the mostly deserted streets of the Games village.

  She’d fucked this up.

  You always do this. Try too hard and push people away. When are you ever going to learn? Her father’s voice in her head stung.

  “Get out of your head, Max.”

  The order from Nika was gentle, accompanied by a tug of her hand, and she looked at him. He was pointing across the street, one blond eyebrow raised in question.

  She nodded and followed him across to the park. “You’re good at this,” she said as they settled onto a bench, picking up a stray reddish leaf and spinning it between her fingers. “Dealing with me, that is.”

  “Max, I don’t ‘deal’ with you. I—”

  “Let me say this? Before I lose my nerve?” She could only hold his gaze for a moment before looking back at the leaf. “I spent the first part of my life being told what to do, what to think, how to act. My father, my mother, they—my input was not requested, and on the rare occasion I got up the courage to offer it, it was dismissed. That was the price of being a Carmichael.”

  It was surprisingly easy to say that now. To acknowledge who she was and where she’d come from. The Carmichaels were one of the most powerful families in existence, thanks in part to their control of LifeEx, the essential life-extending drug that provided humanity with protection as they explored the stars, but also because of their long-standing history of service to the Coalition of Human Nations government and the Navy.

  A history Max had walked away from to go into the NeoG.

  Nika nodded but stayed silent. She appreciated that from him. How he knew she was taking the long way around back to the conversation they’d left in the bar. He didn’t push. Didn’t tell her to get to the point.

  Perhaps because of this, Max let herself lean into him, resting her head on his shoulder as she tried to untangle her own messy thoughts. “I don’t trust easily, you know that.”

  “You seem to trust my sister well enough.”

  His tone was filled with humor and she laughed. “Jenks is pure. Oh god, do not tell her I said that.”

  It was Nika’s turn to laugh, and Max buried her face into his chest for a moment.

  “You know what I mean, though,” she said. “Jenks doesn’t pretend. She tells you if you fuck up. She tells you when you do things right. It’s easy.”

  “I get that. You don’t trust me?”

  “I don’t know you.”

  “Okay.”

  Max sat up and rubbed at her face. She was doing this wrong—again. The hurt Nika was trying to hide had bled through his words. “Emails and vid-coms aren’t the same as real life, right? Rosa and I spent two years working together; I don’t even think of her as Commander Martín, she’s my friend. I am hoping it will be that way with you, too, even though—” She sighed. “I know that’s not how this is supposed to work, and—”

  “Max, is that you talking, or your parents?”

  It was such a simple question, but it hit right at the heart of what she was feeling, like one of Jenks’s side thrusts, and it stole Max’s breath in much the same way. “I don’t know,” she said. Nika waited patiently for an answer while she floundered.

  He’d been doing that—just listening to her—for over a year. Letting her find her feet, be herself. Always supportive and there for her. She was reasonably sure it wasn’t the case with Nika, but in her old life, patience and kindness had always meant the other person was expecting something in return.

  “I’m not being patient and kind because I’m expecting something from you. I do it because I care about you.”

  His slightly sharp reply made her realize she’d said that last thought out loud, and Max forced her eyes away from the leaf to look at him.

  “I know. Or, at least, I know I should know that. I also know I’ve mangled this. I should have trusted you not to be the same as my parents and to actually be interested in my opinion. I don’t know why I thought not talking to you at all would somehow make it easier. I’m sorry.”

  “Max.” He smiled and slid his hand over her back, pulling her closer to his side. “I don’t need an apology here. I just want to know what’s going on in your head.”

  “I want to know what you want, Nika.”

  She could tell the response shocked him, and she continued before he could interrupt. “You have really enjoyed working with Intel. That’s been clear enough from your letters and when you talk about it. I don’t want you coming back to the Interceptors just because you think it would make me happy. Does that make sense?”

  “It does. And you’re not wrong. I have enjoyed being attached to Intel, I just—as strange as it may sound, I miss being out there with all of you. I want to make this work. And I think we can, Max. If you want to try, I’m game. If you don’t, I can either stay here or we can just be friends.”

  She felt her heart constrict, a quick beat of relief for a fear she hadn’t even fully realized. This past year had meant a lot to her on so many levels, but the loss of this unexpected joy in her life would have hurt. It was,
in the end, a surprisingly easy decision to make.

  “Talk to Hoboins. You have a place with the Interceptors, Nika. You belong with us out in the black. I value you and I don’t want to run just because that’s what I’ve done in the past. I want to at least try,” she said. That, she could say to him. “Just promise me we’ll stay friends no matter what?”

  “I promise.” He leaned in, pressing his forehead to hers.

  Max smiled back, hoping Nika didn’t see the worry she couldn’t quite seem to banish from the shadows. The worry that promises in her world were something so rarely kept, and all too often broken.

  Interstitial

  TLF Denies Responsibility for Attack on BlackLake CIF

  Trappist Associated Press

  By Ittica Houston

  The Trappist Liberation Front denied responsibility on Monday for an attack on the Near-Earth Orbital Guard Container Inspection Facility at BlackLake that occurred over the weekend. TLF leadership, speaking via an encrypted uplink, refuted any involvement in the attack, which injured four NeoG crewmembers and six civilians, and reiterated their position that they are committed to a peaceful settlement concerning the disputes over missing habitat supplies. Read More

  NeoG to Deploy New Task Force in Joint CHNN Operation

  Press Release

  Near-Earth Orbital Guard HQ

  The Near-Earth Orbital Guard is deploying four Interceptor crews as part of a new joint task force to ensure safer trade routes around the Trappist and Jupiter Station junctions. Commander D’Arcy Montaglione will be in command of the NeoG force. Montaglione, a twenty-four-year veteran, will work with several Navy vessels in the area to combat the increase in smuggling activity over the last few years. Read More

  Two

  Luis woke to the insistent ping of his DD chip and lay for a moment in the darkness of his bedroom in London before he carefully eased away from Jenks and out of the bed. She was, thankfully, curled up against Tivo, so it wasn’t as difficult as it could have been.

  He slipped from the room, snagging his stuff from the trail of clothes that littered the hall, finding his way by feel in the dim moonlight filtering through the curtains.

  “Where are you going?” Tivo’s quiet question slid out of the shadows and Luis glanced over his shoulder to see him carefully close the door to the bedroom.

  “Someone tripped the dead drop.”

  “Were we expecting something?”

  “No, and the signal is weird. I need to go check it.”

  Tivo frowned. “You need backup to do that.”

  “I’ll be fine.” Luis tipped his head at the doorway as he took a nondescript black hoodie from the hall closet. “If Dai wakes up and we’re both gone, there will be a lot of questions we don’t want to answer. Stay here and tell her I went for breakfast if she does wake up.”

  “She sleeps like a rock after the Games, you know that.” Tivo crossed to him, his black hair disheveled from sleep. “If something happens to you, then I’m going to be the one left answering questions.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Asshole.”

  “Coward.” Luis grinned. “Go back to bed. I won’t be long.”

  “We’re going to have to tell her about this soon.” Tivo snorted a soft laugh at Luis’s grimace, then grabbed him by the back of the head and kissed him. “Now who’s a coward? Be careful.”

  “I will.” Luis left the apartment, tugging the hood up over his hair, and headed down the stairs.

  The London streets were empty save for a few scattered souls in the early morning hours. Luis ducked around the back of the corner grocery and climbed the fire escape, crossing the short distance to the drop over the network of green roofs dotted with gardens and chicken coops.

  He stayed low as he reached the edge of the last rooftop, the grass muffling his footsteps, and spotted the body lying just a few meters away from the ransacked drop, partially obscured by the bushes in the park. A curse lodged itself in his throat.

  He pulled up the encrypted Intel channel as he scanned the area for any sign that the assailants were hiding in the shadows.

  Luis: Stephan, we’ve got a body at drop 43.

  Stephan: ID?

  Luis: Checking now.

  Stephan: I’m on my way.

  Luis lowered himself to the street and slid around the corner of the building. He didn’t waste time castigating himself for not bringing a weapon—Stephan and Tivo would do it once they found out.

  The streetlight between the building and the park was out and Luis used the same shadows the killers had to slip across the street and into the cover of the bushes.

  He crouched, reaching a hand out to the man’s neck. The weak pulse was a surprise, but even more so was the fact that the man managed to roll over. “Luis,” he gasped.

  “Fuck, Marty, just hang on.” He pressed both hands to the dark sheen on the man’s chest.

  “They know about Carmichael. That she brought you information, that she’s willing to testify.”

  “How?”

  “No clue. You’ve got a leak in your op, man. Sort of like this hole in my chest.” Marty coughed and spit blood onto the ground past Luis. “I’m—”

  “Marty. Fuck.” Luis started CPR, knowing it was a futile effort, but he didn’t stop until Stephan showed up and pulled him off the dead man.

  “Morning, Admiral.”

  Admiral Chen looked up from her desk with a smile. “Morning, Stephan, come in.” The head of the NeoG waved him into her office. “You saw the news?”

  “Yes.” He nodded as he sat. “Hell of a way to wrap up the Boarding Games win.”

  “Do you think the TLF is lying?”

  “I don’t think it’s that simple, ma’am,” Stephan replied. “The TLF is more cohesive than the last few groups wanting Trappist independence, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t outliers who’d act on their own against their leadership’s wishes. What I do know is I don’t like the fact that Free Mars is making noises again and now we’re also having to deal with this.”

  “I see. Do you think it’s our target causing the problems?”

  “On Mars and Trappist?” Stephan shook his head. “No, ma’am, no sign they’ve been operating back on Mars—Grant would get busted the second he landed there. And Trappist would be a bad idea, that’s too much press for them. Shipments vanish before they hit the soil on Trappist, not out of our facilities. Not after the last incident. But if you’re asking if I think this is a result of what they’ve been up to for the last several years? Then yes.”

  Admiral Chen heaved a sigh. “I was afraid you were going to say that, Commander. I spoke to Commander Montaglione this morning and he’s not particularly happy about having to go public with his past. But he agrees it will help answer the questions flying around. You stick with the cover story of smugglers, though—if we do have a leak, I don’t want Tieg to know we’re closing in or how close we are to sorting out this Trappist situation into something everyone can live with. After that we’ll deal with Mars.”

  “I hope you have a better plan for that than last time.”

  “We’ll come up with something. The alternative is a war, and I won’t have that.”

  “I understand. And Spacer Chae, their fathers?”

  “Spacer Chae is going to Zuma. As is Nika Vagin, from what I hear. After what happened last night I’m admittedly relieved.”

  “Do you really think Tieg would allow Grant to go after a sitting senator?”

  Chen made an uncertain noise. “Maybe not. But they may try to get her to recant her testimony. The family has the resources, so Senator Carmichael will have more protection than normal.”

  Stephan hated the sudden unease that gripped him. “But they might go after Max in retaliation instead?”

  “Maybe. I think they’re setting themselves up to do just that if need be. What I’m also thinking is between Chae and this new development, we’re going to have to bring Nika in on the operation. I won’t b
urden D’Arcy with this on top of what I’ve already asked of him, but I need eyes on the Interceptors, especially if things keep heating up with the habitats.”

  The admiral’s dark green eyes unfocused for a moment as she mulled over the problem. “Let Tieg think he’s got leverage in the NeoG and with the TLF—it will make that cocky bastard sloppy. I trust you to mitigate the potential damage, Stephan.” She shook her head at his carefully blank look. “I know it’s harsh, but short of putting all three of them into a safe house, there’s little we can do; and if they’re out of play, Tieg will just find someone we don’t know about.”

  “The devil you know is still a devil, ma’am.”

  Admiral Chen smiled a second time. “Not in this case.”

  “No?”

  “I think we’ve got one very scared kid with the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and a pair of men who’ll do anything to keep their child safe. But they came to us when they didn’t have to, and I won’t forget that gesture. I want to help Trappist if we can. They should be getting support from the CHN and we’ve dropped the ball hard on this. With all that in mind, I want you to tell Nika about Chae so he can keep an eye on them.”

  “How much do you want me to tell him?”

  “Read him all the way in. He can’t tell the others, but at least having him up to speed will help if things go sideways.”

  Stephan held in the curse, but judging from the raised eyebrow she knew he was thinking it. “All right,” he said, because it was the only thing he could say. “I’ll figure something out.”

  “You always do. Keep me in the loop, Commander.”

  “I always do that, too, ma’am.”

  “Even after I say no to you,” Nika said to Stephan later that day as he settled into a chair in Stephan’s office, “you get your way after all.”

  The Intel commander grinned and spread his hands wide. “Working in Intelligence isn’t just about getting info. It’s about being smarter than everyone else. I feel like you should have realized that by now.”