But now they’d done what no human should ever do; what no human could ever come back from.
They’d stolen someone’sfreedom.
“Karr, look at me.”
Karr flinched. He’d forgotten Cade was there.
Again, a wave of sickness washed over him. He swallowed the bile away, and said, “I thought I told you to go and stick your head further up Geisinger’s ass. It’s in there so deep, I’m surprised you can see the light of day.”
Cade’s outline was blurry in his peripherals as he joined his side. He was wearing his captain’s S2, the black set him apart from the crimson suits of the crew. He crossed his arms over the railing and stared out across the horizon.
Out.
Never down—at what he’d done.
“Why, Cade?” Karr asked. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’ve told you a thousand times.” Cade’s voice was heavy. “The outcome is worth more than the risk. When the job is done, and itwill be done...”
“What about them?” Karr cut him off.
“They’ll be freed. It will all have been fortruegain, and not simply ours. They’re aiding the galaxy in something that will truly change things for the better. The eradication of the Reaper, Karr. Gone forgood.Earth will be liveable again. A planet ten times this size.”
“And the ones that died in the attack?” Karr asked.
Cade faced him fully. His eyes were dark, the shadows beneath them even darker. “How many times must I remind you thatyouwere among those dead? They struck first.”
“I’m notdead!”Karr screamed. His blood pulsed in his ears. His body shook with the need todo something,but what could he do? How could he do anything that would undothis?“So what if they struck? You defend your own, and then you get the hell away! You don’t turn it into this. You don’t start a…” His words trailed off as nausea tugged at his insides. “You don’t start a bloodywar camp,Cade.”
He turned away and stared out at the Bloodhorns, trying to pick patterns out of the strange swirls of rock. But everything had blurred together.
It didn’t make any sense. Cade had always beengoodat his core, despite his unlawful activities… but everything he’d ever done was for their survival. For the good of their family. Hell, when they were younger, he was Karr’s hero.
Now he’d changed sides.
“You took a job for a man who doesn’t care about anyone but himself,” Karr said. “His own gain.”
“Geisinger isgood.”
“Money doesn’t make a man good. Oftentimes it has the opposite effect.”
Cade threw his hands in the air. “Says the looter who’s spent his whole life wishing for a mountain full of riches!”
Karr’s hands curled into fists. “That’s not the same. We work for our money so we can survive.”
“And that’s exactly why I took this damned job!” Cade growled. “Because I promised you, just as I promisedthem.”
In his mind, Karr saw their parents’ death plaques, stuck in the wall alongside millions of others.I’ll take care of him,Cade had said, long ago, when they were mere boys visiting from their orphanage. Before Jeb had come to collect them.I promise, I’ll take care of Karr.
He always had.
But not like this.
“They would be ashamed of you,” Karr spat. He wanted Cade to feel his pain, to feel the truth of what he’d done. “They would be horrified to call you their son.”
Cade’s face changed at that statement.
“You didn’t know them,” Cade said through gritted teeth. “Not like I did. Don’t pretend as if you ever did.”
