What was it Diesel had said? That a woman approached him with an offer he couldn't resist. Pallas was many things. A woman he was not.
She couldn’t see him working with one to set up the Vega either. For something as sensitive as that, he would have wanted to be hands on. Like he was with the moon.
Kira studied Thea. "Why aren't you angry? I'm furious—and I'm an outsider."
Thea was one of the forty three. There should have been some sign she felt betrayed. Rage and hurt that someone she trusted had broken her faith so thoroughly. Not this cheerfulness. Like this was a game where the stakes didn’t really matter.
"Pallas—did you betray the Vega's position to the Tsavitee?" Kira asked.
Pallas spat on the ground. "No, I didn't."
Thea lowered her weapon, her expression affable. As if she didn't understand—or maybe care was the better word—what Kira was insinuating. "He killed your friends. Are you really going to believe a thing he says?"
"He never denied his role in their deaths."
If he was willing to admit to that, knowing how Kira would react, why deny the rest?
Elena poked her head over the wire cradle she was hiding behind. "Auntie, Thea is the name of the person mother entrusted me to. She was supposed to bring me to you if anything were to happen to her."
Rage slammed through Kira as she looked at her former sibling. "You fucking bitch."
Thea was responsible for everything.
Behind Thea, Pallas gave her a tiny signal. On three.
Kira's expression was fierce as she stared Thea down, not daring to look away from her for an instant.
Thea dropped her head, her shoulders starting to shake.
It took Kira a moment to realize she was laughing.
"You always were so smart," Thea said, wiping the tears from her eyes with one hand.
"I'm going to kill you," Kira informed her.
Her primus hammered at her psyche, begging for release. Kira resisted. Elena was too close to allow it out.
The amusement dropped from Thea's face. "I doubt that."
An explosion from the wall behind Pallas threw him forward. He hit the ground hard, the walkway above crashing down to pin him underneath.
Thea tossed a couple of marbles in the air. "Got to love sticky charges. The ability to delay their boom is just so fun."
Kira started forward.
Thea plucked a rifle out of thin air and pointed it at her. "Ah. Ah. Let's not be impetuous."
Kira stopped, eyeing the weapon uncertainly. It was a Sinister 3421. Developed since the last war for the purpose of taking off a demon's head.
That must have been what she used on Pallas earlier. If not for his Tuann armor protecting him to some extent, he probably would have been dead.
Kira wouldn’t be so lucky. Her Centcom issued suit might deflect some of the weapon's charge, but she didn't want to risk it with Elena behind her.
If she went down, Elena would be on her own.
"Good choice. If you tried something, I was planning to set off the charges I placed beside your niece."
Kira looked over to find four holes in the restraining device Elena crouched behind. That must be how she'd gotten Pallas too. By using the rifle’s bullets to attach the charges. All she would have needed to do was put them in a few of the bullets and then fire them where she wanted.
