“Oh, my god,” Ariceli said.
Next to me, Rosita stiffened. She clutched onto my arm.
We still had no idea what had happened to Rosita’s little nieces. They didn’t appear to be in any of the groups we’d found so far. Nobody we’d spoken with remembered seeing them at all that night when it all started, and every day she’d been losing hope of finding out what had happened. The terrible truth was that they were likely somewhere in that pile of dead bodies in Burnt Ends.
Still, Rosita had been clutching onto hope. We all had.
But if these assholes knew whereeveryonehiding was and they were now eliminating them one by one, where could that hope possibly go?
Opel continued. “The last thing is of no consequence to me, but the client is requesting it, so whaddya gonna do? Apparently, the Republic is all in a tizzy about the Traducible system you’re using to control your defense, so we’ll have to give that up. Before, you claimed you didn’t know what that is. In case you weren’t being deliberately obstinate, I mean the hive queen unit you’re using to run the colony bots. Now, before you protest, I know you’re probably using it to coordinate your defense, and I hear you. But destroying that thing is nonnegotiable. So you have a choice. You give the queen bot to me now, or you can keep it, but we’ll have to do a little bit of nuclear cleansing when the fight tomorrow is over. What’s your pleasure?”
I felt as if I’d been slapped.
“Oh, shit, what do we do?” Lulu asked.
“We can’t give up Roger,” I said.
“They’re going to nuke us now?” Axel asked. He had his hands on his head, pacing back and forth.
“Lulu,” Roger said, “I am going to feed you a script. Please follow it.”
Lulu reached down and pressed the button. “I…I don’t know,” she said. “Do you really have a nuclear bomb?”
Opel’s eyebrow rose. “Would you like me to show it to you?”
Her voice shook as she read Roger’s lines. “Extreme threats require extreme evidence. We know the Republic doesn’t allow mercenaries to carry nukes, and we also know they’ve forbidden the use of nuclear bombs on alien worlds.”
He nodded. “Ah, excellent point, Cindy. Actually, you are correct.” He clicked a few buttons, and his own screen appeared. It showed the exterior of the massive Apex factory in the sky where the mechs were printed and stored. It zoomed in on a smaller ship on the side.
“What you’re looking at is what we’ve affectionately called a Moderator. But if you look closely, you’ll see what they really are. I call them babysitters. They are used to keep an eye on us filthy mercenaries.”
The markings on the side of the Moderator ships—the same pilotless ships that would swoop down and blow up the battlefields post-battle—all had RN markings. Republic navy.
I got the implication. The mercenariesdidn’thave nukes. The Moderators did. They weren’t under the control of Apex. They were under the control of the Republic navy.
“As to your second point, that nukes aren’t allowed on alien worlds, let me tell you something, poor, naïve Cindy. I can’t tell you more, but let’s just say I have firsthand knowledge that you are incorrect.”
That unraveling feeling was coming again.
Lulu looked sharply up at Roger’s next message.
“No, Roger. I am absolutely not saying that.”
“It is okay, Lulu. I was expecting this, and it is part of the plan.”
She looked at me. “He wants to give himself up.”
I started to protest, but Roger made an angry beep. “There is no time to explain. Please read the script.”
Lulu growled and then pressed the speak button. “Okay,” she finally said. “We’ll give you the hive queen unit, but we can’t until morning. It’s in the middle of setting a trap right now. It’ll give us time to set up a secondary, auto-defense AI system.”
Opel leaned back and steepled his fingers.
“Very well,” he said after a moment. “Send the unit to wherever this communication tablet is sitting, and we’ll take care of the rest. And don’t try to trick us. We can tell what’s what. But don’t use the auto-defense AI. That system is crap. Try Bear Trap from our sister company, Summit Explorer Works, if you got it. Better reaction time. Actually, do let me send you guys a trial copy of the software. I’m quite curious to see how it interacts with your existing defenses.”
“It’s not necessary,” Lulu said. “We already have the program. We’ll send the hive queen to you in the morning.”
“Excellent,” Opel said. “Don’t fuck me on this. You won’t like how I might be forced to respond. Listen, Cindy. I know this hasn’t been pleasant for you. I acknowledge that. For what it’s worth, I honestly don’t know why the client chose your planet. I just point the sword where the client tells me to point it. If you do manage to survive and get off planet, look me up, will you? We can do dinner.”
