I asked the only question that seemed important to me right now. “Did you infect children to draw me here?”
He didn’t even flinch. “No, but I made sure no one came to help. I knew you’d do that yourself.”
“How?” I didn’t bother telling him that there had been deaths. He wouldn’t care.
“Because you came back onto my radar for stealing what you thought were cure-all vaccines. That tells me public health means something to you, and you grew up here…” He shrugged, trailing off.
“Public health should mean something to you! To anyone!” I spat.
“I think I’m beyond that.” He sounded toneless. Dead.
What an asshole.
“Put your hands behind your back where I can cuff them,” he ordered. “Then turn into the wall and kneel.”
Mareeka hadn’t said anything about the security cameras coming back online yet. No one was seeing this and would come to my rescue. If Bridgebane had arrived in a discreet, small cruiser, there was a good chance no one even knew he was here. There were guards around, as usual, but they couldn’t have eyes everywhere without the cameras. And with the sickness on Starway 8, the sentinels may have been fewer and less vigilant, thinking no one would want to come anywhere near the orphanage now anyway.
I slowly lowered my hands behind me, but I didn’t turn. I drew the Grayhawk as fast as I could, cocking it as I leveled it at him.
He left his gun up, too. “And now we’re at an impasse.”
The problem was, he didn’t sound like he meant it.
I tensed a split second before I felt the barrel of a gun press against my back, right between my shoulder blades.
“Easy does it, starshine.”
Shade. My whole body clenched.
“Impeccable timing, as usual.” My uncle’s eyes flicked over my shoulder. “Although I’ll have to decide if this technically counts as you bringing her in.”
“Lay down your gun and do as the man says,” Shade told me.
That sedative obviously hadn’t knocked him out for long. Not long enough, anyway. “Fuck you, Ganavan.”
“I think we already cov—”
“Shut up!” I snapped.
He did, thank the Powers.
I kept Bridgebane on the other end of my pointed gun. They would have to wrestle the Grayhawk from me.
“How did you even know I lived?” I asked.
“I had no idea what happened to you after you left Starway 8 for good. Not until you announced yourself in Sector 14 after your little heist.”
Little heist?“So, I guess you didn’t know about my fun stint on Hourglass Mile?” I sank a lot of bitterness into my voice, and to my satisfaction, I could tell my words had stung.
“No.” Bridgebane’s nostrils flared, but he didn’t ask. He didn’t ask about my partner, about the mines, about the whips, or about anything that might have happened to me there. “But I pieced that together from your false name.”
“Well, aren’t you clever. Good job.” I ignored Shade and his gun at my back. My raised hand was steady, my weapon level. I felt surprisingly numb. “But that’s not what I meant. I meant how did you know I’d survived the Black Widow?”
Behind me, Shade drew in a sharp breath.
“I had a rebel heading to death row on boardDW 12. I gave him a choice: lethal injection, or the Black Widow in a small cruiser. If he somehow survived and reported back, he was free to go with the cruiser, and I gave my word to clear his name from the system. He chose the Widow. He survived.”
“Where did he come out?” I asked.
