“Claire,” Kane says, reaching out for me.
But I can’t do this. I can’t have him being soft right now, not if I’m going to keep it together, and I can already feel tears stinging my eyes.
Blinking them back, I straighten up. “I’m good.” I tip my head slightly toward Lourdes, who is spun around in her chair and watching avidly.
After a second, he seems to understand. “Okay,” he says reluctantly. “But you should get some rest. You can go now.”
I shake my head. “No one alone,” I say.
But even as I’m speaking, Nysus enters the bridge, with Voller trailing after him, feet dragging.
“We still have fifteen minutes left,” Voller protests.
“No,youhave fifteen minutes left. Kane and I have been awake for an hour because you sound like a human foghorn,” Nysus says. He nods at me as he walks past me. “TL.” He looks better. Not great but better.
“We’ll switch it up next time,” I say to Nysus. “Voller can take a shift with us.”
“A double? Come on, TL.” Voller drops into his seat. “I already have a headache.”
“Lourdes, are you ready?” I ask, avoiding Kane’s gaze.
She pops up from her chair. “More than.”
I hand the old tablet off to Kane. “I made a list for Ny, inventoried the food, and I watched all the Dunleavy footage again. I didn’t see anything but—”
“See you in six, Kovalik. We’ve got it,” Kane says gently.
It’s too dangerous.Iam too dangerous.
That’s what I should say to him. But I don’t. Because maybe sleep will help. Maybe it’ll all go away with a few hours’ rest.
Right.
I haven’t shared a room since the Verux group home and, before that, in the hab with my mother. When I left the group home, I swore I’d never live like that again, even temporarily while on assignment. But it’s a small sacrifice to make to keep us all safe and alive.
Lourdes trails a step or two behind me as I pass marked doors, picking the suite that’s closest to the bridge without a doubleXon the door. Even though we’d removed the dead, there was something fundamentally creepy about sleeping where youknewsomeone had ended their life. Or, had it ended for them. So only the rooms we’d found uninhabited were up for grabs.
The door opens easily—Kane and I left the single-Xones unlocked after our search with the master key—and as soon as I step inside, the lights clicking on automatically, I remember which room this one is.
“Oooh,” Lourdes breathes, looking over my shoulder as we walk in.
“Yeah, she was an actress,” I say. “Anna something.” Before the gravity was shut off, the room must have been a tasteful mess of beautiful fabrics, in all shades and hues, with embedded crystal, real leather plackets, or feathers that couldn’t possibly come froma creature in nature. Gorgeous creations that deserved more than the word “dress” to describe them, tossed artfully over the back of the sofa, hanging on the back of closet doors, on the dressmaker’s dummy that’s currently lying on its side on the floor in the space between the sofa and the credenza.
Now it’s just untidy heaps of bright color and textures, like tiny glittery mountain ranges on the cream carpeting.
Out of habit, I half expect Nysus to speak up with Anna’s full name and vital info, listening in as he always did on the LINA. But he doesn’t, and it makes me feel the tiniest bit more lonely and isolated.
Lourdes squeals with delight, then moves deeper into the room, carefully avoiding stepping on the fabric. “Look at this one,” she breathes as she plucks a fluffy cloud of a garment from the floor. It’s long-sleeved and completely sheer, a pale pink with crystals embedded in the fine netting. She lays it reverently over the arm of the sofa, her touch careful and caressing at the same time. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Uh-huh,” I say, smiling. I don’t know much about fashion, having lived in Verux-provided jumpsuits and gear for the majority of my life, but her happiness is contagious. “I’m guessing that has to be just part of a larger outfit, right?” A layer over the top of something else, maybe. “Or the formal dinners here must have been very interesting.” I raise my eyebrows.
Lourdes tuts at me in mock affront. “You have no taste.”
I hold my hands up. “No disagreement here.”
Lourdes cocks her head to the side. “Except when it comes to men, maybe,” she says slyly.
“Okay, we’re done,” I say, rolling my eyes.
