“It cost what it cost,” Andrew said with a shrug that was meant to be casual and was not. “You’re our daughter.”
“People have been in contact with us the entire way,” Mirth said. “Updates on the station. On you. On what was happening.” She hesitated. “Holly, there’s something you need to know.”
Holly looked from her mother to her father. They were doing a terrible job of hiding whatever this “something” was. Andrew’s face was practically vibrating with suppressed information, and Mirth had the careful expression of a woman trying very hard not to smile at an inappropriate moment.
“What?” Holly asked.
“You should come outside,” her father said.
“Why?”
“There are some things that people want to say to you.” Mirth stood and offered her hand. “In person.”
Holly’s stomach clenched. “How many people are still here? I assumed most residents had left. I’ve been hearing transports departing for days.”
Her parents exchanged another glance.
“Every resident is still here, Holly,” Mirth said. “No one left.”
Holly stared at her.
“They want to talk to you,” her father said, with the look of a man who was physically restraining himself from saying more. “Put your shoes on. Or, finish the task.”
Holly put on her other shoe. She clipped Bean’s leash and stood. Her legs were rubbery from days of disuse and her heart hammered with an emotion she was too afraid to call hope, so she went with anxiety.
Her parents flanked her as she walked through the lobby and pushed open the hotel doors. Holly stopped just past the steps.
The residents of Moone’s Landing stood in the square, arranged in a loose gathering near the fountain. Alyce, with her arms folded and her braids pulled back, her gold eyes fixed on Holly with an expression that dared her to cry. Sam, standing apart with his hands in his pockets, his jaw tight, but present. Harry, in his mushroom-print jumpsuit, holding a flask of tea that Holly suspected was intended for her. Mish, with her lopsided bun and her dirt-stained hands, her fourteen children arrayed behind her in their two neat rows. Orba and Sula, still and luminous at the edge of the group. Tyer, leaning against a lamppost with his arms crossed and his white hair falling over one pointed ear, looking bored in a way that didn’t quite conceal the fact that he had chosen to be here. Luv had rolled out behind Holly and taken up position at her shoulder, her optical sensors a steady, fierce blue. Even Cody, with his careless smile and vague disinterest, waved from the edge of the group. There were more, too. Residents who had lived here quietly and simply, and whom Holly had hoped to get to know better.
And at the front of them all, standing alone in the open space before the fountain, was Rasker.
Holly’s breath caught.
He did not look like the consultant who had stood in the doorway of room seventeen with his bags packed and his face arranged into nothing. He looked tired. His dark blue hair was uncombed, falling across his forehead in a way she had only ever seen when he’d just woken up. His clothes were wrinkled. His jaw was shadowed with stubble she hadn’t known Nakrians could grow.
And he was smiling at her. It was a real smile, exhausted and unguarded and so real, it made her heart squeeze.
He stepped forward. The square was silent.
“There will be no sale of Moone’s Landing,” he announced.
Forty-Five
Holly opened her mouth. Nothing came out.
“I need you to hear this,” Rasker said to her, his voice carrying across the quiet square. “All of it. And I need everyone here to hear it, because it concerns all of you.”
He held up his d-pad. The device he had been clutching for weeks, the one she’d seen tucked under his arm between every unexplained absence. He tapped it, and a holographic display projected into the air between them, large enough for everyone to see.
“I’ve spent the past several weeks investigating Complete Respite’s operations in this sector,” he began. “Some of you know that I showed Holly evidence of a pattern. Three other independent way stations that suffered mysterious system failures before being acquired by Complete Respite at below-market prices. I believed Moone’s Landing was next, but I didn’t have proof.”
He swiped through the display. Documents appeared. Financial records. Communication logs. Transit manifests. Holly couldn’t read them at her distance, but they were there, and could be transferred to her d-pad with a flick of his fingers.
“Both Complete Respite and Rest ’N Recharge have had their eyes on this moon for years. When the Saga-1 construction was announced, this location became strategically vital. Both corporations made offers to Charles Moone before he passed.” He glanced at Holly. “Both were refused.”
Holly’s father shifted beside her. Mirth’s hand found Holly’s arm.
“When Charles’ health declined, Complete Respite needed someone on the ground. Someone with a connection to the Moone family who could get close to Charles without raising suspicion. Someone who could watch, wait, and if necessary, act.”
