He went stiff. His arms hovered at his sides for a full two seconds before one of them came up and patted her awkwardly on the back. “Okay,” he said. “It’s fine.”
She released him and turned to Harry, who did not require encouragement. He swept her into a hug and kissed both of her cheeks with enthusiastic smacks.
“My dear girl,” he said, setting her down. “You revived this station and gave us hope.” He smoothed his mushroom-print jumpsuit with tremendous satisfaction. “None of us would be here if not for you.”
“Harry,” Holly said, her eyes stinging. “Thank you. For everything.”
He waved a hand, but his eyes were bright. “Don’t thank me. Thank the mushrooms. They bring people together. I’ve always said so.”
“Youhavealways said so,” Mish confirmed, appearing at Holly’s side with her messy hair and her dirt-stained hands. She squeezed Holly’s arm. “Some of Harry’s followers sent seeds for the garden. Unique varieties that will grow and thrive here. Just likeyou, Holly Greene-Moone.”
Holly looked at her. “Mish. I promised you I wouldn’t sell. I’m sorry I almost broke that promise.”
Mish shook her head, although her eyes were still tight from Cody’s hurtful words. Holly wondered if what he said about her husband was true; that she hadn’t heard from him in over two months. “No apologies,” Mish said firmly. “You were working against someone who was actively trying to destroy you. Even when you knew passing the inspection was impossible, you didn’t quit.” She glanced at her fourteen children, who had calmed down and arranged themselves in a neat semicircle to watch the fountain with synchronized fascination. “We are all grateful you chose to come to Moone’s Landing.”
Holly turned, slowly, taking in the square. The lights. The fountain. The turbines turning overhead. The faces of people who had refused to leave, who had worked and donated and planned and fought while she lay in a dark room believing it was over. “We’re here now, because of you. All of you.”
Her parents stood at the edge of the gathering, watching. Her father had his arm around her mother’s shoulders. One of Mirth’s hands was pressed to her chest and the other held Bean’s leash. He sat at her feet, sniffing the air. Both of her parents were glowing. Holly smiled at them, knowing that they had a big role in making her someone capable of inspiring this kind of loyalty, even if she had struggled. Even if she wasn’t perfect.
She looked at Rasker, who was standing where she’d left him. He watched her with an expression that made her heart feel too big for her chest. Holly opened her mouth to say something,though she had no idea what, when movement at the edge of the square caught her attention.
Alyce was walking toward them from the direction of the hotel with Luv rolling beside her. She moved with purpose, her thin braids swinging, a d-pad clutched to her chest. She had slipped away sometime after Cody had been taken away, Holly realized.
She reached the group and stopped. Her gold eyes found Holly, then moved to Rasker, then to Mirth and Andrew. The look of a woman holding information she did not want to mishandle.
“Holly. I need you, your parents, and Rasker to come with me.”
“What is it?”
“After Rasker mentioned Cody’s room, I took Luv back there to use her master access key and let us in.” Alyce held up a d-pad that was not hers. It was older, scratched, and dark. “This was hidden under Cody’s bed in a bag of clothes. It’s locked. I can’t access it.” She paused. “But Luv recognized it immediately. It belonged to Charles.”
Holly stared at the device.
“I think,” Alyce said, her voice steady, her eyes bright, “we may have just found your grandfather’s missingnits.”
Forty-Eight
Cody’s room smelled like incense and dirty socks.
Holly stood in the doorway of room four and took it in. The bed was unmade, the sheets tangled and looking like they hadn’t been changed in weeks. They probably hadn’t. Luv didn’t clean occupied guest rooms unless there was a request, and Luv confirmed that she hadn’t entered this room since Cody moved in.
Crystals and beaded necklaces hung from the bedpost. A half-empty bottle of the cloying oil Cody wore sat on the nightstand. The floor was littered with clothes and sandals and the general debris of a person who had never expected anyone to come looking.
Rasker and Alyce moved through the room checking drawers, looking under things, touching as little as possible. Luv followed them, her optical sensors scanning the mess. “Looking forward to scrubbing every last trace of that wretch from this room,” she muttered in disgust.
Holly’s parents waited in the hallway. Her mother stood with her arms folded and her gaze distant, and Holly understood that being inside Charles Moone’s hotel, in a room occupied by theman who had destroyed his station, was testing the limits of the composure Mirth had arrived with.
It didn’t take long. Rasker found three payment chips, unregistered. These could be used for anonymous transactions, tucked inside the lining of a jacket. Alyce saw the remains of a d-pad in the waste receptacle, its screen shattered and its data core melted with what looked like a chemical agent. Cody had tried to destroy it, but hadn’t been thorough enough. The housing might still be intact and could potentially be recovered by a forensic specialist.
“Evidence,” Rasker said. “Don’t touch it. Galactic Enforcement will want all of it.”
They left Cody’s room and walked back through the quiet hotel to Holly’s living unit. The hallway felt different now. Holly was walking through it with people on either side of her, and the aloneness that had defined the past week was lifting like fog burned off by a sun that had finally decided to show up.
Inside her unit, they arranged themselves around the small sitting area. Holly sat on the couch with her mother beside her. Rasker leaned against the wall near the window. Andrew took the chair by the table, his hands clasped between his knees. Alyce pulled a chair over to the sofa and sat. Luv positioned herself near the bedroom doorway, sensors at a watchful blue.
Bean was on Holly’s lap. Of course he was. He had jumped on the couch the moment she sat down, and he showed no intention of moving.
Alyce held up Charles’ d-pad. The scratched, dark device looked small in her hands. Ordinary. The kind of thing you’d overlook in a drawer full of junk.
