Chapter Forty-Five

 

By the time the judges get everyone quiet again, there’s still a division among the victims. The main ones still clamoring for justicia are Verex’s fans – though even some of them fall silent when Tawny taps into the holofield and plays that montage of people willing to support mercy as a concept – including me – and Verex himself.

Nobody has invited her, pero Minda steps into the center just as the spin-holo ends. She looks at the fan club. “It was my set, and my show, and Verex was there at my request. And I can forgive. If you let him live, I will vow to take responsibility for Kaliel’s actions until Kayla Baker is found.”

The fan club president stares at her, his mouth hanging open. “But why?”

Minda blinks, and I realize she’s trying to hide tears. “Because I’m a sucker for a good romance and a happy ending.”

Just the same way Mertex was. Minda didn’t get her happily ever after. I can see why she’d want someone else to.

I can see the fan club swaying, one sympathetic face at a time. Most are Minda fans too – and they’re more concerned with seeing her happy than Kaliel dead.

When the judges finally look over at them, Dghax asks, “Are you even bringing a complaint against the Earthling any more?”

“I don’t think so?” The fan club president clasps his hands together like he’s not sure what else to do with them. “We allow his mind-problem defense?”

The judges call Minda and Kaliel over to them, so they can be heard over the crowd, which is starting to disperse.

Dghax tells Minda, “You are aware that you will be held accountable for this Earthling’s actions until he leaves the planet, and that he is forbidden from ever setting foot on Zant again once his business with you is concluded?”

Fizzax walks over to them.

“I so vow,” Minda says.

“No,” Fizzax says. “I vow. Mertex would have wanted to protect you. I misjudged him when he was alive, drove him to leave town over something he might not even have done. Let me at least make a gesture to his memory.”

Tawny mumbles something about an interview, leaving me and Tyson sitting on the bench alone.

The Galactacop looks at me. “Speaking of Kayla, I’ve been thinking about wat Mertex Makanoc said about her being somewhere deep.”

I raise an eyebrow. I didn’t tell him that. He must have gotten it from Frank. “Eh?”

“I have a map of te island in question, and tere are tree spots I tink tat could refer to. I want you to come look.”

“Sí, but give me a minute. I still need to give Frank a piece of my mind.” I’m still so mad and crushed and lost over what Frank did to Brill. I march over there.

Frank eyes me steadily. He’s standing alone, since Mamá has gone to join Minda. I slap him. He rubs his jaw, but otherwise doesn’t react.

“I want to see him.” It is supposed to be a demand. Pero, it comes out a whiney plea.

“Trust me, Bo, you really don’t.” Sympathy shines in his eyes. I didn’t expect that. “Just wear your little necklace and hold onto your memories.”

“I thought I could trust you.”

He sighs. “I told you a number of times what I am and why. Duty before emotion. Always. You can’t really be surprised.” A strange look crosses his face, and he looks over at Mamá and Minda and Tawny. “Though it’s painful when things don’t turn out the way you want them to.”

Because he knows I’m going to tell Mamá that he made Brill disappear. I study Mamá, beautiful and over-the-top and all corazón. Then I look back at Frank, and the angerzentment overtakes the grief. “Mamá and I have just started putting our relationship back together. Pero viejo, if she lets you back into her life, then I will never speak to her again. And that will be your fault, too.” I look at Mamá again. “If she doesn’t believe me, I’ll show her the bruise on my chest. And if anything happens to her because of that, I’m done. No show. No tour. You might as well have executed me with mi vida.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I knew you were wearing body armor. The outlines were obvious. But you ought to get it replaced, since the structural integrity’s shot.” Frank half-smiles. “No pun intended. There’s still a lot here that you can’t possibly know.”

I do have a few theories. Like about the real reason Brill is dead. HGB thinks that without him, and with Chestla on another planet, they can woo me back or break me to their needs. I had worked it so that I was indispensable to their diplomacy – and then I’d left the planet with Brill. In a way, it’s my fault. Right?

I have to ask, “If I had said yes to joining HGB, would that have changed anything?”

Frank considers me gravely. “Probably not. It just would have put him on the opposite side from you with all those secrets still in his head.”

Those secrets are gone now, along with all the humor and charm that was in there, too. And the bravery.

Tawny sidles over to Frank. “Sawyer. We need to talk.”

She takes his arm, pulls him away.

I look over at mi mamá. I need to talk to her, seriously and soon, pero right now I don’t think I can bear to put the words Brill and muerto in the same sentence. Just thinking them is like stabbing myself in the chest.

“Don’t be stupid.” Frank’s voice floats over from the other side of the wall.

I race up the aisle and peer over the wall’s edge behind the top row of seats. They’re below me, in an alcove created by a stand of trees and a water feature. Tawny says something else, and Frank’s entire face goes pink. They exchange a few more quick words.

Frank raises his voice. “I’m not showing you the body. That’s disrespectful to a guy who let himself get caught saving my life – a lot of lives.”

My breath catches. Won’t come back out. The body. Brill’s body. That casual way Frank said it makes it real.

Tawny tries one more time.

Frank replies, “Haven’t you played on her grief enough already? If you show that, don’t you think there will be questions as to who put that bullet in his heart?”

A hand drops on my shoulder, and I squeak as the hand pulls me back away from the wall.

“Did you hear something?” Finally, Tawny’s loud enough for me to hear. Now that she’s not going to say anything else useful.

“Are you ready to go?” Tyson asks.

Kaliel is still talking to the judges. Apparently, what happens for him now is more complicated than it sounded. “Let me send Kaliel a quick text where we’re going, so he and Minda can meet us there.”

I send the text. Almost immediately Kaliel sends back a single, K and about ninety holo-smilies that float up and pop into digital confetti. He’s fizzbounced that he gets to live. I know how he feels. I’ve been there.

I want to be excited for him.

Maybe I’ll get there, in a little while, pero right now, I just feel raw and numb.

My handheld rings. The number’s coming in as Zail Cray. Brill’s mamá. He must have given her this as a contact number before he got a new phone. My stomach sinks, though I didn’t know it had anywhere else to go. She must have been watching the news.

When I answer, she’s standing with her arms crossed over her chest, the camera propped on something near her eye level. “Tell me I misunderstood.”

“I’m so sorry–”

She takes a step closer to the camera. “Tell me my son’s not dead. That you aren’t the type of person who would let me find out that way.”

I can’t look at her. “Lo siento. He had his cell phone on him when Fr… when he was taken. I didn’t know how to contact you.”

Her arms drop down to her sides. “So you haven’t seen his body? You don’t know for sure he’s dead? My son’s resourceful, Miss Benitez.”

I want to hope with her. If I hadn’t heard Frank say that to Tawny… I swallow against a dry throat. “The people that took him – I asked to see the body. They told me it was better if I didn’t.”

Zail’s eyes go the color of pain. Still she looks at me sharply. “I told him you were going to get him killed.”

And that breaks me.

She can see it, too. Her face takes on a hint of sympathy, pero then it goes hard again, and she hangs up.