Break Out - By Nina Croft Page 0,11
you after all. Will you get on with it?”
She bit her lip. “He’s a member of the Rebel Coalition, and he’s being held for the assassination of Collective member Aiden Ross. You must have heard about it.”
“Ahh.”
She was certain, from that one word, that she had him. The Rebel Coalition usually had no fight with the Collective. Their goal was to bring down the Church of Everlasting Life. But Aiden Ross had been an advocate of the Church, and a supporter of some of its more radical activities, including the slaughter of millions of ‘abominations’, as the Church referred to anyone with less than one hundred percent human DNA. By destroying him, the rebels hoped to discourage any future collaboration. Skylar doubted they’d done any such thing. More likely, the Collective would now go all-out to exterminate the rebels, but that was beside the point. “I knew you wouldn’t go up against the Collective. Nobody will.”
“So why don’t his rebel buddies break him out?”
“I went to them, but they wouldn’t do it. They said that nobody had ever broken out of Trakis One, and they weren’t going to waste good credits trying.”
“Nice friends.” He regarded her closely. “I’m suspecting there’s more.”
She nodded. “I had to find a way to get Jonny out. He’s my baby brother, and I’ve always looked after him.” His eyes were no longer crimson but had darkened to the color of bitter chocolate. She was sure he believed her. “I’ve got good contacts. We’ve been part of the Rebel Coalition for years—ever since our parents were murdered during the Purge.” She wondered whether a few tears would go down well at this point, but decided against it. “We gave them our whole lives and they abandoned Jonny. I knew I couldn’t rescue him alone, that I’d have to pay somebody to help me. So I stole some money from them.”
“How?”
“It was easy. I’m quite high in the hierarchy—I have access to funding.”
“That’s where the money in the account came from?”
She nodded again. “Now the Coalition is after me, and I can’t go to anyone I know. I had to find someone who wasn’t tied to either the Collective or the rebels.”
“What about the Church of Everlasting Life? The high priests will often go against the Collective just to piss them off.”
She shook her head. “Not this time. Aiden Ross was their strongest supporter in the Collective. Anyway, they won’t work overtly against the Collective. The Church is powerful, but only because the Collective allows it to be—they know that. Besides, they wouldn’t help Jonny. He’s a known rebel and a GM. You know how the Church feels about the experiments. They’d put him down rather than save him.”
Skylar held his gaze, willing her features into a pleading semblance. When his shoulders appeared to soften, she was careful not to let the corners of her mouth turn up.
. . .
She gazed up at him with those huge eyes, and Rico frowned. The interview hadn’t gone as expected.
The problem was—he liked her.
He’d expected her to fold immediately, maybe cry, but he’d been basing that presumption on her appearance. Stupid, when he’d already concluded she was not the tart she’d portrayed. She was tough, and toughness was one of the few traits he admired.
The other problem was—he believed her.
Her story made sense. The vast majority of people would not go against the Collective. A black mark in its books meant absolutely no chance of the Meridian treatment even if you could afford the exorbitant prices. And everyone lived in hope of somehow finding the money and gaining immortality.
Everyone except him, of course.
Rico spoke into the comm unit. “Tannis?”
“What?”
“Are you getting this?”
“No. I’ve gone deaf all of a sudden. Of course, I’m getting it. You want me down there?”
He sighed. “Yeah.”
“Aww, poor Rico. Fun time over?”
“Maybe.” He glanced across at Skylar where she sat nibbling on her succulent lower lip. He’d known she was afraid, but he was also aware it wasn’t only fear she felt. He could scent her arousal, the sweet muskiness making him shift in his chair as his body hardened in response. “Or maybe not.”
He sat back and tried to detect any flaws in her story while he waited for Tannis to join them.
There was one thing about the story he didn’t understand. “Your brother,” he said to Skylar, “how did he do it? No one’s ever managed to kill one of the Collective before.”
“I don’t know. He never shared the details with me.”
“Hmm, very convenient.