Forged (Star Breed #10) - Elin Wyn Page 0,57

assist us, we would be prepared to make the process available at even more of an attractive price.”

“No, really,” I said. “I don’t care. Right now, he doesn’t care either. No,” I said, interrupting Thalcorr as he was opening his mouth. “You don’t.” Stretching out my shoulders, I took my first full breath in hours. Good enough. Walking slowly towards Alcyon, I did my best to make our position clear. “You seem to have eyes on every bit of this station, even the hidden bits. Where. Is. Yasmin?”

“And I must ask,” Thalcorr insisted. “Where is poor Commander Serrup? Has Chancellor Denau already disposed of him?”

Alcyon shook his head. “No, he is still confined to quarters. Denau won’t get anything useful out of him, but probably thinks it’s worth it to keep him as a hostage.” His lips twisted into a half-smile. “You thought it was a joke that I was in charge of Station 112. But it’s been nothing but the truth. Serrup was part of the disguise. He never knew anything about the real work that happened here.”

With a complicated wave over the console, the entire system lit up. And I could see it now, the gas from one canister moving to the next, molecules stripped and reconfigured as they went.

“Serrup didn’t have the math for it,” Alcyon continued. “And even if he did, he didn’t have the spine to stay quiet.”

“So you abandoned him,” I said flatly.

“I put the corporation first,” Alcyon said simply. “I always have.”

What was it with these people in this damn sector? I wondered.

Yasmin, her uncle, this guy.

They all seemed to be perfectly rational people.

Well, not Yasmin’s uncle, he was obviously a homicidal maniac.

But when it came to their damn corporations, they lost all sense of perspective.

Thalcorr stepped forward. “While I am certain that your process is ingenious and invaluable, I don’t believe that we can negotiate with you until all our party has been safely removed to our ship.”

I shot him a look and he waved it away.

“Of course, by defining all our party, I am including Yasmin Denau. Once she has rejoined us, if she wishes to return here, that would be acceptable. But we will not initiate negotiations without her.”

Huh.

Maybe there was something to this whole diplomacy business.

“Fine,” Alcyon said. “She’s been confined to quarters, much nicer quarters than when she was embedded here as a worker.”

He swiped the model away, pulled up a new screen, and started flipping through security feeds. “See, she’s right here.”

The cameras displayed multiple views of a suite. It must’ve been set aside for visiting officers from Desyk or other VIPs. It just had one problem.

“It’s very nice,” I agreed. “But she’s not there.”

“What?” Alcyon quickly started flipping through camera feeds.

But Yasmin was gone.

Yasmin

Pain and betrayal.

I stared at the door long after Jenke had left, my mind racing.

The pain that had racked me when Uncle Ran shot Hakon threatened to overwhelm me again, knees buckling, gut twisted into knots.

Before today, I’d never seen, never imagined Uncle Ran with a blaster in his hand.

That blaster, small and almost elegant.

Even in the vid, he’d been so comfortable with it, accurate. Lethal.

Practiced.

Then realization struck me, and I ran to the privacy closet to be sick.

The blaster. That’s what Luca had been saying.

I pulled the images up in my imagination one after the other, the blaster that had been on my father’s desk, the blaster in Uncle Ran’s hand.

They were the same.

Lots of blasters look like, I told myself as I rinsed my mouth out, staring at myself in the mirror, my eyes dark pits now, smudges underneath making me look exhausted, ancient.

I felt ancient.

It couldn’t be anything more than a coincidence.

Maybe a present, or an heirloom from my grandparents, maybe both brothers had been given one.

Except…

Why had I never known there was a weapon in the house?

Father had been so careful with our safety, surely he would have gotten rid of such a thing or at least warned us of its presence.

And there was no reason for Uncle Ran to have...

I stopped, and forced myself to think the words.

To have killed Father.

He’d always said he never wanted to be the leader of ExaTek, that he was happy to help his older brother, be the man behind the scenes.

I barely remembered our grandparents, but they’d doted on our father. Everyone seemed to agree that Father was the best person to lead the company.

Luca had to be wrong.

But what else did he know?

He wouldn’t have hinted so strongly about Uncle’s guilt