Home Front (Star Kingdom #7) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,2

slower—freighter, but maybe it would be better if he couldn’t.

I know. I can kiss my arranged marriage to Oku goodbye. He’d also filled her in on that during their journey.

I was more concerned about neither of us ever being able to go home again.

I know, but we can’t leave Bonita and Qin in Jorg’s unstable hands. Casmir shuddered, remembering the video that Jorg had sent over of them beaten and battered in a brig cell on his ship. And I doubt we’ll be able to catch Dubashi if we’re stuck doing it Jorg’s way. Have you been in contact with Rache? I wonder if there’s any chance he would taxi us around again.

Casmir doubted they would be able to catch up with Dubashi even if they slipped away in the Dragon, but Rache’s fast warship was another matter.

The last I heard, he wanted you to buy one of those mushroom-fiber purses for Jorg.

That wasn’t going to be one of my negotiation tactics.

It was what Rache wanted in exchange for not attacking Jorg’s ship while our friends are on board.

You shouldn’t have to bribe a man not to blow up a ship, Kim.

Dubashi hired him to kill Jorg as well as Jager.

Casmir had already known that, but as he stepped into the lift and headed to the bridge, he rubbed his face, feeling newly distraught that his clone brother would happily assassinate a plethora of people. Even though he had no love for Jorg, Casmir didn’t want to see his ship blown up. He especially didn’t want to see it blown up with his friends in the brig.

I don’t want him to assassinate anyone, Kim added, but there’s a cold analytical part of my mind that wonders if the removal of Jager and Jorg wouldn’t solve some problems for our people.

He shuddered again, horrified at even innocent musings that condoned murder. It would create different problems—and possibly bring in a time of civil war and upheaval, since the Senate would not accept Oku as a leader and Finn is barely old enough to shave. Any upheaval would only make it easier for Dubashi to enact his plans to wipe out all humans on Odin and take over the planet for his own people. Did your models of virus spread show whether that’s possible with the two rockets he got away with?

After a grim pause, Kim admitted, It’s possible.

I was afraid of that.

Casmir, not expecting trouble on Ishii’s ship, stepped onto the bridge ahead of Zee. Two marines in combat armor with DEW-Tek rifles in their hands were positioned to either side of the door, and they reached for him.

“What?” Casmir blurted, halting.

Zee surged past him, grabbed the marines, knocked their rifles aside, and spun them into the wall. Casmir scurried back into the corridor and out of the way. The marines recovered from their surprise enough to fight back, but Zee was stronger than they were, even with the armor enhancing their human muscles, and they couldn’t break his grip.

“Don’t fire!” Ishii called from the command chair in the center of the bridge. “Dabrowski, tell your robot to knock it off.” He sounded more exasperated than alarmed.

“I am a Z-6000 programmed to protect Kim Sato and Casmir Dabrowski,” Zee said sternly over the thumps and bangs of ongoing struggles.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ishii said. “I know. Dabrowski, get in here.”

“It was a mistake, Zee.” Casmir lifted his hands in placation as one of the marines thudded into the door frame. He hoped it had been a mistake. “Let them go, please.”

Zee released the marines, but he stood in the doorway with his back to Casmir, so nobody from the bridge could get to him. Silence fell inside, punctuated only by a few pained grunts and soft curses from the marines.

“I said to pretend to apprehend him,” Ishii said, “and loom at his side for this comm call with the prince.”

“We were pretending, sir,” one of the men muttered sullenly.

Casmir bent his head—he didn’t have to bend it far—to peer under Zee’s armpit. “Good morning, Sora. Maybe if you’d warned me that we were going to perpetrate a ruse, I could have informed Zee.”

Ishii stood and faced him. “I didn’t realize he’d be trailing you like an enraptured lover.”

“Or perhaps a bodyguard?”

“Maybe an enraptured bodyguard.” Ishii gave Zee a dyspeptic look and waved for Casmir to come inside.

Casmir patted Zee on the shoulder. “I think you can move aside now.”

“Your supposed human allies do not treat you with appropriate respect, Casmir Dabrowski.” Zee looked