The Lost Ship of the Tucker Rebellion - Marie Sexton Page 0,73
into enough trouble already.”
Laramie grinned at him.
“Besides,” Denver said, “you and I need to deal with Ginn.”
Laramie’s smile disappeared in the blink of an eye.
“I’ll handle Dusty,” Marit said. “That’ll keep me from killing Ginn, if nothing else.”
Thank goodness. It was going to be hard enough confronting Ginn. Marit and her fiery temper would only make things harder. He turned back to Laramie. “You ready for this?”
“No. But I’ll do it anyway.”
He didn’t speak the question out loud, but Denver heard it nonetheless. “We’ll do it together.”
They found Ginn lounging on the bed in Laramie’s room. Glancing around, Denver wondered how his brother had tolerated her presence at all. Laramie had always been a tidy person. Now, Ginn’s possessions cluttered his once neat space. Her clothes hung out of drawers. A silk nightie lay draped over Laramie’s dialysis machine.
She sat up as they entered, her expression wary. “What’s going on?”
“We know what you’re doing,” Laramie said.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been sending messages to Rand.”
She narrowed her eyes at them, weighing her options. “So what if I have?”
“You sold us out,” Denver said through clenched teeth.
“Don’t be so dramatic.” She stood and casually pulled a lace fan from the bedside drawer. The gesture was somehow scornful. Dismissive, even. As if the entire conversation bored her. “I messaged my brother and told him I wanted off this ship. I asked him to come get me.”
Denver felt the stab of betrayal this statement caused his brother.
“You said this was what you wanted,” Laramie said. “You knew what you were in for, and you said yes.”
She laughed. “Give me a break. Did you really think I wanted to go live on some planet with just you and your brother?”
“Then why did you ask to come?” Laramie asked.
“Because I thought I could talk you out of it! Every time you came to see me, all I heard about was what a pain in the ass Denver is. How he’s always interfering and running your life and hovering over you like a mother hen. And now you’re going to let him drag you to god knows what corner of space? I thought I could talk some sense into you. Ditch your brother, then you and I and Rand could take that ship and live like royalty!”
To his credit, Laramie didn’t try to hide how any of it felt from Denver. He was embarrassed, but also appalled and astounded.
“I know,” Denver said, wishing for the billionth time he could communicate silently as Laramie did. He squeezed his brother’s shoulder reassuringly but addressed Ginn. “The problem is, the militia knew to track his ship. We now have an entire armada on our ass, including a Destroyer.”
“There’s more,” OPAL suddenly said through the room’s speaker.
“Closed door, OPAL,” Denver said. “That means private, remember?”
“The door is actually ajar by approximately 3.2 millimeters.”
Laramie laughed. “We’ll discuss technicalities later. What do you mean by ‘more’? More ships?”
“I’ve been monitoring Titan X media. Captain Tucker’s final logbook entry was made public approximately seven hours ago. The response has been quite violent. There are riots in Sectors Three and Four. Over two hundred people have been arrested, with nearly a dozen casualties.”
“And I suppose we’re to blame?” Denver asked.
“The official response is that the file is a fake designed to undermine the authority of the Mars government. All members of the Jiminy crew have been labeled as traitors.”
“Including me?” Ginn asked, for once sounding disconcerted.
“Yes, Ginn,” OPAL said. “Including you. The only person on the Jiminy who is not technically wanted is Treesa, because she’s not of age.”
Ginn sank down onto the bed and put her head in her hands. “Oh my god. What am I going to do now?”
“Not my problem,” Denver muttered, turning on his heel to leave.
He and Laramie found Marit and Spence at the kitchen table. They joined them and explained OPAL’s latest news.
“It was only a matter of time,” Marit said, pouring more whiskey into her glass. Denver was starting to think he should have tripled his original estimate for alcohol. “All the more reason to ditch this solar system and try my luck with you nut jobs.”
Denver ignored her and concentrated on Laramie. He’d been forgoing treatments the last couple of days in order to avoid Ginn, sacrificing his health to maintain a semblance of peace. But there was no point in