noticed her helmet resting on a seat in front of the console. If she got that on, she would be fully armored. I pointed my gun at her. “Don’t take another step.”
Li Fei didn’t seem to know what to do. To him, I was a traitorous former Arbiter who had murdered a fellow officer and gotten away with it before reemerging under a false name with Section 3. He had no idea about Huxley, the assassin, or the Eleven.
“She attempted to evade arrest,” I pointed out. “That’s reason enough, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I suppose It is. You’ll have some questions to answer when we’re done here.”
“Oh, I’m sure he will,” the woman said. “Starting with how I succeeded in capturing the both of you.”
Like an amateur, I had turned toward Li Fei instead of keeping my focus on her. Now I was staring down the accelerator of an energy weapon pointed straight at my face.
9
I wasn’t going to just drop my weapon and surrender. “You’re making a huge mistake.”
Li Fei’s weapon was still pointed right at the woman, so it wasn’t likely she’d survive long if she pulled the trigger. In fact, the bridge wasn’t big enough for the beam to fully bloom out and lose power. If she fired, it would probably pierce the Havisham’s hull.
“A mistake you say?” Her voice was cool, and still faintly amused. Like she still didn’t understand how much danger she was in.
“Drop your weapon, or you’re going to die.” Li Fei sounded as perplexed as I felt. Her behavior was suicidal.
“Do you fear death, Arbiter?” She took a step to her left. “Living without realizing one’s purpose is cowardice, and that’s where the fear of death comes from. It’s the creeping doubt whispering to you in the quiet moments, reminding you that your life is a study in unfulfilled potential. You fear death because it marks the end of a wasted existence spent desperately clinging to the empty hope of a better tomorrow.”
The arrogance was almost breathtaking.
“If you shoot me with that beam weapon, you’ll pierce the hull,” I told her. “This cabin will decompress, and you will die along with us.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the tension in Li Fei’s body language. He wanted to pull the trigger, but he wasn’t sure he could kill her before she could fire. He might have been thinking about doing it anyway. From his perspective, it wouldn’t be so bad if both this woman and I ended up dead.
If I intended to survive, I was going to have to change this situation myself.
I considered just ducking down, but if this woman was really Huxley’s assassin, her speed was nothing short of transhuman and I wouldn’t get the shot off in time. I wasn’t even sure Li Fei would make it. It was time to do something unexpected.
“I’m not an Arbiter,” I told her. “I’m with Section 9.”
Her reply was smooth, like everything else she did. “I already knew that. Section 9 always uses Section 3 as cover for this sort of mission.”
What the hell is she talking about? asked Li Fei.
“You killed Julian Huxley.”
“I’ve killed too many to remember every name.” She raised both eyebrows, feigning total innocence. “All I want is for you to leave this ship. If you can agree to that, no one has to die.”
For such a cold-blooded killer, she seemed strangely reticent to kill us. “Even if we could do that,” I pointed out, “there’s an Arbiter drop ship trailing you right now. You can’t possibly escape.”
“This is a luxury yacht,” she replied. “It’s a much faster vessel than any Arbiter drop ship. As soon as I break orbit, I’ll disappear like the snow of years gone by.” She took another step to the left.
Li Fei sent me another message. I have to take the shot. We won’t get another chance.
I messaged him back. No, just wait.
He didn’t pull the trigger. Telling her the truth about how I recognized her was just a desperate attempt to mess with her head and change the situation somehow, but she had taken it in stride. What else could I do? Her weapon was still aimed at my face. Her muzzle hadn’t drifted off target even a little since this standoff began. She was still moving slowly toward her helmet, though. If she wanted to get it on, she wouldn’t have any choice but to divert her attention from me for a fraction of a second. That was all I’d