“What’s happened?” Jai said.

  “Cando has already been briefed on what I’m about to tell you. He and Yusef will speak to the Talons. Last night, Yusef and I jumped to Huryo to meet with Lan Chua. Our plan was to do this every thirty days, give or take. Unfortunately, the meeting did not happen. In fact, we had to jump away in a rush. There were Huryan government agents in the vicinity. We regrouped and tapped into Huryan public streams as well as Hokkaido’s Global Wave. In short, the situation has worsened. It has taken turns I never saw coming and frankly, do not understand.

  “There were a series of assassinations throughout The Lagos in the weeks after we left. They culminated in another attack on the Taron estate about two weeks ago. This time, everyone there was slaughtered. Chief among them: Ya-Li Taron.”

  Kara felt the gut punch before it hit the mark. The last time she saw Ya-Li, he vowed to pick up the pieces following the massacre. That turned out to be part of his cover after having acquired the Splinter from Ryllen Jee. He betrayed her. Betrayed them all. Still, he was her husband for a short while and he loved her in a way.

  “Who did it? Why?”

  “No one seems to know. The neighbors heard nothing, but every human being on the estate – his business associates, guards, cooks, gardeners – they were all shot dead. Ya-Li’s cause of death hasn’t been determined. Investigators are looking into issues with Hotai Counsel, for which Ya-Li had assumed the presidency. He introduced a price scheme that caused great controversy among the seamasters but was wildly popular on the continent. We read countless conspiracy theories, chiefly pointing to his competitors. But frankly, this seems heavy-handed for Haansu-bred.”

  “Who else could have done it?” Chi-Qua said.

  “Some theories point to Green Sun reprisals. Nonsense, of course. Beyond that, I won’t speculate from ninety-eight light-years away. Nothing adds up. Unfortunately, there’s more. Lan Chua was killed two days before Ya-Li. Sometime before that, Ryllen Jee was killed. He was burned alive while imprisoned on Huryo.”

  The Hokkis talked over each other, stunned at the death of Green Sun’s former leader but also confused about Ryllen.

  “What was Ryllen doing on Huryo?” Kara asked.

  “I sent him there. Only Yusef and I knew the truth. First, I must make a confession. After Ryllen admitted his betrayal, the crew voted ten to eight to space him. I couldn’t do it. I told you the result was ten to eight in favor of exile. I took him to Huryo. I secured a place for him in a prison which was, in effect, a torture chamber. He deserved punishment, but I also believed he could be redeemed, no matter how long it took. Official reports say his identity was uncovered only days after his arrival. I apologize for my deception. I should have given him a quick death.”

  The room fell silent as they processed the news.

  Shoan asked, “What about our people? Muna, Mosh, and Hoshi?”

  “Or the other exiles?” Po added.

  “No word. We don’t know whether they were still on Huryo at the end or had worked their way back home. It’s been chaos in Pinchon. I have yet to tell you about the most dangerous development.”

  “Tell us, Captain,” Po said. “We need to know everything.”

  “The attack on the Taron estate happened one day after Ascension. With everything on our plate, you might have forgotten it was approaching. Yusef and I were preparing to leave when we found headlines on the IntraNex about reports of hypnotic lights throughout the city at the height of Ascension. We dug deeper. They weren’t just lights. They were targeted beams that formed a very specific geometry. They radiated from the corporate cluster. Many witnesses said from atop Hotai Counsel.

  “The suicide rate in Pinchon increased tenfold over previous Ascensions. Mad stories of divine revelation and sudden outbursts of violence among normally quiet Hokkis emerged in the days following Ascension. People stopped reporting to work. Pinchon effectively ground to a halt within a week. And since Pinchon’s economy is food production, the global economy destabilized. The Dim is in freefall on the Gangzon Market. No one knows what to make of it, but I can surmise only one answer. Ya-Li released the Splinter upon the whole of Pinchon.”

  A cacophony responded:

  “What?” “How?” “Why?”

  “The answers might have died with Ya-Li. Regardless of what happens in the future, this is evidence about the Splinter’s danger. But to be honest with you all: I have never felt so at a loss in my life. I am used to seeing through patterns and working with instinct drawn from a long track record of, well, being a very clever man. I am overlooking something important.”

  “What of the Splinter itself?” Shoan said. “Who has it now?”

  “No idea.”

  “We should have jumped back home when we learned about Ya-Li’s treason,” Jai said. “We should have confronted him and taken the Splinter.”

  “I can’t argue the point, Jai. At the time, the risk seemed too great. I underestimated Ya-Li. We all did. I think this is enough to process for now. You are free to talk about this among yourselves, but please don’t tell the Talons yet – and certainly not the Zwahilis. Agreed?”

  They did. The four Green Suns left in silent shock.

  “Chi-Qua, if you don’t mind.” Ham nodded toward the door. “I need a moment with Kara.”

  Chi-Qua kissed her on the cheek.

  “We’ll talk afterward.”

  Left alone with Ham, Kara braced herself.

  “Who else died?”

  “Your brother Dae. He was assassinated outside Nantou Global.”

  The last time she saw Dae, he sat on the wedding stage beside his wife Luyn, killed in the initial attack. He came to Kara before the wedding and explained why she needed to accept her fate as Ya-Li’s wife and put her other ambitions aside. He claimed to say it out of love.

  “Why him?”

  “His killer was visible on a secure cam but I don’t believe he’s been captured. He was part of the first wave of assassinations. I am terribly sorry, Kara.”

  “Mother?”

  “As far as I can tell, she’s alive.”

  Li-Ann Syung, now the empress of an empty house. Kara wanted to mourn for them all, but the tear ducts were dry. Dead for weeks, far across the galaxy. Real, yet a dream.

  “It’s my fault. All of it.”

  Ham reached out a hand.

  “What are you saying?”

  “It started with me. I took Lang’s warning to heart and I never stopped pursuing it. If I had left well enough alone, I never would have met you. Never would have given you access to Mangum Island. Ryllen never would have taken the Splinter and crossed the divide. He wouldn’t have returned with the Talons. Ya-Li and I would be married. Everyone in our families would be alive. I’d be home. I wouldn’t be happy, but everyone would be alive.”

  “No, Kara. I will not allow you to pursue this line of thought again. We have discussed this before. You made a courageous choice in memory of your brother. You had no knowledge of Ya-Li’s plans or Ryllen’s madness or Dayton Romilius and his quest for vengeance. And the Splinter Alliance? A million choices brought chaos to Pinchon. A million more choices brought us here. You should grieve those you have lost, but you must never blame yourself. People who carry those sorts of burdens will falter at the moment they are needed most. I know this more than you understand.”

  Kara pushed back her chair and tried to gather her thoughts. She stared at the lighted shelves of plants growing in an aerofarm.

  “We must be insane. Seriously, Ham. What are we doing? It’s all coming apart back home. We have no idea if we’ll ever track down Amayas Knight. We might own the deadliest ship in the galaxy, but we have no clue what’s really going on. We made a deal with a man who held us hostage. We’re trying to train a new army, for what purpose exactly? And most of the people we cared about are dead. I talked myself into believing I knew what I was doing. Now? Where does it all end, Ham?”

  His shoulders slumped. Suddenly, he seemed insignificant.

  “Honestly? I don’t know. I ask that question at the beginning and end of every day. I’ve made more miscalculations in the past two months than in all my life. I enjoyed my years in Zozo. I’d love to be called a Randall again someday. But I can’t see clearly. It’s why I need you to be strong. I need you and all the others.”

  “I’m not sure I can be strong.”

  “Yes, you can. You’ve proven it many times over.”

  “Maybe if I had some confidence in where we were headed. Or, even to understand anything about what happened in Pinchon. You must know something, Ham. Anything. Even a suspicion.”

  “Crazy ideas, but nothing a credible captain would discuss.”

  “You can with me. Right now. Give me something I can hold onto. What’s the craziest idea you have?”

  “It’s full-blown insanity, Kara.”

  “Good. If it comes true, I’ll call you a genius.”

  Ham released a long-winded sigh that said he ought not to do it.

  “Ryllen.”

  “What about him?”

  “I don’t know how he could have pulled it off or why, but Ryllen might be responsible for the slaughter on the Taron estate.”

  “What? You said he died.”

  “That’s the report.”

  “You don’t believe it?”

  “It doesn’t ring true somehow. Even if he did survive the pond, I don’t see how he could have made it to Hokkaido. He was the most wanted man in the system. But Ryllen was an assassin, well-practiced in the art. He killed without mercy. If he blamed Ya-Li for his fate …”

  “You’re right. That’s the craziest idea you could have had.”

  “I’m missing large chunks of the puzzle. I throw anything at it in the hope it will fit. When logic falls short, explore the improbable.”

  “Ryllen was a manipulative psychopath, and you should have spaced him, but he’s not a magician. The only reason you think he might have done it is because at some level, you don’t want him to be dead. He was your friend. Almost like a son, wasn’t he?”

  Ham didn’t answer.

  “You supported him when he led the Talons into my wedding. Don’t think I’ve forgotten, Ham. Maybe you didn’t realize how far he was willing to go, or what kind of monster he’d become, but I’ve never heard you apologize for that day. I guess you’re right about one thing: A million choices got us here.”

  “Kara …”

  She turned for the door.

  “I don’t think you should talk to me for a while.”

  Chi-Qua was waiting in C&C, but Kara brushed past her.

  “Kara? What did he tell you?”

  Kara stayed on the move. She wanted to change into her workout clothes and jog. Everything simmered within. She’d say the wrong thing, lash out at the wrong person. Best to keep moving.

  Chi-Qua had other ideas and matched Kara’s pace.

  “C’mon, Kara. After everything we’ve been through together, you know I can help with whatever this is.”

  “If you had one wish, Chi, what would it be?”

  “I … to see my parents. Let them know I’m alive.”

  “Good wish. Hold onto it.” She didn’t slow down as she said: “Everyone in my family is dead except my mother, the person I hated most in the world. She’s probably losing her mind, if she hasn’t already. I should pity her, but I can’t. She was mad. They all were. Everyone but Lang. And they killed him because he wasn’t.”

  “Oh, for all the rings, I’m so sorry, Kara.”

  “You’re the only other one who knew them, but you weren’t their daughter, and you weren’t their sister. I love you, Chi, but I need to handle this one alone.”

  Chi-Qua might have said something else, but Kara didn’t listen. She retreated to her quarters, splashed water on her face, and felt the simmer turn into a full-on boil. She found the toilet in time and vomited her breakfast.

  And again.

  She wiped away the spittle and caught her breath.

  She heard the outer door slip open. Kara wasn’t ready to see him.

  Cando didn’t give her a choice, but he kept his distance.

  “You sat through that whole meeting,” she said. “You knew about Hokkaido?”

  “The Captain called me in first thing. He was inclined to cover it up for now. He thought it would disrupt what we were building. I disagreed. I told him there was no chance I’d keep this secret from the woman I love.”

  She went to him. Cando wrapped her tight.

  “He’s not as strong a man as I thought,” she said.

  “You’re right. He carries himself with a bravado, but I think he’s crumbling inside. The smartest man in the room is not necessarily the best leader.”

  “I have no idea where he’s leading us, Cando. I don’t know where any of this is headed anymore.”

  “The same place it was an hour ago.”

  “Which is?”

  “A place to be determined.”

  She felt a smile. Her heart lifted.

  There it was again: That twinge of anxiety and joy mixed into one.

  She found the place she wanted to be, no matter the destination.

  “I love you, Cando.”

  The words came without warning, but they felt right.

  “I crossed a universe to find you, Kara. It shouldn’t be possible, but here we are. That little farm on Yaniff has our name on it. We are going to make love under the stars, and our children are going to play in the grass. And maybe we’ll have a dog. Until then, I’m here. We’ll fight our way out of this together. Promise.”

  It was everything she needed to hear in that moment. Perhaps it was a fantasy, but it was enough to gloss over the graveyard once known as the House of Syung-Low. She imagined the farm and two children – a boy and a girl, half Hokki and half Turk.

  A real family. The best kind. The loving and selfless kind.

  She thought of Joseph’s request about his grandson. Now, she understood the desperation in his voice.

  “I’ll be there with you, Cando. Every step of the way. First, there’s something I have to do.”

  17

  Indoctrination camp

  Aeterna

  D O YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT it means to live forever? Do you know how to live for the day, when it is but one among millions? Why do you fear death and rebirth? Why must you listen to the abyss and tell others what you learned?

  Exeter Woolsey ran on bare feet through a tall jungle with those questions recycling through his mind. The amp’s synaptic grips controlled the voice inside his head. The amp, melded above his right temple, wasn’t going anywhere until the teacher decided otherwise. “Five days,” he guaranteed. “Complete the curriculum and you’ll be one step shy of made in five days.”

  The ground was carpeted in long brown needles, fallen from the strange collection of skyscraper-sized pines and a dense understory of corinpian trees whose black leaves as big as a man produced guillotine-sharp edges. The first time he failed to dodge a low-hanging corinpian leaf, he suffered deep gashes to his face and right arm. “Ignore the pain until regen,” the teacher said.

  He passed ten kilometers but felt no wearier than after one. He perspired very little though the day was hot and the jungle humid. What were those injections? The teacher said he would feel no limitations. A gift from Minister Cooper, he said.

  “Your pace is slowing, Exeter,” the amp shouted, though it was the teacher’s voice from somewhere behind. “You’re approaching an ecotransit. Exit the forest at the speed of a sprinter.”

  He pressed forward, but not hard enough. The synaptic grips sent a tingle through his nerves. He felt tremors everywhere. His vision went in and out like window blinds.

  Exeter did not reply. That was the rule. No speaking until he could answer at least one question correctly, as defined by Minister Cooper.

  The long shadows of the jungle gave way to strong splashes of sunlight and up ahead, a clearing. He pushed through the tremors and sprinted. When he crossed the threshold into an open field, his teeth chattering, Exeter felt a blistering burst against his bare chest. He shaded his eyes from the white hot sun.

  He sprinted through tall wheat grass for a kilometer, breathing steady, thirst quenched, only the mildest pain in his quads.

  “Faster,” teacher said through the amp. “See nothing in your way.”

  How could it be? Was he running a simulation?

  The faster Exeter ran, the freer his mind.

  Thirteen kilometers. Fourteen. Fifteen. Still sprinting.

  “You’ll hear the river soon. Do not slow down. Do not be afraid of the rapids. When you reach the edge, jump. When you hit the water, ignore the blood and the rocks. Swim with the current.”

  Exeter no longer belonged to his body. It was doing all the work while he watched. He had time to contemplate an answer to the first question: Do you understand what it means to live forever?

  Forever is a nonsense word, he thought. There is no such thing. Existence is defined by constructs, whether by human definition or the rate of expansion and decay of the universe itself. There is no forever. There are only the natural boundaries we are allowed to break. To live forever is to live longer than most. Our allowance will expire.

  They were his words, and they felt like revelation. Yet they came too easily, and they were neatly compiled, as if an editor polished them into a presentable form. Exeter learned many things in his journey, but he was not a smart man. He always fell a little short. He sensed it at every turn, the eyes peering at him with suspicion. Katherine Woolsey never trusted him to handle the truth about his immortality. Amayas used him as a tool in a long game. His Talon brothers and sisters valued him as a killer but saw little other use. RJ captured his heart and used him as a sexual vehicle. Angela twisted his anger into a knot and used it to plant him amongst her enemy.