Chapter 96 I Love You

Chapter 96 I Love You
Garron stood in the corridor with his weapon at his side and didn't say anything for a long time.

I was still on the floor.

Tasha came down the stairwell three minutes later, moving fast, reading the scene before she reached the bottom step. She looked at Matt as she took slow steps.

Eventually I laid Matt down carefully.

"What was that message," Garron asked.

My voice came out flat. "Which message?"

"The one you recorded a few days ago." 

I looked at him. "I was making it clear to the people that they would be saved."

I looked at Matt on the floor.

"Where is Grandisfield," Tasha said, her voice even.

Garron turned to her. "Med-Nochtia. He had to move quickly after the committee session. Thanks to the message Da Vinci left. But the good news is that the entire nation is effectively under our control now. No heavy-born government presence. No Men of Moon operatives functioning in the districts. It's the first time since the colony was built that Med-Nochtia has governed itself." He paused. "He’ll be safe there. And so will the rest of us."

Tasha nodded slowly.

The corridor held its silence around the three of us and what remained of the fourth.

Garron stepped away to the far end of the room to check something on his comm, giving us privacy.

Tasha sat beside me on the floor against the wall, her shoulder against mine, and neither of us said anything for a while.

The corridor downstairs was still quiet. Matt was still there. 

"He smiled," I said eventually. "At the end. He smiled."

I leaned my head back against the wall and looked at the ceiling. Tasha shifted beside me, her hand finding the back of my head and pulling it gently toward her, my head coming to rest against her chest, her arms settling around my shoulders the way they had in the mansion bedroom except that everything around us was different now and so was I.

Her heartbeat was steady under my ear.

"He meant what he said," I said. "About not forgiving me."

"It’ okay," she said softly.

"And he told me he is glad to add to my pain."

"He was angry with you. He didn’t know what he was saying," she said, patting my head. "And it was also love. Both things at the same time."

I closed my eyes.

"I've known him since before any of this," I said. "Since before Men of Moon. He was the first person to become my friend during the war. The only person who knew both versions of me." I felt her arms tighten slightly. "I was afraid of telling him for this exact reason."

"You were protecting yourself and him," she said.

“And right now he was so angry and evil that he wanted to shoot me.” I said. "And before he pulled the trigger Garron—"

"Don't," she said quietly. "Don't run that scene again."

I stayed there against her chest, her heartbeat steady.

Garron's footsteps came back slowly, giving us warning before he arrived.

I sat up.

Tasha let me go, her hand dropping from my hair to my arm, staying there a moment before she pulled it back.

I looked at Garron.

"Tell me what you want to do," he said.

We went upstairs eventually. Garron sat across from me and Tasha at the empty equipment table, his long coat settled around him, his hands flat on the surface.

I told him everything, his face giving nothing away, the thick mustache and the pale skin stable while I spoke. When I finished he was quiet for a moment. Then he looked at Tasha.

She crossed her arms. "I've already told him."

"And."

"And he's grieving and furious and planning to go to Earth to kill three of the most protected people in the system based on the logic that his bloodline entitles him to make unilateral decisions about who lives."

"That's not exactly what I said," I said.

"It's exactly what you said."

Garron looked at me again.

"You'd be walking into their environment," he said. "Their security. Their city. Their networks. Everything that makes Adrian and Victoria dangerous is amplified on Earth and reduced everywhere else. You go there alone and angry and you don't come back."

"I'm not going alone."

"Who's going with you?"

I said nothing.

Garron looked at Tasha.

"Don't look at me. I don’t like the idea. I just don’t want him to be alone. That’s why I agreed to pack in the first place.."

"There's another way to reach them," Garron said.

"Tell me a way that ends with all three of them dead and I'll listen."

Garron was quiet for a moment.  He laughed once. 

"Actually," he said, "it might work."

I looked at him.

"Dracula," he said.

"Dracula?"

"He has ships. He has people. He's been running supply operations to the Moon while fighting Daniel simultaneously which means he has active intelligence on Earth approach routes and Men of Moon's security positioning around their primary facilities." He leaned forward slightly. "And he has absolutely no reason to say no to an operation that ends with Daniel Halverson and the rest of them dead."

I sat with that.

"He's still in Gladieva," Garron said. 

I looked at Tasha.

I looked at Tasha slowly, my eyes half open.

"Fine," she said.

Kellan's ship sat at Gladivea's secondary dock. It looked exactly as it had the last time I'd seen it, the hull still carrying the damage from the engagement near the Cube, repair work visible along the port side where new panels hadn't been painted to match the old ones yet.

Kellan was at the dock entrance when we arrived, talking to one of his crew about something involving a cargo manifest, the conversation stopping when he saw us coming.

He didn't ask what had happened. He just nodded once.

I told him what I wanted, to which he asked three questions about timing, approach and what assets I had access to on the Earth side of things. 

Then he said he'd sort it. I turned to Tasha.

"Stay," I said.

"No!"

"Tasha."

"Don't Tasha me."

"Earth’s full gravity is extreme ," I said. "You've been on the Moon long enough that it'll hit you hard the moment you step off the ship. Your movement will be compromised. Your reaction time. Everything that keeps you alive in a fight." I held her gaze. "It's not an argument about whether you can handle it. You can handle anything. It's an argument about whether the disadvantage is worth the risk."

She closed her eyes. 

"I hate that you're right," she said.

"I know."

"I'm not staying idle."

I smiled gently, my eyes still burning and half open.

"Grandisfield needs people in Med-Nochtia. Garron needs coordination across the districts. Someone needs to manage whatever Men of Moon tries while you're off Earth doing something insane." She stepped closer, her voice dropping. "I'll handle this side. You handle yours."

"Okay," I said.

She took my face in both hands and kissed me for a very long time which I wish lasted even longer. I felt her hands on my jaw, her fingers against my hair, the warmth of her in the cool dock air, and I stayed in it for as long as it lasted.

When she pulled back her eyes stayed on mine for a moment.

"Come back in one piece," she said.

"I will."

"And don't make me wait long."

“Promise I won’t” I paused. “Tasha?”

“Yes?” She replied gently.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

She closed her eyes and kissed me once more.

I picked up my bag and turned toward the ship and glanced back for a second.

“Float free my love,” I said to her.

“Flot free my love.” she blushed.