Zenith. Lindsay Cummings
kill you, the way you killed my daughter, Andi imagined him saying.
I’d like to give you the traitor’s death sentence you truly deserve.
A million possibilities, all of them grim.
And all of them well deserved, filling Andi’s gut with another layer of guilt. Another bit of heaviness to carry with her to the grave.
But when the general spoke, his words weren’t of punishment or death.
“You’ve been quite busy since we last met.” He snapped his fingers, and a cyborg woman shuffled forward from the corner of the room. Her head was bald and smooth, bits of metal interspersed with artificial flesh, similar to Andi’s cheekbones. The cyborg held a holoscreen out to the general, which flickered to life in his hands.
“‘Blood Stains the Skies above Pazus,’” General Cortas read from the screen. He tilted it ever so slightly, and Andi could make out the telltale red-and-gold title of a news feed. She sunk low in her chair, remembering that story. It had gone viral across Mirabel.
The general sighed before continuing. “Two black market ships were shot down in the sky sixteen months ago, which ended many lives when the debris fell onto a Pazian village. Black market arms dealers paid you a large sum to haul their weapons for them, and when things got a little complicated...you attacked your enemies’ ships without thinking twice about what destruction it would cause.”
She took complete responsibility for those deaths. She’d never thought the debris would get through the atmosphere in such large pieces, let alone hit one of the few settlements on Pazus.
“You were never caught,” General Cortas said, his voice low, “but I knew it was you. That’s what you do, Androma. You leave a path of chaos in your wake, and you don’t ever look back to see whose lives were ended because of it.” His blue eyes flashed at her.
Worlds away, and Andi still withered beneath that icy stare. But she refused to take his bait, to breathe out a word that this man could twist and turn on her in an instant.
The general tapped the screen again, and another headline materialized, this one with a photograph of the Marauder in all of its varillium-sided glory. “The Bloody Baroness,” General Cortas said, setting down the screen, “is mentioned in thirteen cases since last year, six of those involving numerous deaths. And I have no doubt, Androma, that there are many more cases that went unnoticed. You are one of the most notorious criminals in all of Mirabel.” He sighed and shifted in his seat. “Which is why I hired Dextro to find you.”
“Then get on with it,” Andi said. The words poured out of her, unable to stay locked inside any longer. “Give me the injection, like you really wanted to do all those years ago.” It was her mistake that led to Kalee’s painful death, and it was only by a twist of fate that Andi escaped joining her charge.
Andi looked back at the general. “If you wish to kill me, go ahead. But let my crew go free. I’ll take the blame for our crimes in Mirabel. All of them. If this is about...” She couldn’t bring herself to say the name. Her scars ached again at thoughts of the past. “If this is about your daughter...it was an accident, General. A mistake.”
“I’m not here to speak of the past,” the general snapped. His voice was pained, and he took a deep breath before speaking again. “I’m a powerful man, Androma, but a desperate one.”
“Desperate for what?” Andi asked. “To finally see me die?”
General Cortas leaned back, wincing as if in some hidden pain, and folded his hands on top of the silver desk. “I’m not here for revenge,” he said.
Andi blinked in surprise. “Then...what is it you want?”
The general sighed. “I’d like to offer you a job.”
Andi almost fell out of her chair. “I’m sorry—what?” She didn’t know what else to say, or even what to think, so she waited for him to continue.
“It is desperation, Androma, that brings me to this. And believe me,” the general said, glancing at Dex, who had been sitting silently with his feet still propped up on the table, “I have exhausted every other option.”
Dex winked, and Andi couldn’t fathom why General Cortas wanted Dex to be his personal bounty hunter on this job. Probably just to spite her. He was the general of the strongest military planet in Mirabel. Surely he had other operatives.
The general continued. “My son, Valen, went missing two years ago.”
“I remember,” Andi said with a curt nod. How could she forget?
Valen, Kalee’s older brother, with his dark hair and soft hazel eyes. He had always been kind, but he’d never spoken more than a few fleeting words to Andi each time she visited Kalee’s floating estate on Arcardius.
Except for that night.
He’d seen them sneaking out and tried to stop them, only for Kalee to put him in his place as they slipped out the door of the sprawling Cortas estate. That was the last time Andi ever saw him—he hadn’t shown up to court when she was on trial for Kalee’s death.
Two years later, Valen Cortas disappeared in the night, all traces of him whisked away. Though there was no sign of a struggle, General Cortas swore it was a kidnapping, carried out by a skilled group trained to leave no trace behind.
The news had spread like wildfire across Arcardius, and then into the skies to the leaders of every other inhabited planet, moon and satellite city in Mirabel.
“We suspected a mercenary from Xen Ptera took him,” General Cortas said, “but there haven’t been any ransom demands. No responses to our inquiries. I would’ve stormed their planet when he was first taken, but we couldn’t risk upsetting the peace treaty between our part of the galaxy and theirs. Ten years still remain until the treaty ends.”
He paused. Grief made his voice heavy. Two years after losing one child, the other had been snatched from him, too.
Again, the guilt clawed at Andi from inside.
“So what do you want me to do?” she asked carefully. “If I remember correctly, there was never much of a trail to begin with, and surely all traces of him are long gone by now.”
The general leaned forward in his chair.
“Two months ago, one of our satellites picked up a signal from Xen Ptera’s prison moon, Lunamere. The message was in Arcardian military code, which you no doubt remember from your time serving.”
Andi inclined her head. “I remember.” So many nights, she had stayed awake inside her quarters in Averia while Kalee was asleep. Glowing screens laid scattered across her desk alongside military manuals and scribbled notes and failed attempts at decoding the strange ancient symbols. She’d always excelled at weapons training, but hadn’t taken as much care in honing her mind. But a Spectre was expected to learn all things, and learn them well.
“I was teaching the code to Valen before the kidnapping.” General Cortas ran a hand through his graying hair. “There has been no word since, but we feel strongly it is Valen. The message was a specific word I gave him to decode just before he was taken.”
Andi listened intently. After all this time, most believed Valen Cortas to be dead. There were rumors that he’d run of his own accord and was hiding out on some distant tropical moon, far from his father’s clutches and the strict military life of Arcardius. Others suspected he’d been too wounded by his sister’s death and simply hid away in the darkness of the estate. The kidnapping, Andi had always suspected, was the real truth.
“Why are you telling me all of this?” she asked.
“Because I want you to recover him.”
It was an effort not to let her jaw drop.
“I don’t...” Andi fumbled for the right words. “I can’t...”
“You can’t?” The