Chapter 98: All Ours
“I think it's time,” Otto said.
Jack heard the footsteps outside a second after Otto said it.
Time, all right.
Time to die.
Jack wondered if Chloe had taken his advice. He hated to think she'd let her boyfriend get killed trying to save her father, hated to think she'd fall for a guy dumb enough to try it.
She and Ellie would be okay.
They had to be.
And Jack...
He took a deep breath.
Jack wouldn't go down head bowed. It was all he could promise himself, so it would have to be enough.
He stood.
He faced the bars of the cell.
They slid open.
The body of a Fed policeman fell at Jack's feet. Blood pooled beneath the tiny holes perforating his almost-shaved scalp.
Jack's eyes widened.
A pair of Marchess Wardens stepped into the gap, one of them lowering a silent little needler pistol. Alarie Wein Marchess-Algreil, her face a little green but a nervous smile on her face, stepped between them.
Otto, who had risen from his bunk so quietly Jack hadn't even noticed him move, swept his wife into his arms and kissed her. He lifted her off her feet and spun her over the corpse and against a wall without breaking the kiss; they looked like they were about ready to tear each others' clothes off right then and there.
Jack said, “The hell?”
Otto and Alarie ignored him.
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It was a good thing, Jack thought, that spacers, for all their moral strictures, were not and could not be prudes. When you came from a culture that crammed three or four generations onto a transport the size of the Mother Goose and each of those generations kept plenty busy producing the next, it was about impossible. A good thing, 'cause otherwise, he was pretty sure he'd have been real embarrassed.
As it was, he was just confused.
Finally, Otto came up for air. “Missed you, babe,” he breathed.
“Otto,” Alarie whispered. “It's finally over, isn't it? Those horrible years are over.”
“No more pretending,” Otto said. He let her go and stepped back. “But the job isn't quite finished. We're on the home stretch, but we've got some more business before pleasure.”
Alarie frowned at the floor, but she nodded.
“You got everything loaded?”
Alarie nodded again. “It's all just like you said it would be, Otto. Aside from your brother coming back, I mean.”
“Rudy won't be any trouble,” Otto said. “If he's playing takeover games, all they are is games. Once I get back, he'll be happy to run away from anything that smells like responsibility.”
“He seemed very serious about it,” Alarie said. “At least, that's what my father said.”
“He's in the tournament now, right?”
“Well, yes. It's amazing he managed to beat that Animus Hunter.”
“He won?” Jack stared. Holy crap. That meant he and Chloe hadn't run away. If he'd won, though, maybe they didn't have to.
“Ferrill probably set Zelph up for a fall,” Otto said. “Thus eliminating one of the last people who could have done a damn thing about us. I cannot wait to see the look on that bitch's face when she realizes that.”
Alarie put a hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle. “Otto, you shouldn't say that.”
“You saying you can wait?”
“No,” she admitted. “President Ferrill has always terrified me.”
“Then get ready to enjoy some payback, babe.” Otto chuckled. “All right, people, enough chit-chat. I want to be in the Senate Chamber in time to see the look on Rudy's face when he asks for his Boon, too. Assuming he actually gets off his ass and wins this time.”
“Wait just a damn minute,” Jack said. He grabbed the oligarch's arm. “The hell is going on?”
Otto finally turned to him. “Remember all that stuff I told you about Etemenos, Jack? Shields so powerful an Imperial couldn't get through? Twenty thousand guns rated for anti cap-ship work? Seven rings as massive as planets and seven miniature suns to power it all? And the biggest fleet in the world-city?”
“Yeah,” Jack said. “What about it?”
Otto's grin looked like it was going to split his face in half. “It's all ours, now.”
