Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Aiden had gone straight to Lillian and Elenor’s suite when he had finished clearing up the lunch detritus.
Partially because he needed to know what information was pulled off the data stick Mathias had delivered, and partially because he felt like he’d just undergone the emotional equivalent of being hit in the face with a brick.
It was mostly the brick thing, if he was being honest with himself.
Lillian was more than capable of disseminating the information from the data stick. She was the mother he got his list-making tendencies from. Elenor was the mom who taught him how to gather intelligence at the blunt end of a knife. They’d both taught him the wisdom of holding one’s tongue.
That was the lesson he was going to have to put into practice in the coming days. It was far too soon to tell Evelyn he was falling in love with her. Over half their acquaintance she’d technically been his captive.
What sort of shit asset acquisitions specialist falls in love with the first woman they’re set after?
Aiden tapped listlessly at the door to the suite.
The doors slid open silently, smoothly disappearing into the walls on either side of the threshold.
He walked in and flopped down on an overstuffed chair that faced the wall screen Lillian was facing.
She flicked data around the display, organizing it into neat columns.
His left hand reached up to worry at his beard.
Lillian looked away from the display screen, smirking at him before returning to her data sorting. “Figured it out?”
“Figured what out? There are many secrets in the universe we’ve yet to uncover,” he said grumpily. He scowled at her, and the smirk on her face transformed into a knowing grin.
“That you’re falling in love with Evelyn,” she said.
Aiden’s shoulders tensed.
“Please say yes. Your mother set down fifty credits that it would take you another two days. I have my eye on a new set of micro tools.” Lillian frowned and moved a document from one pile to another.
Aiden’s hand moved from his beard to scrub his face. “Have fun shopping.”
Lillian pumped her fist in victory. She then swore when the movement scattered documents across the view screen.
“L.I.N.D.A., undo that last,” she said, and the documents realigned neatly. Lillian turned to face Aiden, and he was halfway disappointed she was abandoning the documents to deal with his self-imposed crisis. “You look way too morose for a man in the first throes of new love. Buck up, kiddo.”
“It’s complicated.” Aiden went back to worrying his beard. It struck him that he’d been substituting a lock of Evelyn’s silky waves for the course bristles on his face. This made his scowl deepen.
“What’s there to be complicated about? You two are crazy for each other. It’s obvious to anything with a pulse.”
“It is obvious to those of us without a pulse.”
“It’s too soon,” he objected.
His mother shrugged. “When you know, you know. I did. I think the precog knew ahead of time, too. Fucking Vinnie.”
Aiden sputtered, sitting up quickly as he recalled the way Mathias had grinned at him and Evelyn. “Are you implying I’ve been on the most convoluted blind date in galactic history for the past few weeks?”
“I’m not not saying that. More likely that Vinnie saw the chance for a twofer, and she took it. Sly lady, that one.”
Aiden briefly considered this, quickly deciding that trying to parse Vinnie’s motives for anything was a losing prospect. Who knew why she did a damn thing. And really, if the result was having Evelyn in his life, did he care?
He sighed. “I don’t know if I should be annoyed with her, or if I should send her a fruit basket.”
“You can do both.” Lillian shrugged. “Does the motivation really matter if the results are what you wanted and everyone’s happy in the end?”
Aiden laughed. He sat back again and let his shoulders shake as he realized the advice his mother was giving him amounted, quite succinctly, to “fuck it, let it go.”
Did it really matter how they met? Maybe Aiden would feel better about himself if he had found Evelyn in a grocery store, stealing bananas out of his cart, or if he’d bumped into her in line at a spaceport instead of a highly adrenalized escape from an isolated medivessel.
The lingering doubts that had needled him since he’d had his realization earlier began to dissipate.
So he’d liberated her from political imprisonment. So what? The power dynamic established there was pretty neatly smashed by the fact that Evelyn was positioned to take control of an entire planet as its sovereign. Queens weren’t beholden to their rescuers.
Queens could probably do a lot better than smugglers who didn’t have any idea how to have a relationship that lasted longer than a few nights, who ran around the galaxy avoiding heartbreak and figuring out what they wanted to do with their lives by putting everyone else they loved first. Really, she was entirely too good for him.
If Vinnie hadn’t manipulated the whole lot of them into this quest for Tanalian freedom, Aiden would never have met Evelyn. The thought of not having her in his life now felt alien.
Maybe that’s because it was foreseen by that damn precog.
He could forgive the manipulation. Stars knew he’d finagled circumstances in any of a dozen cases to get the desired outcome for himself or a client. At least Vinnie’s desired outcome was vaguely more honorable than lining his credit account.
He could let go of the guilt he had piled on himself for failing to stay away from Evelyn for her own good. Who was he to deny her anything she wanted? If he were lucky, maybe she’d fall in love with him, too, before she realized how much better she could do.
Fuck a fruit basket, I should buy Vinnie an orchard. Or a vineyard.
“I needed that,” Aiden said. He got out of the chair and gave his mother a quick hug. “You’re right. It’s irrelevant.”
Lillian patted his shoulder and eased back from the hug so she could see Aiden’s face. She gave him a quick smile.
“For what it’s worth, we like her.”
“That’s worth a lot, ” he said, breaking the hug and turning toward the view screen. He gestured at the stacks of data Lillian had been sorting. “Now, walk me through this.”
Aiden had pored over the documents Lillian had been sorting for an hour before he thought his eyes were going to melt.
Leaving the data to his mother, he went to the gym-turned-armory in search of another planning contingent.
The usual sound of upbeat music that accompanied Nannette’s religious cardio was missing today, replaced by the sound of bickering. Loud bickering.
Nannette and Mathias stood in the center of the room at opposite sides of a folding table strewn with maps and file folders. There was a lot of pointing and hand-waving going on. Derisive snorts happened on both sides, their faces flushed, eyes bright with anger.
Veselko and Elenor were leaning up against a treadmill, watching the show. Veselko nodded to the communicator he was holding. Aiden checked his own.
I give it ten minutes before she stabs him. Your mom gave them fifteen before they make out.
Aiden was starting to get a little worried that Elenor was developing a gambling problem.
“Children,” Elenor said. “This can’t possibly be productive.”
“This moron had an absolutely suicidal suggestion for the men on the ground,” Nannette seethed. She actually pointed a finger at Mathias, in case the moron she was speaking of happened to be in question. It wasn’t.
“It’s only suicidal if it doesn’t work. And it will. Probably,” Mathias said, looking appropriately embarrassed as he took in their audience.
Good, there’s more than charm happening here.
“Oh, because the great Mathias knows all,” Nannette said, wiggling her fingers. Derisive finger waggling was hard to nail, but every movement of her hands positively dripped scorn. Aiden was glad to see she was back on her game.
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Mathias said.
“I’m saying that it’s an angle that could be explored, and it’s a calculated risk that may be worth taking.
Which is why I brought it to your attention.
” He turned to Elenor, the clear adult in the room.
“Would you like to come and examine these maps? I have some thoughts.”
Nannette stomped her foot. “You are not going to be the reasonable one here. I’m reasonable!”
Veselko slowly approached Nannette the way one would approach a rabid raccoon with a fist full of dynamite. He laid a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I’m super thirsty. Why don’t we go get some bottled water?”
She glared at him before turning to stomp out of the armory. Veselko winked at the table.
“She’ll cool off in a few,” he whispered as he left.
Mathias ran a hand through his hair, radiating frustration. He gave Elenor and Aiden a sheepish smile and adjusted the collar of his shirt.
“I wish I knew what I did to get on Nannette’s bad side,” he said. “And possessed a time machine.”
“She’ll calm down,” Elenor said. “She really is very reasonable under normal circumstances.”
“She’s quite protective of us all. This is a risky undertaking. I’m not surprised she fried a circuit or two,” Aiden said.
Mathias nodded. “I get that. I even respect it — both the protective instincts and the fire. I just wish it wasn’t aimed at me. Or that I were in flame-retardant clothing.”
Elenor snickered. “I’ll go find a fire extinguisher.”
“You seemed to be holding your own,” Aiden said. Seeing Mathias and Nannette go at each other so heatedly confirmed what he’d noticed before and cooled any jealousy Aiden still felt.
Pretty clear he’s not into blondes. Thank fuck.
The corner of Mathias’s mouth flicked up. “I may enjoy poking the bear. A little.”
“Secret’s safe with me,” Elenor said. She gestured at the table. “So, tell us about these maps.”
“Right,” Mathias said, clearing his throat.
“These are the locations that Corvinia wants you to deliver arms to. They’re further from any of the military outposts that Emil has installed.
She’s spent years slowly luring the enlisted population over to her cause, and they’re ready to take the bases when Evelyn makes her declaration.
These locations,” he said, gesturing to points circled in red marker on the maps, “are largely rural farming communities. They’re strategically important — armies march on their stomachs — but they’re not especially well guarded. ”
“Hence the need for arms,” Aiden said. “Vinnie wants them able to fend off an attack if Emil tries to take them over in an attempt to starve out the revolutionaries.”
Mathias nodded. “Exactly. Most of these folks don’t have any training, which is Nannette’s major objection. They know how to keep pests off their land, keep their chickens from being raided by predators, and such, but that’s it.”
Elenor tapped her hand on the table, considering. “How much training could they conceivably get in the timeframe we have?”
“Realistically? Not much. But some is better than none,” he said.
“What’s the situation in the cities look like?” Aiden asked.
Mathias blew out a long breath. “Discontented. Folks aren’t happy with the regime, but they’re not organized.
There’s nothing for them to rally behind.
Being against Emil isn’t enough; they need to be for something, someone.
They’re afraid and need to see someone with things to lose speaking out.
One spark will set this thing on fire, I’m sure of it. ”
Evelyn. She’d sure as shit set Aiden aflame. He had no doubt the planet would rally behind her. Now he just had to do everything he could to get her to believe it, too.
Nannette stomped halfway down the hallway to the kitchen. By the time she arrived at the refrigerator, she was merely aggressively striding. She stopped short and pulled the handle of the fridge open.
“You aren’t allowed to stock this anymore,” she called over her shoulder to Veselko.
“Then someone else should take the grocery shipments off the jump ship,” he said with a shrug. “You don’t like it, you do it.”
She grabbed four bottles of water that had been shoved haphazardly in the fridge. She tugged two from the crisper drawer, one from the graveyard of condiments, and another from the back of the top shelf, lodged above a brick of cream cheese.
“Do you just fling things in here? Are you secretly making a scavenger hunt for us?”
Veselko just grinned. “My methods are my own. So, why do you hate the handsome psychic?”
Nannette glared at him. “I don’t hate him.”
“Ah! She doesn’t deny he’s handsome.” Veselko pointed at her. “Ladies and germs, she thinks he’s sexy. He’s hot. He’s a dish.”
“I do have eyes,” she muttered. She ripped the top off her water bottle and took a swig.
The crisp, cold fluid shocked her senses and jolted her back to the calm center she was used to.
Her normally focused mind had been preoccupied, returning again and again to the moment she’d met Mathias in the lobby.
It was annoying as hell. “Did you see what happened when we came into the lobby earlier? He just. . . blanked out when he saw me. That can’t be good. ”
Veselko shrugged. “Would you want to know if it was bad?”
Maybe. It never hurts to know when you’re going to need to run.
He patted her on the shoulder before taking two of the water bottles off the counter.
“C’mon. Let’s go plan a coup with a cute, strange man.”
“Stop talking about yourself.”