Choices | Page 9

"I would show you honesty, Captain." She bowed her head demurely. "And I would hope that you would hear sincerity."
"Why?"
"So that I might gain your trust."
"And having done so?"
"Then I would ask of you a favor, and hope that you would not hesitate in granting it."
I swallowed, feeling a leaden lump slide down my throat and fall heavily into the pit of my stomach. It sat there, a rotting mass of anguish.
"What favor will you ask?" I heard myself whisper in a voice tight with anxiety.
"Not now, Captain," she said. "The asking will come when I am sure of your reply."
"And until then?"
"We shall meet, as we have met now. Again. And again. However many times it may be necessary. Or until I have no more time," she concluded cryptically.
I looked at her and saw a sense of desperation in her eyes: a plea for understanding and patience. And I thought to myself, then, that if she'd asked me her favor I wouldn't have hesitated in granting it--even if it had meant risking a career.
I started to say something, but she held up a hand to silence me. She motioned to the door, then turned her chair towards her desk and submerged herself in the shimmering text that floated in the cube of her com-link. I blinked, taken aback, slowly realizing I'd been dismissed. I rose sluggishly from the chair and turned to the door. The acolyte who had led me here was waiting in rigid silence.
"When will we meet again?" I asked Kieara Cjhar as I stood at the threshold of the doorway.
"You will be informed," she said without turning.
I followed the acolyte to the doorway through which I'd entered the Sentai. The guide was waiting in the narrow alleyway, hidden in the shadows by his hooded cloak. As the door into the Sentai closed behind me, he started forward, not waiting to see whether or not I followed. In silence he led me back to the embassy. Only once I was back within the safety of the embassy's shield did I realize how terrified I'd been. I had fought on the front line against the Unity, both in the field and on the ships, and had seen with my own eyes the horrors of which they were capable. But never once had I felt as vulnerable as I'd felt out there in those darkened streets, my life entrusted to people I had no right to trust. And yet, I did trust them. Or at least I trusted Kieara Cjhar.
I didn't sleep much that night. I couldn't help but wonder what favor it was she'd ask of me.

7.
"I don't believe her," said Burrye.
I swiveled in the chair behind my office desk and looked across the room at him. "You mean you don't want to believe her," I said.
He scowled, his dark glower seeming to drop the temperature of the room by degrees. "You don't know these people, Captain," he said. "I've been here for two years. Been here since the embassy was first established. I've watched Kuhn and his daughter, and believe me, nothing I've seen suggests to me she'd ever betray him."
"She never made it clear she would," I argued.
"What she did last night by meeting with you--in of all places the Sentai!--would be enough to get her killed." He shook his head. "No, I can't begin to accept for a moment that she'd have done what she's done without her father knowing about it. It's too great a risk if she were caught."
"Then you're convinced this is some sort of trap," I said.
"Of course it is!" he barked impatiently. "What else could it be? It makes no sense, otherwise."
"Unless, of course, there is indeed something she wants of me," I said. "Something only we can provide."
Burrye snorted loudly. "Next you'll be suggesting she might be thinking of seeking asylum with us."
"That had crossed my mind."
"Why?" he demanded. "Why would she need asylum? As daughter of the prelate she certainly doesn't want for anything. She has a coveted position on this world. Why would she want to give that up? There's no suffering for the likes of her."
"There are many definitions for suffering," I said.
"I'm sorry, Captain, but I just don't buy into it. You've met her once and that should be the end of it."
"And if it isn't?"
"If it isn't, we could end up with the sort of incident that can start a war."
"What if she's genuinely seeking our help?" I asked. "During the war we never turned our backs on those who sought our assistance," I reminded him.
"The war has been over almost five years now, Captain."
"So it has, Jacob. So it has. And perhaps that's good enough reason to start trusting once more."
"The Reds haven't accepted defeat," said Burrye. "The Church still preaches that we're