Allies by Bella Forrest

Author:Bella Forrest [Forrest, Bella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nightlight
Published: 2018-05-20T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

After locking Stone back in the storage closet, I walked toward the cockpit, where Bashrik was setting a course for Glossa. Lauren had already passed the news on to him, and he didn’t seem too upset about joining forces with a known criminal. I supposed we were past all that, given our own misdemeanors. I just hoped that meant the others were on board too, though they were nowhere to be seen. I thought about going in search of them, but I was too tired. Threatening Stone had taken the last morsel of energy I had, forcing me to seek comfort in the copilot’s seat. I sank down, taking deep breaths as I stared through the windshield at the grimy canal.

“Hmm, interesting,” Bashrik murmured thoughtfully, glancing down at the navigation panel.

“What’s up?” I asked half-heartedly.

“Well, the course to Glossa is in the same direction as Vysanthe,” he explained. “We can either pass by it or take a route that avoids it altogether.”

“Wouldn’t passing by it be too dangerous?”

Bashrik nodded slowly. “In theory, but if we’re very clever and use the cruiser’s shields, we can move past it without detection and pick up some news transmissions, to get a status on the war. If we’re planning to take on Orion and the rebels, we should probably find out what the queens are up to first—make sure they’re suitably occupied.”

“I wish there were intergalactic newspapers,” I joked, putting my feet up on the dashboard.

“Well, there are interplanetary news stations, but Vysanthe doesn’t allow reporters in. It’s a no-go zone with a hefty sentence if anyone gets caught undercover.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah, take a look.” He pressed a few buttons on the control panel. Images and video clips flickered to life on the monitor. I couldn’t read the words running along the bottom of the screen, but the images didn’t look too good. From what I could gather, it was talking about a shipment of factory-farmed Sonorans, which had been intercepted en route to a black-market trade deal.

“And planets can just opt out?” I asked. There were countries on Earth where the media wasn’t allowed to go, but surely planets were harder to regulate than countries.

“They can when they’re as powerful as Vysanthe.”

“Point taken,” I said wryly, as Bashrik switched the screen back to navigation mode. “Anyway, don’t suppose you can shed any light on what’s wrong with Navan, can you? Apparently, I’m banned from seeing him. Is he really that bad?”

Bashrik squirmed in his chair. “I don’t know too much about it, Riley. You should just ask him when he decides it’s time to come out of hiding.”

“So, he is hiding?”

“I didn’t say that!”

“Yes, you did—what’s he hiding from? Is he hiding from me?” I couldn’t understand what might have happened that would lead him to forbid me from seeing him. We’d already been through so much together. Prior to waking up after my serum coma, I didn’t think there was anything in the universe that could have kept us apart, but he seemed to be letting something get in the way.

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