Reading the Wind by Brenda Cooper

Author:Brenda Cooper [Cooper, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781429962216
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2008-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

24

PREPARATION

My father’s words echoed in my being. “Killing everyone on Fremont.”

Chelo.

And hundreds of others. Even Nava and Hunter seemed dear. Each name, each face sank into my belly like a stone.

How dare he!

Alicia leapt to her feet and stared down at him as he sat next to me on the bench, her face snarled in anger. “You didn’t. No one could be that cold! Your daughter is there.”

He leaned back, as if trying to fade into the stone bench.

She and I were one in our rage. Alicia, of all of us, had reason to wish some on Fremont dead. But we were not killers. Anger tightened her features, bringing out her fierce beauty. I expected her to scream at him, but it was Jenna who spoke first, her voice sharp yet controlled. “David.”

He sobbed, his words broken. “I did it for Marissa. And for the kids.” He raised his head and looked at me, his eyes so pain-drenched I almost felt sorry for him. I bit my lip, steeling myself against his remorse as he continued. “I’m sorry. I thought they killed everyone.”

Jenna’s voice was stone. But then, he was looking at me, and she couldn’t see his eyes. “We died, Marissa died, so many of us died, because we didn’t believe in genocide.”

His voice shattered. “I—I know—I know.” He put his head back into his hands, not looking at me. Afraid to look at me?

We remained still and silent. My father, craven behind his hands. Jenna, her jaws tight and her eyes turned deeply inward. Alicia, still standing, fists balled, jaws as tight as Jenna’s. Bryan stood behind me, his disgust deep enough to feel. And me? I have no idea what I looked like. My dreams of a loving, strong father lay shattered around me.

I spoke next, asking him, “Can’t you call them off?”

He shook his head. “If I could reach them. For a fee. It took ten years to save enough for the contract. The cancellation fee is half again.”

“What did it cost to kill a whole people?” I asked, my voice shaking, my jaw tight.

He recoiled as if my question stung him. Words seemed to stick in his mouth until they almost choked him. Finally, he said, “One hundred thousand credits.”

Jenna gasped. Marcus’s training for me had been less than a thousand credits so far, and Tiala had called that the price of a small space ship. So for enough money to buy a hundred small ships, you could annihilate over two thousand human beings.

“So we need fifty thousand credits to save my sister?” I needed to be sure I understood.

“That’s a fortune,” Jenna whispered.

Bryan spoke up. “There’s no time to raise it.” He glanced at my father. “Unless you have any bright ideas?”

My father shook his head, but he sat up a little, so he no longer looked quite like he wanted to disappear into the bench.

Bryan almost never spoke, but when he did, everyone listened.

“Bryan’s right,” I said. “So we have to get there before the mercenaries do.

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