The Worst Rescuers in the Republic (Dumb Luck and Dead Heroes Book 4) by Skyler Ramirez

Author:Skyler Ramirez [Ramirez, Skyler]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Persephone Entertainment Inc.
Published: 2023-12-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19 – Confession

Jessica Lin

Running into Poulter and his crew in the outer system reinforces that Capaldi is the place where Kayla is holding Brad. And the irony of the late and unlamented Lawrence Poulter clearly working for the woman who really killed his brother is not lost on me.

Still, even with that tacit confirmation, I feel like we’re still incredibly far away from finding our captain. Because space, even inside a single system, is huge.

Seriously, the entire reason why Kayla and others seem so intent on getting the coordinates in Gerson that Brad may or may not actually have in his head is the same reason why we now stand very little chance of actually finding him in time to stop them. It can take months, even on a fast warship, to search an entire system—years if you need to search the surface of every planet, moon, and asteroid. And every second it takes us to do so is one more second that Brad might break, give Kayla what she wants, and get himself killed…assuming that hasn’t already happened.

But instead of being out on the bridge leading the charge in that desperate search, I’m here, in my day cabin, huddled on the couch and shaking uncontrollably, my skin still stinging from the latest of Perry’s near-sadistic lotion applications.

I’m not stupid. I know that Brad thinks I’m some sort of tactical genius. And I’ll admit, I do have my moments, like just now in defeating Hawkwing.

What Brad doesn’t know is that the first time I felt that way since Yolandra was when he pushed me to come up with the plan to destroy the Koratan enemy ship in Gerson, back on the first Persephone. But despite these recent flashes of my old self, I’m still the same broken woman I was when Brad first met me—who let terrible things happen to me after I killed dozens of people through my own stupidity and weakness.

Brad didn’t see me in that escape pod after he stayed behind on Persephone to blow it up and take out the Koratan destroyer. I was a wreck. Poor Petra Yesayan and Peter Stevens spent hours trying unsuccessfully to calm me down as my mind spiraled through all the various self-recriminations for getting Brad killed because I couldn’t come up with a better plan. The only thing that pulled me out of that spiral was when we detected Brad’s escape pod and learned he was still alive.

I’m spiraling in equal fashion now, even though our engagement with Hawkwing was, by any measure, incredibly successful. Even so, this time my brain is torturing itself with all the ways things could have gone wrong in that fight. And from there, I’m spiraling into all the thoughts of how unlikely it is that we’ll actually find Brad in this system, much less alive. But, unlike back at Gerson, Brad isn’t waiting just a few kilometers away in an escape pod to help me calm down.

The hatch out into the corridor opens, and a slight figure fills the doorway.

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