Diamond Queen by Shanon L. Mayer

Author:Shanon L. Mayer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shanon Mayer

16

Enemy of My Enemy

“What’s the next phase of the plan?” Knave looked up from his console to meet Diamond’s eyes. “Now that you’ve got your bases up and running, I’m sure you’re already working on the next part.”

She giggled and turned back to her own console. “Sometimes,” she said, “I think you might know me too well.”

“Does that mean you’ve got a plan?”

“Well, it’s not a plan, per se, but more of a plan to make a plan.”

He blinked at her in silence for a moment. “You’re serious,” he decided. “Okay, so what’s the plan to make a plan?”

“The first step, of course, is to get funds flowing again. With both groups looking for viable opportunities, the bases should be able to start showing some progress on that soon. Once that’s going, we’ve got two options. We can either start chipping away at the King’s Deck or we can start dismantling his Roxxy distribution chain.”

“If I recall correctly, it’s only the people loyal to the King who have information about their distribution, so it seems like those can both be done simultaneously.”

She nodded her agreement with his logic. “By taking out his supply chain and the people who are managing it, that will put a dent in his income, his people, and take at least some of the drug out of the picture.” She had no illusions about being able to take Roxxy off the market completely; they hadn’t even been able to do that on the single planet they had recently lived on.

“Ah,” Knave nodded slowly in comprehension. “And that’s where you’re stuck.”

It was true. Because of Diamond’s resistance to violence, killing any cards who were loyal to the King was out of the question. “I’m trying to figure out how to take his people away from him,” she said. “I’ve been wracking my brain, but everything lately seems to lead back to violence and killing people.” She looked up at her friend, her green eyes sad. “And I can’t do that anymore.”

Both of them sat in silence, thinking, for the next hour and a half, until Knave’s head snapped up and turned to Diamond. “Why don’t we do it the same way we did back on Earth?”

Diamond chuckled. “You really think deVann and his task force can manage all these people?” she asked. “Heck, he couldn’t even manage us.”

“No,” He shook his head. “I’m not thinking deVann. I’m not even thinking the FBI.”

“Good,” she muttered. “A well-trained human would tear them apart.” She shuddered. “I’d hate to think of what would happen if we handed them a Tet.” Earthlings had no notion of what a Tet was, let alone what one was capable of. Since they weren’t a space-travelling civilization yet, even though they badly wanted to be one, the people of Earth were still convinced that their species was the only one in the universe. She and Knave had spent months laughing at that idea once they discovered how stunted their new neighbors’ knowledge of their place in the galaxy truly was.

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