Page 173 of Reaper Said Mine

Zune’s security men shout. Gobold reaches for his weapon. Theryki snaps an order in Coalition Standard. Vakka yells my name. Skahar’s cane cracks against the floor.

None of it reaches me in time.

I seize Zune by the throat and lift him off his feet.

His polished composure shatters instantly. His hands claw at my wrist. His shoes kick uselessly above the deck. The legal aide screams. The chamber erupts around us.

“Gnash!” Wilcox shouts. “Do not do this!”

Zune’s eyes bulge. He tries to speak. I loosen my grip just enough to let words crawl out.

“This is murder,” he rasps.

“No,” I say. “This is consequence.”

I turn him so every diplomat, soldier, aide, guard, and witness in the chamber can see his face. “You bought debt. You bought labor. You bought silence. You bought fear. Then you came onto my station and threatened the woman who exposed you.”

He chokes. “No proof.”

“There is always proof. Men like you simply believe you can afford enough hands to bury it.”

His face reddens. His pulse hammers beneath my fingers, fast and fragile.

Ursa bursts through the chamber doors.

The sight of her nearly breaks me.

She is breathless, furious, terrified, alive. Two guards follow at her heels, looking like men who chose survival by letting her pass. Her eyes lock on Zune, then on my hand around his throat.

“Gnash,” she says.

I remember my new creed. I will not let revenge define me. I lower Zune to the floor, releasing him from my grasp.

“Just get out of my sight,” I snarl.

Zune’s nostrils flare, and he grabs at his throat as if he can still feel my fingers around it. I see it building in his eyes, the same rage that nearly consumed me.

“Don’t try it, Zune--”

Zune produces a jagged dagger from some hidden place on his person. He snarls with savagery as he seeks to drive it into my breast. Without thought, only on instinct, I sidestep the attack and snap his neck with a brutal blow to his jaw.

The chamber detonates.

Coalition guards draw weapons. Reaper security throws up shields. Gobold roars for Alliance personnel to fall back. Wilcox shouts for everyone to hold fire, her voice cutting through the panic with old battlefield authority. Theryki stands frozen, then her expression becomes something precise and lethal.

“This is an assassination,” she says.

“I released him, spared him,” I growl. “He attacked me and I defended myself.”

“He attacked you after you’d already laid hands on him,” she snaps. “If this is how you treat diplomats--"

I turn toward her with Zune’s blood dripping from my claws. “He was not a diplomat.”

“He was a Helios representative under commercial guest status,” Wilcox snaps. “Which makes this a political catastrophe instead of a protected-personnel crisis, but do not look relieved because that distinction is thinner than prayer paper.”

Gobold points at Zune’s corpse. “You just killed a corporate envoy in front of witnesses.”

“In self defense.”