Page 194 of Reaper Said Mine

“It is, but I’ve been inconvenienced professionally for years, so I’m in familiar territory.”

A rough exhale leaves him. It might be amusement if the galaxy were less determined to ruin our lives.

Behind him, someone calls out a status update I can’t quite understand. Gnash glances aside, answers in clipped Reaper, then looks back at me with that fierce attention that always makes everything around us seem thinner.

“Come back if Dawson blocks you,” he says.

Something twists low in my chest.

“I can’t.”

His expression changes immediately. “You can.”

“No, Gnash. I mean I physically can, yes, assuming nobody arrests me on the way, but I can’t do that and still make this matter.”

“You matter.”

“So do the people on your station.”

His eyes darken.

I lean closer to the compad, lowering my voice even though every passenger around me is absorbed in feeds, naps, or private calls. “If this evidence stays inside Guyver’s information channels, they’ll call it propaganda. If it comes from me, through Earth-based analysts, journalists, and politicians who don’t have a bone-spurred warlord standing behind them, it has a chance.”

“You say that as if I would stand behind them politely.”

“You would absolutely loom.”

“I loom with dignity.”

“You loom like a threat someone taught to use doors.”

His teeth show briefly, and the sight of that almost-smile makes the distance between us worse. I want to touch him so badly my palm aches. I want the command center’s hot metal air, the rough pressure of his hand at my back, the deep rumble of his voice without relay lag carving holes through it.

Instead, I sit above the safest planet in human space and feel more exposed than I ever did in the Badlands.

Gnash’s amusement fades. “Theryki is pressing the compact.”

“I figured she would.”

“Skahar is pressing my patience.”

“That also tracks.”

“My outer captains want permission to retaliate.”

My stomach drops.

“Tell me you said no.”

“I said no.”

“Good.”

“They think restraint makes us look weak.”

“Then tell them truth makes liars nervous, and nervous liars make mistakes.”

He pauses for a moment.