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Neil looked glumly at Nova. “Who are you anyway?”
Nova shrugged her shoulders. “I’m… Iwasa thief.” Several people gasped. “A good one too, never been caught.” Even if it had taken faking a kidnapping to escape Connor.
Brent went over everyone’s roles for the mission, then moved on to news since the last meeting. “Devon is still in Baedden.”
“How long is he staying?” the woman next to her asked.
“He hasn’t said. But how great would it be for the shipment to be stolen right under his nose?” Mak said, with a glint in his eyes.
“Maybe you could put poison in his glass when you have dinner with him some time,” Neil said to Nova.
Nova got the feeling he’d only said that to point out the fact that she was too close to the enemy and couldn’t be trusted.
“I’m a thief, not a murderer.”
“Leave her alone already, Neil,” Mak said, punching Neil lightly in the arm.
“Yes,” Brent said. “You’ve made your point. But for now Meghan is risking her life just like the rest of us, so you will treat her the same as everyone else.”
Neil reluctantly nodded his head.
“Meghan, Karen, it’s time for the two of you to leave. We don’t want anyone getting suspicious,” Brent said.
Karen, a woman sitting behind her on the bed, got up. She and Nova followed Brent into the living room.
“I have to take the back exit,” Karen said, turning to Nova. “But if living with Altair becomes unbearable and you ever need to talk, I’m here.” She smiled thinly. The darkness did nothing to hide the old bruise on her cheek.
Nova’s blood boiled as she realized how she must have gotten it. “Where’s your husband?” Nova asked.
“He’s not a rebel,” Karen said.
“Be careful getting home,” Brent said, walking her to the back of the house. He moved a chair away from the wall and opened a waist high door. Karen bent down and left through the door.
“She can’t be seen entering our house without arousing suspicions,” he said, walking toward the front door. “You on the other hand, have a valid excuse for being here, but not for too long.”
He opened the door and Nova walked out.
* * *
Nova came home exhausted. Altair had already made dinner. He asked her about her day so she talked about her deliveries, leaving out the rebel part of course.
“Do you want to take a walk?” Nova asked after dinner. She wanted to get a closer look at the council building before breaking into it. “I’m not tired enough to fall asleep yet.”
“Yes. We can do that.”
Good. Now all she had to do was somehow get him to show her his office.
They went out as soon as they were done cleaning up after dinner. She made sure to step out of the house first and to walk toward the center of town. He followed.
“Where do people go out to see their friends?” she asked. “I didn’t see a single coffee shop or restaurant.”
“We don’t have those,” Altair said, walking at her side, keeping a slow pace. “People on Mudden don’t live surrounded by strangers like on the ‘civilized’ planets. We live with our clan, which contains our friends and families. We don’t need to find excuses to see the people we love. They already live near us, and we see them every day.”
He obviously wasn’t describing himself. He lived among people who hated him. But she had to admit it sounded nice for the people who were born into it.
She’d been born on a mining colony where no one was your friend. Even as a child she hadn’t been allowed to interact with the other children. Most people who ended up in mining colonies were running away or hiding from something. There was a lot of turnaround and a lot of competition to be the one to get the big bonus.
It wasn’t a safe place. Her own dad had adopted her when she was three years old. He’d found her wandering around the colony. To this day, they still didn’t know if she’d been left behind on purpose or if she’d been lost. She had no memory of her birth parents.
