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“The only thing they’d moved was the lamp, that suggested they were reading something. And there just isn’t anything else of value in my office.”
Flintoid statues excluded.
“I decided to set a trap,” he continued. “And it worked. We caught a rebel trying to steal our marble shipment. I had to contact Devon with the information. He decided to take the opportunity to try once again to get rid of me by sending Gary and more men than he could possibly need. Gary decided to do the round-up of prisoners. It wasn’t necessary but he used it as a scare tactic. His real purpose here, however, was to interrogate the rebel prisoner we had.”
Nova’s heart beat harder, and she braced herself for bad news.
“He killed the prisoner today.”
She gasped. She couldn’t help it. Neil was dead? How had things spiraled out of control so fast?
“Why?” she asked, trying to sound just mildly curious and not like her heart was racing a kilometer a minute as guilt and fear overwhelmed her thoughts and emotions.
“It was an accident, or so he says. The rebel wouldn’t talk, and Gary took the interrogation too far.”
“That’s terrible.”
“It’s not following procedure. The rebel should have been publicly executed to warn off others from rebelling. Now Gary will be on a witch hunt to find someone to hang to justify his actions. He won’t leave until he gets another rebel.”
“So you don’t care that a man was murdered, you’re just pissed Gary isn’t leaving yet.”
she didn’t hide the look of disgust from her face.
Altair looked at her for a long moment. She glared back not wanting to be the first to break eye contact.
“You would prefer that I care for other people,rebels, more than I care for myself?”
Nova was hardly in a position to lecture him on selflessness. She’d never cared much for others herself.Shards, even coming here had been a selfish move, but she still found his lack of empathy disturbing.
“These are not just random people. They’re people that you are responsible for. You are their leader, isn’t it your job to care for them?”
“I’m trying to do my job but people keep getting in the way. I’ve been telling my grandfather for years that if he stopped beating people up and gave them incentives instead for doing hard work, they would be more motivated, and production in the mines would increase. Fear only works for so long, but eventually, it gets replaced by anger and efficiency drops. But worst of all, that anger leads to rebels rising up against us, which in turn lowers efficiency again. I was in the process of setting up a rewards system when Devon came and sent his men to the mines instead.”
“Not beating people up would help, but as long as your family stops people from leaving the planet and having control over who they marry, you will always have rebels.”
“There’s nothing to be done about that. Anyone who disagrees just doesn’t understand the complexity of our situation. The lack-of-women problem could end our civilization. My family is doing what’s best for everyone, even if some refuse to recognize it. The rebels want to abandon the Mudden way of life. They want to give up our freedom and conform to IPAC rules. That’s worse.”
She could tell by the look on his face that he hated the rebels. They bothered him more than Gary, more than the conflict with his family. If he found out she was one of them, he’d be the first screaming for her head. A chill ran down her spine. She might have hoped that after their shared conversation last night, he’d consider her a friend, but that would only last as long as he didn’t know the truth.
“So you execute them?”
He hesitated. “It’s not my favorite thing, but the rebels need to be stopped.”
“And execution is the only option?”
“I don’t know. It’s the way my grandfather has always done it.”
“And you go along with it?”
He turned his face away from her but she saw the embarrassment and anger.
“In case you haven’t noticed, no one listens to me around here.”
She was digging into a painful place, and she didn’t know how he would react, but it was better than to hear him talk about killing a man with coldness and indifference.
“Maybe if you spent less time feeling sorry for yourself, you’d be able to care about what happens to others.”
“And be more like Mak?”
