Page 37 of Solomon's Ransom

“I’ll behave,” Remma said, chastened. “There won’t be any trouble.”

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow,” Denna said, a clear dismissal, and Remma gladly took the opportunity to leave.

* * *

The shuttle glideddown toward the moon’s surface. Remma, strapped in the windowless cargo hold in back, closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the wings adjusting on the way through the atmosphere. Around him, the other pirates rode in silence, in some cases, or talked and laughed with their neighbors, in others.

This was the last job Remma would ever do with this group of people. He was finished.

The shuttle landed with jolt. Remma unbuckled his harness and waited his turn to file outside. The air through the open hatch smelled so familiar to him: pine, loamy soil, a hint of coming rain. He hadn’t been gone for more than a few weeks, and he was surprised to realize how much he had missed this moon.

They had landed on the flatlands below the colony. The sun was high in the sky behind patchy clouds, casting weak light on the outcrop where the colony lay. Remma craned his neck to look up toward the peak. He didn’t see anyone up there, but that didn’t mean they weren’t watching.

“Let’s go,” Denna said, motioning with one arm toward the outcrop. Everyone quit milling around and began the hike toward the top.

Loden was waiting for them outside, flanked by most of the colony’s members, all of them heavily armed. Remma saw people carrying guns who he knew for a fact couldn’t shoot. That was good: Loden was making a show of force, which meant she had some inkling what she was dealing with here. He hoped Sol’s message had gotten through.

“You’re Loden?” Denna asked, and she nodded once. “No warm greeting for the men who saved your son?”

“You kidnapped him, I believe,” Loden said. “But we’re greeting you warmly enough. We didn’t shoot your shuttle out of the sky.”

A bluff: the colony didn’t have any weapons capable of shooting down a shuttle. Remma’s hopes grew. Loden was going to play hardball, which was the only way she stood a chance of going up against Denna and getting Sol home.

Denna huffed. “Fair enough. Do we get to go inside, or are you going to make me negotiate on this rock?”

“I suppose we can go in,” Loden said. She gestured to Meridren, her second in command, who did actually know how to shoot, and he turned to activate the controls to open the gate.

The interior of the colony looked dusty and shabby after Remma’s time away. Denna sneered as they all walked into the main passage. “This is your base?”

“An outpost,” Loden said. “You think I’d lead you into the heart of my territory? Even on a backwater moon we know how to exercise caution.”

She was being more abrasive than Remma probably would have recommended, but it wasn’t like he was some tactical genius who knew exactly what to do in every situation. Who was to say his instincts were correct?

And Denna let it go, at least; or at least didn’t turn them all around and march right back outside. He followed Loden with a scowl on his face as she led him into the mess hall, which was the only room big enough to hold all of them. Denna’s face as he sat in one of the rickety, homemade wooden chairs was a picture of disbelief. Remma kept his amusement to himself. No need to give the game away.

Loden took the chair across the table. Everyone else stood, humans and Tozren eyeing each other warily. The situation could so easily descend into violence, and the humans would lose; even Sol, capable and fierce, didn’t know how to fight. But surely it wouldn’t come to that.

“So,” Loden said. “You have my son, you tell me.” A quick glance at Remma, who dipped his chin in acknowledgment. She still trusted him, then, at least enough to believe him that the pirates did actually have Sol.

“And you want him back, I take it,” Denna replied.

“I would like that, yes.”

“And what are you prepared to offer me in exchange?”

“We have a small something that may be of interest to you.” Loden turned to Meridren, who left the room briefly and came back holding a box with a lid. He approached Denna and lifted the lid just enough to show what was inside.

Remma couldn’t see, but he could tell from Denna’s expression that it was, in fact, the tesseract core. Loden had managed to find it.

“Well,” Denna said. “That’s something.”

“A small something,” Loden repeated, with a slight curve to her lips. She knew she had come up with something Denna wouldn’t be able to turn down.

“Yes. Well.” Denna reached for the box, but Meridren stepped back and replaced the lid. Denna looked at Loden with his eyebrows raised.

“I want my son first,” Loden said. “Then you can have the core.”

Denna snorted. “You aren’t in a position to negotiate. He’s still in orbit. Give me the core, and I’ll send him down on a shuttle.”