LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

with every ceiling. It had a single discernable decoration: an enormous circular logo on the “roof” the size of several city blocks. As the pull of the oncoming Ark slid me back into my seat, Isaiah cleared his throat.

      “So,” he said, “Couple of things. First, your new job description. You’re the Remnant’s ambassador to the Asian Ark, and fully vested with the authority that brings. Which might not be much, depending on how this goes. Second, you work for me. You represent me and everyone I work for. So don’t do anything hasty.”

      “Ise. What on earth—”

      “Tshh,” he said, shushing me. “The mission.”

      I gave him a blank stare. “Enlighten me.”

      “We are here to get official recognition from Asia.”

      “We—the Remnant?”

      I heard his smile, though I couldn’t see it. “Yep. See? You’re a natural.”

      “Recognition as what, again?”

      “A sovereign nation-state of the North American Ark.”

      “Isaiah. You can’t possibly be serious that I’m the one you want doing this. And are we even supposed to—”

      “You rather I picked Adam? He was eager enough. Can’t trust him, though. You’re the daughter of a senator. You’ve met foreign leaders before.”

      “Yeah. When I was, like, eight.”

      “You know the inner workings of Central Command, and you understand the Remnant: why it exists, how we do things. And you can predict how bad it’ll be for all that if the Commander takes us over.”

      “Okay, but—”

      “We don’t want to go to war. We just want to be left alone. And we can’t do that unless we have independence. And the more support we get from the other Arks, this one especially, the less likely the Commander will be to blow us all up, so to speak.”

      “Actually, I’m not sure that’s a figure of speech,” I frowned as he strapped my head back onto the chair. “But why this Ark especially? You heard something?”

      “Let’s just say I don’t trust them, either.” He stopped fiddling with the strap long enough to fix me with his blind gaze. “Keep focused, Char. Thousands of people are depending on us for everything. They need safety. They need justice. And they need to eat. As a separate nation-state, we’ll have the authority to fight back whenever those things are taken away from us, and more importantly, we’ll be in a better position to form alliances.”

      “This proves my point, Ise. I can barely remember any Chinese from middle school. They do speak Chinese, right?”

      “And Hindi, officially.”

      “Officially. Right.” I shook my head. “That’s not much of a plan.”

      “Adam reached out weeks ago and established a backchannel. There’s a big party tonight. The Commander will be there to state his case.”

      “I take it we’re not exactly on the guest list.”

      There was a pause, and I pictured him tilting his head, as though weighing his answer. “We’re not not on the guest list. Adam found us a contact: an ambassador’s assistant. They’re sympathetic.”

      “As far as we know,” I sighed. “I don’t like our odds.”

      “’S not the first Ark we’ve boarded without an invitation. This time, we won’t even have to hide once the party starts. You gotta remember, most people don’t want a war.”

      “I haven’t even read the Treaty yet. Everyone keeps referring to the pre-OPT training that I kinda missed, what with being in prison. And, Isaiah, people go to school for years to learn how to be ambassadors.”

      “You think you’re the only criminal we got? No one in the Remnant went to pre-OPT training. That was kind of the point, Char. We weren’t supposed to survive the meteor. Most of them don’t even accept the Treaty as valid, seeing as it planned for them to die. We don’t have years. And we don’t have a diplomacy program. Yet.” He let out a sharp breath. “But I will build this nation-state out of what we do have. And right now, that’s you.”

      I sat in silence, focusing for a moment on assisting Isaiah with his own headstrap. “This leader thing looks really good on you. You know that, right?”

      “I think a lot of that is going to depend on you, Ambassador.”

      “I’m not talking about the outcome. I mean they’re lucky to have you right now.”

      He clucked his tongue. “They?”

      “We. Maybe.” I squinted at him. “Anything you’re not telling me this time? Like, I don’t know. Something critical that I’m really going to wish I’d known earlier, or something?”

      The airlock before us opened, and our little ship found a harbor.

      “Oh, there’s plenty,” said Isaiah. “Now, let’s go be diplomats.”

       Nine

      The hatch of the Arkhopper popped open easily, and we were greeted by silence.

      The air was cold—too cold—and I suppressed the urge to hang onto Isaiah. As comforting as it would be, it was far better for us both to be ready.

      “Should we … I don’t know. Just start running? Look for a place to hide?”

      “They should be here any minute. We’ll stick around.”

      I shivered. “May I suggest a new plan? Get me away from this airlock before someone flips a switch somewhere and we end up dying in space.”

      “Tell me what you see. And get me out of this strap; I can’t find the buckle-thing.”

      I fumbled around his wrists and legs, keeping my eyes on the hatch. If we were walking into a trap, I wanted to know as soon as possible. Not that there was anything I could do about it. “Okay, it’s dark,” I said in a low voice. “But the airlock opened on both ends of the port as soon as we docked, probably automatically. That’s the last strap—you’re free. There’s a little room on the other end. I guess we should get in there before it locks again. What’s his name? Your friend, I mean.”

      “Her name. An. But I never met her. She was more friends with Adam, to be—did you hear that?”

      I froze. His hand brushed my arm, beckoning me forward, and we slid through the port and into the little receiving room. We were both pretty good at sneaking anyway, but at that moment, we were like silent snakes. My metric was off, thanks to my stint in the Remnant, but it felt like we were in reduced gravity. Maybe it was lower on purpose, to help other visitors adjust to regular gravity after space.

      I was still resisting clinging to him when we straightened out in the dark room and pressed the lock to seal off the Arkhopper.

      “All right, your highness,” I whispered to Isaiah. “We’re here. What now?”

      “They monitor everything. They know we’re here. Be patient.”

      “Light?”

      “If you must.”

      I placed a hand over the lightpad soundlessly, then ended up pressing it a little harder than necessary when it didn’t respond. Finally, I slapped it in frustration, and the lights clicked on. My jaw dropped, then flapped shut.

      We were surrounded.

      Four faces popped into view, each staring openly, and I stopped breathing.

      I gave in to my lesser judgment and reached for Isaiah, speaking to him in a whisper.

Скачать книгу