Dharma or not, dakini or not, she didn’t want anyone’s death on her conscience, but neither could she let them continue on their delusional path of grandiose revolution. Welga had been on the station for fifteen days. No vehicle had approached since hers. The rest of Earth must have complied with the American embargo on Eko-Yi. They could afford to wait until all four hundred residents cried for mercy. She couldn’t. She had less than twenty-four hours to figure out how to end this.

Welga kept her planning compartmentalized with every trick she knew. Luckily, she’d had plenty of practice. When you’re used to being in the public eye all the time, you learn to be careful of what you say. She couldn’t develop her course of action without some help from Por Qué, though, and she couldn’t trust that her agent was telling the truth about keeping their thoughts private.

She’d find out soon whether it would work.

The station clock glowed in the upper left of her visual: 05:23 a.m. In seven minutes, Ao Tara would go alone into the air system control room, per her work shift. She’d spend half an hour in there. After that, she usually went to bathe in one of the cubicle showers in her sector. Suvara, who had given Welga access to her feed, sat on the floor of her room in lotus pose. Clemence was asleep.

“I’d like to take a walk,” Welga announced to Nirodha.

She had timed the journey the day before. Welga floated headfirst through the passageway and paced her movement toward Ao Tara. She arrived behind an already open door. Grabbed the edge. Pulled herself around it, using momentum to push herself and Ao Tara inside.

The door clicked shut.

As they drifted, Welga twisted the monk’s arms behind her. The older woman didn’t know how to fight—or she didn’t care to resist. Welga wrapped herself around Ao Tara, her legs around the monk’s knees—an impossible move on Earth, but easy in low gravity.

“How can I help you?” Ao Tara asked, her voice level.

“You’re going to return to Washington, DC, with me in that capsule. There, you’ll confess your crimes and corroborate the truth about pill funders in the name of Josephine Lee. I’m shutting down the air filters.” Welga performed the action as she spoke. “For every minute you delay here, I will disable another system. You will keep your feed accessible to me. You will not call for help. You will leave this room now and head to the supply shuttle with me.”

“Did you think that we wouldn’t anticipate something like this?” Ao Tara said.

I’m not an idiot. Aloud, Welga said, “It doesn’t matter unless you’re willing to endanger the lives of everyone on this station.”

“Are you?”

“You’re all guilty of accessory to murder.”