Turning her back on them, Kylee propped her hand on her pistol, striding for the door. There was still Talina to find. And Whitey out there, somewhere, in the storm.

Chapter 38

  38  

Falise sucked down the last of the whiskey, feeling the burning rush as it hit her stomach. She fumed, Kylee’s final words as fiery in her memory as the whiskey in her gut. Around her, Inga’s roared with laughter, the clink of glasses, curses, not to mention the bedlam of too many people shouting over each other. Worse, the dome overhead acted as an echo chamber, blasting the sound right back down. That made people yell louder to be heard over the din. Infuckingtolerable! Even the rudest joint on Transluna would have had privacy cones.

As she picked up the gold nugget, and glanced around, it was to find the place filled with locals, all looking like rejects from a bad holo. And then there were the contractees, the first of the new specialists and laborers shuttled down from Turalon. Here and there, mixed in with the crowd, were uniformed crew from the ship. All were eating, drinking, laughing, telling the news, answering questions.

The whole place seemed to reek of a joyous carnival celebration.

On the far side, Bartolome sat with his servants, engaged in a conversation with Shig Mosadek and Yvette. Planning what? Angling for what?

The merriment, noise, and laughter just added to her misery and the sense of total and complete isolation.

Go apologize to Derek for being an idiot? In a pig’s ass.

“Learn the rules,” she sneered in as close to a mimicry of Kylee’s voice as she could muster. She lifted the nugget, seeing bits of rock still stuck in the crannies. Looked like it had come right out of the ground. Next, she picked up one of the coins, while Clarice studied the other nugget. Ednund was frowning down at the sapphire pinched between his fingers, muttering, “There’s more where that came from.”

“What kind of person would just give away gemstones of this value?” Clarice wondered. “What’s her purpose? Is she trying to impress us?”

“I don’t think so.” Ednund set the gemstone on the table, picked up one of the coins, inspecting the design. “No, my reading is that her concern is for Derek. She kept going back to lineage, trying to get us to understand its importance. Letting us know that if we act against him, she and Talina will retaliate.”

“She’s definitely not afraid of us.” Clarice lifted the silver-colored nugget, frowned. “I think this is one of the rare Earth elements.” Her eyebrows rose. “Do you suppose this is rhodium? It has the same vitreous luster as the bar Derek bet at the poker game.”

“He said he had a half metric ton,” Ednund mused.