Page 34 (2/2)
“Excuse me?” I bite out
“First, Farwan Corporation charged you with terrorism—”
“Those accusations were entirely baseless,” I snap
“As if the business with Farasn’t questionable enough, your military career ended in a rather colorful fashion, did it not? To whit, charges of h treason”
“I was acquitted It’s illegal to deny ed I did not commit”
“H concern “Well, feel free to appeal within the Conglomerate courts Since we are, at least in the tertiary sense, subject to their laws and jurisdictions, if they deelo, then ill certainly reconsider the decision”
He knows that will take turns, daet another application approved Then I’ll have to start over with the per to kill the resistance with blocks and delays
Assholes
Holding e that you’re denying progress with the cure for the good of the La’heng”
There’s that awful, hateful sain “Certainly We take our duty as their protectors very seriously”
“Sure you do” I shove back fro another minute with this jackass, now that I know it’s another dead end In the past six et off on jerking people around The Nicuan Empire is full of stunted dictators who have secret drea the emperor, and so they rule their tiny department with an iron fist The fact that they’ve been sent to La’heng often only increases their despot tendencies They fall into two categories: those ant to be here because the rules are ression The latter tend to be the most difficult
Inwardly seething, I depart the restaurant and make my way down to the street Public transport carries ht, which serves as our headquarters Once I hop off the tram, I walk some distance as well We’re off the beaten track for obvious reasons As I trudge the last kilometer, I reflect that Vel can try to reason with assholes like Flavius Vel may prove harder to block as he lacks my tarnished reputation He was a bounty hunter known for his coulations, then he coreat personal acclai over; it wouldall the paperwork, permissions, and applications in his name
And maybe there’s no point
My old friend, Loras, holed affection and guilt, thinks going through channels is a monumental waste of time, but he let me do it while he puts other plans in place So since we first met; he was part of the crew that broke me out of the Farwan prison cell on Perlas Station, and for a short while, I owned hi Then I left him to die, which orse I feel like I owe hi about his cause
But rebellions aren’t born overnight They fo, and while I waste les By the ti as untenable, he’ll be ready towith me, the nobles won’t expect problems from any other quarter
“How did it go?” Vel asks, when I walk in He gets back froht school before I finish upBefore coether, once our business here is coator Symbiotic
An Ithtorian exile, he’s over two s, and rimspace in Ithtorian His side-set eyes and expressivesometimes stare if he’s out of faux-skin
“For shit,” I ainst us Or at least, they’re using my past to block my petitions”
“I am sorry, Sirantha”
When we first met on Gehenna, Vel had taken a job to retrieve me for Farwan Corporation He slid into a friend’s skin and figured out a way to get ly That could’ve ended badly for me Fortunately, Vel was as honorable a bounty hunter as he is in every other regard, and once he realized the Corp was using est ally Now, he’selse, maybe, someday But he doesn’t look for pro to make our relationship more complicated His mere presence defuses some of the tension and frustration that co the best of me even when I screw up, even when I don’t deserve it
I shrug “Loras warned us it would be like this, but…I’ I’ll stuet somewhere with these assholes”
He crosses tothan it sounds “It is unlikely”
“I know” My ret it Someday”
“You gave the They aretheir own luxurious lifestyles I shall not care e raze theround”