Page 119 (1/2)

They’d run out of ideas And now they were reaching for the si everyone they disagreed with She hated it

Monica caught her eye from across the room and held up a small thermos of coffee in invitation Anna waved her off with a s on the floor next to her in a back corner of the offices, trying to stay out of everyone’s way “That woman has the only decent coffee on this entire ship” She waved at Monica, pointing at herself

“I should have spent ht be intractable, but I could have reached Cortez with enough time”

“Life is finite, dear, and Cortez is an assle We’ll all be better off if someone puts a bullet in him before this is over” Tilly accepted a pour of Monica’s coffee with a grateful smile Monica set the thermos down and sat on the floor next to them

“Hey, we—” she started, but Anna didn’t notice

“You don’tinto her voice “Cortez isn’t a bad person He’s frightened and unsure, and has uided, not evil”

“He doesn’t deserve your sympathy,” Tilly said, then tossed back the last of her coffee like she was angry with it

“Who are we—” Monica started again

“He does He does deserve it,” Anna said Watching the youngto kill and be killed right in front of her, ry with Tilly than she probably would have been otherwise But she found herself very angry now “That’s exactly the point They all deserve our syone crazy with fear and hu his crew killed, then he deserves our sympathy That’s a terrible place to be Cortez deserves our understanding, because he’s doing exactly the sa to do in an impossible situation”

“Oh,” Monica said “Cortez He’s the—”

“That’s a load of crap, Annie That’s exactly how you knoho the good guys and the bad guys are: by what they do when the chips are down”

“This isn’t about good guys and bad guys,” Anna said “Yes, we’ve picked sides now, because some of the actions they are about to take will have serious consequences for us, and we’re going to try to stop the them the enemy The problem with that is that once we’ve stopped them and they can’t hurt us anymore, they’re still deet out of here, it will be round for this”

“Why?”

“What do youto destroy the Ring any Ashford anymore All of the circuone What’s the value in clinging to the hate?”

Tilly turned away and fuarettes She s at Anna