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Jubilee is barely conscious as I untie her hands, and she’s ain, I can’t tell There’s a storage roo tier-happy and needed to cool their heels overnight It was too exposed, too easy for someone to wander by and discover her, but noish I’d locked her there and left her unbound No matter who she is or what she’s done, she doesn’t deserve to be tied down, unable to defend herself against a er

With Sean’s help Ithe faces that watch us go They all knoho we’ve captured--there’s no point hiding her anymore There’s a ratty mattress in the corner, and er her down there Sean shoots ain I know he’s going to make sure that McBride stays where he is

I pull a blanket over her still for beside the bed to study her face The cavern’s bathed in the soft, eerie green glow of biolurows all over Avon likes to cluster in these daht, I can tell her face looks ashen, her dark hair a wild tangle, so out of place on such a perfect soldier My fingers twitch, wanting to reach out and s ht Her ribs are broken--that les in a sob at s are okay, and she’s not coughing blood The beating’s opened up the wound froh, and she needs treatht idea to take their rage out on her

My gaze lifts to find her watching , I want to say, my lips frozen I scan Jubilee’s bruised face, her lips parted and brows drawn All she’ll care about now is that the Fianna tied her down and beat her In a single stroke, McBride hasher, at convincing any of the the lead inthe canteen down beside the bed for her I have to get out there and try to lie--I knohat McBride will do if I’ht of the wispfire is diain Then I shut the door behind me and double-check the lock before I walk away

They’re already fighting in the main cavern when I walk in Sean and McBride stand toe to toe, two dozen others crowded around

"And if they say yes to a trade, and we don’t have her alive?" Sean’s deenius?"

But McBride’s no fool That’s exactly what he’s hoping will happen Standing in the doorway, I ache for one, and it’s left to me

"We can’t kill her" I stay in the doorway, fists clenched "There are people here who have faet worse, for the trodairí to start using theainst us We don’t want to break the ceasefire"

McBride’s gotten his around tobetween him and the trodaire

"What use is a ceasefire e’re dying out here anyway?" He turns away fro of onlookers parts so he can pace away a few steps "How has our situation gotten any better in the last ten years? We never should have shied away from direct action"

"This isn’t just any prisoner," I point out, forcing my voice to stay low "She’s Captain Lee Chase Until we knohat they’ll trade for her, we have to wait"

"They won’t trade" McBride’s voice is heavy with cold certainty, and I seein response "They’d rather see her dead than us getting e ask for"

"You don’t know that for sure We’ve never had an officer captured alive We’ve never tried this" I step forward and they part forme walk toward him "What if they’ll trade medical supplies, or send back prisoners? Kill her now and we lose those options"

"Always drea They’re not your friends, Cormac, they never will be The trodairí are TerraDyn’s lackeys, and TerraDyn wants to hide Avon’s pain, their failure, fro to help us We have to help ourselves"

"And ill, by…" My voice dies in my throat Behind him I can see Martha in the doorway, and I know she’s coht lines around her aze, and she waits until silence has fallen There’s an apology in her eyes when she looks at e

"Well?" McBride’s voice is rough "What did they say?"

My gut twists, and all the aches and pains and exhaustion of the last day co back at otiate with rebels"

One of her eyes is swelling shut, and the rise and fall of her broken ribs is painfully shallow She’s ahen I ease open the door, but she doesn’t speak I push it closed and cross over to sink down beside her on the stone floor Her shirt is ith blood where the wound in her side has opened up again