Cobra Outlaw - eARC Read Online Free

afraid it isn’t much.” He inclined his head microscopically. “My word on that.”
    “Thank you.” Paul stood up. “Governor-general; Commandant Ishikuma; Mr. Yates.” Deliberately, he forced himself to look at Gendreves. “Ms. Gendreves.”
    Ten minutes later, the Dominion shuttle lifted from the Dome’s private landing terrace and headed into the sky. Two minutes after that, Santores stepped into the small, windowless compartment where Paul and his guards had been crammed, dismissed the Marines, and sat down facing his prisoner. “I appreciate you not making a fuss back there in the Dome,” the commodore said. “Though of course I know why you did it.”
    “Do you?”
    “You didn’t want Chintawa or Gendreves forcing me to put all of Aventine under martial law,” Santores said. “Which is fine. I don’t want that, either.” He smiled faintly. “Despite what you may think, we’re all on the same side here.”
    “I’d like to believe that,” Paul said. “Tell me about Jody.”
    “As I said, we don’t know very much,” Santores said, settling back into his seat. “One of the Dorian ’s courier ships arrived at Aventine earlier this morning. Aboard was a report from Captain Moreau that he’d arrived at the Hoibe’ryi’sarai homeworld, only to discover that your daughter hadn’t yet arrived. Neither had the Troft merchant ship we assume ghosted her off Aventine. Needless to say, this caused him some concern.” He cocked his head. “Unless, of course, that world was never her intended destination.”
    “Hoibie,” Paul said.
    Santores frowned. “What?”
    “It’s Hoibie, not Hoibe’ryi’sarai,” Paul told him. “Using the full demesne name makes you sound like a tourist.”
    “Ah,” Santores said. “You seem remarkably unconcerned about the fate of your daughter.”
    Paul shrugged as casually as he could. “Jody went through a war,” he reminded Santores. “She can take care of herself.”
    “Especially if her destination was actually Caelian?”
    “What makes you think she’s on Caelian?”
    “No, no, that’s not how this works,” Santores admonished him. “You’re the prisoner. You don’t ask the questions. You answer them.”
    “My mistake,” Paul said, forcing down a knot of sudden anger. Jin had warned him that Santores liked to poke at his opponents, hoping to make them angry enough to forget to think. “What makes you think she’s on Caelian?”
    “Various reasons,” Santores said. “Not the least of which is that she has friends there.”
    “Quite a few of them, in fact,” Paul agreed. “What have they done now?”
    “What makes you think they’ve done anything?” Santores countered.
    “You said various reasons,” Paul reminded him. “Various implies more than one.”
    Santores studied him a moment, then gave a little shrug. “I suppose at this point there’s no harm in telling you. One of Captain Lij Tulu’s officers, Commander Tamu, took the courier ship Squire to Caelian four days ago for the purpose of putting Governor Uy under arrest.” He smiled faintly. “A bone I intended to throw to Ms. Gendreves in hopes of getting her to forget about you and your family.”
    “And something unpleasant happened?”
    “We don’t know,” Santores said. “Commander Tamu should have returned two days ago. As of this morning, he hadn’t.”
    “Which means something unpleasant did indeed happen,” Paul said. “Not exactly a surprise. Did you really expect to just waltz into Stronghold, pack Uy aboard a Dominion ship, and fly away free and clear?”
    “Commander Tamu was fully prepared for trouble.”
    “Obviously not as prepared as he thought.”
    “I doubt that,” Santores said grimly. “Don’t forget Archway.”
    Paul ground his teeth together. “None of us will ever forget Archway,” he said darkly. “So you think Jody is involved in Tamu’s disappearance?”
    “That’s one possibility,” Santores said. “We’ll find out soon