Page 38 of True As Steel
In my impatience to speak with my uncle, every other thought fled my mind as I raced inside the club and down to our suite. I didn’t even remember to thank Haelin, the rescue mission also forgotten. The one-floor ride through the elevator took an eternity. I stormed inside the suite and threw myself at the couch, nearly smashing the interface of the remote in my frenzy to activate it. The connection took forever and a day, only for it to give me an error that it had failed.
“No!” I shouted, my chest painfully constricting as I tried again.
I almost felt dizzy from holding my breath while waiting for the result. I nearly wept when the ‘connection established’ message appeared on screen. Seconds later, Uncle Cedric’s beloved face filled the monitor.
“Uncle C,” I whispered in a choked voice.
“Hey Tam!” he replied in that gruff, affectionate voice of his. “It’s good to see you so well, sweetie. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine! Haelin is taking good care of me,” I said with sincerity, although somewhat dismissively. I wanted to hear about him and the others, not speak about myself. “How are the others? How is Da—”
My voice gave out before I could pronounce my brother’s name. The look on his face only sank the knife further into my heart.
“I’m not going to lie to you, it’s a real mess, honey,” Uncle Cedric said in a pained voice. “We lost a lot of people on that ship. Many died, but many also made it off. It’s going to take a long time before we know for sure who escaped and survived.”
“But is he alive?” I insisted.
“The truth is, I don’t know if Damien made it or not,” he said in an apologetic tone. “We were together, trying to flee, but then part of the hallway collapsed. We were split up by people trying to avoid getting crushed. We both made it to the ship hangar. However, trying to get onto the same vessel would have been impossible. They were filling up too fast. You had to jump on the closest one and hope you didn’t get trampled to death in the process.”
I could relate to that all too well. Without Jarog, I’d be dead right now.
“Isawhim get onboard a vessel, and his ship got off, honey. That I can guarantee you. His vessel left the transport ship,” my uncle said with conviction. “But then the transport ship blew up, and that fucking shockwave screwed everyone over. It wrecked our chaser. Frankly, it’s a miracle we made it to Andarta without blowing up.”
“Is that where you are now? On Andarta?” I asked, my mind reeling.
He hesitated. “We left Andarta a while ago now, but it’s better I do not name my current location,” he said apologetically. “You know the drill. We’re trying to bury this signal in case we’re being traced, but we can never be too careful.”
My throat constricted again, and I nodded in understanding.
“I was unconscious for two days, and our vessel had no com. Everyone is crippled right now, be it physically or technologically. So, I need you to be even stronger than you’ve always been,” Uncle Cedric said. “I don’t know if and when we’ll hear from Damian or any of the others that are missing. With everyone currently in hiding, it makes things even more challenging. But we’re finding new survivors every day, civilians and Cyborgs alike. I’m not giving up hope.”
“Okay, and how do I reunite with all of you?” I asked.
“You don’t,” my uncle said with a finality that broke my heart. “It’s not safe for you, and it’s even less safe for us. Haelin will take good care of you, and you can help our cause by staying right where you are. This is going to be a long-hauler, sweetie. But wewillbe together again. Your dad and I just need to know you’re safe while we try to get back on our feet.”
I stared at him in silence, feeling betrayed and abandoned, even though my head understood the logic of his words—and had in fact expected it.
“Don’t cry, honey,” he said with sorrow. “You know we want you here.”
Only when he spoke those words did I realize that my face was indeed covered in tears. I angrily wiped them with the back of my hands. This was all Shui’s fault. That bastard would pay, even if it took ten or twenty years, he would get his comeuppance.
Uncle Cedric cast a glance at something or someone offscreen, and his shoulders slouched.
“I have to go, my darling,” he said with a sad expression. “I’ve already been on too long. We’ll talk again, as often as we safely can. I love you, sweetheart.”
“I love you, too, Uncle C,” I said.
He raised his hand in goodbye and the screen went black. I stared at the dark monitor without seeing it and hugged myself. Emperor Shui had taken everything from me. And now, the Cyborg we had just rescued would likely take Jarog away as well.
Chapter 13
Jarog
Iwatched Tamryn hasten away with an odd sense of loss. Since our arrival here, she’d been dying to finally speak to her relatives. Will it be the news she’d hoped for? Will she be going home to her family, to her people?
With Haelin in the lead, we entered Perdition through the back door and made our way to the second boardroom in the executive lounge where we’d previously planned the attack. Loreus reminded me of myself on the day Tamryn and I got here. Through subtle movements, his eyes analyzed every centimeter of the building, identified exits, potential weapons, security systems, guards’ location, and obviously who was the biggest threat.
He had no reason to trust us, least of all me. Fuck, I couldn’t even trust myself. This whole mess had forced me to look at my own reflection under a different light—one that I didn’t enjoy. I’d wrapped myself in a shroud of self-righteousness and honorability that was proving to have been a cop out. I should have rebelled the minute I realized how bad things were getting instead of burying my head in a heap of denial and hiding behind my oath to the Emperor. What about my oath to the people?