Champion (Legend 3)

June raises an eyebrow at me, then gives me a quick, reassuring kiss. “Yes. I’m completely okay.” She casts a glance over at Anden, but he’s too distracted talking to one of his soldiers now.

“Find me the men assigned to retrieve the Princeps-Elect,” he snaps at the soldier. Dark circles line the skin under his eyes, and his face looks both haggard and furious. “If luck hadn’t been on our side, Jameson would have killed her. I’ve half a mind to label them all traitors. There’s plenty of room in the firing squad yard for all of them.” The soldier snaps to attention and rushes off with several others to do as Anden said. My own anger wanes, and a chill runs through me at how familiar his wrath feels. Like I’m looking at his father.

Now he faces me. His voice turns calmer. “The lab team tells me that your brother pulled through his experimentation so far very bravely,” he says. “I wanted to thank you again for—”

“Don’t lay it on too thick,” I interrupt with a raised eyebrow. “This whole thing isn’t over yet.” After more days like today, where Eden’s going to fade even faster from all the experiments, I might not be so polite. I lower my voice, making an effort to sound civil again. It’s half working. “Let’s talk in private. Elector, I have some ideas to run by you. With this recent news from Commander Jameson, we might just have an opportunity to stir up some trouble for the Colonies. You, me, June, and the Patriots.”

Anden’s eyes darken at that, and his mouth tightens in an uncertain frown as he scans his audience. Pascao’s giant, ever-present grin doesn’t seem to improve his mood. After a few seconds, though, he nods at his soldiers. “Get us a conference room,” he says. “I want security cams off.”

His soldiers scramble to do his bidding. As we fall into step behind him, I exchange a long glance with June. She’s okay, she’s unharmed. And yet, I’m afraid that she’ll disappear if I’m careless enough to look away. I force myself to hold back on asking her about what happened until we’re all in a private room—and from the look on her face, she’s also waiting for the right moment. My hand aches to hold hers. I keep that to myself too. Our dance around each other always seems like it’s doomed to repeat itself over and over again.

“So,” Anden says once we’ve settled into a room and his patrol has disabled all of the cams. He leans back in one of the chairs and surveys me with a penetrating look. “Perhaps we should start with what happened to our Princeps-Elect this morning.”

June lifts her chin, but her hands shake ever so slightly. “I saw Commander Jameson in Ruby sector. My guess is that she was in the area to scout locations—and she must have known where I would be.” I marvel at how steady June sounds. “I tailed her for a while, until we reached the strip of airship bases that border Ruby and Batalla. She attacked me there.”

Even this short of a summary is enough to make me see red. Anden sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “We suspect that Commander Jameson may have given some locations and schedules to the Colonies about Los Angeles airship bases. She may have also attempted to kidnap Ms. Iparis for bargaining power.”

“Does that mean the Colonies are planning to attack LA?” Pascao asks. I already know his next thought. “But that would mean it’s true, Denver has fallen . . .” He trails off at Anden’s expression.

“We’re receiving some early rumors,” Anden replies. “The word is that the Colonies have a bomb that can level the entire city. The only thing holding them back from using it is an international ban. They wouldn’t want to finally force Antarctica to get involved, now would they?” Since when did Anden become so sarcastic? “At any rate, if they attack now, we will be hard-pressed to have a cure ready to show Antarctica before the Colonies overwhelm us. We can defend against them. We can’t defend against them and Africa.”

I hesitate, then bring up the thoughts that have been churning in my mind. “I talked to Eden this morning, during his experimentation. He gave me an idea.”

“And what’s that?” June asks.

I look at her. Still as lovely as ever, but even June is starting to show the stress from this invasion, her shoulders slightly hunched. My eyes turn back to Anden. “Surrender,” I say.

He hadn’t expected that. “You want me to raise the white flag to the Colonies?”

“Yes, surrender.” I lower my voice. “Yesterday afternoon, the Colonies’ Chancellor made me an offer. He told me that if I could get the Republic’s people to rise up in support of the Colonies and against the Republic soldiers, he’d make sure that Eden and I are protected once the Colonies win the war. Let’s say that you surrender, and at the same time, I offer to meet the Chancellor to give him the answer to his request, that I’m going to ask the people to embrace the Colonies as their new government. You now have a chance to catch the Colonies off guard. The Chancellor already assumes you’re going to surrender any day now, anyway.”

“Faking a surrender is against international law,” June mumbles to herself, although she studies me carefully. I can tell that she’s not exactly against the idea. “I don’t know whether the Antarcticans will appreciate that, and the whole point of this is to persuade them to help us out, isn’t it?”

I shake my head. “They didn’t seem to care that the Colonies broke the ceasefire without warning us, back when this all erupted.” I glance at Anden. He watches me closely, his chin resting on his hand. “Now you get to return the favor, yeah?”