Supremacy's Outlaw: A Space Opera Thriller Series (Insurgency Saga Book 3) by T.E. Bakutis (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📗

confront Fatima, to find out the truth about her betrayal (or lack thereof) but now, staring down his own self-inflicted death, Jan was relieved it was over. He wouldn’t be forced to choose between getting revenge and losing Kinsley forever. He wouldn’t have to decide if Fatima was telling the truth or lying to him, because he was going to die.

Emiko slid an arm beneath Jan’s armpit and pulled. “Get up, you big baby. We’ve got to go.”

“I will never make it,” Jan said. “Not now.”

“Don’t be such a nutsack! It’s just a little torture. We’ll get you home and comatize you.”

“I’ve already gotten you both in enough trouble.” Jan gripped Emiko’s hand and squeezed. “Ryke expects her disc, and the CSD expects my head. My death, I believe, will satisfy both, leaving you in the clear.”

“You might be right,” Kinsley said, grabbing Jan’s other arm and pulling up. “But we’re not ready for you to die.”

Reluctantly, Jan let both women help him to his feet. Even with them supporting him, each step felt like a dagger in his shin. He’d endure the pain until he could explain everything.

“There’s something I’ve neglected to tell you,” Jan said, as the three of them hobbled along. He owed them the truth.

Emiko snorted. “You don’t say.”

“It was Fatima who stole the data disc we seek from Senator Tarack,” Jan said, each agonizing step cutting its way through his brain. “I had no intention of working with her. My purpose in coming here and enlisting you was to hunt her down.”

“What a shocking revelation,” Emiko said, with a huff. “Now can you be less heavy, please?”

“Also, it was Fatima’s betrayal that sent me to orbit five years ago.” That hurt almost as bad as the pain in his leg. “Fatima sold me to the Supremacy.”

Emiko missed a step and Jan cried out, unable to support himself. All three of them went down in a tumble. Jan hissed and clutched his shin, groaning as he rolled back and forth.

“No effing way!” Emiko expertly disentangled herself and sat straight up.

“You are mistaken,” Kinsley added, as she struggled to extricate herself from beneath Jan’s weight.

Jan rolled off Kinsley and frowned at her. “Am I?” She sounded awfully confident. “And just what makes you say that?” Kinsley and Fatima had always been as close as sisters, so if Kinsley knew something Jan didn’t ...

Kinsley brushed her legs off and sat up. “You were simply captured by the Supremacy. It happens to the best of us.” She didn’t answer Jan’s question, which told him enough.

“I got captured because I went to the starport to meet Fatima,” Jan reminded Kinsley, holding his aching shin. “I responded to her text—”

“Texts are trivial to fake,” Kinsley interrupted.

“—and met her in person, as requested, at Bay N-6 in the Star’s Landing starport. Fatima waited there by an old freighter. She beckoned me forward. And then—”

“Motherfucker,” Emiko whispered.

“—the Supremacy arrived,” Jan finished. “Two CSD officers escorted Fatima to safety as Captain Varik and his Vindicators surrounded me. Fatima walked right out the door.”

“You don’t have all the facts,” Kinsley said.

“What other facts are there?” Jan demanded. “I watched her walk away, and then Captain Varik said—”

“Supremacy officers are not known for their honesty,” Kinsley interrupted again.

“—that Fatima sold me out for four hundred thousand dollars.” Jan glared right at Kinsley. “So if you’re so certain Fatima didn’t betray me, if you know, Kinsley, tell me what actually happened five years ago. Now.”

Kinsley knelt at his side. “We will talk about this later, once we’re back at the Hole.” She gave his arm a squeeze. “First, we get you home.”

Kinsley absolutely knew something about why Jan went to prison five years ago, and why Fatima claimed she hadn’t betrayed him. Why would she refuse to share that with him?

Jan supposed it didn’t matter. He was done anyway. Kinsley and Fatima could keep their big secret, as even knowing the truth wouldn’t change what had to happen now.

Jan pulled his arm away. “I’m not enduring those torture nanos.” Neither woman could make him walk against his will, and he was not enduring an hour of torture on the way back home.

“So suck it up!” Emiko tugged futilely on his bicep. “You got us into this! You can’t just give up!”

Jan gripped Emiko’s hand. “Tell Ryke the CSD was going to pick me up, and I killed myself to avoid going back to prison. Nothing will blow back on you.”

“Fatima would never betray either of you,” Kinsley said, looking between them with a hard gaze, “and you are going to live long enough to learn that. Now get up.”

“Sorry.” Jan leaned back and closed his eyes. “I’m done.”

“Get up, Jan!” Emiko shouted.

“Go on. Be safe. Tell the others what happened to me.” Jan reached for the brace of knives at his back and wrapped his hand around one hilt. He didn’t want to see their faces when he sliced his own throat. He didn’t want to look them in the eyes.

Emiko straight up tackled him. She hopped right onto him and jammed her fingers against his lips. Her attack was so out of character it took him off guard, and his eyes popped open when he realized Emiko’s fingers were sticky and wet.

The gloss. Emiko’s knock-out gloss!

As the roof of the maglev track spun and the world darkened, Jan remembered to struggle. He tried, he really did, but the effects of Emiko’s drugged lip gloss were irresistible. He batted futilely at Emiko’s hand, flailing in disbelief as she, too, betrayed him, and pants-shitting terror gripped his brain.

When he woke, he knew,