“That was what Dad told us.”
Mara’s hands slipped from the console.
Roman caught her before she fell.
This time she did not pull away.
“Lucian poisoned her,” Vivienne said. “Slowly. The hospital records are inside Orpheus.”
Mara pressed one hand to her mouth.
Her mother had weakened after the fire. She had lost weight, forgotten words, and died before the beginning of winter. Everyone had blamed an aggressive neurological cancer.
Mara had spent thirteen years believing tragedy had arrived twice without intention.
Roman’s hand remained steady at her back.
“What does Lucian want tonight?” he asked.
“To complete the merger. He needs my profile to accept control after Mara’s death.”
“Then why imprison you?”
“I refused.”
A door slammed somewhere near Vivienne.
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“He is coming back.”
“Where are you?” Mara asked.
“I hear bells every fifteen minutes. Six bells, then two. There is water beneath the floor, and the walls vibrate when large ships pass.”
Roman looked at Darius.
“The Saint Orison dry dock.”
Darius nodded.
Vivienne spoke quickly.
“Lucian knows you reached the lighthouse. Someone with Roman is sending him messages.”
Every person in the server chamber became still.
“Who?” Roman asked.
“I saw only a symbol on the secure channel. A black compass.”
Darius’s expression changed.
Mara saw it.
Roman saw it too.
Darius raised his weapon.
Roman moved first.
He struck Darius’s wrist aside as the gun fired. The bullet shattered a server panel. Keira dropped behind the console. Two guards drew their weapons but hesitated, uncertain whom to trust.
Darius drove his shoulder into Roman and slammed him against the glass wall.
“You were supposed to take Vivienne,” Darius snarled. “Crowe would blame you, the city would go to war, and we would inherit what remained.”
Roman punched him across the jaw.
Darius staggered.
Mara seized the medical case and struck the emergency fire system.
Dense white vapor exploded from the ceiling.
Visibility vanished.
Mara crawled toward the console while men shouted through the fog.
Darius fired twice.
Roman answered once.
A body fell.
When the vapor cleared, Darius lay against the wall with blood spreading beneath his leg. Roman stood over him, gun aimed downward.
Darius laughed through clenched teeth.
“You will not kill me in front of her.”
Roman’s finger tightened against the trigger.
Mara rose.
“Don’t.”
“He sold my people to Crowe.”
“He also knows everything Crowe planned.”
“I can make him talk.”
“That is exactly what I am afraid of.”
Roman looked at her.
Darius’s smile widened.
Mara stepped between them.
“You told me I could leave the theater.”
“That was different.”
“No. It was the first decision you allowed me to make. Do not become another man who offers choices only when they cost him nothing.”
“He betrayed me.”
“And my father betrayed me. Lucian buried me. Vivienne lied to me for thirteen years. If I begin answering every betrayal with a body, I will become surrounded by graves and still know nothing.”
Roman lowered the gun by one inch.
Darius said, “She has made you weak.”
Roman shot the floor beside his head.
The sound shook the chamber.
“No,” Roman said. “She has made you fortunate.”
He handed the weapon to Keira.
“Secure him. Keep him alive.”
Darius was dragged into the adjoining room.
Roman turned to Mara.
“You were correct.”
“About what?”
“People being less cooperative than fabric.”
Despite everything, a broken laugh escaped her.
The incoming audio channel remained open.
Vivienne was gone.
Only the sound of water and distant bells continued through the speakers.
Mara wiped her eyes.
“We have to reach her.”
Roman looked at the damaged server.
“First, we stop the transfer.”
“I cannot restore my profile while Orpheus controls succession.”
“Can Vivienne transfer it back?”
“Yes, but Lucian will force her to authorize him first.”
“Then we take the dry dock.”
“No.”
Roman’s gaze sharpened.
“You have another plan?”
“Lucian expects you to attack. Darius told him how you think.”
“Darius told him how I used to think.”
Mara opened the maritime network.
“Saint Orison is built over a floating maintenance platform. Every lock, ballast chamber, cargo lift, and floodgate is connected to Tideglass.”
“You said you were locked out.”
“From fleet authority. Not from emergency engineering.”
Keira leaned over the console.
“What can you control?”
Mara brought up the dock schematic.
“Everything beneath their feet.”
The merger ceremony began at four the following afternoon inside Bellweather Maritime’s floating headquarters.
The building, known as the Glass Court, rested on steel pontoons in the center of Vesper Bay. Its walls were transparent, allowing shareholders and reporters to admire the harbor their money controlled.