Clevennes, Asthana planet
The young woman put the mug of steaming hot coffee down on the table beside the man’s bed and leaned over to look him right in the face. “Feel better?” she asked.
“Yes.” The voice was scarcely a whisper.
“You had us worried. Those comatropic drugs are very unpredictable.”
“Who are you?”
“Marnie Bakker,” she said. “I’m with the Revival. We handle things here on Asthana. It’s good to meet you, Michael.”
“Ah, yes,” Michael mumbled. He looked around. “Where am I?”
“You’re now in one of our safe houses. A Revival team smuggled you out of Haaken Military Hospital.”
“I don’t remember that. Where’s Kat Sedova? Is she okay?”
“She’s somewhere else. Better that way. This planet is infested with Hammer agents. Everybody knows a Fed lander dropped into Asthana nearspace, so they’ll be out looking for you.”
Michael’s eyes flared wide with alarm. “Looking for me? They don’t know I was onboard, do they?”
Bakker shook her head. “Don’t worry; they don’t. They just like to get their hands on any Feds who end up here.”
“What about your people?”
“Cortez and Hok are okay. Prashad didn’t make it. The Revival will miss her.”
Michael said nothing for a moment; Prashad’s death was a serious blow. “We needed her,” he went on. “I didn’t know her well, but everyone said she had the sharpest political mind of any Hammer. Sorry. You don’t like to be called Hammers.”
“No, we don’t, even though we were all born Hammers. ‘Revivalists’ will do. Anyway, here’s the plan. As soon as the doctor says you’re okay to be moved, we’ll relocate you to another safe house.”
“Cortez and Hok will be there?”
“They will. Sedova, too.”
“I hope Admiral Jaruzelska’s in a good mood,” he said. “We’re screwed if she refuses to help us get the Fed government to back the NRA.”
“Stop worrying, Michael,” Bakker said. “She knows the Hammers have to be beaten, and she knows we can’t do that without Fed support, so why wouldn’t she?”
Because I betrayed the trust she’d always shown in me, Michael thought. That’s why.