Page 43 of How to Steal a Galaxy

Oh, that’s going to make betraying him later hurt.

But for now? “I read every line of both codes,” I say. “Fetor’s version and my client’s. And theirs is good. It’s true. It does what you want, what we want. It will save Earth.”

He looks me right in the eye, and he believes every single word I’ve said.

Hebelieves.

In me.

Fuck.

“So, what do we do?” he asks.

We.

Oof.

“The plan from your side is too far in motion to stop now,” I say. “And believe me, my side’s been trying.”

Rian frowns at that.

I count the list down with my fingers. “Allies have tried to hack in to the system and rewrite the code; they’ve contacted various people higher up than you to convince them to delay or at least more closely examine the program, and—”

“Wait,” Rian interrupts. “You’ve contacted my superiors?”

“Not me personally,” I say. “They brought me in when they figured that you were the highest person in a position of power who might be willing to listen to reason.”

Rian’s emphatically shaking his head now. “No, no, see, who did you—I mean your people—I mean, whoever. Who was contacted? Snyder? Turner? They would have done something, I know—”

“Look, all I know is that of the half dozen or so people who were contacted, at least half of them knew the code was corrupted and didn’t care. And the other half either didn’t believe the evidence or suspected something worse.”

“Knew and didn’t...”

“Shocking, butsomepoliticians don’t actually give a fuck about the people they’re supposed to serve.”

“But—”

“But Fetor has friends. And I’d betGlorythat at least some of them are on his payroll.”

“That’s corruption! I need names; I need to root this out—”

“You need to focus,” I say gently. “And recognize that this is all coming down to you and what you can do to actually help others in this precise moment. Because even if you had the names of the people who stand to make a profit from this little scheme, there are others. Corrupt politicians in a government are like cockroaches in a kitchen. You canneverget them all. And the ones you see are just the dumb ones that don’t know where to run when the lights cut on.” I stare at him, marveling. “You really have no idea how rare you are.”

“Me?”

“Someone who both gives a damn and is willing to put forth effort for said damn.” I shake myself back into the moment. “Bad analogy. Anyway, I can see why this is all coming down to you; that’s all. That’s a compliment, by the way.”

He doesn’t seem to care.

But really, it is kind of miraculous. The group I’m working for successfully spotted a problem, but they could never get it changed in a meaningful way without aid from someone on the inside. Someone like Rian.

“Why you?” Rian asks. “Why did they pick you to deliver this message to me?”

I shrug. “They figured I could get the job done.”

He’s quiet for a long moment, long enough to make me consider getting a yellow ready-eat, even if I need to ration them out a bit. I’ll have no chance any time soon to restock.

Finally, Rian says, “I have to get back to my office.”

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