Page 50 of Breaking Point
“Tankball and the revenue it provides her,” Brice said, with a touch of bitterness that surprised even him.
“So you see my dilemma now?”Travers said.“I need to find a way to avoid executing a man, and at the same time, I must appease the ship.They want someone to pay for the thirty-five people that are no longer with us.Just keeping him in a cell at the back end of the bridge won’t cut it.That’s what we do with the drunks and the petty criminals.”
Brice said, “I’m curious.If the mood of the ship had been ‘we want Devar Todd dead,’ would you execute him?”
Travers remained silent for a long minute.Then she sighed.“Honestly, Brice?I would still have worked to find a way out of it.Killing a man because he killed others…it is insanity itself.And Todd didn’t set out to kill people.”She shook her head.“I don’t know where the bloodlust originally came from.No one seems to know.The ship has fewer than five thousand people now…we should be able to track down the source of an ideathatextreme.And no, it wasn’t Magro’s idea.She was responding to what she thought people wanted.What would save tankball.”
“It won’t save tankball,” Brice said sharply.“The president of the Tankball Association is the one pushing the original fraud charges.If Devar Todd is executed, that will be the end of tankball.It will forever be tainted.”
Travers pointed at him.“Because the mood of the ship shifted abruptly, almost overnight, in the other direction.”She frowned.“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that a political player was out there, pulling the strings, driving the change in mood.Only, I know exactly who all the players are, and they’re all hiding away at the moment, because it’s unstable out there.It’s incendiary.”
Luciana.Brice sat still, wondering if it was possible that Luciana was somehow behind the change of mood on the ship.She wasn’t a political player the way Travers meant it, yet she stood to lose the most out of everyone on the ship except for Caelen.
Only, she had been silent on the Forum, even though nearly every comment and message cross-referenced her Forum profile.Unless she was doing something behind the scenes?Private messages.Talking to people.Shewasgood at talking to people….
Was it possible?
“Have you been getting lots of private, direct messages, asking you to drop the mutiny charge?”Brice asked.
“Hundreds,” Travers said.“It’s a significant enough number we included it in today’s model.”
“What did you tell them?”
“Political speak for now.”She grimaced.“We played for time.‘Thank you for your opinion, which we’ll include in our deliberations.’Although we’re behind on responses right now because my assistant, who was building all the responses, was assigned a child and quit to take care of the baby.Although I don’t mind all that much.The non-committal neutral answer just doesn’t sit right with me…are you alright?”
Brice pressed his fingers to his head.He sat forward, staring at the ring of drying coffee on the table in front of him.“Wait…” His voice came out croaky.His mind whirled faster and faster.
When he looked up, Travers raised her brows.
“I have an idea,” he told her.
Chapter Nineteen
MOST ADULTS ON THEENDURANCEused personal pads to keep up with Forum news and messages.Luciana had been one of the oddities who would rather talk to people in person.Until now.In the last few weeks, the pad had been a life saver.She could reach so many more people with it than she could in person.She had still spoken to as many people as possible without it.She had been busy.
That was why, while she was waiting to be called into the mystery meeting she had been summoned to the Bridge to attend, she had seen the announcement as soon as it popped up on the Forum.
Brice Falcon resigns his position as President of the Tankball Association.Board will search for replacement immediately.
The streamer slipped past before she could grab it and open it.Her heart thudding, she did a manual search to find the original source.
She found the formal Tankball Association news announcement and read it from top to bottom.She had to wade through business-speak.How the Association regretted Falcon’s departure and how much he and his work would be missed.A short biography on Brice and his career achievements wrapped it up.The biography failed to mention he was a Capitolino.
A cautiously worded outro said the Association would be searching for a replacement for Brice in the near future.
Luciana shut off her pad, and watched the Captain’s staff move around the room, working at desks and standing screens.She barely saw them.She was thinking.
Why had Brice resigned?He loved tankball.He had raised the profile of the game to make it the most popular pastime on the ship.At the Association, he could stay connected to the game.
What could possibly have the power to make him resign?
“Luciana?”The man called David had come up to her without her noticing.
“Sorry, I was thinking.”Luciana put the pad away and got to her feet.“Is this to be another ambush, David?”
He looked startled.“Oh!No, not at all!”He moved up the corridor to the same door as before.
That wasn’t a good sign.Luciana slowed down.“Who is in there?”she demanded as he raised his hand to the door panel.
