Matriarch by Karen Traviss Page A

was waiting for Shan. She’d decided to visit the “crushers”— Actaeon ’s regulating branch personnel—and find out how they maintained order in an overcrowded and sealed society. She needed to be kept busy. An idle Shan was trouble.
    â€œIs that you, Boss?” He could hear her coming; he knew her walk now. He could also smell her, a blend of cedarlike wood and human female musk. C’naatat had given him new layers of senses. “I realize this isn’t five-star. But it beats trying to find accommodation up top.”
    He leaned against one of the soil pipes that shunted shit from the lavatories into the separation tanks and filters that turned it into nutrients for vegetables.
    â€œFine by me.” Shan inspected a machinery space with a door and threw her bedroll down on the floor. “Private enough.”
    â€œThey say people are put off by the thought of the shit moving around down here.”
    â€œWhat, even the naval personnel? I mean, ships’ plumbing…”
    â€œCivvies, I expect.”
    â€œSqueamish buggers.” She seemed to have thawed a little. “I used to do obbo duty with a detective sergeant who peed in his coffee flask to avoid getting out of the car.”
    â€œDid he finish the coffee first?”
    â€œYou could never tell with Baz. Or his coffee.”
    â€œYeah, I got stuck on surveillance a few times. Had to piss where I was, flat on the ground.”
    â€œDon’t they bag you?”
    â€œDo you really want to know?”
    That was what he liked about Shan. It wasn’t just that he wanted her; he felt easy with her. She was blunt and uncomplicated, and he never had to guess what she was thinking. She had that same unflinching vulgarity as his mates.
    So he could say what was on his mind. He was sure of it. Almost.
    â€œI really am sorry about Rayat, Boss.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œYou feel you have to do something about it.”
    â€œIf you were me, wouldn’t you want to be sure that having two more c’naatat carriers on the loose isn’t going to make this situation any worse?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œAnd you’re pissed off because I’m going to second-guess you when I said I never would?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œLook, I know you had to make the call there and then. God knows I hate armchair critics and hindsight myself.” She unfastened her hair from the band that held it in a ponytail and raked it with her fingers before tying it back again. “I don’t want to be at war with you, Ade. You, me and Aras. That’s all there is. All there’s ever going to be for a bloody long, long time. We need to make this work.”
    â€œIs that a pardon, then?”
    â€œOne thing I’ve learned from the wess’har is that there’sno point fretting about the past when you could be sorting out the future. Outcomes. Not motive.”
    â€œMeaning?”
    â€œI’ll go and find the bezeri and see what’s happening. If it isn’t working out the way you and Aras planned, I’ll do what I have to do to remove the hazard.”
    â€œAre you going to tell Eddie?”
    â€œThat’s one complication I don’t need at the moment.”
    Ade knew Shan would dispose of Rayat and Lindsay without a second thought. He began working out how he could make a fragmentation device that would work under water. It was the kind of thing that Izzy and Sue were good at; it might keep them occupied for a while.
    â€œI’ll help you if you want,” he said.
    â€œThanks.”
    â€œI know it’s a mess, and I know motives don’t matter, but I did it because I love you.”
    Shan nodded. “You’re right. I did run out on Aras, whatever my reason.”
    It was as if she hadn’t taken in what he’d said, or decided she would ignore it. He felt stupid. He’d inherited brief flashes of the most vivid of her