“Nicely done, Chaudry,” Radko said. She didn’t want to know what she herself looked like.
For his own disguise, Chaudry had paired his uniform pants with a loose shirt and casual shoes, and spiked his hair with gel, arranged so that it looked as if he’d lost a few clumps of hair. If he hadn’t been such an obvious size, even Radko would have found it hard to recognize him.
“You’re very good at this, Chaudry.”
Chaudry frowned down at his trousers. “It feels wrong. Wearing part uniform.”
“It can get you court-martialed,” Han said.
“Han,” Radko chided.
“Seriously, I pulled someone in for that the other day.” Then Han grinned. “I won’t tell. Your indiscretion is safe with me.”
Chaudry tugged nervously at his trousers. “Maybe I should—”
“Wear them,” Radko said. “It’s the best disguise we’ve got. If you’re worried about repercussions, then I order you to wear them. Van Heel, Han, witness that please.”
“Duly witnessed.” Van Heel glared at Han. “Leave him be.”
They were starting to bond as a team, at least.
“Suggestions as to how we can get off this world,” Radko said.
“Come in like we did to Bane,” Han suggested. “Find ourselves a cargo port, and a shuttle that will collect us from there.”
That had been organized by Vega, who had a whole fleet of resources behind her.
It wasn’t only getting off world. They had to get on to a ship afterward. “We need that guy who delivers the shellfish,” Radko said.
Maybe they could.
Radko looked at Han. He had implied that Gunter Wong was a family friend. Using contacts and calling in favors was a very Lancian way to work. “How well do you know Gunter Wong, Han?”
“Gunter?”
“Gippian shellfish.”
“I know what he does, it’s just unexpected you asking.” Han considered it. “He’s more a friend of my father’s than he is mine. They’re neighbors. They see each other often.”
“What would he do if you asked him for a favor?”
“What sort of favor?”
“Send two orders of shellfish posthaste. One here to Redmond, the second to the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. We’d pay him, of course,” as Han opened his mouth. They had a budget. “He just needs to prioritize it. And provide a ship that can carry four passengers.”
“It’s something my father would ask, not me.”
“We’ll try Wong first. If unsuccessful, we’ll ask Renaud to do it.”
“Keep my father out of this.” Han’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know his name anyway?”
“She’s your team leader,” van Heel said. “She knows more about you than your family does.”
Did Radko imagine the whiteness around Han’s mouth? She was sure there were things she guessed about Han that his parents didn’t know. Like the fact that he wasn’t Yves Han at all.
“My family knows yours,” Radko said. “If we have to, I’ll talk to Renaud, but it’s best if we do it together.” She’d prefer he did it alone, for Renaud was close to the Emperor. He wouldn’t normally talk about Radko, but Michelle’s wedding would be the main topic of conversation around Baoshan Palace. Someone might mention other weddings, and Renaud might casually drop into the conversation that he’d spoken to Sattur Dow’s betrothed recently.
And if she was talking to Renaud, there was the other matter he might mention, so it was best to prepare Han for that. “You and I go way back, Han. One summer I smashed your face in. Did a lot of damage. I appreciate your not mentioning it, but Renaud might find it surprising we get along.”
Han went still.
“You were twelve.” She’d been nine. If this had been the Han she’d taken on, she wouldn’t have beaten him.
“I’ll get those numbers for you.” Han stood up and went into the other room.
Van Heel laughed. “He doesn’t like your remembering that, I take it.”
“No. It was humiliating. I’m sure he didn’t need to be reminded of it.” Radko stood up. “I’d best make amends.” She went inside, using the laughter of van Heel to hide the fact that she was stepping quietly now.
She came up silently behind Han, who was tapping something into his comms.
The comms in his hand wasn’t the brand-new, generic model they’d all been issued, either. It was the high-end deluxe model she’d told him to put away at the start of the mission.
“Turn it off, Han. Before you compromise our location by sending an unnecessary comms while we’re on a covert op, think about what you are doing.”
He yelped.
“What were you planning? A message to your parents to find out information you should already know?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I told you because it’s an infamous incident in both our childhoods. Yves would have remembered it. I was nine, he was twelve. I thrashed him.”
“You know, somehow I believe that.”
Radko smiled. “You’d better believe it. Yves was a really unpleasant boy.”
“And I’m an unpleasant man?”
“Yves might have been, but you’re not Yves, are you.” She watched his eyes but kept part of her gaze on his hands, to see if he’d go for his blaster. She nodded at the comms. “Doesn’t your family think it strange, your calling them up to ask about yourself?”
His gaze was watchful. “I was in an accident. I lost a lot of memory of my past life. My memory’s still not good.”
“How long ago?” Although she already knew.
She thought he wasn’t going to answer.
“Twelve and a half years.”
Just after he’d completed training at House of Sandhurst.
If he’d been going to shoot her, the danger was past. Radko sat down across from him. “Your accent slips sometimes when you’re stressed.” Like now. His vowels broadened the way Ean’s did, when Ean was tired. He’d be tired right now—if he was awake—for it was 02:00 hours Haladean sector time. “If I had to guess, I’d say you’re from the slums.”
“I didn’t kill Yves if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you had. He was a bastard when he was a child. I imagine he grew into something worse.”
Han made a wry moue. “How did you know?”
“You’re right-handed.” Not that Radko remembered Yves as left-handed, but he had been a linesman. “What happened to Yves?”
“I used to be Yves’s stand-in.” Han stared down at his comms, which was vibrating with an incoming message. He made another face, and held it up so Radko could see the name of the caller. Renaud Han.
Renaud could wait.
“Back when Yves was six or seven, someone threatened to kill him, so they found a double for public appearances. Me.”
She nodded.
“We could have been twins. His family taught me how to speak and behave like him. I loved his parents better than my own. They would meet me whenever they came to Baoshan, and they invited me to dinner a lot. All my parents thought about was the credits I could make them.”
“So what happened?”
“Yves liked to hurt people.” It looked as if it took an effort to say.
Radko nodded.
“He got worse as he got older. The whole family was scared of him. My parents, my sister.” Han rubbed his eyes. “Sorry, Yves’s parents, his sister. Yet when he wasn’t being a monster, he was charming.”
A lot of monsters were. “How did he die?” Han wouldn’t be running around pretending to be Yves if Yves were still alive.
“He hurt a young girl. Her mother tried to get him committed, but he was a Han.”