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“That virus. On the data strip.” Sebastian spread out two fingers to indicate the length of a data strip, as though Leon didn’t know. “You could hear the centrifuges shaking themselves to bits all through the factory. Went up like a pile of fireworks while I was leaving. Where did Joan even get that?”
“The Carta Cartel. They’ve been investing in their science branch recently.”
“Like a proper corporation.” Sebastian chuckled. Carta orbited the same sun as Tava and was never more than a planetary hop, skip, and jump away, thanks to their similar orbits. It was also a Human planet, and as such, the majority of refugees that had fled Tava when the Klah’Eel invaded—of which there had been many—ended up in or at least passed through Carta. Carta had been woefully underprepared for the influx of desperate people, and one of the results was a positively booming criminal underworld. “Well, they certainly know their business.”
“Hopefully.” Leon’s lips twitched in a smile again, more of his burden lightening in the face of Sebastian’s usual indomitable optimism. “They have more contacts than us. Joan is reaching out now about finding someone who can help us with this gas. You bought us time, but that’s it.”
“I hope I’ve bought us that.” Sebastian grimaced. “I did see one ship leaving before I could get into the factory. Just a small one, but there’s no telling what it had in it.”
“They were always going to have at least some window to get something out.” Leon pressed his lips together. “You did the best you could.”
A hopeful brightness flashed across Sebastian’s face that muted itself quickly into something more guarded. He held Leon’s gaze for a moment. Leon’s heart thudded. Then the guard over Sebastian’s expression closed all the way down, and Sebastian dropped his eyes to Leon’s desk and all the papers and old data tablets spread across it. “So, I’m here about a traitor?”
“That’s correct.” Leon pulled himself away to go stand by his window again. He didn’t have any relevant information on this in a hard copy anywhere, didn’t want it leaking out. “Joan doesn’t have anything concrete. Mismatched inventory, mostly.”
“Could just be a little graft.”
Leon nodded. “Could be. Hopefully it is.”
“But hope is a silly thing to pin the defense of a city on.”
Leon glanced back at him with an agreeing smile, and his heart jumped to see the same almost shy smile on Sebastian’s face. He turned quickly back to the window, though his eyes weren’t even seeing the sad back alley in front of him.
He shouldn’t have lost his composure back in that hangar. He shouldn’t have even gone there and put himself in that position. That event took up so much space in this room with them, it was like a third person.
“Any other evidence?” Sebastian asked.
“There was a job that went south just yesterday.” Leon dug into his recent memory through the pile of internal turmoil Sebastian brought up in his mind. “A warehouse complex to the north. Should have been heavily guarded. We sent a group to figure out what they had there. Maybe steal something. Maybe blow it sky-high.”
“What happened?”
Leon turned away from the window and shrugged. “Nothing. There was nothing there. Nothing and no one.”
Sebastian smiled ruefully and nodded. “Sounds like a leak if ever I heard one.”
Leon nodded.
“Pretty bold response to leaked intel, though.” Sebastian straightened from the desk and cocked his head, his eyes narrowing in thought. “You’d think they would have just doubled the guard or swapped out some of the sensitive stuff. They practically told us they knew we were coming. They’ve severely compromised the integrity of their agent, whoever they are.”
“I don’t think they’re worried. They don’t think we’ll have the time to do anything about it before they’re on top of us.”
“We might not.” Sebastian’s gaze sharpened, and Leon scowled at the challenge in it.
“I knew we might lose Kaston when I sent you to that factory.”
“And we might.”
Leon bared his teeth. “And I don’t care.”
“You don’t care about what it will cost us?” Sebastian braced an arm on the desk and leaned across it, and Leon was very thankful he was well away near the window.
“I don’t care about winning battles. I care about winning wars.” Leon puffed his chest, not interested in being pulled down into unhelpful emotions.
Sebastian raised his voice, one of the only people that ever dared to do it to Leon. “People die in battles, and more of them die in lost battles.”
“I know that!” Leon snapped, making a few ill-advised steps toward Sebastian and slamming his fist down on the desk, his frustration getting the better of him. “I’ve been in a goddamn many of them, and more than you have.”
Sebastian opened his mouth, and Leon braced for whatever scathing retort would come next. But then he closed it, pressed his lips together, and let a breath out his nose. Something of the fight went out of him, and Leon’s own hackles smoothed down.
