For the Good of the World

Chapter Eight

As Ars bound her hands behind her back with nanites that hummed with authority, Via could do nothing but gape at Patria. She's arresting me. My mater's arresting me. This can't be real.

Yet magical pressure circled her wrists even as the chill of shock settled into her bones. She twisted her hands but could not move them to a more comfortable position. The nanites emitted a warning thrum and tightened, stalling further movement.

As Ars rested a firm hand on her shoulder and nudged her toward the door, Via glanced back at her mater. Why are you doing this to me after what I showed you? Are you in on it? she screamed inside. But other words came out of her lips.

The nanites pushed her forward like an invisible hand on her wrists but did not stop her from speaking, at least. "How did you find out that I falsified evidence?"

They were damning words. She knew that. But there was no point in lying anymore. Her mater would question her about this for sure, and the higher-ranking Navigator's compulsion could and would pry the truth from her.

But she had some truths of her own she needed to hear, even if one aching truth was too painful to pursue yet.

"So, you admit it?" Lucina asked behind Via's mater, one white brow arching. Or maybe it was Umbrata? Via's heart thundered in her chest as she reached for the Caeles to identify the two women, only to have the nanites slide away as though blown aside by a breeze.

Patria turned stiffly over her shoulder and fixed the elderly twins with a cold glare. "You're dismissed." Her gaze shifted back to Via, then moved to Ars. "I want to speak to my daughter alone."

"Of course," one of the twins said as the detective nodded and stepped aside. She offered a grandmotherly smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Forgive us. We know this must be painful for you."

The trio took their leave.

When the office door slid closed, Patria sighed and dismissed the nanites still clasping Via's wrists with a wave.

Via swallowed hard as she rubbed her trembling hands. "How did you know?"

Patria's eyes narrowed. For the first time in Via's life, she saw none of the motherly exasperation that usually greeted her misdeeds. "That you planted evidence to make your grandmater's death look like murder?"

Via's hands clenched even as her face heated. She focused on the anger, not the embarrassment. "It was murder. I just couldn't prove it yet." She stepped forward, searching Patria's stony face. The Chief Navigator could have been a statue, she was so still and cold. There must be a way to make her mater see reason. "But now we know for sure that it was murder. You know that. You have to." She shuddered as the frozen bodies in the arboretum flashed through her mind. "All of the Ancients in the colony are dead. Umbrata and Lucina killed them. You know that." She swallowed, then forced herself to seek the truth that hurt. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"Because you didn't have the wisdom to look away," Patria said, and ice swept through Via's veins at the soft words. "To do what is best for the colony." She shook her head, brown eyes grim. "You asked how I knew that the crime scene you showed me was fake. I knew because Umbrata and Lucina came to me three hours ago and confessed everything."

For several moments, Via just stared. She could not have heard those words correctly. Otherwise, why was she under arrest while the Chief Terraformers walked free? "Confessed?" she whispered.

"They told me about what your grandmater and the other Ancients had been planning and..." Patria paled, and when she spoke again, her voice was choked. "And how they took care of it. There was no propane grill involved. No pipe. Only a fissure like in the Sunlit Station."