Free Redemption of Light (The Light Trilogy) by Kathleen M. O'Neal

to Palaia and find out.”
    Cole moved forward to stand face-to-face with Baruch. They stared intently at each other. “Let me go. Give me a fighter and I’ll take the risk. I—”
    “I can’t. You’re too important to the Horeb mission.”
    “Listen to me! If she’s alive, she could endanger the entire Underground movement! The woman knows every detail of our operations.” Cole took a tense breath. “Including the location of Shyr. No Gamant will be safe anywhere if she breaks.”
    “ If she’s alive. We’ve no way of knowing. We have to pretend she’s dead and continue—”
    “Goddamn it!” Cole raged. He slammed his half-empty glass down on the table. The crash sounded as loud as a mortar blast in the sudden silence. “What’s the matter with you, Jeremiel? This is your wife we’re talking about! Not some stranger!”
    Jeremiel shook his head and turned his back on Cole.
    “She’s not dead, Jeremiel. I don’t feel her dead. Do you? Is there a hole in your soul? If she were dead, I’d know it.”
    Baruch closed his eyes. “I can’t base military judgments on our emotional inadequacies.”
    “I’m just one man, Jeremiel. Let me go. From a prudent strategic point of view, somebody should cover the possibility that she’s alive. Let it be me.”
    Jeremiel’s mouth tightened. He finished his whiskey and set the glass on the table. Very quietly, he walked back to Carey’s com unit and picked up the golden locket. Slowly he turned it over and over in his hand. “Let’s discuss other things for a few minutes. I had dinner with Rudy three hours ago. We discussed Horeb.”
    Cole exhaled silently, not wanting to let it drop—doing it anyway. “Is he still being an idiot?”
    “No, he’s changed his mind. He says he’ll be ready to vault day after tomorrow.”
    Cole leaned back in shock. Kopal had been acting as stubborn as a witless mule. “What did you do? Threaten him? I thought he was dead set against stepping up the Horeb mission?”
    “I convinced him it wouldn’t take more than a week.”
    “One week?” Cole squinted and eased down into a chair by the table. “All right. Why don’t you feed me the same line you fed Rudy? Just so I’ll know how to answer in case somebody slaps me in the head and demands I explain this insanity.”
    Jeremiel paced methodically in front of the table. His ivory shirt now showed signs of sweat around the collar and beneath the arms. “We’ll go in fast, hit them hard, and load up the refugees. We should be able to offload them on Shyr by the first day of Sivan.”
    “Uh-huh.” Cole rubbed his bearded jaw. The only way they could complete the Horeb mission in a week was if they met scant resistance from the planet’s guardian cruisers—which would require a miracle. “You think those four Magisterial battle cruisers are going to scream and run when they see us coming with all of our freighters and starsails, is that it?”
    “Pretty close.”
    Cole made an airy gesture of self-reproach. “I’d be intrigued to find out why. Could you fill me in on the magical tactics we’re going to employ?”
    Jeremiel pulled out a chair and sat down. His hard eyes glittered like sapphires. “I told Rudy you’d agreed to go in early—on a sabotage mission.”
    Cole reached for his whiskey and took a stiff drink. He blinked dubiously. “And Rudy bought it?”
    “Completely. He knows your talents.”
    Cole bowed his head and laughed. “I see. And just what am I supposed to sabotage?”
    “We’ll discuss the details later. Let’s talk about what happens after we successfully free Horeb.”
    Cole examined Jeremiel curiously. The light shone in a fiery sheen over the perspiration drenching Baruch’s face. Was he afraid Cole might say, “No, thank you. I like to pick my suicide missions myself?”
    “What happens?” he asked bravely.
    Jeremiel took Carey’s locket and gently laid it on the table. It sparkled like spun gold. The back of the cameo was face