23
Eddie wheeled Papa Ito to the family car—a blue sedan parked outside the pod.
The tires were slashed.
“Ah, come on!” Eddie shouted.
Papa Ito coughed. “Boy, they really thought of everything, didn’t they?”
Eddie beat against the trunk of the car and tried to fight back a sob.
Papa Ito tapped him on the back.
“Get yourself together, Eddie.”
“What am I going to do, Papa Ito? He’s going to kill them.”
“Maybe,” Papa Ito said. “Or maybe not.”
Eddie didn’t reply. He was shocked at Papa Ito’s suddenly lucidity.
“When I left Traverse II, the Zachary Empire captured me,” Papa Ito said. “They hated everything I stood for—they demonized me in the press and my death was all but certain.”
“I remember that.”
“But they let me go. Turns out I was more valuable to them alive than dead. Didn’
