That made no sense. “Couldn’t they order him back?”
Spooner’s laugh was dark and low. “He wouldn’t listen to Command. Not anymore. He left Earth, and after what happened to him at the front, after the abuse, I wouldn’t be surprised if he never wanted to have anything to do with the planet again. But he left money for you, for your siblings, for the families of the men and women who served with him at the front. He won’t screw them over, and Command knows that.”
“He never cared about me,” Luke said, but his mind was already racing in circles, putting patterns together. Liam was fourteen when that scumbag had started paying the rent. He’d dropped out months later. Mortimer Telfer had run a prostitution ring, and Dana had always said that the Munson men were cute as hell. Luke didn’t see himself that way, but he’d seen pictures of Liam at fourteen. His stomach churned and he slowly sat back down. The coffee pressed against the base of his throat until he thought he might vomit.
A warm hand pressed against his; Spooner pressed a tube of antacids into his palm. Luke took four.
“I didn’t know you’d never figured it out. Mr. Maylti said that Mortimer Telfer used to hang around the school, buy kids treats or listen to their woes. When he was a kid, Maylti had liked the man, but his mother ordered him to steer clear. I thought your family knew him too, and your mother had lost the fight to keep Liam away from the asshole. I didn’t mean to spring this on you. I’m sorry.”
Luke closed his eyes and thought about his mom dragging herself home after dark. When school was out of session, she would take them along to the houses and make them sit on the curb outside so they didn’t track dirt in. One summer when Liam had shown up again, Luke remembered her arguing with Liam, telling him he needed to come with her and watch the younger kids. Luke had resented that their mother hadn’t trusted him to be in charge. He’d always thought of Liam as selfish—as off having fun and leaving their mother to do all the work.
“I guess she didn’t know,” Luke said, but the truth was a sharp pain in his chest. He thought about the way their mother would sometimes sit in the dark staring at a picture of Liam. She’d aged twenty years the day she’d come home to find the military notice of Liam’s enlistment, but she refused to ever talk about it.
Even when she’d been dying and Luke had been so angry about Liam’s silence, she would catch Luke’s hands in her skeletal ones and tell him to be kind. It had made Luke angrier.
“Did he get any of our letters?” Luke asked.
“Uh, letters?” Spooner asked. That was an answer in itself. Spooner continued. “After Liam joined the Rownt, I went through his personal effects and accounts. I never found anything.”
Luke closed his eyes.
“Even before Liam joined the Rownt, he had a rare ability to get them to trade. Command wouldn’t have wanted him distracted. They would have done a lot to protect Liam’s position. Truth be told, when we got a new commander who verbally abused Liam, they probably would have pulled the commander even without the Rownt getting involved.”
The word finally penetrated Luke’s shock. Abuse. Liam had run away from abuse, but now this guy claimed he’d run into the arms of another abuser. “A commander abused him?” Luke sat up. “And what abuse happened at the front?”
Lieutenant Spooner sighed. “I liked Liam, and so did a lot of other people. But bullies... they were drawn to Liam like moths to a flame. He was gentle and when you hurt him, he showed every ounce of pain. If it weren’t for the fact he was gay, our head of security would have taken him into her bed and never let him out. I’ve never seen Gina adore someone quite as much as your brother. But bullies... they wanted Liam for a different reason.”
Luke thought about that huge alien and the way he had hovered over Liam. The images took on a more ominous meaning now. “The Rownt... are they bullies?” Luke braced himself.
“No,” Spooner nearly shouted before he lowered his voice. “No, not at all. In fact, Tuk-Ondry took custody of Liam because he saw abuse and he wouldn’t allow it to happen any longer. I saw them together both before and after Liam moved in with the Rownt, and Liam is safe with them.”
“But he wasn’t safe here.” Luke swallowed as a million facts slotted into place. The second he took his own distorted impressions out of the equation, he saw the data compiling like the moment an AI processor first self-arranged a dataset. Chak had told him that Liam wouldn’t come back, that he needed space. It hadn’t been space from his family—it had been from that monster. And his mother’s pain wasn’t anger at her oldest son, it had been guilt. And no one had ever told him anything. “You’re writing a book.”
“Yes.” Spooner sounded uncertain.
Luke looked the lieutenant in the eye. “I want to read it. I want to read all your raw research. I want everything.”
Spooner frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I have my mother’s datachip from when we were kids,” Luke said. “Every report card, every teacher or psychologist evaluation, every school award and discipline record. I’ll give them all to you if you let me see everything you have, whether it makes it into the final book or not.”
“There are things you don’t need to see.” Spooner appeared nauseated at the idea of Luke seeing his research. Luke’s stomach churned despite the antacids. Mortimer had run prostitution houses, so Luke could guess what he might see. But he was overwhelmed with a need to see it anyway. It was the penance he had to pay for never realizing his brother had needed him.
“Full disclosure or nothing,” Luke said firmly. There was no way that a stranger was going to know his brother better than he did.
Spooner nodded slowly. “Deal, but... Don’t judge your brother. He was a kid doing the best he could. He always did the best he could, even when he knew people would disapprove. It’s part of his charm.” There was a sadness that didn’t match the admiration of Spooner’s words.
“And he charmed you,” Luke guessed. That would explain why Spooner was so determined to make sure the real story got out in front of the government propaganda. Command certainly wouldn’t thank him for it. They were presenting Liam as a buttoned-up patriot who had cracked the Rownt language for his home planet. So this wasn’t some move calculated to get Spooner faster promotions.
“Yeah.” Spooner looked out the plate glass window. “We worked together for years, and when he would come back with a new Rownt recording or storyscroll, he would get so excited that he would light a room with his enthusiasm. Sometimes I wonder what might have happened if he wasn’t in my unit, but ethically, I wouldn’t go there—not when he worked for me.” Spooner shook himself and gave Luke a cocky grin. “Besides, he never looked at me twice. He was madly in love with Ondry. I am sorry Mortimer Telfer is dead though. I was looking forward to sending his information to the Rownt and letting them handle it. Sadly, the man got stabbed in prison before I could sell him out.”
“Would the Rownt care?” Luke asked. He hadn’t paid all that much attention to the Rownt gossip or government announcements because they reminded him too much of his brother.