Borja would have joined Adams in captivity had they not been in a hurry to evacuate. Still, there was no way she was getting out of this so easily.

She struggled pathetically against his hold on her jugular. Her airway constricted and she started gasping in place of breathing. He felt her resolve weaken as she gurgled violently, trying hard to pass air into her lungs.

Giovanni snatched the GSCOM from her quivering hands. He eased his tight grip but kept his hands in place, squeezing ever so slightly as her feet dangled off the ground. He was not taking any chances. Madam AA was nothing if not sneaky.

The phone was flashing a tiny blue light from the top of the screen when Giovanni held it against his ear. Perhaps the colonel was still on the line.

He heard a soft murmur then a deep voice saying, “Borja? Do you copy?” He sounded hesitant.

She was slowly turning blue in the face. Borja made a raspy sound in her throat so Giovanni eased up some more. He wasn’t trying to choke her to death.

“Do you read me? Dr. Borja?” the man whispered again.

“Hello, Colonel,” Giovanni said into the phone. Borja clawed at his fingers some more.

The man at the other end waited for a few seconds and then the line went dead. Borja, tired of gasping for oxygen, drove her knee right into his shin.

Giovanni has been kicked in the balls more times than he could count. His one-night-stand floozies always tried to steal from him and they did not like getting caught. He has had years of practice to prepare for this. Her kick was not hard enough let alone effective. She only succeeded in making him stagger backwards.

Borja fell to the floor but got up almost instantly to throw a couple of punches his way. Giovanni, however, was quick on his feet and dodged every single one. Her fists ended up hitting the metal door, wrenching a loud grunt from the back of her throat. She lunged for him again, even more fiercely this time around. She looked so furious.

He was avoiding hitting her but she made it very difficult. The more he blocked her advances, the harder she came for him. When Giovanni was finally tired of the dance, he shoved Borja away from him and she flew backwards, slamming into the edge of the open door. She fell out of the lower deck room with a pained groan, squirming in agony as she laid on her back.

Borja tumbled right onto Logan’s feet.

“What is going on here?” he asked. “The other passengers have already jumped ship. What are you two doing here?”

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He bent down to help her up but she only moved further away from him. “What did you do to her?”

Giovanni’s breath too came in quick gasps now. He panted with his hands on his knees. His hair band was gone and his man-bun loose. Long strands of hair sprawled across his face as he bent over. It flew back to rest on his shoulders when he stood upright again.

“She’s the mole,” he told the commander.

Borja was certainly stubborn. The woman could barely sit up without wincing yet she jerked away from Logan’s hands when he reached for her again. “Get away from me!”

Logan looked up at him with a line between his eyebrows. “What does that mean?”

“Borja is working with the spacecrafts that attacked us. Some colonel guy.”

He scoffed in disbelief. Skepticism was practically dripping from his voice when he replied, “That does not make any sense. Dr. Borja would never do that.”

Giovanni’s jaw nearly dropped. Was he doubting him? “Look, I get that she’s your role model or some shit like that–”

“Mentor,” he corrected.

“–but she’s working with them. She was taking orders to get our shuttle to the right location for them to blow us up.”

“Perhaps you misheard her.”

Even Borja herself blinked in shock. Logan would have noticed if he weren’t glaring at him for no reason. “What are you up to, Mr. Gambetti?”

“Me? Are you kidding me?”

Giovanni pointed to his own chest, flabbergasted. He scoffed incredulously thrice in a row, refusing to believe that Logan expected him to defend himself. “She’s the one sabotaging us! Why would I lie about this? Do you not believe me? Don’t you trust me?”

“I have known you for a few months, most of which you spent giving me a headache. I’d rather believe facts. Proofs. Do you have one?”

The GSCOM was no longer with Giovanni. Borja must have taken it back during their brief tussle. He pushed Logan out of the way now when he ripped it out from her slender fingers.

“How about this? Here’s your proof.” He shoved it in the Commander’s face.

Foxxman looked from him to the AA, then back to him. Giovanni’s fists clenched when he saw even more skepticism written in his eyes.

By the time he punched a couple of buttons in, Logan was shaking the possibility away. Literally. He massaged his temple as he gently shook his head from side to side. “This can’t be true.”

“It is, Logan.”

She looked away in shame. She actually looked apologetic for a minute. Then as if it was a slip, the expression disappeared instantly.

Logan grabbed her by the collar and pinned her torso to the wall. “Tell me this isn’t true, Dr. Borja!”

The murderous glint returned to her eyes as she smirked. “Take a wild guess, Commander.”

Giovanni watched a range of emotions flicker into his eyes. Confusion came first, then shock, before giving way to hurt. But it floated away too.

Logan shut it all down and replaced it with a blank expression. “You leave me no choice. Dr. Yesenia Borja, I hereby strip you of your position on this vehicle. You are under arrest under my authority as Commander-in-Space according to Section 3-D of the Ordinances of the Gambetti Space and Aeronautics. You may have the right to fair hearing.”

Logan revealed a taser gun from the holster on his waist and aimed it at her. “What’s it going to be, Borja? The easy way or this way?” He waved the gun in her face.

She chose the easy way. Borja walked out of the room with Logan following tentatively behind while pointing the pistol at the back of her head.

“Well, what about me?” Giovanni called out to their retreating figures.

“Would you like to spontaneously combust?”

“Not really.”

“Then come along.”