The aroma of expensive spices came from the kitchen. Original art hung on the walls. White tablecloths with hand-embroidered patterns were spread on each table. A staircase on one side of the room led to the upper floors. It was intricately carved and just as polished as the wood floor. This place was fit for royalty.
Everyone else in the dayroom—men in suits and women in full gowns—ignored him outright when they saw him, or turned their noses up at his plain t-shirt and pants.
He took a seat on a cushioned chair near the window and looked out between the metal slats. Another casket was passing, trailing dozens of mourners. The infinity atom always made him fear for Karolina. With half a million people on Hollow Island, the odds that she’d end up in a box were slim. Then again, they had been slim for whoever was in the box. And Nash personally knew a handful of the Reaper’s victims already.
The click of heels from the upstairs hallway told Nash that Livi was approaching. The first day or two of pursuit, Nash stressed over letting her out of his sight. It didn’t take long to realize he couldn’t watch her every second. If Livi wanted to get away from him, she’d find a way. And her taunting offers about sharing a room to save money were too forward to accept. Even if she truly was inviting instead of teasing—which he didn’t believe for a second—getting involved with a woman like Livi was not in his future.
She’s a Vamp, stupid. Stop even thinking about her like that.
For all her talk about saving money by bunking together, Livi always found the most opulent rooms in any city. With her special requests at each inn, she doled out as much in a night as most Phoenicians earned in a month. For the three nights in Troy she’d paid forty kilos! Almost half a gig!
Towns such as Krete didn’t have much to offer in the way of suites or penthouses, and this place was a couple steps down from some of the accommodations she’d found in the cities. She slept in rooms with gold-plated doorknobs, rode in man-powered elevators, hired servants to fan her, and always had hot running water. Everyone on Hollow Island had access to running water, but hot water was an extravagance.
In Nash’s inn, he’d barely had room to set his pack down next to a mattress not much softer than the floor. And he was fine with that. Money, in the form of ratings, might not always come as freely as it did with him on the hunt for the Reaper.
The clicking of heels grew louder as Livi came around a corner upstairs in a flowing, form-fitting dress. And what a form she had. Curves where they belonged, muscle in just the right places, and a grace in her walk that made all of it impossible not to notice. Add in everything else she had going for her and she was kilometers out of Nash’s league.
Devil’s blue, she had called the color of that dress last time she wore it, with silver embroidery on the bodice. It was the perfect color to compliment her midnight hair and pale shoulders. The wounds to her forearms and shoulders had healed well, leaving thin silver lines and criss-crosses on her pale skin, that matched other similar marks he’d seen on various parts of her body. The scars were thinner than he’d expect for such serious injuries. That, combined with the faint magical color of them made Nash suspect Vamps had basic healing modifications.
Every eye in the room was on her as she descended the stairs. Just like that, the fanciest room anywhere in Krete was as drab as one of Nash’s hotels in comparison to Livi. When she deigned to lift her eyes and seek out Nash, he resisted the urge to drop his eyes back down to the table cloth. He stood to wait for her to approach.
The proprietor entered. “I trust your stay was satisfactory, my lady.” He dipped his head and touched his forehead with fingertips from both hands. It was still a strange gesture to Nash, though he was starting to see it as a show of respect.
With a wry smile she answered, “I didn’t see any mice, and the mattress was relatively free of other vermin.”
Unconfidently, the proprietor touched his forehead again and said, “Thank you, m’lady. A pleasure to be of service.”
Livi handed him a dress she’d been carrying and said, “Please donate this to the nearest orphanage. The embroidery is loose on the underside of the right arm.” Nash had seen the dress the day before and it appeared perfect. It had to cost twenty kilos or more.
“Yes, m’lady,” said the man. He made a small bow and backed into the kitchen.
“Good morning,” said Nash. He wanted to comment on how nice she looked; girls were supposed to appreciate that sort of thing. But nice didn’t seem complimentary enough, and anything more than that sounded like flirting or rehearsed flattery.
“Nash,” she acknowledged. “Did you find the stables comfortable accommodations?”
“Actually I decided to splurge for a pillow under this table.” He patted the table. “I can’t afford to eat now, but at least I won’t smell like a horse.”
“For today, maybe,” she said with a small grin. For the first few days she’d teased him from above, as if she were superior. In the weeks since, either Nash had risen or Livi had stooped. Their banter felt even and friendly. Yes, she was the rich friend and he was the … frugal one, but they’d definitely grown comfortable with each other.
“Let’s run over to the depo while we wait for the gofers to get back,” Nash said.
“Run? In these heels? Don’t be absurd.” Her smile belied the sincerity in her voice.
They’d talked about her special Vamp heels, which were strong enough for a Giant to run in. Livi’s accentuated dexterity meant she’d never twist an ankle. Like most Castes, she downplayed her skills in order to increase the effect when needed.
Nash rolled his eyes and walked out into the street. Dust from the road hung in the air. She followed at a distance suggesting a lady with a Ranger escort. They had decided that was the best way to walk without drawing too much attention.
Flaring her oversized parasol, Livi said, “We could wait until the crowd arrives. I so enjoy asking the grabbing pigs in black how they knew the deceased and if they think they’ll ever be able to move on.” More than a few ‘mourners’ had fled the lines outside the depos under Livi’s concerned interrogation.
“We don’t have time. The gofers will be here in half an hour. I’d like to leave as soon as supper’s over, try to stay as close behind him as possible.” Livi hated traveling before sunset, but Nash took the lack of argument as assent.
The afternoon sun was intense with high humidity driving it in. Even in the spring there was little break in the weather, except during the short afternoon rain showers. Nash had switched from denim to rugged cotton pants and still wore solid color t-shirts and a flatpack across his lower back. Most Rangers had a distinctive style, like his trainer, John Wayne. Some dressed like Ninjas, others dressed like superheroes or other well-known characters. He’d met one Ranger who wore a plain black business suit and sunglasses every day.
The walk to the small depo building was short. Krete wasn’t very big to begin with, probably one of the smallest towns with a depo anywhere on Hollow Island. The Corporation used some depos as docks for the hovercars that delivered supplies and transported employees around the island, but not tiny ones like Krete’s. The impact of the hovercars on daily life was indirect and for the most part everyone ignored them.
The funeral goers hadn’t made it to the depo yet, so there was no line. Nash stood far enough away to allow Livi privacy and motioned for her to go first. As she walked past, she rolled her eyes, indifferent to the space he always tried to give her.
In a matter of seconds, Livi called, “Nash. Take a look at this.”
Curiously he approached the transaction window and followed Livi’s surprised look to the counter. More coins were spread on the counter than Nash had ever seen. Almost a dozen stacks of ten gigs each. It was a fortune just sitting there on the counter. She’d earned it in just three days.
“That’s a lot of money,” Nash said.
“Point for you.”
“How could anyone ever spend that much?” he asked.
&n
bsp; “You’d be surprised.”
“Do you always earn this much?” Apparently he’d grossly underestimated her income.
“Would I call you over here to see it if I did? Just to rub your penurious nose in it?”
Nash caught the sarcasm. “I need to start eating more.”
Livi laughed, but went serious again quickly. “This is more than twice what I expected. Since you and I teamed up, my ratings have gone up five or ten percent in every town. Until now.”
“Something’s happened, or is about to happen,” he said.
“I’m glad to see your brain’s not as slow as your legs. This is more than we can comfortably carry.” Turning to the teller, she said, “I’d like to make a deposit.”
The door alongside the barred window beeped. Handing her parasol to Nash, Livi walked into the small sallyport. He moved to follow her, but the door closed in his face. With a flattened plastic hook, the man behind the bars scooped her coins back
Nash waited at the window as one minute, then two passed.
What’s taking her so long? he wondered, stepping away from the window. The stacks of coins and what they could signify gave him an ominous prickle in the back. People on the outside were watching. Either they were getting close to the reaper or something bad was hanging over them. It only made it worse that with Livi inside, he was completely alone.
The door opened suddenly. Nash jumped and his hand flew to the grip of his pistol.
Ignoring Livi’s smirk, he asked, “Did they say anything?”
She shook her head. “As tight lipped as an Ascetic.”
Displaying the same nerves he was feeling, she looked one way up the street then the other as the clerk returned and pointed his scanner at Nash. “Nash. One gig, forty kilos, and seventy-five cents.”
That had to be a mistake. There was no way—
Within seconds Nash’s ratings sat on the counter in front of him. It was five times as much as he expected as well. If his math was correct, he was making close to four month’s standard wages every day. A single man could live comfortably for a year on what sat on the counter in front of him.
He considered depositing it, adding it to the mil he had in his account already. But the ratings meant something was up, and he wanted to be prepared for whatever was coming. After he had a chance to talk it over with Livi, he could come back and make a deposit if it turned out he didn’t need cash for anything.
The coins joined an increasingly heavy load in his pouch. He stepped up next to Livi. “My ratings were way more than I expected. Do you have any idea what’s coming?”
He waited for a snide remark, You mean you earned two cents instead of one this time?
Chewing on her bottom lip, Livi gave a tiny shake of the head. “Let’s talk to the gofers.”
“Do you want to see the fire on the way?” asked Nash. Every three to five days the Reaper committed arson within a block or so of his murder. Nash and Live had studied most of the burn sites and even talked to a couple experts, and not only was there no pattern to the fires, he didn’t even leave any implements of fire starting or accelerants.
“Not particularly,” said Livi. “Unless you want to.”
Nash shook his head. “I think it’s a waste of time. We’re better off getting an early start to the next town.”
On the walk back to the hotel, Livi’s unshakable cool had hairline cracks. Her eyes went to every casual noise, many she picked up with enhanced senses that Nash couldn’t. On occasion she’d glance at the street behind her instead of being too important to care what happened back there.
As they turned a corner, Livi bumped into a tall woman with bright yellow hair and jewel encrusted lips that matched the color of her hair. The woman’s lips ticked as she tapped them together in annoyance. Nash hadn’t seen Livi’s dagger come out, but he saw it disappear back into her sleeve as Livi moved on without saying anything to the woman.
Yep, she was as jumpy as he was.
The four gofers were waiting for them at the corner of the Shangri-La, to the side of the building in the shadows. When Nash and Livi began pursuing the Reaper, they had to wait for rumors to spread or take a guess at which direction to go, and had wasted days doing legwork themselves. Frustrated at spinning his wheels, Nash came up with the idea to hire people to run to each adjacent town or city as soon as they arrived in a new place. Sometimes it was a waste of money since rumors arrived before the gofers came back. Other times, it saved them precious hours. With the system in place, the bloody trail was easy to follow. So far the Reaper hadn’t skipped cities. He went from one to the next, sometimes staying more than one day, but never passing through without at least one kill. It definitely felt like they were gaining ground.
Three of the gofers had been dispatched to surrounding towns the night before, the other went to the gate between the Hot and Cold sides. The three men and one woman were standing with lowered heads, eyeballing the stunning lady.
Livi acted like she didn’t notice their admiration as she folded her parasol. “Did any of you find what we sent you to search for?”
Three of them clenched lips in disappointment, but the fourth half-raised one hand. “Lady, I went to Ithaka. A cane farmer, Dalach, fell off his wagon when his horse spooked. Broked his leg, my lady. And that’s not all. There’s a clockmaker in Ithaka, and she’s been laid up with a pneumonia for two weeks now. I seen them both myself, just to make sure.”
Finding reliable people with basic intelligence in each town was a problem from time to time, but Livi was to be commended for her restraint with the simpleton. “And none of the other towns reported any murders, or people missing?”
Two men shook their heads vigorously and offered ‘no my lady’s. It was the first time the gofers had come up empty.
The fourth gofer, a caramel-skinned redhead woman, had been sent to the gate. It was unlikely the Reaper would go anywhere near there. They had sent her just to cover all their bases.
The woman said, “Nothing unusual at the gate, neither. I asked the night guards and waited for the morning shift, like you told me. Even gave them the, er, gift you sent. They opened the books and shown me the proof that every person who passed to the other side was scanned proper.”
“And each of you actually made the trip?” Her withering gaze made them cringe and nod. “My friend here would be most disappointed if we found out one of you spent the night under a mango tree.” As usual, her high bearing and the threat of Nash got her what she wanted without the need to bare her fangs.
Another chorus of ‘no my lady’s assured her that they’d each done their duty, and there was nothing but to pay them. Nash gave the two closest to him two kilos each, about four times the normal wage for a day, while Livi paid the other two. The bribe they’d sent with the red-haired woman had come from their purses equally. Touching fingers to forehead, the gofers hurried away.
“Nothing,” said Nash, as the itch in his back doubled in intensity.
“Exactly. That tells us everything.”
Nothing tells her everything?
Livi was as tough to keep with up mentally as she was physically, and he didn’t see where she was going. He started talking through it. “He might have skipped a city, but that breaks the pattern and it doesn’t explain the boost in ratings. If he didn’t go anywhere, that would mean he’s still in Krete. That would explain the ratings, but someone would have found a body today. This is the smallest town we’ve been in though. If he was here last night it would have been impossible to miss him.
“Think bigger,” prompted Livi.
San Juan and Troy came to mind, the biggest cities on the Hot side, but that made no sense. Nash shrugged.
Livi shrugged back. “Looks like you’re about to go solo again, Boy Ranger.”
“Livi, for once just talk straight.”
“Where’s the fun in that? What do we know? We sent people to all three towns adjacent to this one, right?”
Nash nodded.
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“And we got a clumsy farmer and chronically ill old woman. Nada.”
Nash nodded again.
“And we sent one to the gate, but nobody across the gate into Ponce,” she said.
“The Cold side?” It hadn’t even crossed Nash’s mind. “He’s got to be Level 3, unless they’ve started making Level 4 or 5 Jennies. He’d never pass the scan.” Rangers were the only Jennies higher than Level 1 allowed on the Cold side.
Her eyes narrowed. “Scans?” She went a little cross-eyed as she focused on his mechanical eye. “What do you know about the scans?”
“Well, we can, um, assume, the scans would include his crimes and probably say whether he was allowed over there or not.”
Attempting to tap his mechanical eye with a fingernail and succeeding in poking his eyelid when he closed it, she said, “There’s more to that marble than you’ve told me. But let’s get back to the point. I’m not saying he went through the checkpoint at the gate, though I’m not ruling it out.”
Nash was happy to talk about something that was not his eye. “So you think he broke through? Have you ever seen the fence? It’s actually two fences, both topped with razor wire. The six meters—”
“Feet, piker,” said Livi.
“Fine, the … twenty feet between the fences is a fully monitored microwave zone. If a zone sensor goes off, not only do they get a visual with cameras, they dispatch soldiers to investigate. Trust me, there’s no way through it.”
Too patiently, Livi said, “Who said anything about through?”
“You said you don’t think he can fly.”
Livi shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a progressive woman.” Leaning in, she whispered, “It’s the only thing that explains the jump in ratings? The Corporation has been building up to this moment, and whatever is coming next. Talk about escalation; the viewers can’t wait to see what we do now.” Her breath sent a tingle from the base of his spine to the top of his neck and he had to take a step away and shake it off.
A Mutiny of Marauders Page 8
