by C. G. Hatton
I hadn’t said anything to Sienna about how I knew Con McGoldrick and she hadn’t pressed. “You have all summer, kid,” she’d said, “take your time.”
For once I listened to her. I stayed away from the AI. She was right, we did have all summer. It felt like we had all the time in the world. Jensonn joked that it was the easiest damned assignment he’d ever had. I didn’t want it to end…
We took Bea for walks into the foothills. We took the stallion out for midnight rides beneath the shimmering green sky. And late each night, I snuck into Genie’s room…
Y’know, as much as I’ve never talked about Charlie to anyone before now… about what happened… I’ve always thought about him, he’s always been right there for me, every tab I’ve ever run, every beer I’ve ever had, it’s all been with him. I think Mend understood, but he never asked me, just always said the right thing at the right time, as if he knew I needed to hear what Charlie would have said…
But Imogen… it’s not just that I’ve never told anyone… I’ve never let myself even think about it…
We had one week together, that one perfect week, before the dramas of the galaxy came crashing back to hit me in the face.
The day of the conference inauguration, we took the family jet and flew south to the equator, flying high in a sweeping circle above the vast peninsula occupied by the capital, on Mr K’s instructions, for my benefit, I’m sure. Below us lay the snow-covered estates of each of Winter’s mega-corporations, all seven of them, perfectly placed on seven hills surrounding the gleaming sprawl of the capital city. Genie pointed out each one as we flew over, leaning close to murmur, “Haunted,” in my ear as we looked down on the mothballed estate of Stirling, one of the two dead and dusted corporations that hadn’t survived the turmoil of some Wintran power struggle generations ago.
A few minutes later, she whispered, “That’s Kochitek,” as if it was taboo even to say the name. It didn’t look abandoned. And I was only half listening. It was UM that I wanted to see.
We landed on a private strip inside the estate and walked out into a bright day and a sprinkling of fresh snow. I sucked in a breath of crisp frosty air. It tasted clean, hitting my chest with a chill that was exhilarating. Minus six on the surface, even this close to the equator. The sky was clear blue, the sun shining but not in the burn out your eyeballs way the sun on Kheris does.
Genie slipped her gloved hand into mine, squeezing. “Welcome to Camborne.”
I was staring straight ahead, like an awestruck idiot.
The battlements of the fortress rose high in the distance, remote weapons installations on each tower visible even from here, sheer walls reflecting the sun, surrounded on three sides by an extensive bustling settlement of research facilities and corporate departments, like an insanely wealthy school campus. The far side of the fortress, I knew from the intel I’d burned into my brain, edged the coastline, the stone walls rising from jagged rocks above a rough and icy, unforgiving sea, a line of coastal defensive positions some way out completing an impenetrable security perimeter around the estate, a perimeter that was patrolled by hunter killer drones. A perimeter we’d just safely breezed through and been welcomed inside.
And ten floors directly beneath Camborne’s central grand hall was the vault.
I was less than a thousand metres from the amulet.
The Kilkenny family didn’t have a suite of apartments in the fortress, they had an entire wing. I was half tempted to feign illness to avoid the dinner, hide away in the room they’d given me and spend the night playing with the security system right there and then, but Genie appeared at my door in a white silk evening dress that left nothing to the imagination and a smile that made me melt. Especially when she gave me a hug and murmured softly, “Stay close tonight.” Then she gave me a look as if she was searing a spell into my soul.
Tenaka.
I should have seen that coming.
If I had an ulterior motive for being there, seemed like she had a far more pressing, and personal reason for wanting me to be.
And that spell she cast… she had me. Totally.
Chapter 15
I knew I was in trouble the second we walked into the conference centre’s immense glass-walled ballroom to see Aries boy across the room, eyes darting over immediately to clock Imogen holding my arm. As a frosty atmosphere, even the plummeting temperature outside couldn’t have made it any colder.
Genie glanced at me with a cute, small smile and a glint of steel in her eyes that shouted out loud and clear that she’d seen him.
I was just trying to breathe. The family butler had come with us and spent a full fifteen minutes trying to tie a bow tie of all things around my neck. I was wearing a starched white shirt and black dinner jacket that fit, just, over the cast on my arm. Black dress trousers and polished shoes. Uncomfortable as hell. It was as if this was the real price of wealth. You want money and power? There comes a time when you have to suffer for it.
Akihiro Tenaka was beside himself. I could almost see the steam coming out of his ears even from across the room. I half wished Hil was there to deflect his attention away from me but I had a feeling even if Hil had been there, there was nothing that could have detracted from the fact that the one and only Imogen Kilkenny was holding onto my arm as she made her entrance.
I wasn’t the only attendee from Earth. Sienna was giving me a rundown over the Senson, pointing out ambassadors from all the major Imperial colonies as well as bigwigs representing a handful of the main Earth-side corporations. All formal dress and polished, fake as hell, smiles.
“And that,” she sent, “entering the room, south door, just about… now, is Edvard Ballack.”
I kept my cool, turning casually as Genie switched her hand from my arm to the small of my back as a waiter passed with a tray of gleaming glasses.
Ballack was flanked by an entourage that left no doubt as to his importance. Even if Sienna hadn’t announced his arrival, I could hardly have missed him. He was huge, emanating an ego as big as the bulky frame he had swathed in a black tux, red silk cummerbund wrapped around his waist. People in the ballroom backed away as he walked through, kowtowing and giving him room as if he was supreme king of the galaxy.
I hated to think what kind of entrance Ostraban was going to make.
Genie nudged my arm, holding out a glass that was filled with some insane pale gold liquid that was popping with bubbles. She had another in her other hand and leaned close as she passed one to me. “This…” she murmured in my ear with a grin, “is champagne,” and clinked my glass as she raised hers to drink.
I took a sip and managed to not pull a face.
There weren’t many kids our age but there were a few, the heirs to the corporate empires, practising at being grown-ups for when they graduated to their own controlling shares.
The champagne tasted like bitter soda.
Genie leaned into me and laughed, playing the room, not looking directly at Aki Tenaka but I’d bet she knew exactly where rich boy and his little gang of cronies were standing and what they were doing. Which was glaring at us.
I think I smiled at them. That made it worse. By a magnitude.
She connected on the Senson and sent, “Ignore them. He doesn’t own me,” adding out loud, “Come on, I want you to meet my uncle,” and pulling me away.
Her uncle? I turned to see Conor McGoldrick across the room. Nothing like facing your nightmares head on in the flesh…
He held my hand a moment too long, with a firm grip that I made sure to return with equal force.
“You’re a long way from home, Felix,” he said in that clipped accent that haunted my nightmares.
I hadn’t spoken to him that night on Kheris, I knew I hadn’t. I could recall every detail of every second of it, and I hadn’t said a word in those few moments he was confronting Dayton. He’d spoken to me but I’d just shaken my head in response.
“Yes, sir,” I said as clearly and calmly as I could, sure beyond s
ure that he wouldn’t recognise my voice and not quite so sure he hadn’t recognised me.
He regarded me with a look that could have been vague curiosity or immense boredom, and murmured, “A long way from home…”
Genie saved me by nudging her way between us and giving the guy a peck on the cheek. “You can talk later. I want to show him to Shari and Lois.”
As if I were a pet chihuahua.
McGoldrick nodded, still regarding me intensely as he took a champagne glass from a waitress. “I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about, Felix.”
Not if I could help it.
Genie introduced me to her friends, still keeping one eye on Tenaka across the room. This select group weren’t kids from Westings. A couple were from Sacred Hearts, not hesitating to brag about the trophy.
“We’ll take it off you next year,” Genie said, throwing a beaming smile at me and adding with a loud whisper, “We have a secret weapon.”
One of the big lads edged in next to me, after a few more rounds of champagne that I pretended to drink, and looked down at me, “So you play rugby?”
“Not any more. Broke my arm. I’m going to be out for a while.”
The lad glanced behind me to where I knew Tenaka was still watching us, and said loudly, “Good,” with genuine good humour and a slap on the back. “Last thing we need is someone at Westings who can actually play.”
Tenaka couldn’t help but hear, the scowl deepening.
That was the thing with these kids, you never knew when vicious school playing field rivals could become valued trade partners. Or backstabbing adversaries. I’d had that much drummed into me.
It was all irrelevant. I was never going to see any of them again.
I managed to keep Genie away from Tenaka until we were called through to sit for dinner. She’d already warned me the ten-course banquet and accompanying speeches would be long and boring. It was and then some. I didn’t eat much, refused any more champagne and used the time to hack into the main system of the conference centre. The securities were insane. I didn’t go anywhere near the AI but I pushed it enough to see that some of the protections in there rivalled the best I’d encountered in the Maze. Zang Enterprises were shielding something big, and it was hard to resist taking a peek at Aries and the highly classified stash of intel they had floating around. There had to be something in there I could hold against Tenaka. I didn’t risk it. There’d be time later.
It was late once the meal was finally over. Genie took my hand and led me to the stairs.
“What now?” I asked, hoping that might be it for the night and we could go as I glanced round to see Sienna and Jensonn following at a discrete distance.
“Schmoozing and dancing.” Genie grinned at me. “I’m guessing you don’t want to schmooze or dance.”
The sounds of an orchestra were drifting up from the ballroom.
“I can schmooze and dance if you want.” I couldn’t. I’d never danced in my life unless dodging the automated weapons platforms on the garrison wall counted.
Her grin widened. “I’m not going to subject you to that. Come on, I want to show you the city.”
We went up, the grand staircase giving way to smaller, more discrete steps the higher up the building we went until she pushed open a door and took me out onto a balcony, the cold night air fresh but not as cold as I expected. The city was spread out in a vista of twinkling lights below us, highways and metro trains a blur of light in amongst block after block of high rise buildings, all tall but nowhere near the height of this central towering seat of government. It was impressive. I could see the maps I’d studied in a perfect overlay of detail, street names, districts, businesses…
“There’s the river,” Genie said, breath frosting, squeezing my hand as she pointed with the other to a snaking line of shimmering white, cut in places by the soaring lights of the bridges. “It’s frozen this time of year. We can go skating if you’re up to it.”
I didn’t want to go skating, but I would have done anything just to be with her.
“Beyond that is Yarrimer.”
I could just see the lights from an estate in the far distance.
“And round here…” She led me around, the open balcony encircling the whole building. “…you can just see Camborne if you know where to look.”
I was probably imagining it but on that side of the capital building there was a distinct tang of salt in the chill air.
Genie leaned against the railing, still holding my hand tight as she stared out into the night. The metal was warm, a draft of heated air circulating around our feet. These people could control the climate in any way they wanted to create their perfect surroundings. I knew there were deep wells of geothermal energy beneath the city, that was how Winter thrived and prospered, how the tough climate was worth conquering for its rare minerals and position in the galaxy’s trade routes. But even so… it felt opulent. Comfort for the few. I also knew that not everyone on Winter lived in such comfort. And it was far from the colonies that actually generated much of their wealth.
Genie peered over the railings, looking down, as if she’d read my mind. “Did you know there’s a whole city beneath the city,” she murmured, almost wistful.
I did. The maps and schematics I’d been given had covered the whole planet. Every major city has its darker underbelly of corruption. I doubted very much Winter was anything near as bad as the Pit beneath Aston.
She squeezed my hand. “I’ve never been down there…”
“Probably for the best.”
She smiled and pulled me in for a kiss.
I could have stayed there forever, her lips warm against mine, pressing hard as if she was stamping a claim on me, but she drew back, looked me in the eye then nuzzled close and murmured into my ear, “Where are you really from, Felix?”
That familiar pulse of adrenaline hit my chest and it took every scrap of self-restraint I had not to push her away and run like an idiot.
I just whispered back, “You don’t want to know.”
She laughed and shoved me as if I was making a joke, and stood back, looking at me sideways as if she wasn’t sure.
A waiter walked past, discretely, pausing for just the right amount of time for Genie to take two glasses from his tray before disappearing off to find more rich people to serve.
She gave one to me and leaned close again. “I know you’re not like anyone I’ve ever met before,” she said, raising her glass to her lips. “How old were you when you were adopted?”
It was probably an innocent enough question but it made my stomach chill.
I wasn’t there on holiday. I was undercover, working a tab…
I laughed it off with a casual, “Why?”
She shrugged. “Fe, you are adorable but I can tell you’re not from money. You’re not used to all this, however well off your family might be. You’re too nice.” She leaned close again. “And you might know how to knot a necktie but you’re not very good at it. And you don’t know a butter knife from a fish knife. A family like yours would never allow one of their darling offspring to grow up making that mistake.”
“I was ten,” I lied, my heart thumping against my ribs. I didn’t want to let her down. I didn’t want her to find me out. And that was the first and last lie I ever told her, or anyone else I got involved with outside the guild. It’s an unimpressive measure of how invisible I got that it became second nature to sidestep any questions or curiosity so I didn’t have to lie.
Genie looked at me with something like genuine concern in her eyes. “Tough before then?”
“We didn’t always get to eat but we got to play.” Even if it was in bomb craters and burned out shuttles, but I didn’t say that. “Which is more than you get to do here,” I added softly.
“We have everything we could possibly want,” she said, “and nothing that we need.” She laughed and raised her glass. “As if this is a hardship… We’re the leaders of the future, don’t you know? And like it or not
, that’s now you too, Felix, wherever you’ve come from.” She placed her other hand gently on my wrist, fingers reaching up into my sleeve to stroke over Latia’s bracelet as if she knew. “I hope you do get to come back to Westings.”
I shouldn’t have said it but I whispered, “What about your boyfriend? Aren’t you worried he might see us like this?” I was ignoring the pull of jealousy deep down, the thought that her flirting with me could all be show for his benefit.
She leaned close and kissed my nose. “He’s not my boyfriend anymore. I told him he could take my dowry and go screw himself.”
“What about…?”
She placed a delicate finger against my lips. “I want you.”
And I had a feeling Imogen Kilkenny always got what she wanted.
She drained her glass, drank mine and declared that she was going to go hunt out some more. I didn’t argue. She wasn’t drunk. It was all show, more mind games. She was probably being more careful than I was. I just smiled as she waltzed away, her silk dress flowing out with a twirl, blowing me a kiss as she went.
I watched her, couldn’t take my eyes off her as she vanished back inside, then I turned to stare back out towards Camborne. There’d be a way to get to the vault and the amulet, there had to be…
A footstep behind me made me turn around.
“Taking in the views, Dennison?”
Tenaka with two of his buddies.
I sent Sienna a fast query and got a, “Right here, kid. You want us to intervene?”
That was a negative but I asked her to stand by. I didn’t like the look on his face. I’d seen that kind of look before.
Even so, I couldn’t resist baiting him. “I’m sussing out the enemy, Tenaka. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”
He smirked and walked up next to me, shoving me aside and looking over the edge. “Long way down.”
I couldn’t help the laugh. There were auto-safeties in place, AG monitors, alarms. Even if he did throw me off the balcony, I wouldn’t fall far.
