“Does anyone know what Shiro is actually going to do?” Holly asked softly into the air so that her mic picked it up. The elevated platform was quite busy as crowds came and went for evening parties, and she didn’t want to look like the crazy lady muttering madly to herself.
Charly spoke first. “No. But he’s good, so I haven’t worried about it.”
“It’ll be effective.” Darius chimed in. “And then I’ll give the signal that the security has zeroed in on him. You guys go in then.”
Holly shifted slightly to feel the gun against her back, the Equalizer. She was getting used to having it and though she hadn’t become a marksman by any means, she would soon take time to get more familiar with its operation. Sometimes, lately, she wondered if she’d had it back during the early days with Graf, if he would have treated her differently.
Probably not.
Shiro began speaking. At first Holly was confused that he was talking to them, but it soon became clear that he was addressing someone else.
“Hello, m’lady. Remember me?” he said. “I was wondering if you would ever want to join me for a cocktail or two. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.” There was a muffled response from someone else. Shiro laughed. “Well, I hope you don’t mind very much that I came by to say hello again. Actually this isn’t the first time I’ve come by. The other times I didn’t say anything. I just followed you from afar.”
“Oh god,” Darius groaned.
“Shit, I can’t believe he’s doing the stalker thing,” Charly said quietly.
“That’s what it is?” Holly asked, looking at Charly across the platform.
“Yes, it works, though. It can just take a few minutes for the person to get scared enough to pull in others or call the police. But because this woman is on security, I think it might work quicker than normal.”
It was unsettling to listen to. Holly felt for the female security guard. But, they had a job to do and hopefully the guard wouldn’t put up with it very long.
“You said person. Has he used it on others?”
“Of course. He’s used it on guys too.”
“OK, she’s tapped a silent alarm,” Darius said. “You guys can move in.”
One by one, they did that. Charly went first to clear the way, then Holly, then Odeon. They skirted the platform and moved casually across the walkways to the upper entrance into the tower. There was a security desk near the doors for the top of the tower, and as the three of them entered the spire-top, the desk was empty. Charly leaned over it and checked to see if the guard was just crouched down for some reason.
“I’ve now got the security feeds on your floor showing recycled footage. Move quickly,” Darius said.
The spires were a model of ingenious engineering. Though many of them were distinct themselves, there was some repetition in each version. On each floor of this one, the hallway curved around the center, where the main elevator shaft was and each suite was a section of the circular spire, like a cross section of an orange. They stopped at the elevator and hit the call button.
“Wait for me to clear the elevator security feed before you guys get on,” Darius said. “OK, the elevator that’s on its way has people on it. Should be no big deal. Just ride with them. I’ve got the security feed cleared on it. So just board like nothing’s weird. And word of advice, maybe converse or something? Two humans and a Druiviin not speaking much is a curious thing.”
When the doors opened, Charly again went in first, with Holly and Odeon following. There were two Centau aboard the elevator, wearing lavish attire, looking bored. Their dark gazes skirted across Holly and Charly, then lingered on Odeon. Holly could see the question in their faces. It passed and they both went back to looking uninterested in what was happening around them.
“This isn’t your stop,” Darius said. “In case you thought it was.”
The elevator stopped and the Centau exited. The doors closed and the elevator kept moving up.
“The next one is your stop,” Darius said. “Shit.”
“What?”
“There’s an unplanned security detail on the floor you’re going to. It must be related to the jewels getting moved. Not related to the overall security of the building. These two aren’t dressed in the standard uniform. Sorry, guys. We didn’t plan for this.”
“It’s fine Darius. I can take them,” Charly offered. “But you guys can step in if they’re winning. Which they won’t be.”
Over the comm Holly could hear Shiro arguing loudly with someone. His conversation had been turned down by Darius back at the bird’s nest, which was helpful, because the intensity of what they were doing was creating a lot of internal noise in Holly as they ventured deeper into the job.
The elevator went up only two more floors and the doors opened.
Darius’s voice came on the comm. “You’re good to go. I got the feeds adjusted. The guards are on the opposite side of the floor. I don’t know where they came from. Must have been inside the room where the jewels are.”
“We have to take care of them, though,” Charly said. “Or they’ll interfere and call for backup.”
Charly went out ahead and walked down the hall, undaunted. Odeon and Holly followed. Holly checked her gun against her back again. It was still there. Of course it was. But it helped to check. To be sure.
A sense of calm permeated her body, and she glanced at Odeon, whose expression was more intense than Holly had ever recalled. He was humming but she couldn’t hear it. She knew though, because of how she was feeling. Did he do it for himself, then?
There were sounds of a scuffle ahead of them in the hallway. Holly broke into a run and caught up to Charly. She was currently in the midst of fighting a large Constie and a human. The Constie grabbed Charly’s arm. Holly watched as, rather than fight to break free, Charly fell toward the one who’d grabbed her arm. That threw his balance off, which was what it was it was intended to do. He kept falling backwards as Charly pushed against him with her full weight. He tumbled to the floor and Charly landed on top of him. The other guard moved to kick Charly in the back of the head, and as good as a fighter as Charly was, Holly knew that she wouldn’t be able to block this kick in time.
But Holly had never stopped moving and was in range of the human guard. She dove for him, shouting “hey!” at the same time to distract the human. The guard’s gaze flicked toward Holly, his eyes widened, and then Holly slammed into him, wrapping her arms around his body and grabbing ahold tight. Her motion knocked him down. As they landed, the guard’s body smashed Holly’s hands against the ground. They skidded across the hard, tiled floor. The guard grunted and pushed Holly off his body, but she held tight.
“You guys need to get this done and get those guards out of there. There’s a small maintenance closet by the elevator shaft. Hurry up.” Darius said.
Holly’s arms remained wrapped around the human and she gasped with the effort of fighting against his outward pressure with his elbows.
“Get off,” he grunted.
A sharp crack of sound made Holly flinch. The guard she’d tackled went limp, then she saw Odeon standing over her with a small, wooden club.
“Where’d that come from?” Holly asked.
“My bag of tools,” Odeon said plainly. “It’s a Yasoan weapon.”
“I thought you guys were the nobler race,” Holly said. “No weapons.”
“We are. That’s why it’s so small,” he laughed. “I never use it. They haven’t been used for hundreds of years. But I am not a traditional Yasoan.”
Holly looked behind her as she rose and shook off the fight. Her hands were sore where they’d been crushed beneath the guard. They ached fiercely. Had she broken them? She didn’t have time to think about it and they still worked, though they smarted. Charly had evidently beaten her guard with no help, because the other woman was already dragging the guard back toward the elevator.
“Come on, guys, help me with this sack of meat.”
&nbs
p; Holly ran to help her. “Stay with that one, Odeon, in case he wakes up.”
Holly took hold of one of the legs and jerked hard, dragging the body back to the closet. It was almost too small to fit the guard inside. Like Darius had said, it was a maintenance closet, but this guard was a large Constie. The two of them maneuvered his limp figure into the room, shut the door softly and went after the other one.
“Hurry,” Holly said to Charly, as they took hold of the other guard and did the same.
“Someone’s coming,” Darius said, his voice breaking through the pounding sound of Holly’s heart in her ears. “They’re about to get off the elevator.”
They were just shutting the door to the maintenance closet, hadn’t even had time to adjust their clothes and recover fully from stashing the bodies and the fight, and the elevator door slid open.
“Well, shall we?” Holly asked Charly, trying to act normal.
“Yes, let’s,” Charly said, heading around the corridor as a female Centau walked past them.
She stopped at a door, activated the lock, and went inside. Holly caught a glimpse inside the lavish accommodations as they passed by and collected Odeon on their way to the door of the suite number that Xadrian had given them.
“This is it,” Holly said in a hushed voice. “Keep watch, while I use the Skelty Key.”
“Shiro,” Darius said, “pull back. Pull back. They’re almost in, don’t get arrested. I’ve got the security feed right. They’re about to get into the room.”
39
Holly pulled the Skelty Key out of the small bag that Darius had given her. It was bulky. There were three knobs, and a meter that read out the how much hydrantium was left. There was also a screen that glowed black and green with scrolling numbers and information. It whirred as she attached the straight, pronged part of it to the scanner lock on the door. She could see how it worked as the screen scrolled the status, deducing the code to break through the lock.
“Someone’s coming,” Odeon said.
Holly trusted his ears. Whoever was coming could be heading straight for the room they were trying to break into. How could they get out of this one? “Act like I’m just trying to open my lock. Casual, normal. Get a little chatty. Whatever it takes.”
They would take their chances.
But. She hesitated. Was the job worth being caught and going to prison again? Maybe they should just leave. Nothing seemed worth prison time, and she’d never forgive herself for getting Charly caught and sent back. And why was this floor suddenly as busy as a Spireway station? It was jamming up the job.
“You almost have it?” Charly asked, crowding up to Holly.
That was another thing—it was hard to estimate distances when Odeon heard something. What he heard might be on the other side of the building. She had no grasp on his hearing. If Charly had said someone’s coming, Holly would know how much time she had.
Her heart thudded against her backbone. Sweat streamed into her palms as she watched the key working.
“Guys come on, talk about the party,” Holly said, gritting her teeth.
“Party?” Charly asked.
“They went into another room,” Odeon said.
Holly let out the breath she’d been clenching between her jaws.
Finally, the readout flashed “Success!” The lock engaged and the door slid open. Holly yanked the Skelty key off the lock and returned it to her bag. She’d been standing on the side of the doorway, so none of them saw into the room as it opened.
Charly peered around the opening. “It’s clear,” she said, stepping into the room. Holly and Odeon followed.
“We’re inside,” Holly said for Darius and Shiro. She engaged the door and it slid shut.
The room was vast and elegant. Centau rugs covered the hard tile floors. It was one large room with high ceilings and a kitchen with a table, a refrigerator, an oven, and a kasè machine. There were sofas, sculptures, a variety of thin, long-leafed Centau plants, and other exquisite furnishings in the large space, but no safe. Charly crept carefully toward the back of the room where there was a hallway.
“Down here,” she said.
Holly and Odeon joined her.
“Where’s the safe?” Holly asked. “Are they usually in another room? Maybe behind some framed art?”
Charly laughed softly as she opened the door to one of the bedrooms. “Nothing in there,” she said glancing inside.
Holly opened the door to the room opposite the one Charly looked in and then peered around the frame slowly.
She backed away, seeing something unexpected, then looked in again.
“What was it?” Odeon asked, his hand resting on her shoulder from where he stood behind her.
Holly opened the door again. There was a human child inside, about ten or eleven years old, sitting in a chair, tied up and gagged. There was also a small bed with rumpled blankets on it. The room itself was in stark contrast to the rest of the suite, which was elegant and lavish, while this room was minimalistic in its furnishings. The child stared at them with wide eyes.
Hot, volcanic rage rippled through Holly’s body when she saw the boy. Taking a deep breath, she snuffed the rage out with two sharp exhalations.
She entered the room with Odeon and Charly close behind her.
“Go see if you can find a safe,” Holly told Charly. “Odeon stay with me. Can you do your humming trick?”
“Why?” Odeon asked.
“Just trust me. If you can, direct it at the boy, not at me, I need to be not-calm.”
Holly had seen something. She knew now that there had been more to this job than she would have ever been able to guess. There was probably no safe, but to be sure, she wanted Charly to check. As she got closer to the child, her suspicions were confirmed. Just above the collar line of his shirt, she could see it: the faint reflection of a gold chain.
She crouched down in front of the boy, who suddenly looked calmer. The wild fright that had been flashing through his face had been replaced with a tired calm. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help. You’re safe now. Can I see your necklace?”
He nodded once.
Before Holly did anything, she had to confirm it. She reached up and gently looped the chain around her finger and lifted the necklace out from beneath his shirt. The amulet spilled out and collided with Holly’s fingers. The ten smaller gemstones, and the large one. It was the Eye of the Colossus. Around the neck of a child.
“The necklace,” Odeon said, in his soft sing-song voice he used when humming calm to someone. “I don’t understand.”
“Give it a minute,” she answered. “The shipping container. The vague details about the job. This child looks almost familiar. We’re not here to rescue the amulet, though the child has it. We’re here for the boy.”
Charly entered the room. “No safe.” She was breathless. “But someone’s opening the front door. What gives with the kid?”
“This isn’t a heist, Char, it’s a rescue.”
“The boy is wearing the Eye,” Odeon added.
“What the—?”
“I’m going to remove your gag, OK,” Holly said to the boy. “Please don’t scream. I know you’ve been scared. You’re safe now. I promise. I’m an elementary school teacher,” she said, as she untied the gag. “But now I’m something else. I don’t know what yet.” The last part she muttered. The gag came free in her hand and she dropped it. “Who did this to you?” she asked the boy.
He shook his head. “I don’t know.” His voice was hoarse.
“You never saw them?”
“I saw them. I just don’t know them.”
There were voices outside the room. Odeon still hummed, because the boy was strangely calm. Holly felt strangely calm as well, but it wasn’t the distracted calm that came from Odeon humming. It was the crystal calm of a decision made. She knew what she had to do.
“These are your orders: stay with him,” she told Odeon and Charly. “Untie him. Get ready to ru
n, especially if anything happens to me. I’ll be right back. And catch Darius and Shiro up on what’s happening. Is our getaway going to work?”
Holly pulled her gun out of the waistband holster and went to the door of the bedroom. She could hear them out there talking, two males. She inhaled deep and let it out slowly. She made sure her gun was charged, checked the readings, glanced back at Charly and Odeon, who were both watching her. They nodded at her as though they knew what she was going to do. She wasn’t sure they knew. But Holly didn’t need someone else to tell her what to do this time. This time she knew.
She flipped off her mic, but kept her earpiece in. She left the room and closed the door softly behind her. It wouldn’t drown out all the noise, but it would take care of some of it. The boy had already been traumatized. Kidnapping? How did a kid recover from that?
This time perhaps it would help him, to know that he was worth the battle.
40
“Hey, what the—?” One of the men said as Holly walked out of the hallway into the room, her gun aimed between them. They pulled their own guns out and pointed them at her as they got up from the stools at the kitchen counter. One of the thugs was a Constie with the startling reflective shards in his skin like fired-porcelain, and pale green hair. The other thug was a tall human with a square, muscular jaw and small nose. Both were large, wearing the Shadow Coalition black attire, and sporting the cephalopods of Joopa tattoos on their necks.
“You tell me.” Holly kept her gun pointed at them. “Looks like you boys are doing some terrible shit with kids. Do I have that right?”
They exchanged a look with each other. The Constie shrugged and then spoke with a soft accent. “Don’t know what you’re talking about. There are no children here.”
She laughed, coldly. “You’re a terrible liar. You did see which room I just came from? I don’t think human trafficking goes over well with the Centau. Hell, it doesn’t go over well with me, and I’m just a corrupt human.”
The Colossus Collection : A Space Opera Adventure (Books 1-7 + Bonus Material) Page 25
