He pursed his lips and looked out the nearby window. He didn’t say anything long enough that Holly asked if he was all right. He drained his whiskey, then sucked in air between his teeth. “No, I’m not all right. I can barely speak right now.” Holly noticed that his fingers were trembling. “This is rage. My hands? Rage. At least you, you’ve had somewhere to put yours.”
“You mean with my gun?”
“Yes, I mean that.”
“It’s not satisfying. At least, not as much as I thought it might be. I just feel cold inside when I think about it. I suppose that’s better than feeling like I did something wrong.”
“It’s settled, then.”
“What is?”
“Ms. Drake. I have your payment here. I’m prepared to give all of it to you. That’s what you and my emissary agreed on.”
“Good.” Something about the way he said it made her he wonder if he thought she’d say it was on the house. That would be preposterous. She had a team to pay. She needed an apartment still. She needed new clothes. She only had three outfits, tops. And she needed to eat.
“But I also have a retainer for you if you’ll finish this job with me. A quarter of your previous payment, on top of the payment for the Eye job.”
“Job? You mean a new one? Something other than the Eye?”
“This corruption? This trafficking of kids. I can’t stop it and I don’t know what the allegiances of the moles in the police force are. So I don’t know who to trust to help. And my position won’t allow it, and I’m not going to give it up to slowly dismantle the ring of traffickers. But if I’m right and I found the one capable of doing it, while I stay in my government post and give you the leads I run across, then we can work together. In secret. You won’t go out and slaughter a bunch of innocents. You give a shit. You won’t barge in and hurt the kids. You’ll go carefully. Take your team with you and make the right people pay, which means, you won’t wait for a trial. You’ll make sure the scourge eats it, like they should. Kill ‘em, let whatever god is out there sort them out.”
She shrugged. “I don’t believe in god.”
“It doesn’t matter. Do you believe someone that kidnaps children deserves a second chance?”
“Not at all.”
“I don’t either.”
“You say all this like you know what you need to do to stop it,” she said, raising her eyebrow at him.
“I didn’t at first. But I had a hunch.”
“What would this next job be?”
He held out a fist and flipped his fingers out as he listed the parts. “Dismantling the network of money. Find drop points. Find the biggest drop, get the money. Cut off their funding. Disturb the nest. Send them scrambling.”
“Maybe. Get me more information.” Holly rubbed the back of her neck. She was still exhausted from the running around, the stress of having killed again. And though the official claimed he’d protect her, what if he didn’t? “I’ll think about it. And I’ll find out if my team is on board or not, because that will affect my final decision.”
“I’ll put together more info for you and send it to you through Xadrian. When you know what you want to do, get me word through him.” He pushed a thin metallic case across the desk toward her. She’d seen this kind of case before, but had never known what it was. A glowing screen listed the amount of money inside.
“Code is 73217. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I need to take Malcolm to a therapy appointment on Itzcap. Druiviin music therapy.” He stood and began heading for the door, adjusting his vest. “Thank you, again, Ms. Drake, for saving my son. I’m in your debt forever.”
“And it sounds a bit like I’m in yours.”
“Meg’s, I would think.” He nodded as Holly rose and left the office.
42
Holly turned her communicator back on once she reached the street outside the official’s office, then asked the crew to meet her at the Bird’s Nest. She needed to give them their payouts, but felt a strange anxiety about the meeting. Were they—Darius, Charly, Shiro, Odeon—ready to move on? Or would more money keep them interested? And would they be able see the good they could do with their skills? Xadrian’s boss had said he’d give them a retainer and then pay them again for the new job, which sounded like it was stealing money.
She had time on her way over to think about everything that she’d just learned from Xadrian’s employer. He’d helped free her. Had a plan for her. It was, to say the least, a bit creepy. A bit . . . stalkerly.
But to be fair, she hadn’t felt anything other than concern for his son and the dirty business happening in the City of Jade Spires. It remained to be seen if he was hiding anything more or if his creepiness went beyond “I watched you from afar to hire you to rescue my son.”
She arrived before any of the others and sat with Charly in the upper room of the Surge Club. Holly had another drink—something lighter than her usual preference of beer. Namely an expensive glass of Centau wine, to celebrate. She asked Charly to put it on a tab, rather than using some of her share of the money for the job they’d done. That seemed fair to the team, to let them see the amount of money in the briefcase before they divided it up. Holly never wanted there to be a question of whether or not she was being honest with them. They worked as hard as she had and therefore had no problem with splitting it evenly five ways.
“That’s not the norm, though,” Charly said, when Holly told her the plan of how she wanted to split the payment. “The leader gets a bigger share. The one who brought the job in.”
“I don’t care about that. It’s what I want to do.”
“Why?” Charly asked.
“It’s just what a good leader would do.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah,” Holly said. “At least, it’s what I want to do.”
“I think a good leader knows their worth. And takes their fair share.”
“When you bring a job in and lead the team, that’s what you can do, OK? It’s not what I want to do. It’s not about the money. It’s about loyalty and putting the team first.”
Charly shrugged. “I just think you’re underestimating your value.”
“Who’s value?” Shiro asked as he breezed in, swinging his cane and doffing his bowler. He tossed it onto the coffee table and laughed.
“You’re mighty chipper,” Charly observed.
“I’m just riding the wave of success. Rescuing another helpless child. Finishing a job. It feels good.” He sat down next to Holly on the sofa.
“What were you ladies talking about? Don’t let me interrupt. Continue, please.”
“You weren’t interrupting,” Holly said at the same time as Charly, who said, “Holly’s underestimating her value as the team leader.”
Shiro grinned. “And how is she doing that?” He latched right onto the more intriguing statement, of course.
“She’s going to divide the money equally five ways.” Charly said, studying her fingernails, deliberately avoiding Holly’s gaze.
“I see,” Shiro said, drawing back in surprise.
“What? Is it really that unheard of?”
“In all my experience, yes,” Shiro admitted.
“See?” Charly said, gesturing with her hands.
“What’s the problem with it? If I do it, am I bad? Will the team lose respect for me?”
“I won’t,” Shiro said quickly. “I don’t know if the others will. If you’d like, I’d even let you give me a slightly larger share. I did work harder, I think, than the rest of the team.”
“Ha ha ha,” Holly said, watching him. His eyes glittered beneath the soft lighting of the Bird’s Nest.
“See? That’s what I’m talking about,” Charly said. “If you don’t act like the alpha, the rest of the team thinks they can take your place. You act the alpha by taking a larger share. Then they back off and respect you.”
Odeon and Darius showed up then, and the conversation about payment ceased as they came in and took various perches around
the room. Odeon reclined on the sofa while Darius went back to his bay of v-screens.
“Your lives continuing on?” Holly asked, trying to lighten the mood, which suddenly seemed serious.
“Yes, though honestly, I haven’t felt the same ever since you guys were on Paradise,” Darius admitted. “I can’t even go blow off steam gambling at any of my favorite places.”
Holly took that in, hoping it meant perhaps the team would stick around for more work. “Anyone else feel that way?” She watched the expressions on their faces.
“A lot has happened recently,” Odeon said. “I’ve been troubled by many things. That’s one of them. And playing music at Glassini hasn’t felt quite as fulfilling.”
“Yeah, I mean, seeing little Malcolm like that bothered me,” Charly said. “Is he going to be alright?”
“His father is taking him somewhere for Druiviin—er, Yasoan music therapy,” Holly said, catching Odeon’s eye. He cocked his head to one side as though to acknowledge her use of Yasoan.
Shiro made a sound. “Is it possible for a child to recover from such a thing?”
“Kids are resilient,” Darius answered. “I have some in my family.”
Everyone was silent for a few seconds, contemplating what he’d said.
Holly cleared her throat.
“I have your money here. I’m ready to divide it up evenly,” she said as she gestured to the coffee table between the couches. She didn’t wait to hear their protests if they even had them. If she was going to be an alpha, she’d do it her way, which was an alpha approach to the payout. “I couldn’t have done this strange job without your help and an equal payout is my way to say to you that I seriously could not have done any of it without you, especially when it all got crazy. When you get your money, you’re free to go. And if that’s what you choose—to go and not look back—no judgment here. I’ll still feel as thankful for having had you on my team for the one job.”
They were exchanging confused looks, including Odeon and Charly.
Charly broke into the confused atmosphere and stopped Holly from going on by holding up her hand. “Wait, Holly, what are you talking about? That was the agreement all along. I’d do the job, get the money to buy out my partners and pay back what I owe them. Are you saying there’s another job now?”
“That’s what I’m wondering as well, Ms. Drake,” Shiro said.
Odeon watched her with those bright eyes, but seemed unruffled by the foreshadowing in Holly’s words.
“There is, isn’t there?” Darius asked, studying Holly with his dark gaze.
“You’re not obligated to stick around for it. But yes, so that you’re aware, there is another job. Related to this one. The client has given me a retainer, which I would divide up between anyone who stays for the next one. I’d keep a small amount for unforeseen expenses.”
“So what’s the catch?” Darius asked, leaning back as he considered the implications of a retainer.
“No catch, unless you think that having to deal with the same people that we encountered in the last job is a catch.”
Shiro gasped. “So it has to do with the child traffickers?”
Holly nodded. “That’s right. The client wants me to rob them blind so they don’t have capital to work with anymore, in the meantime, any kids we save, that’s a bonus. The hard part is just dealing with the emotional baggage of knowing this shit is even out there. That said, there will be no second chances for any of these monsters.”
“Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?” Charly asked, her voice dropping in pitch as though suspicious.
Holly stood and strolled to the window overlooking the bar. “The same thing it meant two days ago.”
“You’ll kill them?” Odeon asked. If he’d been a human, Holly suspected she would have heard an appalled tone in the question.
“Did it bother you before, Odeon?”
“I’m not normally into violence, Holly Drake.”
“They deserved it,” Darius said. “It’s actually the one reason I’m definitely in this time around, Drake. The money is a nice addition, but the reason is the kids and the chance to exact justice without the interference of bull-shit law and order.”
“How did you get away with murder, Ms. Drake?” Shiro asked.
“Xadrian’s boss,” Charly answered for Holly.
Holly glanced at her sharply from her position at the window. “How’d you know?”
Charly shrugged. “What else would it be?”
“Xadrian’s boss had something to do with it, yes,” Holly admitted.
“Who is he?” Darius asked with a sly grin, as though he knew she wouldn’t want to answer.
“Sorry,” she sighed. “I can’t tell you. I’m sworn to secrecy.”
“Someone high up, though, right?”
“Maybe, Darius. Maybe.” Holly laughed and paced in front of the window. She could barely believe herself: she was laughing despite the fact that she’d recently killed two men.
At least the sickness in the pit of her stomach hadn’t quite left. And of course they’d tried to kill her. That was the only way she could live with it. “Who else is in? I want to know how much space I’ll need for the new base of operations.”
“What’s wrong with this one?” Charly asked. “We have drinks. We have Torden. It’s a good hang.”
Holly pursed her lips. “Does that mean you’re in?”
“Obviously,” Charly gestured. “Like I’d let you keep busting heads without me.”
“And obviously me as well, Ms. Drake,” Shiro said.
Everyone looked at Odeon, who still hadn’t answered. Holly suspected he would give her the most resistance. He was Yasoan, after all, and gifted with a higher sense of scruples than the rest of them. He was a hard sell. But . . . he’d also stuck to her like glue. Could it outweigh his sense of what was right?
“Well, lad?” Shiro asked Odeon.
“I am not sure,” Odeon said. “It is a decision I won’t make quickly.”
“Will you leave us, then?” Holly asked, her heart breaking slightly at the thought of going on without her friend, who she’d come to think of as her sidekick. Or was she his sidekick? She’d take either, she realized, just to keep him in her life.
“Not entirely. I simply need some time to weigh the situation.” His bright gaze penetrated hers. She was sure this was the right move. If only he could see it as quickly as she did.
“Well,” Shiro said, breaking up the tension in the room. “Conning and thieving is fun, but if I can throw in a bit of a moral boost, that just adds to my inflated sense of importance.” He stood and came to stand beside Holly where she gazed out the window at Torden below, unpacking crates of liquor. She resisted the urge to take a step back. She was learning to overcome the flinches Graf had programmed into her. “Can I just say,” he began, quietly, “you’re made of quite finer stuff than I had originally guessed, Holly. I’d have to be a fool not to stick with you.”
She felt a tiny flame ignite in her chest and send chills through her limbs, distracting her from the troubling revelation that Odeon may not want to continue the gig. Shiro had called her Holly. Not Ms. Drake.
“Thanks Mr. Oahu,” she said in a wry tone, trying to snuff out the feeling he was stirring in her. She couldn’t have things like that interfering with her judgment if they were going to keep working together.
THE END
* * *
Hands of the Colossus continues the saga of Holly Drake against the Shadow Coalition.
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Hands of the Colossus
1
“What do you think, Trip?�
�� Holly Drake asked. She glanced at the pilot of their ship, the SC Olavia Apollo. The female was a Centau, which Holly would have never imagined using in her life. However, tech genius crew-member Darius had sworn that she wouldn’t compromise the operation and turn over their illegal activities to the Centau leadership. Despite his scoundrel ways, Darius had proven himself enough that Holly trusted him. “Can you do it?”
The Centau turned to the stare at Holly, where she sat in the co-pilot seat, and smirked. “‘Think I can do it?’ What sort of question do you ask me, Drake?”
“A nervous question. I hate space-flight.”
“Yes. So you’ve said. Repeatedly.” Trip’s dark gaze flickered over Holly’s face, then went back to the monitor.
Charly was already suited up in the air-lock and waiting, while Odeon was strapped in behind Holly, humming. This mission wasn’t the sort that lent itself to drinking for nerves. Was it a terrible thing to ask her Druiviin friend that he hum to help her through the ordeal? He still wasn’t fully committed to the new gig, but she was slowly wearing down his resolve. And, thankfully, he wasn’t against sticking by her side, despite not being completely dedicated. He hadn’t accepted the retainer yet, but he would soon, she could feel it.
“You needn’t worry the least. Centau ships are the most advanced in the known galaxies. He’s mapping the gravity of this misshapen moon as we approach for landing. It won’t even be rough. And I will have very little to do with the actual landing. It is in the hands of the Olavia Apollo’s AI.” Trip gestured at the video image of the moon on the monitor as they approached.
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