“Get on your ziplines now,” Odeon said. They’d set the system up to cross the gap between the buildings.
“Ok, Shiro, you go first,” Holly muttered, feeling her stomach plummet at the thought of crossing the gap.
“Ladies first,” Shiro said. “You’re not afraid are you, Ms. Drake?”
Those were the magic words. She had been afraid. But now that Shiro caught her, she couldn’t very well admit that.
“Hardly. I wanted to make sure you got across without a problem. It’s fine. I’ll go first.”
“When a lady says, ‘it’s fine,’ it never is.”
“But it is. Look I’m going.”
“Masks on,” Shiro said.
Holly yanked hers down over her eyes, nose, and mouth, and then jumped onto the zipline, taking it in one movement so that she couldn’t change her mind. The winds ripped through her hair. She lifted her legs and traversed the distance. Though it was rather narrow, it seemed to take forever. Her abdomen muscles burned. Her shoulders ached, and then she was there, on the platform. She dropped and pulled the zip tool off. Shiro landed beside her, holding his cane between his teeth.
“Ow.” He pulled it out as he landed. “This cane was not made to hold in my mouth.”
He flexed his jaw repeatedly.
“Oh believe me, I know what you mean,” Holly said drily. There it was—his blush. She’d wanted that. Had worked hard for it. She laughed.
“Lead the way, Ms. Drake.”
They moved into the warehouse.
“You guys in?” Charly asked.
“Yes,” Holly said, as they crouched behind a stack of crates just inside the gate. “Let’s get to where we can hear their voices. Then deploy the grenades.”
“On it,” Charly said.
Holly crept further into the warehouse, staying in her crouching position, moving carefully around stacked crates and tanks, which said hydrantium on the outside.
Soon Holly could hear the low guttural voices of the thugs involved in the drop. “I can hear them.”
Charly whispered over the comms. “I can see them. There are six. Grenades ready.”
“Ready.”
“Three, two—“
“One,” Holly finished, triggering her grenade and tossing it over the crates.
Cries of shock came from beyond the crates and then the coughing fits began.
Holly and Shiro pulled out their weapons and moved out from behind their crates and headed for the middle of the room.
The men were on the ground, hacking up lungs, rolling in agony. One of them grabbed at Holly’s leg—she kicked him.
Someone bumped into her. She turned, expecting to see Shiro.
It was Voss. Bent in a coughing fit.
“The hell,” Holly said through her mask. “Are you following us?”
Voss shook her head. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Charly,” Holly said. “Grab Voss, the idiot. Help her out to our escape route. We’ll be right behind you.”
“Where’s the money?” Shiro asked.
“Did you check the men?” Holly kicked at another hand grabbing for her ankle.
“Yes. There’s nothing here.”
“Oh shit. Trap.”
“Trap!” Shiro and Odeon shouted at the same time.
Something exploded behind Holly.
She jumped, and turned as a canister of hydrantium burst into flames.
“Were you expecting money?” The voice came from overhead.
Above them, on a catwalk, a human male stood holding a large aether gun. His features were difficult to make out through the smoke.
“Who the hell are you?” Holly shouted.
“You must expect an answer. Sorry to disappoint.”
Holly pointed the Equalizer at him and pulled the trigger.
He laughed and danced away. “I wouldn’t waste the bullets.”
“You wouldn’t. But I would,” she said, shooting again.
He dodged the projectile. “You wouldn’t normally find me on Po. It’s a cesspool. But I came to deliver a message from the Heart.”
“The Heart?” Shiro asked.
Odeon, in the meantime, had been trying to climb up to the catwalk while Holly distracted the man with gunfire.
“I am the Hand. And he is the Heart. And you are meddling with something you don’t understand. My advice, if I don’t succeed in killing you right now, is to stay the hell out of our business.”
Holly felt a surge of rage. “Where’s Charm?”
He laughed. “The Druiviin girl? Did you like that? Clever plan to remind you that you are nothing against the Shadow Coalition. How did it feel to know that we’re watching you?”
Holly didn’t answer. She took another shot at him.
“You think you will save one tiny girl in this giant labyrinth? You will never find the center of it. You will never find the Heart.”
Another shot that exploded against the roof. A shower of dust and stone fell around the room. Odeon was almost to him, creeping lithely along the catwalk.
“Here is my last warning: if you didn’t like losing the Druiviin girl, consider how it will feel to lose your niece.”
Chills petrified Holly. They couldn’t take Lucy. Holly wouldn’t let them. Meg wouldn’t let them.
Odeon swung his club at the Hand. His staff connected with the man’s arm, knocking him off the catwalk. He reached out and grabbed for the railing, but missed. His hand instead caught the edge of the walkway. He hung there as Odeon approached him, and then dropped into the smoke. Holly waited to hear a thud or a groan, but never did.
“We don’t have time for this, crew, head to the escape route. The smoke is going to start clearing. And the men will begin to wake up.”
They left the room, heading to the platform that faced into the canyon. Out on the platform, a pilot landed in a small clipper. The team loaded in, including the horrible Aimee Voss, and the small ship sailed away.
17
Hours later, Odeon, Shiro, Charly, and Voss all crowded into Holly’s cabin back on the zeppelin, safely off Po by the skin of their teeth. Voss stood near the sliding door while Odeon was laying down on the top bed. Shiro and Charly both sat on the edge of the bottom bed, while Holly stood in front of the window. She clutched a bottle of beer in her hand, half-empty, trying to avoid the black maw at her elbow, but honestly, the room wasn’t meant to have five of them in it. She felt like she was being pressed up against a nightmare being so crowded and close to the window
“So, Voss, I think it’s time you come clean. We’re finally off the moon, so no more excuses about why you can’t tell us. Just what the hell are you doing? That could have turned out much worse.”
“Like I’ve been saying the whole time, I have no intentions of telling you what I’m doing.” The tall blonde woman leaned against the wall that separated the room from the corridor. The privacy curtain was drawn behind her.
“Who’s side are you on, anyway?” Holly asked. Odeon didn’t seem interested in the conversation, though he’d already expressed to Holly that it bothered him that they had been forced to rescue her. Charly just plain didn’t like Voss, though Shiro still watched her with admiring eyes despite how her surprise presence had disrupted their plans.
“Sides?” Voss laughed. “My own side.”
“You put my crew in danger. You put yourself in danger. That stunt back there could have cost any of us our lives. Were you there following us?”
“Not following you, no. I’d love to remind you that if you hadn’t tossed a smoke grenade in there, I would have been fine. It was you, who botched my plans.”
“I admire your attempt to blame us. But please, last chance to tell us what you were doing there.” Holly drank some of her beer as she felt the anxiety well up.
“I should ask you the same thing. What were you doing there?”
“None of your business,” Charly interjected.
At the same time, Shiro spouted, “I
nterrupting a cash drop.”
“Shiro,” Holly said, slapping her hand to her forehead. “Really? Just like that?”
“Seems like a mighty dangerous way to gather money.” Voss’s eyes flicked to Holly’s face as the blonde stroked her chin.
“Well, we like to live dangerously, as you’ve so aptly noted.” Holly glared a warning at Shiro. He saw it, but ignored her.
“We’re doing it for the children they’ve been kidnapping.” Shiro yelped as Charly elbowed him hard in the side. He cried out in shock, but grinned as he gingerly rubbed the spot she’d gotten.
“Shiro, seriously?”
Shiro spread his hands out helplessly. “Maybe she knows something. Maybe she can help.”
“Children? Why would they want children?” Voss seemed genuinely shocked and perplexed.
Holly shrugged and took a long drink of her beer. “We don’t know, Voss. If we knew, maybe we could stop it. But we’re going to figure it out. And someday stop it. We’ve got some other fish to fry first.”
“They kidnapped someone we know.” Shiro stood and began spinning his cane. It nearly hit Charly and she hissed at Shiro. He stopped and grinned sheepishly.
Holly had given up on preventing Shiro from shooting his mouth off. All he cared about, it seemed, was getting a piece of ass, even if it meant compromising the integrity of their group.
“There has to be a reason,” Voss said, ignoring the fact that the Shadow Coalition had kidnapped someone they knew.
“Tell us something we don’t know,” Odeon said from the top bed compartment.
“Ah, the Druiviin speaks.” Voss’s gaze flicked up to Odeon.
“Yasoan,” Holly and Odeon both said at the same time.
“You knew what I meant,” Voss said. “Anyway, I have my suspicions about what they would want children for.”
“What did you want from them? Why were you in that warehouse, Voss?”
“I have my reasons,” she said. “Reasons I will keep to myself.”
“Then this is where we part ways.” Holly said, squeezing past her and opening the door. “Good luck with whatever shady, dangerous endeavors you have going on.”
“Wait, Ms. Drake, really?” Shiro asked, rising. “Perhaps she can assist us?”
“Let’s take a vote, Shiro. I hate to be unwilling to compromise. Team? Who wants to let Voss stick around?”
Shiro lifted his hand. And only Shiro.
Voss grinned seeing the outcome of the vote. Her eyes lingered on Shiro as she backed out the door. “Thank you, Shiro.”
“Bye, Aimee Voss, and you’re welcome for saving your ass,” Holly said.
“Later Voss,” Charly called, “hope we don’t run into you again or catch you poking around our things!”
The door shut behind Voss.
“If I see that woman again, ever, it’ll be too soon.” Holly took the last swig of her beer and put the bottle on the bedside table against the wall.
“Well you guys handled that in sort order,” Darius said on their comms. He’d been listening in.
“I don’t trust her,” Odeon said from the top bed, his voice muffled.
“Neither do I, Odeon. Finally, we have something in common,” Charly laughed.
“She has a few redeeming qualities,” Darius said, then quickly added, “But I do admit she’s a slippery one, Drake. Hopefully we don’t need her for something else anytime soon.”
“All of you are impossible to please. I, for one think that Ms. Voss has been a great asset to us.”
Charly chuckled. “Sure Shiro. You’re not thinking with your other brain, are you? The tiny one?”
“I resent the implication that I am small in that arena, Charly. We both know nothing could be further from the truth.”
Holly sighed at their bickering. “Real issues, guys. Let’s drop Aimee Voss as a subject, for once. The other stuff. The warehouse. So it was a trap, just like we thought it might be. Now we know that the communications tap can’t be trusted. So what the good hell are we going to do? We’re worse off than before. Charm is getting further away from us. And we have no plan for how to get her back.”
“It’s late here, Drake. I’m going to get some sleep—and I suggest you do the same. In the morning, you’ll be back at the Bird’s Nest. We’ll go from there. I have some ideas,” Darius said on the intercom.
Holly sighed and ran her hands across her face and through her hair. Her head was swimming. Darius was right. “Good call, Darius. Shiro, Charly, back to your rooms. Odeon, you can stay. That crap with Voss and the Shadow Coalition has me jittery. Charly, you and Shiro might want to consider sharing a room for the night.”
“I think I’ll head to the dining room,” Shiro said, standing and retrieving his cane from the bed. “I’m not sleepy.”
“Fine, but I think we should stay in twos at least.”
“I’ll go with you Shiro,” Charly said. “I’m not very tired yet.” The two of them left, quietly laughing as they walked down the corridor. Holly watched them for a moment, before slipping back into her room.
“You OK with the arrangement, Odeon?” She asked, crawling onto her bed. She pulled off her blazer and put the Equalizer on the bedside table. Then she lay down and pulled a blanket over her.
“Yes, Holly. This suits me perfectly.”
“Thanks for always sticking with me,” she said with a sigh. The alcohol was making her tired. She definitely needed the sleep. Darius had reminded her that she was tired, and once it had dawned her, there was no point in fighting it—the zeppelin ride couldn’t end soon enough for her taste.
18
Xadrian wore a long ankle-length coat. It was covered in sequins and patches of glittery fabric. Some parts of it were velvet, other bits tweed. It was, in short, a mess. But somehow he pulled it off. Maybe it was his rings and how they matched the coat and the dark glimmer in his eyes, the black eyeliner, and the dark purple lipstick. He had a singular style that caught attention. He was exciting to look at. Though his mannerisms were sometimes off-putting, Holly had actually grown to enjoy their infrequent rendezvous.
He was seated at his typical table when Holly showed up at Glassini bar. He pushed a three-fluted glass of wine at her when she sat down, and then he went back to studying his nails, which were painted night-blue.
“I took the liberty of ordering you your usual, HD,” he said, his slight lisp more noticeable than usual. “Now, what is this about?”
“Thanks for the drink. I wasn’t going to get anything,” she confessed, “but now I guess I have to drink it.”
“You love it. I made the decision for you. You can’t meet me without a drink, it would spoil the illusion that we’re lovers, cheating on the side.”
“Oh, is that our cover?”
He scoffed and waved one hand at her. “You know it is.”
She shrugged, and tried the wine. As far as wines went, it was her favorite. “I didn’t realize we would keep it running our entire time working together.”
“I find that works best.” He lifted his glass lazily and took a drink. “Now, what was so urgent?”
“I need you to tell Dave that our operation on Po was compromised.”
“Dave?”
“Him. Our mutual friend. My team and I have started calling him that. Makes it easier to have something to call him.”
“What happened? Tell me what happened, HD.”
So she related the events to Xadrian—bumping into Voss, Voss showing up at the warehouse. The Hand and his dire warning and the mention of the Heart.
“The taps are compromised now,” Xadrian said when she finished. “We can’t trust that information any longer.”
“That’s one thing I took away from the entire episode. Now what?”
“Dave, as you’ve named him, has other ways to get info. The old school ways that we were using before you did the taps. We’ll likely go back to that for now. But it won’t give you any more insight into what happened to your niece
’s friend.”
“That’s my main priority now.”
“HD, don’t do anything else right now. Wait for me to get back to you.”
“I can’t wait, Xadrian. No, I can’t.”
He shook his head.
“No, I can’t. I have to keep moving. I have to save her.”
“Do nothing, HD.”
“Not possible.”
“You’ll help her zero dead.”
She smiled. “Then I won’t die.”
“Be wise about this. Your next move could either save her or land you and your team dead. The Shadow Coalition doesn’t screw around. They’ve been following you. You already have the marks to prove it.” His gaze flicked toward her shoulder where she’d been stabbed.
Holly left soon after. Xadrian was giving her ultimatums, it seemed. Out on the street heading back to the Surge Club, Holly took stock of what he’d said. She examined her feelings as she carried herself into the torrent of streaming bodies. If it had been more practical, she would have started using the Mirage automobile to get around, but it still just wasn’t quite as feasible as either walking or taking some type of public transport.
As she kept step with the crowds, she suddenly noticed what seemed to be an influx of people who resembled her last few run-ins with the Shadow Coalition—thugs wearing black uniforms and with a hint of a tattoo on their necks. They were closing in around her.
Or was that just her imagination?
She stayed buried in the crowd, using the horde of people to shield her. She crouched and kept herself buffered by the bodies of the random pedestrians. Her heart raced as she realized that she was all alone and had possibly three to four Shadow Coalition members keeping up with her. What could she do? She carried the Equalizer with her everywhere now, always. But it would do her little good to pull it out and begin shooting into a crowd of innocent Kotans.
Holly wasn’t afraid to stand and fight. But Xadrian was right about one thing this time: that she would do Charm no good dead. Likewise it would do her no good to be caught in the midst of the city, firing round after round at Shadow Coalition thugs as bystanders screamed and stampeded and she potentially hit someone. She could imagine the mess that would make for Meg and Gabe and the official.
The Colossus Collection : A Space Opera Adventure (Books 1-7 + Bonus Material) Page 39
