“Weak, HD. You know mind tricks like that won’t work on me. I’m far, far too much of a trickster to fall prey to the same sort of devices that I employ to extract information.”
Crowds of Centaus migrated across the arched bridges that connected the spire tops as they headed to their condos, governmental buildings, or offices. The walkways were a complex lacework of connectivity at the heights to reduce the necessity of traveling all the way to the base of the spires to get around. Though it was a brilliant, sunny day, the wind pummeled Holly in the face. If Xadrian’s red cheeks were any indication of how her own appeared, she must look like she’d been slapped repeatedly by the cold.
“I’ll give you that perhaps it was weak. But I’ll never stop trying, XT. Eventually you’ll realize I’m better as an ally than someone you keep secrets from.” Despite her words, she held her cards close to her chest. Xadrian and Dave had been behaving strangely for a week or two now, and she wasn’t sure which side of the cause they were on. Could they have something to do with the disappearing orphans? It was terrible to think that they could be so heartless as to do something like that, but both of them had a history of exploiting others for their own gain.
“The point, HD, is that not all was lost in the journey. We did achieve something. Jamie is known to be more circumspect and a bit of a negative person when it comes to business. That’s why I like him—he doesn’t dress things up to make himself look good. I find that more trustworthy.”
“He wasn’t a joy to be around…probably. Though it’s hard to remember. It’s all a haze now.”
“I heard about your drinking to endure the trip. You need to get that under control, HD,” Xadrian said.
“Mind your own business, XT,” Holly said, with a firm smile.
In a way, sentiments like that were what she needed to hear. Her crew had a tendency to soften reality for her. Coddling of that nature could be destructive in its own way and Xadrian wasn’t wrong about needing to adapt to whatever obstacles the jobs threw at her. Especially when there were additional reasons to be able to endure journeys further than Paradise’s orbit. Like the vanishing orphans. And whatever the remnants of the Shadow Coalition were doing.
Having survived the encounter with the behemoth increased her confidence that she could take on massive challenges. And not getting attacked again on the return trip meant that not every space journey was destined to encounter monsters.
Xadrian clicked his tongue. “You know I’m right.”
“I know you’ve got no tact. That’s what I know.”
Xadrian shifted and turned from looking out at the city, to look directly at her. “You’ll pay your crew, or will you keep all the money for yourself?”
“Of course I’ll keep it all to myself. And I’ll buy my own spire. An entire spire. That’s just how I do life,” she said, taking a new tact with him.
“Wonderful, because I’m afraid I have a new job for you. Or rather, it’s more of an extension of the job you just finished. I need you to leave as soon as you can. There’s something being held on Itzcap. Go after it. It’s being stored in a warehouse near Cobalt Bay. Get your crew ready. The pay will be good.”
“No questions asked. Just orders?” She stared at him levelly. If Xadrian had taken off his loud, sequined ankle-length yellow coat and ran around the platform with it trailing behind him like wings, shouting like a bird, she wouldn’t have batted an eyelash. It wouldn’t have been any stranger than the way he’d begun to act—giving orders. His increased hush-hush and secret-keeping.
“Are you going to refuse the job?” He blinked at her and pursed his bright lips.
“No. But the last one better pay for the new one. I’m tired of having to front the expenses for Dave’s jobs. He used to front the expenses or at least reimburse them.”
“Ah, money does make you grouchy, doesn’t it HD?”
“Just pay the expenses. I’ll move quicker.”
17
“I, for one, don’t mind the chance to practice my art,” Shiro said, removing the sword from the scabbard of his lionhead cane. “It’s how I’ll stay fresh and on top of any battle.”
Charly groaned audibly as she finished taping her knuckles up. “Trust Shiro to try to be the teacher’s pet.”
Shiro laughed. “Charly only kisses up to the ruling elites.”
“Yeah, because they pay the bills. And someone’s got to maintain a real job, otherwise we’d be running our show out of a rat-infested warehouse.”
“That might not be too bad. Sounds cozy,” Shiro said, slashing at a dummy, then stabbing it through the heart.
“At least my kissing up has a financial pay-off. But I am getting tired of it—of picking the parties for the Centau over the kickass missions with my crew. It’s frustrating. I guess we all know that I’m the most successful adult out of all of us. Right?” Charly began hitting the punching bag. “Come over and hold this bag for me, Shiro. That way it won’t be so hard for me to pretend it’s you.”
Shiro laughed, dropping his sword to his side. “Sorry, no, lass. I’ve got my own training to do. Would you like to come be my dummy?”
“Real classy, Shiro, real classy. If I’m not mistaken, you murder your dummy repeatedly with a sword. So, unequal threats of violence there, I think?”
“All in good fun, Charly, my dear, all in good fun.”
Holly listened, feeling a quiet pride in her crew. They all knew they’d put their own lives on the line for each other. Shiro would leap in front of a bullet for Charly, and Charly would likewise push Shiro out of the way of a roaring train. And Holly would do the same for all of them.
The crew had picked out a corner of the Lion of the Spires training center and were going through exercises to hone their skills. Iain had joined them and was with a weapons-master discussing the aether gun that had been Holly’s once upon a time: the Equalizer. He didn’t call it that, but it would forever remain the Equalizer to Holly. It was the gun that started her down the path that gave her Shiro, Odeon, Darius, and Iain. And then along with Charly, she made a family of them. It wasn’t the gun that did it, but it was there at the beginning, helping to form the crew and setting Holly free of her former life.
Odeon had stripped down to just a pair of tight shorts and was balancing on top of a wooden pillar, going through forms. Holly watched him for a moment, losing track of what Aeolionaias was saying. Odeon’s body was lean yet muscular. His lavender skin glistened with perspiration as he focused on the movements, transitioning between poses with the grace of a dancer. His training was like a song. That was how Odeon did everything, as though he were composing one of his songs.
“Holly Drake,” Aeolionaias said, his soft, violet complexion shadowing as he spoke. “Are you paying attention?”
She blinked and looked back at the Yasoan speaking to her. “Sorry. Distracted.”
“The rule is, Holly Drake, that distractions like that are paid for with pushups. And I am not letting you off this time. Shall we go with thirty?”
She caught herself before she could complain, nodded mutely, dropped to her knees, and began doing the pushups. Why did she put herself in these sort of positions? Pushups. Xadrian’s smart-mouthed observations. Aeolionaias constantly being a slave driver. Dave pushing her in directions she didn’t want to go.
Do I love the abuse? she mused, as she did the pushups. No, that’s hardly it. Her muscles shrieked at her to stop. Her shoulders burned. Her thighs ached.
It wasn’t that she enjoyed people treating her badly. It was something else. Something more subtle, more important than whether or not she was being treated badly.
Neither Xadrian nor Aeolionaias were cruel. They pushed her and they didn’t gloss things over to spare her feelings. They were unrelenting. Sort of like Charly. Sometimes that’s what she needed to push herself—someone else doing it as well.
She finished the pushups and stood, sweat coating her forehead and cheeks.
“Now, let’s finish y
our training on the throwing knives.” Aeolionaias said. “I also devised another training session for the aether whip. You’ve gotten better at it, but you’re hardly as good as me. Therefore, you must continue to perfect your skill.”
Holly followed Aeolionaias to a course he’d set up just to the side of the area where Holly’s team trained.
“You will be running the course and throwing knives. Let me demonstrate.” He took one of the throwing knives and ran along a calf-high balance beam without falling off. At the end, he stopped and pretended to throw the knife at a wooden dummy with a target tacked onto it. He leapt off that and vaulted over several waist-high pommel horses, miming that he would throw the knives at nearby dummies as he did so. He slid under another pommel horse, then rolled and leapt to his feet and threw one last knife.
“There you go,” he said as he trotted back. “Strap your knives on and run through it once. We will go from there.” He stopped near her and pulled his elastic out of his long silver hair, then did it up again.
Holly took a deep breath, visualized the course, and set off. She wasn’t a perfect athlete, but she’d always pushed herself when it came to fitness. The course required balance and confidence, and on her first run through it, she lacked both. Her knives missed their targets every time, except the last one, which sailed through the air and pierced the shoulder of the dummy.
“A good first run, Holly Drake. Try again. By the time we’re through, you will be an expert on this course. Then we will do another with the whip.”
Holly sighed, quietly as she could. She didn’t need to be punished with another batch of thirty pushups. All in all, it was going to be a long training session. At least her crew was around, sweating as well.
* * *
Later that day as evening sank into night and a fresh winter front pushed into the City of Jade Spires, Holly met Xadrian for a drink at the Glassini wine bar to get final instructions on the job. Darius had arranged the crew’s travel and they were to leave before dawn.
The bar was busier than she was used to seeing it. Small clusters of patrons chatted quietly. A violet aether-fire flickered in the fireplace at the center of the room.
Holly sipped her drink while she waited. When Xadrian showed up, he motioned to the bartender as he wove through the tables to meet Holly. He gave her the standard besos, then removed his gloves, hat, and extravagant fur coat. “Winter can go to hell. I’m very sick of the cold. I should be the one going to Itzcap.”
“You can go. Take this job and do it yourself.”
He sat down and let out a long slow breath. “Don’t tempt me, HD.”
“I still need to pack—what did you want to discuss? This job?”
“Yes. And get a general read on your state of mind.”
“It’s good except for the constant distractions. For the record, this counts as a distraction.”
He ignored her dig. “I’ve tracked the item to a warehouse, so we know were it is.”
“We leave before dawn. Just send any information about it to my comm unit as it arrives, so I can find the warehouse when we get there.”
“One important thing to note, Holly—something I haven’t mentioned—is that this is a matter of life and death.”
“If this one is a matter of life and death, what was the point of the Shakti trip?”
Xadrian dipped his chin and narrowed his eyes. It was a look of irritation. He pursed his bright pink lips. The makeup around his eyes glittered in the track lighting of the wine bar. One thick, ringed finger came up and touched his chin. “HD, dear, you expect me to confess far too much. It will all come to light soon enough, but you’ve got to trust me and my employer. Haven’t we proved our worthiness of it so far?”
Holly maintained a straight face, while her mind exploded in indignation. “XT, how obnoxious can you be about this?”
He blinked as though she’d slapped him. “Sincerely, HD?”
It was a battle of wills. Whose was stronger? They batted around their pet-names for each other like two cats, indicating their rather deep irritation for each other, and the somewhat odd show of respect. It was both at once. Holly couldn’t help but acknowledge Xadrian’s connections and ability to suss out deep conspiracies and plans, and he must know that she was an incredibly capable and reliable agent for the two puppeteers. But if they believed she was merely a puppet—no thought, no will, someone to merely order around—they would be mistaken. She wasn’t afraid to push back if they began to ask unfair or corrupt things of her.
Xadrian waved his hand. The rings sparkled and flashed in the yellow light. “Never mind, never mind it. The Shakti trip was something else. Have you given thought to the possibility that Jamie wasn’t altogether aware of what he was retrieving?”
She shook her head, mindful that her expression was likely a scowl but she didn’t care. Right now he seemed like he was up to no good. “Let me ask you one thing. Are you being an evil bastard? Is Dave being an evil bastard?”
“That’s two things.”
“Answer the question.”
“Isn’t it really about which side you’re on? It’s possible that some might call me an evil bastard. Am I? Debatable.”
“That’s not an answer.”
At some point during the conversation, the bartender had dropped off Xadrian’s wine. He took an exploratory sip and sat back, frowning. “I don’t think I am. When everything comes out, HD, you’ll see.”
One look into his intense eyes and she knew that was all she was going to get from him on the matter. She would go to Itzcap. If nothing else, she planned to figure out if Dave and Xadrian had gone rogue on her.
18
Holly watched the distant sun through the massive windows that spanned the vaulted dining room as the Wicked Enigma finished disembarking and began its route away from Kota. Her heart was in her throat, once again, and she silently cursed her ancestors. She cursed them for their ridiculous, hopeful trust in coming to the 6 Moons and believing that some random alien race from whatever backwoods galaxy, would care one bit about the complexity of traversing space between moons as a matter of course. Especially with space monsters. Had they known about them before they established the 6 moons?
Didn’t the Centau and her human ancestors realize how damned dangerous it was to constantly be off planet, without an atmosphere to hold them in and keep them safe? Did they get how awful it was to trust your life out between the moons, to a zeppelin, no less? And to the capacity of these so-called superior alien races to get it all right and never make mistakes?
“Hey, Holly,” Iain called softly. “You OK?” He tapped her leg with one hand, pausing with a forkful of poached egg midair. She glanced at him. There was a look of concern in his eyes. He sat on one side of her in the dining room of the zeppelin, while Odeon and Shiro were on her other side of the large round table. The ship was serving breakfast immediately, since their departure time was on the Kotan time of day. Iain was joining the job to flesh out their party, because Charly opted to remain at the Surge Club, to grudgingly miss yet another kick ass gig, as she referred to them. “What’s going on in that brain of yours?”
She smiled. “At least we’re not going to Shakti again.”
Iain grinned. “Small victories.” He put the fork down, picked up his mimosa, and toasted her. Holly raised her own mimosa. Shiro and Odeon followed suit with their drinks.
“Small victories,” the rest of them agreed.
“And knock on wood,” Shiro said, after taking a sip of his Frozen Pearl beverage.
Odeon laughed. “What is ‘knocking on wood?’ What is it meant to do?”
Iain sighed, but there was a smile on his lips. He nodded toward Odeon while looking at Shiro.
Shiro cleared his throat. “Sorry chap, I forgot that not everyone knows the rich cultural tapestry of human expressions. I don’t know the precise history of the phrase, only that it’s meant to prevent what a person said from happening. Holly said that we’re not going to
Shakti again, but since she put that certainty out into the ether, it’s more likely to happen. So I said ‘knock on wood’ to cancel it.”
“It means more than that, of course,” Iain added. “But humans just say it without knowing the real meaning.”
“Ah. Those exist for Yasoan as well.”
“I’m so glad to hear that. You’ll have to educate me on them,” Shiro said. “I’ve never considered it too much.”
They continued their conversation, moving on to discuss Odeon’s and Shiro’s plans while Holly’s attention waned. Would she ever get used to the trips? For a moment she’d gotten slightly better at it, but recently her strength in the face of the fear had diminished. The fear was such a common element for her that she simply accepted it.
Holly’s breakfast, huevos rancheros, remained on her plate, nearly untouched. Her appetite had stalled the moment the ship’s moorings had dropped and they’d embarked on the journey. At least she’d gotten a few bites in. Nothing like attempting a hard job on an empty stomach. The sun through the windows kept calling to her. Even if the sun hadn’t been out there, the windows themselves were a magnet for her attention. She sat as far away from them as she could whenever possible. Windows in spaceships were always questionable, in her opinion. There was no entertainment on the stage, and most of the people dining were gray-haired humans on their way to the sunnier climes of Itzcap during the harsh Kotan winter. A few Yasoan dined as well, plus the stray Centau here and there.
Holly took several more sips of her drink and then stood. “I’m ready to hit the hay,” Holly said. “I’ll be in my room.”
“Hit the hay?” Odeon asked, and the others laughed.
“Come on, Odeon, you can’t tell me you really haven’t heard that one?” Iain said.
“Ms. Drake, I could accompany to your room, if you’d like the company.”
“No, no. I wouldn’t dream of keeping you from your meal and the sparkling conversation. I’m exhausted and want to rest up before we get to Itzcap.” She pushed chair in. “I’ll have my earpiece in. Keep yours on?” The others agreed and checked theirs to make sure.
The Colossus Collection : A Space Opera Adventure (Books 1-7 + Bonus Material) Page 97
