“None with a CEO more bankable than Luxarn Pervenio,” Barret went on. “We still retain innumerable ventures throughout Sol, including the service bot filming me right now. There’s no reason to assume this is anything more than a hitch. A road bump.”
“Sure, the promise of your new service bot is keeping you afloat among the wealthy, but is pushing robotics on us really an answer? It’s a sideshow. How can you expect anyone to put faith in your employer after what happened at the Ring? The deaths of thousands of privately contracted civilians at the hands of the Children of Titan. The subsequent imprisonment of refugees in inhumane conditions on the very station his family built to oversee the Ring. The precipitate loss of a majority fraction of the gas-harvesting industry.”
The screen quickly cut to footage of firefights on Pervenio Station. Ringers armed with whatever they could find swarmed outmatched Pervenio officers. In the end, it froze on the image of Kale Trass with a pulse rifle in his hands. Behind him stood a woman with half her face burnt off. I recognized Kale from all the reports Director Sodervall issued when he was accused of raiding the Piccolo. The image was grainy, but there was no mistaking the look in his eyes. They exuded hate and rage I couldn’t imagine feeling toward anything. Yet, behind all that, there was no denying the fact that he was still so young. Ruler of the Ring or not, he was a kid.
“Have you seen the price of a ticket to Mars?” Barret said as the feed cut back to him. “The operations on Jupiter aren’t viable enough yet to sustain the expansion of our entire species at a decent price point. Even the recent buyout by Venta Co. of EuropaTek and Dynamo Shipworks won’t boost yield to reach half of what was harvested just last year.”
“People are going to have to get used to losing certain luxuries,” said the newswoman. “I think we’re all failing to recognize that we’re in the midst of a full-scale offworld revolution. Nothing like we’ve seen before.”
“Revolution,” he scoffed.
“That’s funny? Did you laugh when you watched the leaked recording of their captives?” The screen again shifted to display footage of the Pervenio Station Detention Center from the exterior. Each cell had glass facing out to space, like the Earther captives crammed within were on display at a zoo. Some were bloody, others crying, most both. Kale was turning the very prison lawbreaking Ringers once feared into a propaganda piece.
“Mr. Pervenio is working day and night to try and reach amenable terms with Kale Trass,” Barret said. “Once they realize how much they’re missing out on, they’ll come crawling back like all the rest. There is no humanity stronger than a united one.”
“With what resources? The Children of Titan have no interest in credits. Mr. Pervenio and all his directors may deny any losses, but rumors are, many experienced members of Pervenio’s management have either been poached or resigned to spare themselves the embarrassment of staying on a sinking ship. I’ve been told that even you were overheard speaking with Jamaru Venta.”
“Lies.”
“All right. Then would you deny that Luxarn Pervenio pushed the Titanborn population—”
“Ringer,” Barret corrected.
“Yes,” the newswoman said adversarially. “He pushed them by invading their quarantine without any discernible purpose. In my opinion, he should be tried for the deaths that occurred in the ongoing altercations. That isn’t counting the thousands upon thousands still detained by the militant Children of Titan who now have access to weapons and technology he allowed to fall into their hands.”
“Criminals who the USF must condemn and punish for their actions! It’s either that or we might as well let this murderer Kale Trass stroll right into one of our cities for us to place a crown on his head. The first king of Titan. Is that what you want?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“It’s all true, you know,” Luxarn said. The feed suddenly switched off. I’d unconsciously taken a seat at his desk to watch and leaped up so fast the chair slid all the way to the back wall. Luxarn didn’t seem to notice or care as he ambled in.
“What’s that, sir?” I asked.
“What they’re saying. It’s all true. Worse probably. Most of my other collectors have abandoned us for greener pastures too. The new directors in charge of what properties I still retain are green or worthless, like Barret Ulnor. Most of them haven’t managed more than a dock. They can hardly handle the upcoming, limited release of our service bots.” The spherical bot floated in behind him, and he tapped it on the side, causing it to sway in its flight path, bang into the wall, and shut down. “These things were supposed to rekindle human interest in robotics. What a joke.”
“They pour a mean drink as far as I can remember.” It was a subtle nudge to try and get him to offer up some of the good stuff again, but it went right over his head.
“Yes. Kale forces me to issue an early release to try and boost revenue, and now we’re shipping tin balls that can do little more than bartend a half-empty room or answer a door.”
“And fly.”
Luxarn chuckled exasperatedly. “It’s all unraveling, thanks to that monster Kale.”
“I’m sure that reporter is exaggerating. There isn’t any shame in still being one of the richest men in Sol, sir.”
“Spoken like a true collector.” He sat on the edge of his desk. “It was my father’s dream to usher humanity into our deserved future. To reach as far as we can until there isn’t a star left we haven’t seen. It’s all going to change now. We can’t spread when we aren’t safe, and every offworld colony is going to be looking over their shoulders for the next Kale Trass.”
“We’ll figure it out. We always do. If we can survive the apocalypse, we can survive some pissed off Ringer throwing a tantrum. He’ll realize they can’t survive alone.”
“They did before.” Luxarn stood, approached the stark wall behind me, and spread his arm across it. I could picture him back on Pervenio Station, marveling out his viewport at all he’d built. Now he regarded little more than rust, metal, and a painting of what we could never have again.
“They say Kale has organized a formal meeting with the USF on Mars,” Luxarn said. “I have a feeling he’s going to demand that Titan be granted sovereignty, and considering all the hostages he has on Pervenio Station, ready to be spaced at the flick of a switch, the Assembly will have no choice but to settle. Even now he uses them to shield against retribution.”
“Then maybe it’s time they put an end to hostilities. Let Kale have whatever it is he wants and negotiate. There’s nothing they could possibly do with all the resources they’re in control of except trade them.”
“I will not negotiate with him!” he growled. “They’re locking our people up like rats while we squabble. People I was meant to protect. Maybe there’s a Ringer under him that can be dealt with, but Kale has to be eliminated. I don’t care what the Assembly thinks. He’ll never let them go free.”
“You kill him, and they might never get that chance.” Cutting the head off snakes was my specialty for a long time, but the reporter was right about one thing. This wasn’t some mere riot. I’d gotten enough sense of that in my last visit to Titan even before the shit hit the fan.
“If he kills them, nothing will keep the USF and all its corporations from bombing Titan out of existence. Kale has to go, Graves. It’s the only way.”
I glanced at Zhaff’s eye lens. It still pained me to see it. In the reflection, I pictured him, a frosty, bloodied husk because of me. His death had to at least be a part of the rage fueling Luxarn’s lust for vengeance. I considered for a moment that maybe if I told Luxarn the truth, he’d put aside his vendetta and focus on a real solution. Then I remembered how he’d kept Zhaff’s true identity hidden for all those years while he forged him into a weapon. He might’ve loved him in his own way, but it had always been about Pervenio Corp. Company first, how I used to be.
I sighed. “Well, sir, it pains me to say you’re going to have to do it without me.”
His body whipped around to face me, and his plastic-surgery-enhanced façade didn’t appear angered, but instead fearful. “That’s nonsense. Dr. Aurora informed me that you’re finally healthy. You’re ready to finish what you and my son started and end the Children of Titan once and for all.”
“My body is fine, thanks to you, but I’d rather get out before I embarrass myself any further or lose any more limbs. I let myself be goaded right into their hideout and…” Again I noticed Zhaff’s eye lens out of the corner of my eye. My throat went dry. “And got Zhaff killed.”
Luxarn’s brow furrowed. After a few long seconds of silence, he said, “Let me show you something.”
“Sir, I—”
“I won’t take no for an answer.”
He beckoned me out of the door, and I followed begrudgingly. Mostly, probably, because though I told myself my mind was made up, his Corp had a knack for convincing me to stick around.
He led me a short distance down the hall, to a door sealed by both a retina scan and vocal confirmation. That kind of security never meant anything good, but as we entered, I realized it was another treatment room like the one I’d woken up in. Doctor Aurora stood on the opposite side, only there was no bed. A cylindrical chamber rose in the center, filled with a greenish goo. A body floated within.
“Leave us,” Luxarn ordered.
Doctor Aurora didn’t seem pleased—though she never did—as she nodded and headed out, eyes poring over data readouts on her hand-terminal. Much of the same information covered the dozens of viewscreens mounted around the white room. Far more than it took to monitor me and my new leg.
Luxarn said nothing, so I invited myself in further to get a better look at the chamber. The liquid inside was thick, so I got right up to the glass to see the face of whoever it was suspended within. That was when my heart dropped clear through my gut. I stumbled back, and if I didn’t have an artificial leg keeping me up, my knees would have given out.
I’d know the man inside anywhere. Zhaff Fucking Pervenio. I’d seen him in so many waking dreams since coming to, I could never mistake that face. He was stripped completely bare, countless circuits and tubes poking his sallow flesh. A portion of his torso and his entire left arm were replaced by the same material as my leg—synthetic. The half of his face he once wore his eye-lens over was reconstructed as well. But none of that was what drew my attention most. A respirator covered his mouth and plunged down his throat, and his chest rose subtly, in and out.
“I thought…” I swallowed back the sudden urge to vomit at the sight of my partner, now a Frankenstein patchwork of flesh and muscle. I squeezed my eyelids tight and checked again to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. I clutched my chest, as if that could keep my heart from racing. Breathing suddenly became difficult, the air feeling hot and thick, while a shiver simultaneously ran up my spine, thanks to memories of being shot on Titan.
“I thought he was dead,” I managed to say after a few strained breaths.
“Who told you that?”
“You did... or...” I wasn’t often left speechless, but it happened from time to time. Like when previously thought dead partners pop up in a tube. Or when Ringers blow their own brains out for no damn reason.
“His eye-lens saved him. The bullet broke it, and the shards plugged the hole to prevent the change in pressure from killing him instantly. The cold of Titan still did major damage, but the bullet passed through non-critical parts of his brain. Or so they tell me.”
Luxarn sounded frustrated, as if Zhaff should have been expected to survive a pulse-pistol round to the face. I summoned the courage to approach again and laid my hand over the glass, only to find it was quaking. Like it was my first day on the job seeing a body.
Zhaff’s face looked so peaceful in there. He always appeared emotionless, but this was different—like he had no worries. Still, I kept expecting his remaining eye to snap open the moment I got too near, even though I knew that eye was blinded when he was younger.
“He’s been in a coma since we recovered him,” Luxarn said. “Doctor Aurora and dozens of doctors and scientists say he’ll never wake. That the life support is all that’s keeping him alive. She thinks it’s time to pull the plug and ‘set him free.’ But while we’ve wasted decades developing vaccines for Ringers, other companies have made huge leaps in medicine. From cybernetics like your leg to curing certain cancers to—”
“I don’t know, sir,” I said, my voice robbed of all its timbre by shock. “Maybe Doctor Aurora is right.” I wasn’t sure if it was the self-preservationist in me speaking, who knew if Zhaff ever woke with his memory intact, I was as good as dead, or if it was the me who’d grown to care for him. Either way, I’d witnessed my share of mad scientists who thought they could play god and it never turned out well.
“I refuse to give up on my son until he’s truly gone. And neither should you.” Luxarn took me by the shoulders, forcing me, finally, to look away from the kid. “We can avenge what was done to him.”
I peered back at the sleeping, barely recognizable cyborg floating in the tube. A nightmare if I’d ever seen one. “I believe I am.” I backed away from Luxarn. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m done with all of this.”
Anger gripped Luxarn once more, though I wasn’t affected like I once would’ve been. The impossibly powerful man I knew who gazed out upon space as if he were ready to devour it all was clearly gone. Now he hid away like a mad hermit while the Ring was pilfered, clinging on to half-dead corpses out of guilt. I knew the feeling well enough from a lifetime of failing Aria to know that’s what this was.
“You would walk away from the chance to be a director?” he growled.
“Dying puts things into perspective. I’m tired of all the fighting. I spent a lifetime running from a vacation, but right about now, all I want to do is nothing.”
“I know you’re upset about what happened down there, but we can fix this, just like I can fix him. No matter how many credits it takes. Don’t throw this away. You’re the last man in this damn corporation I know I can trust, Graves.”
I never thought I’d be in a world where I would pity Luxarn Pervenio, but if I was indeed the last man he could trust, then Pervenio Corp was doomed. Trust me? A collector well past his prime who’d only physically met him a few months ago, and who’d already betrayed him by putting his bastard son in a coma so I could help an illegitimate daughter I’d kept secret her whole life. That wasn’t a world I knew how to operate in.
“I wish things could be different, sir, I really do,” I said. “I’ve given my life to this company, and it’s been a privilege, but it’s time to check out.” I removed the pulse pistol from my belt and slapped it down on a worktable beside Zhaff’s tube.
Luxarn’s eyes widened, as if he’d had zero doubt he was going to convince me to stay. A man like him would never get used to people saying no.
“You think you can just walk away?” he questioned. “You failed your last assignment, Graves. You were after stolen supplies, and they all got away.”
“They did, but I remember a conversation about an extended job locating the Children of Titan’s hideout. Which we did.”
Nothing got under my skin quite like bungling a job and getting called out for it. My wounded pride couldn’t handle it. Though I couldn’t say that we’d retrieved the supplies, but I made sure we failed. I pictured Aria fleeing with the stolen medical provisions. I remembered expecting what they took to be new weapon tech or a bomb. Instead, it was only meant to help heal the sick.
“You will watch your tone, Graves,” Luxarn said. “Part of the job, part of the reward, then. And don’t think you’ll get any portion of my son’s!”
“Keep the credits.” Words I never thought I’d say to Luxarn Pervenio before turning my back to him. I needed to get out of the room before his anger and seeing Zhaff how he was caused me to say anything that would sour decades of loyal service. He kept using Zhaff like it’d convince me. If he cared about my old partner—his so
n—he wouldn’t have sent him to battle terrorists as a teenager.
“That doesn’t come anywhere close to what it cost to give you back your leg. You’ll be paying it off the rest of your life.”
That finally got me to stop in the exit and bite my lip. I grabbed my hunk of synthetics, turned, and lifted the knee toward him. “Do you want it back, then?” I said.
A wave of emotions passed across Mr. Pervenio’s face. Finally, he settled on what looked like remorse. “Keep the leg,” he conceded. “For research. What you have in your account won’t cover it all, but consider the rest recompense for thirty good years of service. You deserve that at least, after all that you’ve done.”
“Thank you, sir.” I went to turn again, but he stopped me once more.
“If you really won’t take my offer, at least consider this.”
“What?”
“I’ll provide transport to wherever you want to go. Do whatever it is with retirement you think you need, but keep an open mind. When you realize the mess Kale has made of our Sol, my offer remains.” He tossed me my pulse pistol. It was a terrible throw, and I had to scramble to catch it, but it reached me. “If you see him in the meantime, put a bullet in him for Zhaff. I’ll make you so rich you can crawl into a bottle for the rest of your life.”
I studied the gun. Every dent was a faded memory. Every scratch a tussle. Whether or not I wanted to fire it again, I felt naked without it. I grinned slightly. “All right, sir. That sounds fair enough to me.”
He nodded. “Pervenio Corporation thanks you for your service, Mr. Graves.”
Something brash fought its way to the tip of my tongue before I caught a glimpse of Zhaff’s floating body again and felt my throat tighten. “It’s been fun,” I said. “And, sir, maybe it’s time for you to move on too. Set him free, or whatever. Wherever the dead go, it’s got to be a hell of a lot more pleasant than here.”
My words left him speechless as I walked away from the only job I’d known since I was a young man in a worthless clan-family who hadn’t seen anything beyond New London. The door shut behind me, and I gasped for air as if I’d been drowning. I had to lean on the wall just to catch my breath.
Titan's Rise: (Children of Titan Book 3) Page 7
