Titan's Rise: (Children of Titan Book 3)

by Rhett C. Bruno

  It was only after, as she lay next to me, that I realized who she wasn’t. Our nights spent together afterward were never as liberating and equally crushing. Time didn’t fix it. Because, every day, I could tell that she was slowly and surely putting the pieces of herself back together again. And as much as she wanted me to join her, I couldn’t.

  “Kale,” she said gently, breaking my train of thought.

  “I’ll rest when we’re finished,” I replied firmly.

  “A wise man once told me to take advantage of every chance for sleep you get. You never know when you’ll get another.”

  “Was that wise man in charge of ruling an entire people?”

  She chuckled. “He probably liked to think he was.” She rose onto her toes to whisper directly into my ear. “If you change your mind, I promise we don’t have to talk.” She planted a kiss on my sanitary mask, then sauntered into her room. I watched her the whole way, even after the door shut behind her.

  “Is that why you trust her?” Rin asked from behind me, without even attempting to mask her disdain. “Pretty women like that know how to get what they want.”

  “It’s not like that.”

  “A bastard offworlder who knows Madame Venta personally and winds up your ambassador. I know Rylah vouched for her from prior dealings when she was with Venta, but either she’s got plans of her own or she’s the luckiest girl in Sol. All I’m sure of is that the moment she gets whatever it is she wants from you, she’ll drop you like a sickness. If she hasn’t infected you first.”

  “We’re careful. Besides, like you said, she’s the Doctor.”

  Rin scoffed. “Only when it suits her.”

  I seized her arm. “What do you know about being with anybody, Rin? You think people don’t get close to you because of your face?”

  “This isn’t the time, Kale.” Her eyes darted from side to side, wary of the guards posted throughout the hall.

  “You’re right, it isn’t.” I released her, the augmented strength in my arms causing me to push her into the wall as I did. I’m not sure if it was on purpose or not. “I appreciate your advice, but when it comes to our ambassador, I’m tired of hearing it. I’m in control, Rin.”

  “I just don’t want you to forget why we’re here.” She brushed her armor as if I’d somehow made it dirtier, then turned toward my room.

  “You know me better than that.”

  “Fine.” She gestured toward my door. “Shall we, then?”

  I nodded, and we stepped through. Guards immediately positioned themselves outside. “Nobody gets in,” Rin ordered them, then sealed the door behind us.

  The suite’s kitchen, packed with sparkling appliances, waited inside. The counter island on one side was covered end to end in food. Fruits, vegetables, juices; certain ones I’d never even seen before. A part of me was naïve enough to think they meant well, like someone from Titan should ever risk trying Earther food like this or the germs it might hold.

  Admittedly, the intermingling of smells was intoxicating. As I approached them for a closer look, my vision was drawn toward the open living space.

  An enormous viewscreen was switched off, the windows were set to full tint, and every cushion on the elegant sofas was in place. A man in a tattered Venta uniform hung upside down from the ceiling between it all. His feet were strung up to an opulent crystal chandelier, blood dripping from a gash on his forehead.

  “Is someone there?” he rasped as he struggled futilely to bend and reach his ankles. Even though he was a squat Earther, he wasn’t strong enough to do it. “Thank Earth, you have to get me down! I didn’t…” He trailed off as Rin rounded the corner. His stare transitioned from the orange circle on our chests to our tall faces. “Fuck.”

  Gareth stepped out of the bathroom, drying his hands on a towel. Blood circled the drain of the sink inside.

  “Right on schedule,” Rin said. “How the hell did you manage to get up here unseen? Actually, I don’t want to know.”

  “These Earthers can’t secure anything,” Gareth signed.

  “Tell us about it.”

  He hurried over and studied our faces. “The explosion. I feared the worst.”

  “Don’t worry; we’re fine,” I said. I reached into a pouch on my belt, withdrew a folded sanitary mask and a pair of latex gloves, and handed it to him. He tore them out of my hand like a salt addict in need of a fix and threw them on.

  “I don’t know what this is about, but you’d better let me down!” his hanging captive shouted. “Do you know who I work for?”

  We ignored him. Gareth drew an ID from his pocket and showed it to me and Rin. He was indeed the man we were after. Trevor Cross, a former collector who now worked a security detail for Venta Co.’s Chief Engineer, Basaam Venta. Basaam was in the midst of preparing their bid for designing the next Departure Ark, to be revealed at the year’s upcoming M-Day celebrations. Any eligible company could present its plans there, with the USF Assembly choosing which one would receive the honor of designing a vessel to carry people across the stars. Venta Co. was supposedly the frontrunner, designing their ship in a factory on Europa.

  “He was off duty when I found him,” Gareth signed.

  “Anybody see you?” I asked. His brow creased as if I’d offended him. “Sorry. I knew we could count on you. He’s the key to everything.”

  “You didn’t hurt him too bad yet, did you?” Rin said.

  “I wouldn’t dream of leaving you out.”

  We all approached Trevor. His eyes widened at the sight of three towering Titanborn, two bearing the Children of Titan emblem front and center. We’d come far since Rin released the video of them executing Earthers on my old gas harvester, the Piccolo, but that image was forever ingrained in the minds of Earthers. It was how they saw us, as heartless monsters, not freedom fighters. The orange circle signified that.

  “I’m sure this is a misunderstanding,” he said. “Just cut me loose, and we can talk… Wait, why do I know you?” I knelt in front of him so we were face to upside-down face. I didn’t even need to lift my sanitary mask. I could tell before he mouthed the words that he’d figured out exactly who I was. I wasn’t an everyday pickpocket in the Darien Lowers anymore who could hide in plain sight.

  “Y….you’re Kale Trass,” he stuttered.

  “Smarter than he looks,” Rin said.

  “Perfect! Now you’re someone I can talk to. Not that beast who won’t say a word.”

  “Collector,” I said. “Tell me, Trevor Cross, how bad do you have to mess up to lose that title?”

  “Collector? You’ve got it all wrong. I’ve always been a security officer.”

  “Sure.”

  He stretched his neck up as far as he could in one last effort to break free, then swung back. Gareth was there to steady him. He tightened the cuffs on Trevor’s ankles until the Earther shrieked.

  “Look, I don’t know what you think I know!” he gasped. “But I swear I’m just a security officer now. How about you untie me so we can have a damn civil conversation?”

  “I’ll untie you after you help us,” I said.

  “Help you with what? I don’t know what you possibly think I know!”

  “I need you to tell me everything you know about Basaam Venta.”

  “What I know about him? Everybody knows him. He’s some sort of ship-design genius Madame Venta adopted into her clan-family years ago. I didn’t even know that was legal, but she managed it.”

  “Stop playing dumb, mudstomper!” Rin’s fist pistoned into his gut. Without her armor on, her weak muscles probably wouldn’t have been enough to bother him, but with it, all the veins on his neck bulged as he retched in pain.

  “A former collector doesn’t fall too far, does he,” I said. “We’ve seen more than you’ll ever know on Pervenio Station’s unwiped servers. We know you were the collector who helped undermine Pervenio Corp on Titan, and we know you’re now one of the captains in charge of Basaam’s security.”

  He
coughed. “Is that what this is about? I’m off duty. I couldn’t tell you where he is even if I wanted to.”

  “We disagree.” I nodded to Rin, who went off toward the kitchen. Gareth moved to the other side of Trevor, smacking him across the cheek with the back of his hand on his way.

  “You fucking—!” Trevor screamed. “Why would I lie? You think I care about Venta after they took my collector’s license? It’s a job. We’ve all got to put credits on our table. You lived under Pervenio’s thumb. You know how it is.”

  “All too well,” I agreed. “The funny thing is, however, that according to our intel, you’re one of the highest-ranking security officers working in Basaam’s research lab on Europa. That you’d be the one with access to his itinerary, even while off duty.”

  “That’s bullshit!”

  “Are you calling my sister a liar?” Rin questioned.

  I glanced over my shoulder, and she approached us, a carving knife from our catered feast in one hand and a cloth from one of the fruit baskets in the other. An apple was stuck to the end of the blade with a bite taken out of it. She had her sanitary mask drawn down, and chunks of fruit leaked through the grisly hole on the right side of her face as she chewed.

  She tossed the apple to Gareth, and I stepped aside. Before Trevor could get a word out, she stuffed the cloth into his mouth. He squirmed and gagged as she used the blade to slice open the center of his shirt. Then she crouched in front of him. The way the light from the bathroom caught the sinewy hole in her cheek made it even more prominent than usual. Trevor’s eyes bulged in horror.

  “I’m so sick of you Earther liars,” Rin bristled. She traced a long, shallow cut across his abdomen. He squealed into the rag. I let her draw another line with the knife before I yanked the cloth out.

  “You skinny pieces of Ringer filth!” Trevor cried. “When I get out of here, I’m going to snap your necks!”

  I shoved the cloth back in, and Rin carved another red line onto his chest. When he was done screaming, she swung his head toward her mouth and whispered, “You keep it up, you’ll look like me by the time I’m done with you.”

  “At least that would be an improvement,” Gareth signed.

  “I’m going to remove the gag again, Trevor,” I said calmly. “If you scream, Rin’s going to whittle my name into your stomach. Do you understand?” Trevor nodded fretfully. “Good. Now we’ve heard that Basaam has been staying in New Beijing for the week before attending the summit tonight.”

  “That’s not true,” Trevor huffed after I freed the gag. “He’s still at our facility on Europa, where you’ll never be able to get him. Martelle Station is a damn fortress, not like Pervenio’s.”

  “Are you really so eager to get back in Madame Venta’s good graces that you’d die for her?” Rin raised the knife again.

  “All right!” he yelped. “Fine! He’s in New Beijing. With all the extra security needed at the Assembly compliments of you Ringers, he took an extended vacation. He’s trying to grease palms with the Departure Ark committee just to ensure his design gets selected, even though it’s a shoo-in. Thing’s brilliant.”

  “Where is he staying?” I asked.

  “I couldn’t tell you. I run security at Europa specifically. Since he’s not there, he gave me the month off. First vacation in too damn long.” He chuckled. “You picked up the wrong officer.”

  Rin pressed the edge of the blade into his soft pink flesh, but I stopped her. “He’s telling the truth.”

  “I swe—” His eyes brightened. “Yeah, I am. So just let me down, and we’ll pretend this never happened, okay? I told you everything I know.”

  “Gareth, where is his hand-terminal?” I asked.

  My mute guardian shuffled through a pile of belongings before pulling out the shiny device. It was top of the line. There was a time I would’ve killed to get my hands on one like that in the Darien markets. He tossed it to me.

  “Screen is locked,” he signed. “Thumbprint and password verification required.”

  “Didn’t get a chance to ask for it?” Rin remarked. Gareth rolled his eyes.

  I tapped the hand-terminal against the cut on Trevor’s stomach. “As his chief of security on Europa’s Martelle Station, I’m guessing you can access his travel itinerary if you wanted,” I said. “Even while you’re off duty.”

  “I wouldn’t know,” Trevor replied.

  “Listen, Trevor. I can spend the next few hours talking to my people on Titan and figuring out how to slice through, but if we can’t do it before the summit, Basaam might already be on his way back to Europa. I can’t have that. Like you said, it’s a fortress.”

  “What a shame for you.”

  “How about you save me the trouble and tell me how to access your security logs. If you do me that favor, I’ll let you leave here in one piece.”

  He snickered. “How about your deformed friend here sucks my cock through her cheek first. Then I’ll tell you.”

  Rin lunged at him, but Gareth jumped in front of her to hold her back. I clutched Trevor by the jaw. “Say something like that again, and I’ll let her slice it off. Don’t be a fool. Don’t throw your life away for them.”

  “I’m just trying to negotiate is all. ‘Cause you see, King Trass, I know you mad Ringers are going to kill me no matter what I tell you. I might as well get something out of it, and I’m sure underneath all those scars, she’s as ripe as any skelly whore.”

  I tore the knife out of Rin’s hand and jammed it through his rib cage. It didn’t strike anything vital, but I covered his mouth with one hand and twisted the blade. Skelly. I hated that term more than anything. All the years of Earther security officers and colleagues barking insults at me and my people raged through my mind like a Titanian storm. I felt the batons smashing my stomach; I saw my mom rotting away in a quarantine and Director Sodervall smirking before he spaced Cora for no good reason.

  “Here’s your choice,” I growled as he writhed in pain. “You provide us access to your hand-terminal right now, and the worst-case scenario is I put a bullet in your brain and end this quickly. Maybe I’ll even consider letting you walk out if it’s easy enough to find what we’re looking for. But if you don’t, then I’m not going to kill you here. I’m going to drag you back to Titan with us first. I’ve been told about an old form of punishment from before the Great Reunion if a Titanborn killed another. They used to cut a tiny hatch in the side of a block enclosure, not big enough to fit more than a hand. They’d take the criminal’s arm and shove it through the hatch until Titan’s air froze it solid. Then, while he watched, they’d shatter it into a million pieces.”

  I could feel Trevor’s head trembling through my glove. I knew he heard every word I was saying, but his gaze tracked Rin as she traced a circle around us like an ancient beast hunting wounded prey. Gareth stayed with her just in case she lost control.

  “But I won’t stop there,” I continued. “No. One by one, I’ll shatter every one of your limbs, keeping you alive until you’re little more than a head on a stump. Then I’ll stuff you in a glass box in the Darien Uppers for everyone to see. You’ll starve there, slowly, like one of my people decaying in a quarantine.” I removed my hand from his mouth and backed away. He was too traumatized to scream. He stared back and forth between Rin, Gareth, and me, blood trickling down his chest from the knife jutting out of his ribs.

  “I know what I’d choose,” I said. “Though perhaps you’d rather die a hero for a company that couldn’t care less about you.”

  “04172308,” Trevor mumbled. “That’s the password.”

  I typed it in, then wrenched his bound hand toward me so that I could get a clean thumbprint. The device binged that I had full access. I gawked at the screen for a few seconds. I expected a former collector to be harder to break. Their training was supposed to be unparalleled. Growing up on Darien, we were taught to fear them more than any other agent of the Earther corporatocracy.

  “Th…there, you see?” he went o
n. “You’re in. Just need the access codes on my ID, and you can access the security logs. Basaam’s travel itinerary will be in there somewhere, I promise.”

  I handed Gareth the terminal. He started typing, then pointed to Trevor’s ID. “Password is his birthday,” he signed, drawing a chuckle out of Rin and me.

  “What is it?” Trevor asked. “I did like you said. Now, p…please, cut me down.” He craned his neck to try and see the knife sticking out of him. “I swear, I won’t tell anybody about this. I’ll tell them I fell on it.”

  “You know, Kale, that limb-shattering idea wasn’t half bad,” Rin said. “You make that up yourself?”

  “That old fence Dexter Howser told me the story as a threat once,” I replied. “Always figured it was a myth.”

  “Maybe we can try it next time,” Gareth added.

  “Don’t make me beg!” Trevor cried. “Please! I’ll do whatever you ask. You need someone inside of Venta, right? Right? I can be that. Your informant. Anything you need. Screw ’em, right?”

  “You think we’d trust another word that comes out of your mudstomper mouth?” Rin asked. “Swapping sides whenever it suits you. You people make me sick.”

  “I helped smuggle weapons and meds onto Titan for Venta, you bitch!” he growled. “Helped you Ringers when you were still hiding from our big, bad germs.”

  “You helped yourself!” I spat. “You Earthers think you can trade your way out of anything.” I picked up the rag and presented it to Rin. “I told him to watch his mouth, but he wouldn’t listen. Do whatever you want with him.”

  “Nothing we can’t clean up,” Gareth signed.

  I shrugged. “It’s their floor.”

  “You lying, skelly bastards! I’ll kill all of—” His screams were muffled by Rin squeezing the cloth into his mouth. She got to work carving the Pervenio logo into his chest, his muffled screams punctuated by sharp gasps.

  I brushed off my bloody gloves, then turned and stood. The sight of Aria standing in the kitchen, aghast, stopped me in my tracks.