by Han Yang
“It wasn’t- I- That is neither here nor there.” Charlie fought to keep his cool as he glanced at my mangled arm then back to the defeated steam-bot behind him. “I take it that this was your handiwork?”
“I assumed this was how a Tycoon greeted their guests. I only responded in kind.”
The Tycoon shuddered as he glanced at the venturebots squared up at my back. Though he might have who knows how many guns aiming squarely in my direction, it would only take a single shot from my squad to blow him to pieces.
“I have to admit, you have this whole ‘cool, composed leader’ thing down far more than me.” Charlie’s shoulders dropped as he let out a long, depressed breath. “I know this might seem like a silly question, but what did we do to you to provoke this visit. I mean, specifically. I have to assume it is not related to our prior… business?”
He didn’t know anything about Ginli, I could tell that much from the befuddled look he shot in my direction. It wasn’t like I’d apologize for the way I had decided to ‘visit’ him, but given the circumstances, it was maybe time for us to actually talk things out man to man.
“I assumed you were related to a recent incident. It seems like I might have been wrong in that regard.” I raised an eyebrow as Charlie winced at my assertions. “Sorry about that.”
“You come here and- You’re sorry?” The Tycoon huffed angrily as he waved at the steam-bot I had wrecked not so long ago. “Do you even know how much this thing cost to build!?”
“I don’t know, a few silver?” I shrugged off his query as I passed the steam pistol back to the venturebot I had borrowed it from. “You wanted to form an alliance, right? How about we let the past fade away as we talk about our bright future together, huh?”
“I- You- This -”
I could hear Charlie’s teeth grating as he stared at the husk behind him then the mostly destroyed conservatory around us. Several seconds passed before he finally managed to pull himself together enough to give me a professional, although twitchy, smile.
“What did you have in mind, Baron Lord?”
Chapter 7
“Are you insane!?”
Tycoon Charlie looked up from the proposal I had drafted once we reached his spacious office space. Although most of the signs of the mistress had been removed, I could still tell that the room had been built to that old, crotchety woman’s specifications.
And it seemed as though Charlie hadn’t made the effort to fully wipe her touches out for some reason.
“It seems like a fair exchange to me.” I leaned back in the head chair at Charlie’s desk. I had taken his seat moments after we had entered his study, and the aggravated man hadn’t plucked up the courage to ask for it back.
To be fair, it wasn’t a patch on the chair in my own office, but the look on the Tycoon’s face as I used his stationary to jot down the requirements for our alliance had been a sight to behold.
The venturebots remained outside on high alert. I had traded my own waterlogged weaponry from some of the bots' backups, so at least I wouldn’t be defenseless should the Langshire Tycoon try to turn on me while we were alone.
But, for some weird reason, I got the feeling he would never be able to do something so bold toward me.
“We’ve never set a trading tax so low. If the other cities hear of this…” Charlie mumbled to himself as he scanned over the document once more. “And what’s this about ‘relevant accommodation spaces’? What does that even mean?”
“Oh, nothing much.” I raised my legs, dropped them onto his shiny desk, and scratched my chin with a cocky grin. “I just want you to return everything you took from Ginli. That includes her home, of course.”
Charlie choked for a moment as he heard my final demand. The paper beneath his hand shook like a leaf in the wind as he fought to keep his calm.
Sure, I was asking a lot, but my comment wasn’t too far off. Though the trade tax I had requested from Langshire was extremely low, I had set terms that Norn would offer a moderate rate ourselves.
We had things Langshire needed, and they…
They had coin, and, more specifically, Hydrox that I wanted.
“About that… I thought I would tell you.” Charlie lowered the paper onto the table with a sigh. “It happened after I sent my message, but I couldn’t find the words to explain it to you. It might not even be related, but…”
“Spit it out, man.” I swung my legs back off the desk and pushed myself up from the Tycoon’s chair slash throne. “What’s wrong? You look like you have seen a ghost or something.”
“It’s the lady Ginli’s room. It-” Charlie paused for a moment before he shook his head in frustration. “Just follow me. It is easier to show you than to try to explain it.”
Charlie led me back out of his office and into the corridors of the mansion proper. I had not actually visited much of the mistress’ home, though I knew the lower levels were used as an oversized casino, and the floors below that…
Well, let’s just say I’d become personally acquainted with the thugs working in those squalid depths.
But the place he led me to, didn’t even take too long to reach. After a few twists and turns, we arrived at a long corridor filled with all kinds of paintings and sculptures. Four doors lined its length, each one nearly as over designed as Charlie’s study.
“The Mistress’ daughter’s rooms.” Charlie swept a hand forward as he motioned for me to proceed. “Ginli’s is the last on the right.”
I didn’t quite understand why he was showing me such a weird thing, but I decided to not question his motives. There was a chance that he had arranged an ambush squad in one of the bedrooms, but he could have just as easily killed me in his office or at any point during our trip through the mansion itself.
As I drew closer to the entrance he had pointed out, the reason for his concern became clear.
Pale blue light shimmered and danced from beneath the doorway, and an eerie grey mist formed from the top. It looked like someone had set the room ablaze, but after a quick check with the back of my hand, I found out the door itself was stone cold.
As was the handle when I tried it. The cool metal bit at my fingers as I gripped it tight, and turned-
Turned-
TURNED!
No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t shift it in the slightest. The door remained securely locked, even when I leaned all of my weight against it.
“What the -” I stepped back from the doorway and bit the inside of my cheek. Ginli had gone missing, now a mysterious force had locked her room, and the lord of the city had no idea what, or who, had caused the weird situation.
As I contemplated the scene before me, a low pitched, sonorous voice rang out from the corridor.
“Baron Lord Bradley, it is good to see you alive. Not well, though, unfortunately.”
I turned to face the newcomer with a happy, yet worried, grin.
“Hey Duke, long time no see.”
If a robot could show anger, then my companion would be the first to do so. His unmoving features remained locked in place, as always, but the heavy stomps of his feet as he strode toward me spoke of a fury deep within my venturebot friend.
“If something had happened to you, what would I say to the Baroness?”
I had expected an enraged rant about the risks I had put myself through, but instead Duke merely spoke with the same calm, composed tone.
And somehow that made it worse.
“I had to see for myself.” I shrugged and gestured up toward the Tycoon, who was watching our exchange with bated breath from the end of the corridor. “We’ve worked out most of it, but I can’t get into Ginli’s room -”
Duke tilted his head a little before he turned to face the door. He scanned the whole thing, top to bottom, and paused for a moment before his metallic hand closed around the handle.
“We’ve already tried that,” Charlie called out as Duke tightened his grip. “No venturebot could even shift-”
The Tycoon fell silent as the door opened with a creaky thud. Duke pushed the door ajar, and after glancing into the interior, he bowed and gestured for me to take the lead.
I gave the now open doorway a once over before I stepped over the threshold. The same pale blue glow filled the room, though it wasn’t possible to find the source of the illumination.
The grey fog, however, originated from the figure lying atop the huge, pillow strewn bed.
“Ginli!” I dashed forward to the occupant’s side.
Her red hair covered the pillows under her head as she lay, completely still and silent.
It took several tense moments before I managed to locate a pulse and confirm she was still breathing before I calmed myself once more.
“Is that-” Charlie peeked into the room and froze up once he saw the woman lying atop the bed. “How did she- I mean, we didn’t know-”
“How didn’t you know?” I didn’t even look up from Ginli as I shot the question back at the shaking Tycoon. “This is your manor, correct?”
“I- She- They didn’t say anything about this.”
I wanted to grab the blabbering man and demand he speak some sense, but Duke laid a palm on my shoulder before I could push myself up.
“I believe he is speaking the truth, Baron Lord.” Duke’s glowing eyes looked over Ginli’s comatose form, then back to the shivering Tycoon of Langshire in the doorway. “Something is afoot, and I believe it would be best if we avoid becoming embroiled in their games.”
Despite the hot rage building up within my chest, I couldn’t help but agree with Duke’s sentiments. If Charlie spoke the truth, then Ginli had arrived in Langshire not too long after she had vanished from the survey team.
If that was the case, then how had she arrived in Langshire? Even if she’d taken a blimp, it would have been several weeks of travel between those points, at the very least. And that was if the journey occurred in favorable conditions, not in the dead of winter.
Even the Moonlit Goddess would utterly fail to match such a speed.
No matter what I tried, Ginli wouldn’t wake up from her slumber. If it wasn’t for the fact I had checked not so long ago, I would have fully believed it if someone had declared her dead to the world. I pulled out the checker and went over Ginli’s statistics.
Nothing came up.
“Duke.” I tapped the checker, drawing the bots’ attention to the reading. “Thoughts?”
“This is… peculiar.” Duke pulled the checker out of Ginli’s port and glanced back toward Charlie, who had only just barely managed to pull himself together. “Best take her to Norn. We can investigate further once we arrive.”
“Agreed.”
Who could hide the results of a checker? What power would be needed to move a person across massive distances in an instant? Why could Duke open a door no one else could budge for weeks?
The only answer that came to mind that fully explained away the questions was a single word.
Gearnix.
But Duke had made it clear that Gearnix would not help us any further. To be fair, I didn’t count abducting a friend, putting her in a coma, and depositing her into the middle of enemy territory as ‘help,’ but who else could have achieved such a thing?
Even the blurred memories of the demonic slug - thing - I had fought hadn’t worked out. I remembered it jumping through a shimmering doorway and vanishing, but if such a monster had taken Ginli, why was she back at her original home, safe and secure in her bed?
On that note, why was she fine after so long alone? Surviving without food and water was one thing, but her augments still looked to be fully charged and ready for action.
Why? How? Who?
I shook away the barrage of questions and took a deep breath.
There was no way I could truly find any answers moping around in a random bedroom. Maybe once Duke, and I had time to discuss and investigate, we could begin to piece together the shattered remains of a clue.
But, for the moment, it was time for us to leave.
“I will take Lady Ginli.” Duke moved up beside the bed and twitched his head toward the Tycoon lord. “You may deal with him how you see fit, Baron Lord.”
I nodded and pushed myself up from the edge of the bed. After one final look at my friend, I turned and made my way toward the Tycoon of Langshire, who had yet to speak after his break down at the door.
“I- We didn’t know. I promise you.” Charlie grabbed my hand and gripped it tightly as I stepped close. “They didn’t tell me anything about this. I just needed to extend a hand in friendship. Please don’t tell them that I did anything wrong!”
I didn’t know who, or what, Charlie was blabbering about, but I felt it was best to quiet him down before things escalated too far. After I pried my hand clear of his grasp, I took a firm grip of his forearm and shook the man until he pulled himself together.
“Accept the terms, no changes. Then you will have your alliance.” I gestured back toward the bed, where Duke was slowly lifting Ginli up into a princess carry, ready to take her back to the Moonlit Goddess for our return journey. “She comes with us. Take this as it’s meant, but I don’t trust you.”
“I- Of course.” Charlie shuddered as he stepped back to allow Duke and I to leave Ginli’s old room. “And you can have the manor! Anything you want. Just don’t-”
“Don’t want it anymore.” I shrugged as I turned to stroll back down the corridor. “You owe me a favor, though. Next time I come knocking, make sure you answer with something more than an overgrown venturebot, yeah?”
Chapter 8
We left the mansion grounds without any further incident. Though I didn’t know how Duke had managed to infiltrate the most defended spot in Langshire without an issue, it seemed clear that Tycoon Charlie had sent word down to his guards to not interfere with our exit.
Duke had draped a sheet over my damaged arm and, after a bit of to’ing and fro’ing, had managed to make it look less like a pair of curtains ripped unceremoniously from their bracket and more like a flamboyant cape.
Not the best, but it would have to do.
Crowds gathered to watch us as we paraded our way back out of the lower casino. Though most had likely seen venturebots before, the sheer number of followers at my beck and call left them speechless.
That plus the large cart they were dragging behind them caught more than a few hungry gazes.
Duke had persuaded me to stop off at the conservatory before we left for the Moonlit Goddess. Once I had explained what happened after we landed in the gardens, including my climactic fight with the steam-bot guardian, he wouldn’t let the matter drop before we paid the battle site a visit.
First, he scrambled around in the dirt as he collected much of the remains of my destroyed hand. The fingers were usable, but most of the palm had been decimated by the sheer force of Darcy Jr.’s final shot.
The loss of my hand was more than made up for in the haul we’d taken from the corpse of the defeated steam behemoth.
Central processor, armor plating, even the hilt of its shattered steam cleaver. We had enough material to make several lesser copies if Duke’s guesses were on point, and I had no reason to doubt his estimations.
Thankfully, it wasn’t too hard to find the Moonlit Goddess. Duke had somehow managed to land the thing atop the blimp tower structure rather than outside of the walls as we had first planned.
I didn’t even want to think about the paperwork Charlie would face for such a move, but I felt happy to add that to the ‘revenge for exiling us to a dying city’ tally and to let the whole thing fade from my mind.
A small crowd had gathered around the mooring where Duke had parked our vessel. Compared to the blimps usually seen floating through the skies, our little boat looked more like a joke whose punchline made no sense.
“Baron Lord Bradley, please board the vessel first!” Duke’s sudden call caught me off guard as he nudged me forward as his yell caught the attention of the crowd. A ventureb
ot with such advanced intelligence as Duke was enough to turn many eyes in his direction, but the announcement of my title brought even more visibility to our group as I made my way into the Moonlit Goddess.
The crowd murmured amongst themselves as they pushed and shoved to get a good look at our departure. No one even tried to stop my venturebot crew from stomping their way onto the vessel. They boarded the blimp one after the other, followed by Duke who paused on the threshold as he turned to face the entranced audience he had created.
“Our thanks to your generous Tycoon, and may Norn share many a prosperous year with Langshire in the near future!”
With that cryptic comment left hanging in the air, Duke slammed the door shut behind himself and strode over to the co-pilot’s seat. He glanced back at me before pointedly gesturing toward the main pilot’s chair.
Clearly, he wanted me to be the one to fly us back out of Langshire.
The command console hummed happily as I brought the main engine up to full power. The Hydrox reserves showed at levels high enough to get us back to Norn, and the weather indicators warned...
Well, they all screamed at me to not fly the Moonlit Goddess during the freezing wintery conditions, but I quickly shut them off.
Now I knew what the beeping sound had been when we left Norn. Duke treated such cautionary warnings in his stride, just like me.
The floor beneath my feet shuddered as the Moonlit Goddess drifted away from its makeshift mooring. As we flew further and further away, the shouts and yells of the crowd faded into the background, replaced instead by the creaking of guide wires and the buffeting of the wind against our hull.
It didn’t take long at all to clear the edge of Langshire. Thankfully, not a single shot was fired in our direction as we sped off into the sky.
Compared to Duke’s first frantic flight, I decided to take a more leisurely approach. Ginli was unconscious, but we had placed her in the cot at the back of the cabin. The venturebots had stored themselves away while the slow-fall cube remained, and the salvaged pieces of the guardian bot had been carefully packed away in the storage compartments.
