It seemed impenetrable.
There were no murals--it was plain, made from the thin metallic material used for all the inner walls on Felicitos.
But there had to be a way down, and it made sense it was here.
She leaned forward and touched her hand to where she would expect to find a button in the Lower or Upper Reaches.
There was a hum, and she just stopped herself pulling her hand away in surprise as it was scanned.
Electro-film. Invisible to the naked eye. Incredibly expensive.
This was definitely where the money had gone.
There was a sweet click, and the wall popped open on one side.
“Something tells me the only person whose hand could have opened that was yours.” Leo was leaning against the far wall, arms crossed over his chest.
She thought about it. Nodded. “He scanned my and Rach's hands often, the last time a couple of weeks before he died. I was eighteen then, so most likely my hand is the same as it was then.”
She pulled the wall open and stepped through into the tiny landing at the top of a staircase that led down. She looked back over her shoulder at Leo. “I'm sorry. I think he really did do this all on his own and in secret, which meant he had to install stairs, because putting in a lift would have required help from the construction crews.”
Leo joined her, squeezing in and pulling the wall closed behind him. “I grew up working for prospectors and avoiding shadow prowlers out in the plains, Sofie.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I can walk down some stairs with a few bruises on my face.”
She was going to make a snappy comeback, but her gaze hooked on an image that was stenciled on the wall opposite.
She grabbed the hand rail and stepped down to get a closer look.
“What is it?” Leo leaned over her shoulder.
The image wasn't very well defined, but it seemed to be someone holding out an arm, holding a knife in their other hand, posed as if to slice their wrist or inner arm. There seemed to be a pool of water or blood at their feet.
“That is . . . bizarre.” She whispered it. “If my father build this himself, it stands to reason he painted this, as well.”
“It doesn't mean anything to you?” Leo's hand on her shoulder was comforting; real and steady.
She shook her head. “Nothing. I accused him of being crazy--a few times directly to his face--but I didn't think he really was mad, just obsessed.”
She walked down a little way further, but there were no other images. She honestly didn't know what to make of it. “It's what he tried to do on his death bed,” she said, suddenly making the connection. “He tried to cut himself, but he was stopped by the medic. This . . .” She looked back up at the image. “This shows he was already thinking about doing it.”
A nagging sense of guilt tugged at her. Had he been truly disturbed, and she had not only not noticed, but in fact been angry with him for something he couldn't help?
Leo walked down the steps to stand just above her. “None of this is your doing, Sofie. Let's just go home. It'll all make more sense after a fancy dinner and a few kisses in the dark corners of the Lower Reaches.”
“The Lower Reaches?” She gave him a look over her shoulder.
“Well, no. My house,” he admitted, and she laughed.
“And then you can show me how ambitious you really are,” she said, and enjoyed it when he tripped on the stairs and had to grip the rail.
Chapter 18
She was safe. Would not be left, mutilated and dead outside his warehouse as a reminder of who was in charge on Garmen.
Leo kept reminding himself of it as she led them downward.
Every now and then, when they reached a landing, she would open the door and check to see which floor they were on.
But the Under Deck was a long way up from the Upper Reaches.
He didn't mind. It was soothing walking behind her as they spiraled down. Like a respite between madnesses.
And hovering at the front of his thoughts was that he had never even considered looking for Ronald Fadal's daughters. He had taken over Fadal's operation on the mines, profited from it beyond his wildest dreams, and all the while, Fadal's children were working for the resistance, scraping a living in Tether Town. Being murdered.
He didn't know how he would ever explain to Sofie that, while he'd had a vague notion of Fadal having a family, he'd been so focused in the early days, so determined to make the most of the opportunity Fadal's death afforded him, he hadn't given them a second thought.
Had, until she said who she was, forgotten all about them.
How fucking convenient for him.
And now, he was following Fadal's youngest daughter down her secret stairway with lust and desire tugging at him, and protectiveness making him almost a stranger to himself.
He would have to tell her what an asshole he was, but he didn't know how.
“I think we're here.”
He looked up, realized the stairway had come to an end.
She hesitated at the door, as if she was worried where they'd step out.
Theoretically, they were in a secret system within a secret system. Ronald Fadal would surely not have risked the door opening into a pubic area.
Sofie pulled it open and peered out.
Her shoulders relaxed and she held the door for him as she stepped out.
“Where's this?” He didn't recognize it.
“It's the top floor of the Upper Reaches.” She turned back to stare at the closed door, which had now completely disappeared into the wall, and then ran a hand over it. It glowed when she touched the middle, and he heard the click as the door opened.
She leaned against it, closing it again, and Leo finally let himself look around.
He'd never been to the top floor of the Upper Reaches. He'd had meetings on the floor below, but this was the powerhouse of the Cores.
If the top execs frittered away their time on the Under Deck, their immediate subordinates scurried around here, carrying out the orders that were issued from on high.
He looked through a one-way window into what was a bare, stark foyer, and shook his head. “They really don't believe in spending a port more than they have to for their staff.”
Sofie was standing beside another door, and she smiled cynically as she tapped in a code. “No. It drove my father mad.” She stopped short, and he watched her struggle for a moment before she was able to look at him again.
“More stairs, I'm afraid.”
She pushed open the door and he followed her inside and down the tight spiral staircase.
“Will you give me that code?” he asked.
She looked back and up at him. “It's my birthday.” She rattled off the numbers. “But in case the system won't let two people use the same code if we're in different parts of Felicitos, which is possible given my father's paranoia, rather use the general resistance code. Seven Four Two Five.” She turned away. “The year of the Halatian Incident.”
She had been counting floors under her breath as they went down, and stopped at the next door and tapped in the code again.
When he joined her on the other side, they were in a pitch dark passageway.
She stepped in without hesitation. “For some reason the lights went out when I came this way earlier. There must be a faulty wire somewhere, but I know the way.”
He felt her hand reaching for his, and threaded his fingers through hers. They walked until they came to a one-way view into a bathroom. No one was inside, and the light was off, but lighting from the foyer seeping under the door was just bright enough for him to make out the rough size of the room.
Leo tapped the resistance code Sofie had given him into the small pad beside the wall, and nothing happened. He looked over at her and she frowned. Tapped in the same code herself and the wall gave a faint click as it opened.
“Have you ever gotten the code wrong and it's opened up anyway?” Leo asked.
He couldn't see her ex
pression in the gloom of the darkened bathroom, but he bet she was frowning as she thought about it.
“If I did, I didn't notice it.”
“Go back in, close the door, and deliberately do it wrong,” he suggested.
She hesitated a moment, then gave a nod and brushed past him, stepped into the hidden passageway and closed the door.
Almost immediately, he heard the click as it opened again.
“And?”
“And I pressed buttons randomly. And it opened.” She sounded a little lost.
“I think the code was a ruse for the others around you. I don't think the numbers ever mattered.” Leo thought back to the hum of the scanner on the wall of the Under Deck. “I think it's activated by your DNA.”
“But some of the secret tunnels are used by the resistance all the time.” She pushed the door closed behind her.
“Then there's levels of access. Your father obviously realized he had to give the resistance some access, that's why they were helping him, after all, but other areas are obviously for him and his family alone.” He tilted his head toward the secret opening. “Has anyone from the resistance used this entrance before?”
She shrugged. “I hadn't used it myself until today. I found it by reading the patterns on the floor.”
Leo looked down, saw nothing more than a pretty, swirling pattern of flowers, leaves and birds set into the flooring.
“So they don't know about it, and even if they figured out it was here by reading the signs, they wouldn't be able to get in.” He opened the door of the bathroom and held it for her. “Or, not without you.”
She looked down at her fingers, but didn't say anything. Leo wondered if she understood.
She was the key to unlocking the whole of Felicitos.
She lifted her head. “I always wondered why Veld was so relentless about wooing Rach. And never understood how he could go to such lengths to romance her, and then turn around and persuade her to get into a relationship with a Cores exec. How he could stand to push her to do that, when he supposedly loved her so much.” She walked through the doorway, and then stood in the gloom of the corridor. “He must have seen her going somewhere he couldn't follow. He worked out he needed her to open doors for him. Literally.”
So she did understand, then.
Leo had to hope she also understood he was not Veld. He didn't care if she could open doors or not.
But he had to admit, it was damn useful that she could.
Sofie tapped her fingertips against the conference table as Leo debriefed his security team. It made her charms clink together, and she stopped immediately.
The conversation swirled around her, hardly making an impact.
Most of them stared at her surreptitiously every now and then, and Sofie hunched a little under their gaze.
Leo's face was already healing. Finkle turned out to be a medic as well as a thug, and he'd doctored the bruises and cuts.
“What do you think they're going to do with that ship you saw up there?” Dee asked, and Sofie blinked back into the present.
“I'm going to ask Sofie if she'll take someone on the team up there to watch them. We can organize shifts so we can listen in and see what we can pick up.” Leo looked over at her, and she sensed a moment of hesitation in him--so unusual, it stood out to her. “Would you do that, Sofie?”
She nodded. “I'm sure the boss will give me time off work.”
There was a nervous ripple of laughter at that, but Leo did not look amused.
“Do you want me to do that now?” she asked politely.
Leo stared at her, anger suddenly rolling off him. “I'm not one of the abusive assholes you've had to deal with before,” he said, voice cold. “No, obviously not now.”
She was so tired of bullshit, she simply stared back at him for a beat, then shrugged. “Of course you're not.”
She might have been mistaken, but as he turned away, she thought she saw a flush on his cheeks.
She got to her feet, suddenly done. “Do you want to give me your address?”
Leo looked back at her, frowning. “Why? You're coming with me.”
She shook her head. “No. I'm going home first to collect some things I need.”
He paused, looking at her, really seeing her for the first time since they'd stepped back into his offices.
It seemed like a cool wall had descended between them the moment they'd been met by his security team; the humor, warmth and flirtation of their time on the Under Deck evaporating away.
Leo inclined his head. “We'll come with you. Then go on to my place.”
She thought about it for a moment.
“Please, Sofie. I don't want you out of my sight.” His voice was soft, and from the astonished looks on the faces of his security bad asses, she guessed they'd never seen Leo ask so nicely for anything before.
“All right.” She stood, straightening her shoulders. “Let's go.”
“Do we need to get her out in disguise?” Dee had been leaning against a wall, watching everything with her arms crossed over her chest, but now she straightened. “I'd need to find her something new to wear.”
“No. There's another way.” Leo looked over at her, and Sofie realized he was waiting for her permission to talk.
She waved her hand for him to continue. The secret was out now. They knew about the passageways on the Under Deck and the Deck. What did a few more matter?
“Sofie has a secret way out of Felicitos. That's how she rescued me when I was attacked at The High Flyer. We can take that route.”
Everyone was suddenly intensely interested in her.
“How long have you known about this way out?” Finkle asked.
“Since it was built. I helped build it.” There was more than one secret exit, and she hadn't actually helped build the one she'd taken Leo down before, but she might as well preserve some secrets.
“You would've been no more than twelve when Felicitos started going up,” Dee said.
She nodded. “And I was sixteen when the tunnel was built.”
There was silence as everyone stared at her a little more. She wondered how many of them were latecomers to Tether Town. There were only a small core of original inhabitants, and she knew most of them. These people had most likely all come with the massive wave of immigrants when Felicitos had started taking shape, and everyone began to realize it was probably going to work. Until then, it had been every hand on deck. Children as young as ten had helped built the TWS.
Sofie walked toward the door, and Leo joined her.
Finkle was signaling to others in the room, and by the time they reached the bathroom, Dee, Finkle and two others had fallen in around them.
Out of pure habit, Sofie made sure they were alone, then stepped through into the narrow room.
“This is interesting,” Dee murmured.
Sofie ignored them all, even Leo, stepping up to the wall and crouching down to press in the tiny tile in the corner, her body blocking everyone's view.
The wall clicked, and as she pulled it back, she remembered the lights had gone out. “Do you have a light?” she asked Leo. “I forgot they're out in the passageway.”
He turned to Finkle, was handed one, and gave it to her. Their fingers brushed, and she looked up at him, let their gazes lock for a moment before Fink cleared his throat.
That damned zing. It got her every time.
The only consolation was that it seemed to get him, too.
Chapter 19
He had messed up.
Leo knew it and he didn't know how to fix it.
It didn't help that Finkle, Dee, Sam and Erdia were pretending not to notice that he was not himself.
He walked beside Sofie as she got them down into the depths of the tower, down the tunnel and out into T-Town, then wound her way through the alleyways until she reached the main street.
“I'm sorry,” he said.
She tipped her head a little, and then reached out a hand and took his. �
�Now that is how you show me you're not one of the abusive assholes I'm used to dealing with.” She squeezed, and a weight seemed to lift off him as he squeezed back.
“Tell me, was I just dreaming it, or is the memory that came back to me as we were walking through that tunnel of you holding me by my feet and pulling me along in a cart true?”
She sent him a grin. “It wasn't elegant, but you do weigh about one and a half times what I do.”
“Thank you.” He didn't think he appreciated how hard it must have been until now. “Truly.”
She gave a nod. “Any time, lover-boy.” Her footsteps were quiet on the rough stones that had been tipped onto the ground and then packed with earth to make them level.
The Cores execs never walked anywhere in Tether Town, they only used hovers, so it had been up to the gen-pop to pave the routes through the town.
“You took a hover.” Leo suddenly recalled her staggering under his weight, guiding him to the road.
“Yes. You gave me some ports, and I ordered one to meet us using your screen.” She fluttered her hands. “I told him you'd had too much to drink.”
“You were nervous of him.”
She looked sharply at him. “Yes. I'm surprised you picked that up.”
He was, too. He'd barely been able to stand on his own. But her nerves had helped to sharpen his focus a little.
She shrugged and then turned down a side road he recognized as her own street. “He was fine, though. He helped me get you to the door.”
She pulled the door open, and Leo saw Erdia and Dee split from the group, Dee going around the back of the building, Erdia taking up position in the front.
Finkle and Sam followed them up the stairs.
Sofie gave Finkle a dark look when he brushed past her as she opened her door, but she stayed put when Leo put a hand on her shoulder.
“Let him do his thing.”
Her lips thinned, but she nodded.
Finkle's face showed nothing when he eventually gave the all clear signal with his hands.
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