Spin caught a glimpse of Sun as she walked past the doorway then took two steps back to look inside the compartment. “Dorian? What’s going on?”
“I need your help, and to warn you. Quino isn’t good at hiding his friends, that’s why I took you to him in my old beater. I didn’t want any of the crews who watch the sky above the Precinct to see your ship coming and going. It didn’t work, you’re in as much danger as any of the Red River Crew’s friends now. When his repair people show up, the other crews will know you’re with him for sure, and I know you’re really not.”
“Can we trust his repair crews?” Sun asked.
Dorian hesitated, then shook his head. “I need you to help me too, I have to get away from him, from this world.”
“You didn’t answer her question,” Spin said.
“No, no you can’t. If the ass end of this ship wasn’t half hanging open, I’d say take off, get going, but I don’t know, maybe you could use a patch up, even the kind you have to watch.”
“We can get around that,” Sun said. She looked him up and down, and Spin knew why. Even through all those cybernetics, Dorian was looking increasingly anxious. “Red River Crew is in trouble?”
“The Nays just landed a big victory thanks to an outside group they hired, Omira’s people, the Empress crew. The fighting is about to get so bad, I don’t want to be here. Quino is going to put me on the front line, and I’m sick of killing. I thought I’d come to you and trade the Cool Angel’s location for my freedom. Maybe you could dig this tracker and the explosive with it out of my back at the same time.”
“You know where it is?” Sun asked, surprised.
“Quino tracks it, he hates Captain White, so the location was sitting right there in the computer system, only an hour ago a refitting crew was starting finishing work on the Cool Angel, less than a day away.” He projected an image of the cool angel, its sleek, elongated oval body docked in a service bay. A few armour panels had been removed to provide access to the shield systems. The next image featured Captain White walking between the main thrusters. “See? He’s replaced two of his burst thrusters with barrier models. He just landed a major payday for that kind of work.”
“I wonder if the rest of the crew knows he sold us out?” Sun asked.
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be there for too much longer, maybe three days?”
“Unless he’s getting that whirlpool he always wanted.” Sun thought a moment, staring at the image of Captain White.
It felt like there was a fiery ball in Spin’s belly, all the anger she’d been collecting threatened to burn her from the inside out, and she was having trouble keeping it to herself. “I don’t think he’d be expecting us, and I could change our transponder on our way.”
“You want revenge,” Sun said. “So do I, but we have to be smart about this.”
“I’ll help, I owe him,” Dorian said.
“You’ll be joining this crew. You’ll have to follow orders.”
“Aye-aye!” Dorian said, snapping to attention. “Have to get the tracker out of my back first, it’ll blow if I go too far.”
“We might be able to do that,” Sun said. “Let our med-tech take a look.”
“Is the Governor back?” Spin asked.
“He’s not far, just a few levels down talking to a few people from Midtown. He’s been checking in like a good diplomat. I’ll tell him to wrap things up.”
“I’ll go see how Nigel’s doing with his assessment of the damage.” She found him only a few steps away, on the other side of the bulkhead eavesdropping. As soon as he noticed her, Nigel hurriedly led her off the ship to the doors leading deeper into the station. “What’s going on?”
“He’s not the same,” Nigel said. “Okay, okay, I know, that’s the most obvious thing I could say, but I mean there was something you could trust about Dorian before. He would overreact sometimes, but he was a good guy, and people would usually see that within minutes. Now, there’s something way off, not just weird, but enough so I don’t really know if that’s still him in there. It’s like someone made a doll of my friend – oh God, bad choice of words, I’m so sorry.”
“That’s all right,” Spin said. “Finish your thought.”
“I look at him, and either there’s something really broken, or something missing completely. Like they forgot to install a soul or something. God, that sounds stupid. I just can’t put my finger on it, but I don’t trust him.”
“What do you think about following him to the Cool Angel?” Spin asked.
“If he knows where it is, then yeah, we’ve gotta make sure the rest of White’s crew knows what he did to us at least. That shit can’t stand, but we’ve gotta go in with our eyes open.”
“What do you think of taking the Cool Angel for ourselves? Could Sun get enough votes from the crew to take command?”
“Almost everyone likes Sun, she was a Lieutenant on that ship for a long time, so she’s got a shot, but if we’re going to use the Angel to go after your cure, then we’ll have to find a way to make money on the way, or sell the idea of stealing tech from Geist to the crew. Otherwise, there’s no way Sun will get voted up as the captain. That is if we can kill White. He’s got people aboard who have been backing him for years.”
“You have no problem killing your old captain?”
“I hope I don’t have to do it, but I don’t feel too bad about him getting fragged, no. Boro and Trevor would be alive if it weren’t for him. He’s got to go, dead or marooned is cool with me.”
“All right,” Spin said. “We’re only getting the location of –” her comm beeped. “– the Cool Angel if we take Dorian with us.”
“All right, but we have to keep an eye on him, and he can’t be the one calling the shots when we try to take the ship.”
Spin’s comm beeped again and she tapped her cheek to indicate that she had a call. “I agree. One sec, just finishing something up,” she said to the caller.
“It’s Mitch,” said the Governor’s voice through her subdermal comm. “There’s someone who wants to meet you, and I think you should take her up on it. She’s in the Three River Palace, level fifty-six. Just you, I can stick around if you’d like me to facilitate.”
Spin thought for a moment. Only stunners were allowed within the Midtown Port Building, so the danger was limited. Her suit and jacket made her mostly immune to stuns, so the danger was limited. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.” She ended the call and regarded Nigel. “How’s the ship?”
“I can get a lot of the damaged surround on the starboard turret cleared so I can finish repairs on it from the inside, but the breaches aft will need a lot of time and material. If we’re not sticking around so Quino’s guys can do the work, then it’s going to have to stay the way it is.”
“I’m afraid we’ll have to get the work done somewhere else, unless we end up on another ship somehow.”
“Yeah, I was wondering about that,” Nigel said. “What if we don’t get the Angel? Do we go port hopping until we find someone who will trade this for something that can hold its own in a fight?”
A thought occurred to Spin then. All the details about the Countess’ private military forces were sitting in the biological data storage on her arm. Approaching any of it was risky, but it could give them options. “I have a contingency. We should try to find a port where ships hit by the UCA’s attacks are being reconditioned, but if that doesn’t work out this week, we’ll move on to another plan.”
“You actually have another plan? Like not taking the Angel, not trading this luxury heap, but something else completely?” Nigel was so surprised that Spin could only laugh.
She handed him her sidearm, it was too high powered to make it through the building’s interior security scanners and smiled at him. “I’ll share when there’s time, don’t worry, and don’t fall in love with this ship. We’ll be aboard something we can take into a fight before you have a chance to get this thing tuned.”
“Thank God,” he said. “Where are you going?”
“To pick up the Governor,” Spin replied as she walked through the security door leading into the building.
11
Aldo’s job as a guard had saved him from financial ruin, the Partisan War, the day the artificial intelligences went mad, and from an uncertain future in one of the thousands of wastelands that those chaotic events left behind. He hadn’t seen perimeter duty for over five years, and being close to old royal family members, being one of the few that they fully trusted afforded him the best placement and many privileges. For most of his career, he enjoyed the position, and his partner, Corrine, still did.
As a pair they were as vigilant as ever, as helpful to the people they were charged with protecting as ever, but Aldo couldn’t shake a rising unease at what he was doing and a distaste for who he had been tasked with guarding. Master Kort was cruel by default to everyone he saw as his inferior except for the guards and his crewmembers. That was his whole name, Kort, like some media star, he’d dropped the other half of his name. He was the Countess’ consort, and the only one, but he had almost as much power as a husband.
When Kort’s people called on Aldo and Corrine specifically days before, he was sure they were about to be reprimanded for giving young Aspen food before her escape. It was only a meal bar, but it was a violation of instructions nonetheless. He was surprised when they were reassigned as Kort’s personal guards. His previous guards were promoted, leaving a void that had to be filled. The pay raise was incredibly high, and the rise in position would eventually offer new opportunities.
The down sides were just as clear. They would rarely have time to spend any of that money, and Kort rarely required guarding, so the post promised to test their patience. One thing Aldo didn’t think about was all the meetings and inner circle workings they’d witness.
It was just such a meeting that Aldo and Corrine were tasked to escort Kort to in the early evening. In a part of the palace they’d never seen before was a suspension pool filled with viscus gel, and the Countess stretched her long limbs out in the middle of it. It was easy for Aldo to avert his eyes the moment they entered the lushly furnished room. Kort settled on a settee that was hand crafted with actual wood and real cotton fabrics. Large statues of birds overlooked the Countess’ large pool, their shadows seemed otherworldly in the dim artificial light. Through a giant circular skylight the night sky did what it always managed to do for Aldo – put on a show of natural light and colour he had difficulty looking away from.
“Kort, it took you long enough.”
“I responded as soon as I received your summons,” Kort said. “I was with my Lieutenants, planning the first stage of our journey to Geist.”
“That will be on hold. Instead, I want you to supervise the installation of trackers in all my slaves. After some thought I’ve come to realize that times have changed, and I will be taking away many of their privileges, since they don’t seem to be enough to inspire gratitude in my workforce.”
“The escape attempts will pass with time, but I agree. It’s time to begin tracking all our assets. I’ll have Captain Tindol attend to it immediately.”
“No, you will be there to see every slave have their band installed. When the banding is complete, you will assemble the slaves in groups and demonstrate what happens when an escape attempt is made. You will do this for me because you are the cause of all this trouble. Your lecherous advance pushed my poor Autumn children away, I’ve seen the footage.”
“I was only showing Aspen her place, but I will do as you command.”
“Am I not a delight to look upon?” the Countess asked, standing from the pool slowly. Her body was so elongated and thin in feature that she barely looked human at all. How she could stand up straight, Aldo didn’t know or want to know, but her long face and head seemed too large for her neck, her waist was unnaturally thin, and her skin was as pale as maggots.
“Your beauty is unparalleled in the universe,” Kort said as he stood and kissed her outstretched hand. “I’d love nothing more than to join you.”
The Countess smiled coyly. “If only there was time, my consort. No, you will begin banding the slaves tomorrow, to be finished in two days, and while that is underway you will personally begin pursuing Aspen and Larken. My usual methods have turned up nothing, the pair of them are too well educated to be trapped by these half rate slave hunters or our basic security. They’ve caused significant damage, in fact.” The Countess settled back into the thick bath with the assistance of a pair of slaves.
“The nutrient farm, I heard. They also made off with almost all of the slaves who were captured with Aspen.”
“Has the one we revived revealed anything about where they could be headed?”
“No, Boro Lozel doesn’t know anything, but he has revealed a list of ports the Cool Angel regularly visits. This should take weeks to resolve if the UCA are looking.”
“I have made sure that only our internal security is aware that Larken and Aspen have escaped. Not even your fleet has been notified, nor will they be.”
“What? Why?” Kort asked.
“This is family business, there is no reason to get outside parties involved.”
“This is no time to let your pride interfere with business. Last time Aspen escaped, she had chaos as her cover, but now she has money thanks to that kidnapping fiasco, and she has Larken. As a pair they can achieve anything.”
“This is a private matter, they are wayward children who don’t know what they’re doing, where they’re going.”
“They’re intelligent, well educated fabricants who have broken their mental conditioning. They have a head start and enough platinum to get them quick transport along with a fast ship. You underestimate them, you always have.”
“Nevertheless, you will find them. No more great houses and no branches of law enforcement have to know they’ve escaped again. They will be returned to me alive. We have reprogrammed them both before, it will be done again.”
“I will find them for you, Countess. My fleet is already prepared for the Geist expedition, I can deploy ships to search within the hour,” Kort said, beginning to bow.
“No! You will find them!” the Countess burst. “Choose an inconspicuous ship with whatever crew you deem necessary and make chase. Bring them back to me, rescue my children and I’ll pay you in an act of equal devotion.”
“Marriage?” Kort asked.
“Yes, you will finally take your place at my side, but not without my children and not if the embarrassment of their escape is spread across the galaxy.”
“It will be done,” Kort said. “I’ll begin preparations for banding right away and have my most trusted people assembled as a crew by morning.”
12
The aromas that struck Spin the moment she moved through the entryway of the Three Rivers Palace made her hungry within seconds. It was busy, with patrons standing at a long counter ordering hot dumplings, noodles and rice with vegetables and chicken from half a dozen human cooks. You watched them make your food with only a transparent barrier between you and your preparer.
The walls were painted gold, with long, fighting black and red dragons decorating the space. “Spin,” said the Governor from a table close to the door. Sitting across from him was the white haired woman who called herself Omira. The Governor smiled at her and pushed his bowl aside. “I’ll leave you two to talk.”
“I’m glad I met you, Mitchel,” she told him as he stood. “Good luck.”
“You too, I hope to see you again,” the Governor said. He stopped a moment to speak to Spin before leaving. “I believe she’s a friend, but she’d tell you to judge for yourself. I’ll see you back at the ship.”
Spin, her head full of questions, approached the table as Omira got to her feet. The woman was a full head taller than her, wearing a white jacket made of thick, leathery material that ended at her midriff, just long enough to conceal a weapon holstered under he
r arm. Her top was the same length, leaving her middle bare. Her belt and the tights beneath it were black, leading into thigh high boots that matched her jacket. She greeted Spin with a smile and an embrace so warm that it felt more like a friendly reunion. “I’m glad we have a chance to meet.” She noticed Spin glance at her boots and tugged on the top of her left one. “Oh, I saw yours and thought I’d try them. Good armour, but they don’t feel practical yet.”
“I haven’t had a chance to find anything else,” Spin said. “It was sort of the best thing in the closet at the time.”
“That explains it,” Omira said, gesturing for both of them to sit. “You escaped not long ago then, I was wondering, I’ve met the only other Aspen who managed to break her programming.”
“Wait, before we get into that, how are there not a dozen port guards here arresting you?” Spin asked.
“Oh, right. None of their security can see me. We stole a couple primary data nodes and the organization I was doing the job for was able to use them to take control of everything in Midtown. Only the executives and government in charge know about it, but they’ve been locked out for about an hour now. The last thing I did before I got paid in full was have them wipe out my identity here, so I’m just a normal woman having a normal meal, meeting a few friends.”
“So you’re not one of the Nays?” Spin asked.
“No, I’m not an anarchist, I just like being where history is happening and getting paid to play a part. I’m a full blown pirate, if you ask the United Core Authority. Don’t get me wrong, the Nays are right to mistrust the establishment of an old traditional parliament here, the system they were building is all wrong for a planet with this kind of population, but they’re just anarchists. Powerful, well-armed anarchists, but they don’t have a plan for what happens after they topple the young establishment here.”
“That’s what they’re all about?” Spin asked.
Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2 Page 9
