My leg! I spotted a service door coming up at the next bend. It was locked but not for me. A bullet drilled into the adjoining wall as I lifted the hunk of chrome hanging from my hips and kicked it open. I slammed it shut behind me, stomping on the handle to bend it far enough to jam the thing.
The tables inside were filled with gamblers and piles of foundry salts. The bartender shouted at me in the same old-tongue oriental slang Wai used sparsely. A busboy poked me with a broom while I tried to catch my breath. I hurried upstairs and then out the front where I could get lost in the crowd. The Collectors emerged from the backstreet a few seconds later. The partner limped while the leader spurred him along.
I ducked and flowed along the current of Martians until I was too far for them to spot me. Then I found a stool at the back side of the nearest bar, took a seat, and punched the metal edge of the counter so hard in frustration that the scrapes on my knuckles reopened. I’d failed Wai. Sunset was falling upon New Beijing’s dome, and I had nothing. I knew from experience that after a full day crooks had an exponentially higher chance of disappearing. Or worse, those bastards at Venta or Red Wing or some other corp. would find them first.
“Hey!” I hollered at the bartender who was too busy serving the younger crowd to come over on her own. I was prepared to order the strongest drink on the menu. I had enough credits left at least for that.
She waved back, and that was when I heard it… I’d managed to tune out newsfeeds all day, but this one caught my attention. A name that hit me so hard in the gut I knew it wasn’t a coincidence.
“Herald Jeremiah,” the reporter said, “You’ve been awfully critical of the USF and its affiliated corporations for inviting Kale Trass to New Beijing. As their private summit arrives, what is your opinion on the vicious attack that rocked the city earlier today?”
I shushed the stringy, young offworlder next to me who was beaming like he didn’t realize he was flirting with a working girl.
“First, thank you for having me on,” the Herald replied. It was an audio-only connection, so all I had were his words to go by. I didn’t know the man, but according to the ticker he was the head of the Church of the Three Messiahs’ convent in Old Dome.
“Of course,” the reporter replied. “You’ve built quite a following down in Old Dome. With all the speculation coming through, I’m eager to hear the opinion of someone with an ear to the people of New Beijing.”
“There is no justification for the taking of fellow human life; however, I cannot bring myself to either condemn or commend the actions of whoever was behind this.”
The reporter’s features tightened. “You’re saying you have no opinion?”
“Quite the contrary. I’m saying that when it comes to infidels traveling too near our homeworld, the fate that befalls them is simply out of our hands.”
“I...I’m not really sure what you’re trying to say.”
The Herald chuckled. “We cannot fight the will of God. We invite this manner of tragedy upon ourselves when we reach beyond the realm of our Lord.”
Damned Three Messiahs preachers. Always speaking in riddles. Yet there was something about his tone, something that had me headed out of that bar before I could put in my order and toward their main convent at the southern end of the Tongueway. That foundry salt dealer had mentioned overhearing two people on their way to the convent discussing the attack. It didn’t strike me as odd at the time, but after thirty years as a Collector I knew when to trust my gut feelings.
I had one about that Herald. I could feel it in my bones. Or maybe it was one last-ditch effort to make sense of things by a washed-up old Collector trying to stay in the game past his prime.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
KALE TRASS
“I want someone watching every way onto this level at all times,” Maya ordered my guards once an elevator dropped us off on our assigned floor. “Every door, every window, every vent cover. If you need to sleep, too bad. Catch up on rest after we’re back aboard the Cora.”
“Yes, ma’am!” they answered. They were exhausted. A cool shower would’ve been good for them, especially since the Assembly Building was kept balmy to accommodate its mostly Earther occupants. Someone had lowered the air conditioning on our floor in a gesture of amity, but it still wasn’t enough to keep my back from dripping sweat.
My people did as they were asked anyway. They knew what was at stake. I offered each one a nod of encouragement as they went by. The bloodier they were, the deeper I bent my neck. It was all I could do considering I too was exhausted. Dealing with the Cogent, whose body was carried into one of the rooms, the explosion, more potent gravity than I was used to—it was a miracle I could keep my eyelids open. Skipping taking my G-pill may have been a mistake.
“Your room is in the center, Kale” Maya said. “Only one wall of windows.” She pointed to a door halfway down the gracious, freshly polished hall. Potted plants lined it at precise intervals.
“Good,” I replied.
“Yours is across the hall, outsider,” she said to Aria. “I’ll make sure someone is posted outside…listening.”
“Thank you,” Aria said.
“It isn’t for you.”
I placed my hand on the small of Aria’s back to keep her from arguing, then led her to her door. “You should get cleaned up,” I said softly. “You’ll need to look like one of them.”
“Is that the only reason?” she asked. The bags under her eyes belied the playfulness in her tone. “Come in with me, Kale. I’ll help you relax. Trass knows we both need it.”
“I wish I could.”
She took my hand, either completely forgetting that Maya was stooped in our shadow or deciding not to care. “You can. You have to.”
“If I stop focusing for one second—”
“You might actually enjoy life a little.”
I exhaled. Constantly, I teetered on the precipice of snapping at her and knowing she was right. Her fingers cupped my gaunt cheek, cold despite the temperature, and she turned my head to face her. Her nails ran down my jaw and along my neck, sending a chill up my spine. My mind was instantly drawn back to the first time I shared her bed, the night after I’d executed Director Sodervall and declared Titan’s independence.
She’d come to check on my health, and as soon as I gazed into her eyes, I could see in that moment that she was as broken as I was. I didn’t care why. I turned my mind off, let go, and felt her flesh against my flesh. Her lips against my lips. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t Titanborn or might be carrying bacteria from her run-ins with Earthers. We got lost in each other, and those were the only few minutes of freedom from the prison of my thoughts that I’d enjoyed since stepping into Cora’s evacuated prison cell on Pervenio Station.
It was only after, as she lay next to me, that I realized who she wasn’t. Our time spent together afterward was 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?” Maya asked from behind me, without even attempting to mask her disdain. “Pretty women like that know how to get what they want. The same thing happened to your father when he met Katrina.”
“It’s not like that.”
“A
bastard offworlder who knows Madame Venta personally and winds up your ambassador. I know Mazrah vouched for her, 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.”
Maya scoffed. “Only when it suits her.”
I seized her arm. “What do you know about being with anybody, Maya? Nothing! 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 purposeful or not. “I appreciate your advice, but when it comes to our ambassador, I’m tired of hearing it. I’m in control, Maya, and if you insult my mother openly again you’ll get a chance to see exactly how much.”
“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,” Maya 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 could ever risk trying Earther food like this or the germs it may 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 Maya 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. The sink inside was stained pink from blood.
“Right on schedule,” Maya 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 Maya. He was indeed the man we were after. Trevor Cross, a former Collector who was now working a security detail for Venta Co.’s CTO, Javaris Venta. Javaris was in the midst of preparing their bid for designing the next Departure Ark, to be revealed at the year’s coming 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.
“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?” Maya 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 Maya 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 muttered.
“Smarter than he looks,” Maya said.
“Perfect! Now…now you’re someone I can talk to. Not that beast who won’t say a word.”
“Collector,” I said. “Tell me, Trevor, 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 Javaris Venta.”
“What I know about him? Everybody knows him. He’s some sort of scientific 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!” Maya’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 see more than you’ll ever know on Pervenio Station’s leftover 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 Javaris’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 Maya, 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 fucking 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 the highest-ranking officer working in Javaris’s research facility at Olympus Mons. 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?” Maya 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 h
ole 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,” Maya 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 Maya 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, Maya’s going to whittle my name into your stomach. Do you understand?” Trevor nodded fretfully. “Good. Now, we’ve heard that Javaris 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 under Olympus Mons. You’ll never be able to get him there. It’s a damn fortress.”
“Are you really so eager to get back in Madame Venta’s good graces that you’d die for her?”
Maya 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.”
“Where is he staying?” I asked.
“I couldn’t tell you. I run security at Olympus Mons specifically. Since he was leaving, he gave me the weekend off too. First vacation in fucking months.” He chuckled. “You picked up the wrong officer.”
Maya pressed the edge of the blade into his soft, pink flesh, but I stopped her. “He’s telling the truth.”
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