A Dragon at the Gate (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 3)

by Michael G. Munz

  Michael looked at the wall. He hadn’t expected it to be that easy, but nor had he realized how much he’d hoped it would be. Dammit, he should have planned for that answer.

  He must have taken too long to respond, because Felix followed up with, “Bad news, or no news?”

  “No news.” It couldn’t hurt to share that much at least, could it? “Which, obviously, has me worried.”

  “Then Jade isn’t—?”

  “What about anything else?” Michael asked. “Anything you’re involved in that you can tell me but you can’t tell Caitlin?”

  Felix blinked, turned, and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Oh, hell. It’s happening again, isn’t it? Or, she thinks it is?”

  “Caitlin?” Michael swallowed and caught himself nodding even as he tried to gauge what was going on in Felix’s mind. Felix’s jaw was clenched. Elbows rested on his thighs while he worried his left thumb between his right thumb and forefinger. One corner of his mouth turned downward in what looked like dismay.

  Michael wished for Felix’s skill with reading body language. It felt genuine, but how could Michael be sure it wasn’t an act?

  Come on, this is Felix! Michael almost played the recording for him right then. He and Caitlin had discussed it and had decided to wait for fear of somehow tipping off Fagles that they knew he was involved. Yet it was a tempting option.

  “Yeah,” Michael answered at last. “Have you ever worked with New Eden Biotech?”

  “Nope. Heard of them, though.”

  “What about a guy from RavenTech named Fagles?”

  “Adrian Fagles? I remember he hired you and Diomedes on Ken Wallace’s behalf when Wallace tried to pit Dio against Gideon. Last winter. Never worked with him myself, though.”

  “You’re completely sure?”

  Felix sighed at that. “Well you’re making me less so. What do you know, Flynn? I’m not hiding anything.”

  “Will you give me your word on that?”

  “Absolutely.” Felix suddenly chuckled. “Well, I do hide some things. I have a few secrets I’ve promised to keep, and there’s some chocolate in the back of the closet, but I’m not hiding anything about this. And if I were keeping secrets, I’d at least tell you that I knew something but couldn’t tell you.”

  Michael realized it wasn’t much more than Felix had attested to Caitlin, but somehow hearing it directly made it easier to believe. Yet that merely changed the nature of the problem, didn’t it? Michael fingered Caitlin’s phone in his pocket. He could feel sweat of his hands beginning to collect on its surface.

  “Then I think we’ve got a problem.” Michael pulled out the phone. “This was recorded—Well, just listen.”

  He took only a moment to second guess his choice, and then played the audio. Michael followed it up with how he’d been heard dropping Fagles’s name moments before the recording began. Throughout, Felix’s troubled surprise appeared genuine.

  “So.” Felix stood, snatching up a decorative crystal ball from a shelf. He tensed as if about to throw it, but then set it back down with what appeared to be monumental effort. “So.”

  “Yeah.”

  Felix heaved a sigh. “I thought we’d put all this to bed weeks ago.”

  “It sounds like he was asking you to look for me. And earlier today four freelancers came for me when I was at Marc’s place picking up some things.”

  “And you think Fagles sent them.”

  “Maybe. But New Eden is involved somehow, too. I’m not sure just how, but it could be bad.”

  Felix only waited, listening. Should he tell him about the New Eden connection? Rue had tailed him as far as Gibson, where New Eden was based, and given what Holes reported . . .

  “You might already know this,” Michael began, “somewhere in there where you can’t remember. One thing I do know is the Agents of Aeneas have been at work in New Eden. But that was months ago, and in the meantime, something’s happened to the Undernet.”

  Caitlin crept up behind Jade where she leaned against the wall outside of Felix’s bedroom door and whapped the freelancer on the shoulder with the back of her hand. “Are you protecting him,” Caitlin whispered, “or are you eavesdropping?”

  Jade spared her only a glance, keeping one ear cocked toward the door the entire time. “Shh,” she whispered back.

  “No. Come away from there.”

  Jade inched closer to the door, one ear nearly against the frame, as she regarded Caitlin out of the corner of one eye. “Got to stay close if Michael needs help. And don’t you want to know what your boyfriend is keeping from you?”

  Michael wouldn’t always be around, Caitlin considered. She trusted Felix with her life, but if something was wrong with him, was he really Felix? You’re just looking for an excuse. It’s not about you. Michael and Felix have secrets, and that’s something you’ll—

  Jade interrupted Caitlin’s train of thought. “Who are the Agents of Aeneas?”

  Caitlin swallowed, knowing—or just hoping?—in her gut it was related. “I don’t know.” With a resigned sigh, she pressed an ear to the door on the side opposite Jade’s.

  XXI

  MICHAEL WAITED while the Kingsgate Hotel’s front desk clerk completed his check-in under his assumed name. “Alright, Mister Triton, it’ll just be one minute more while I code your room keys. Will two be sufficient?”

  Michael met the clerk’s professional smile. “That’s just fine, thank you.”

  The clerk—Tyler, by her nametag—had become more accommodating minutes earlier after verifying Michael’s identity and, more importantly, his credit card. That both were actually Marc’s, borrowed with a little help from Holes, might have made a difference to her had she known. For now it was enough that the slightly bedraggled man in front of her, and his better-kempt red-haired companion, were well-off patrons instead of the undesirables she had first assumed.

  Jade stood a couple of paces to his left. She leaned the small of her back against the edge of the reception counter while keeping watch on the lobby behind him. It was just over an hour since they’d left Felix and Caitlin at Felix’s apartment.

  Tyler slid each card along a slot in the edge of her cybernetic forearm. Michael had a moment to wonder if the hotel paid for that particular cyber-option before she slid the cards across the counter to him. She continued to smile while giving him directions to the elevator that was in plain sight across the lobby.

  He and Jade made their way toward it. The scent of coffee beans and chocolate from the nearby hotel café lingered in the air. One smartly dressed guard wearing Aegis Security insignia flanked the elevator to show guests that the Kingsgate provided only the best in professional security. More Aegis guards surely lurked out of sight.

  Michael noticed only a single glance from the guard while they waited. The elevator opened within another few moments. Michael and Jade stepped past the guard, and mirrored doors sealed them inside.

  It wasn’t until the doors slid open onto the long, uniform hotel hallway that the homesickness teased at Michael’s mind, like the first swells of an incoming tide. He hadn’t been back to his apartment since he and Marc had left for their flight to Sunrise Station three months ago. Thank goodness he didn’t have pets.

  His plants were likely dead, though. As with the coffee plant in Marc’s apartment, the amount of regret the thought brought with it surprised him. It was as if he’d realized he’d disappointed a friend. Might Abigail have watered them in his absence? Probably not; it was hardly a task she would deem to be a vital AoA operation.

  And Abigail was dead.

  Remembering was a punch to the gut. He was worrying about plants?

  Michael swallowed. “Nice call on the guns,” he told Jade. In the bag he carried, he could feel the weight of his two new weapons: a Barrier K70 assault rifle and a RavenTech Chimera-20—a collapsible submachine gun twin to Jade’s own.

  “Benefit of experience,” she said. “You spend some time in this business, you make a
few contacts. Lucian’s reliable, well-stocked, and mostly trustworthy, so long as you don’t piss him off.”

  Immediately after they’d left Felix’s place Jade had led him to Lucian’s where he’d picked up their current arsenal. It was a wise move; he did need something more than the now half-loaded Panther if Fagles was sending people after him. But once he had the weapons in hand, they gave little comfort.

  How many other AoA had died? Maybe only a few, but in the back of his mind lurked a darkness that somehow told him otherwise. Most he’d never even met—and even Abigail had been more comrade than friend—but that made little difference. He’d gone to sleep safe in a ship on the sea and awoken clinging to a fractured mast without knowing what had happened, robbed of the chance to save anyone.

  He hadn’t been on his own this much since the night Diomedes killed Gideon. He was isolated from what could be a shattered AoA, Felix was compromised, and his current companion was a freelancer he’d only met six hours prior.

  It had been a busy six hours. What trouble would the next six bring?

  Michael swiped the keycard on the room door. Jade grabbed his wrist before he could open it, and then pressed her other hand against the door. He waited, a protest dying on his lips. Fagles couldn’t possibly have enough reach to guess at a hotel and arrange for freelancers in his room, could he? But a few moments’ caution couldn’t hurt.

  “No one inside, so far.” She lifted her hand from the door but kept hold of his wrist. “But I go in first. Just to be professional.”

  Michael nodded and released the door. Jade took it, drew her auto-pistol—still the Lantek Hi-Power—and, with a wink and a shimmy of her head, slipped into the darkened room.

  With a hand on his own weapon, Michael followed. The lights flashed to life, likely on a sensor, illuminating a broad room with two queen beds that faced a screen on the wall. Below the screen hunched a desk of dark cherry wood. In two of the room’s corners lurked plush chairs, both maroon with thin silver stripes to compliment the colors of the room’s rug, bedspreads, shades, and chrome light fixtures.

  There was nowhere for anyone to hide, save for the bathroom. Its door stood barely ajar and prevented the light of the bedroom from penetrating it. Jade was already on her way to investigate. Michael waited as she did so. The darkness accentuated the glow of her hair strands in an attractive nimbus around her head for a fleeting moment before the bathroom lights came on and ruined the effect.

  “All clear,” she reported.

  Michael cast his eyes about the room. “Unless they’re hiding under the beds.”

  Jade caught his gaze. Her eyebrows lifted. It was ludicrous, but . . . They moved as one, each to a different bed, and lifted the dust ruffles to peer beneath.

  Still hunched over, Michael looked to Jade. “I’ve got nothing.”

  “Safe here, too.” She nodded.

  A laugh burst out of both of them. Jade kneeled beside her bed, resting an elbow on the mattress. “Think we’re paranoid?” She grinned.

  He climbed up to sit on the edge of his own bed, unable to keep from grinning back. “After the day we’ve had? Maybe only a little.”

  It had been a busy six hours.

  Michael crawled up onto the bed and lay on his back with the bulk of his coat still wrapped around him. The weight of his body sagged into his awareness. He had to fight to keep his eyes open, as if he were still back in his hospital bed. Just to give his eyes something to do, he shifted to look at Jade. She had moved to the window. One hand rested on the outside of her thigh as she stood inspecting the view and, he assumed, sizing up potential trouble.

  She had a mercenary streak as bright as the ones in her hair, but he had to admire the way she handled herself. In the brief time she’d been in his life, she’d proved capable, clever, and loyal. Loyal to her paid objectives, remember. Diomedes had possessed that strain of loyalty, too.

  Yet Jade felt different. Her behavior seemed based on a personal code of a different nature than what Diomedes possessed—had possessed. Or was he just imagining that because she had athletic curves and a wicked smile?

  Jade caught Michael staring just after he caught himself. She smirked and gave him a once-over. “Comfy, ace?”

  He chuckled. “I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

  “What, three months straight wasn’t enough for you? Now that’s stamina. Oh, wait,” she teased, “no it’s not.”

  Michael rolled onto his back completely. He had to force his eyes to remain open. “Yeah, I’m a wild man.” The impulse to look back at her arose before he’d finished the sentence, but he resisted, needing to focus on his thoughts.

  Jade might be one of his few allies right now, but he couldn’t build his trust on that alone, just because he needed her. Yet if he wanted to do anything to help the AoA, keeping Jade at a distance would get difficult. Would she be sympathetic to the cause? He’d need to find out. But how? Why did he know so little about how the AoA did their vetting and recruitment?

  It was dark. His eyes had closed without him realizing, but only for a moment. Maybe he should just worry about it in the morning.

  The mattress shifted, and he could sense her sitting on its edge beside him. Then her hand settled on his knee. “So. Michael. Who are these ‘Agents of Aeneas’?”

  His eyes flicked open.

  “I can’t tell if it sounds interesting,” Jade went on, “or corny. ‘Agents.’ I’ve never heard of them.”

  “You’ve heard the name, at least,” Michael said, pushing himself up to sit. “Where?”

  She patted his knee with a smirk. “You and Felix talk loud.”

  “How much?”

  “I’ll repeat: Who are they?”

  She said they. So—maybe—she didn’t know he was one of them. “Some people aren’t even sure they exist,” he said. “Probably why you haven’t heard of them. They’re supposed to help people.”

  “With what?”

  “With things they need help with. Without getting paid. Or without people even knowing they were helped sometimes.”

  “Ahh,” she said. “Altruists.”

  Michael couldn’t tell if it was disapproval or just disinterest in her tone. “Not really,” he said. “We all live in the same world. Helping someone else makes the world a little better. It used to be a familiar concept, I understand.”

  “Oh? Do you really think the suits in the Corp District live in the same world as some kid digging in a composter for a meal because mom’s too strung out on booze and jack to take care of her?”

  “That’s kind of the point, though. Some people need help.”

  “Too many,” she said. “And hardly any get it. If they’re depending on some magical group to come along and—” She stopped. “People can’t depend on others to help. They have to learn to help themselves.”

  “But what if more people did help? If some people reached out and tried to make a difference instead of just isolating themselves from—”

  Jade laughed. “And what if I burped cash and shit rainbows? It’s not going to happen. Not enough to make any difference.”

  He stiffened. “You’re the one who asked who they were.”

  A smile crossed Jade’s face that she seemed to try to stifle. “Going to pout?” The smile broke wider. “Sorry, I don’t mean—”

  “Was that your mom?” Michael asked suddenly. “Strung out on booze and drugs?”

  Jade’s eyes blazed purple before she turned her head away. Then, just as quickly, she turned back. “Yeah, ace, it was. What about it?”

  “What if someone had helped her?”

  “Well, then.” She took a breath. “They’d have learned the hard way that some people don’t want help.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Jade shrugged. “Shit happens.”

  “You say that a lot.”

  She cast her gaze out the window, sliding her hand from his leg to grip the edge of the mattress. “It happens a lot.”

  Mic
hael put a hand on her shoulder.

  Jade cleared her throat. “So that’s what they do, eh? Just randomly helping?”

  “Not randomly. It’s organized. From what I hear,” he added. “Some people think they try to influence government policies where they can. Sabotage those who put others in danger for their own interests. Protect people who’re in a position to do the same. Rumor is they’re spread around everywhere. A huge conspiracy across the globe.” He forced a laugh. “But that’s pretty stupid. Like something that big could exist.”

  “Sure.” She looked back at him. “So what are they doing in New Eden?”

  Shoot. “Er, nothing, that I know of.”

  She smirked and leaned closer, one fetching eyebrow arched as she scrutinized him. “Oh, nothing,” she said. “Except I heard you tell Felix they were at work in New Eden. Lying to him, or to me?”

  If she’d heard, was there any further point in denying that part? Unless she hadn’t and was just trying to trick him into an admission, but . . . “To you,” he said finally.

  “Well, at least you’re honest about lying.” She patted his knee again, scooted further onto the mattress, and then faced him with her legs crossed, still smiling. “So what are they doing in New Eden? And how do you know? And what’s this got to do with my mysterious cyber-employer?”

  She watched him, leaning forward as if in expectation of his answer, like a predator who’d cornered her adversary. Another smirk lurked on her lips, but her face held no malice, only anticipation of victory. Delicate strands of light hung from her right temple, setting a glow across one smooth cheek and reflecting in her eyes.

  He licked his lips. Her smirk edged wider.

  “I don’t entirely know,” he managed. “And if I don’t get some sleep here I really am going to drop.”

  The smirk faltered. She looked him over again, and then edged closer just long enough to whisper, “How convenient.”

  He lay back anew. “It’s also the truth. I’m sorry.”

  She chuckled. “No, you’re not.”

  Michael let that go with barely a grunt. He needed time to think. You’re not alone, Michael reminded himself. There’s Caitlin, and Holes. Maybe Felix. But it would be so easy to trust her.