“You didn’t tell me?” Rin asked.
“Would you have told you?” I replied.
She shook her head slowly.
“Now you know why I need to get her back,” I said. “We’ll find another way to get Basaam’s tech or build something else. We’ve got the fuel.”
She continued to stare blankly at me.
“Remember all that we went through just to save your sister?” I said, desperate to convince her.
“Stop.” Rin dropped to one knee and lowered her head. “Just tell me what to do, Lord Trass.”
Sixteen
Malcolm
Aria’s captors hauled her through the main entrance of Venta Co.’s central office tower. Since it was located at the heart of New Beijing under the loftiest portion of the dome, it was the tallest structure. The tapering cylinder rose like a layered wedding cake with too many levels to count. A series of terraces wrapped every few floors, until the top one wasn’t big enough to house more than a single office—Madame Jamaru Venta’s office. Verdant green leaves and brilliant flowers draped over the railings of each terrace, the glass enclosure reflecting the flora all the way up. From the right angle, the entire tower seemed to be one giant plant with the blue, interlocked V’s of their emblem beaming down from the highest point.
All my time as a collector, Venta was a shade behind Pervenio Corp in every facet. You wouldn’t know it looking at their headquarters. Even Luxarn Pervenio wouldn’t build something so ostentatious. The Hanging Gardens of New Beijing, that was what people called it, like it was some sort of world wonder.
I entered a quaint café nestled at the base of the dome-scraper across the street. The sweet aroma of leftover pastries filled my nostrils. The crust probably wasn’t the real stuff, but my grumbling stomach hadn’t ingested anything but alcohol for over twenty-four hours. I bought something stale with a layer of frosting to help it go down, and a strong coffee to keep me awake. A few other civilians around my age sat throughout the place, too old to follow the blinking lights and music toward the real nightlife below, but with too much on their minds to sleep. Living past your warranty does that to a man.
I parked my ass at one of the tables by the window and stared at Venta Tower. A smattering of lights glowed through windows here and there, employees hard at work in the middle of the night. Poor saps. The rest of the city’s illumination derived from the countless ads festooning every other tower’s enclosure. Venta’s was the only one without them, as if the only thing they needed to publicize was how hard their employees worked.
I watched silently, sipping on coffee that could pass for melted rat shit and forcing down a pastry so manufactured even I could notice the fakeness. There were far better places to get a bite in New Beijing, but only for people who hadn’t spent all their credits chasing a Three Messiah’s Herald who wanted to be found.
Lights suddenly flashed on in Madame Venta’s office up top, which meant my greatest fear was realized. That lady devil was personally involved with taking Aria. The talking heads on news feed behind the café’s counter droned on about how poorly the summit between Kale and the USF had gone. No official details were released yet, but I had a roiling feeling in my gut that this was political.
Madame Venta had always been deliberate. Luxarn Pervenio could manipulate with the best of them, tugging strings from the shadows like a puppet master. She didn’t play games or bluff, which meant that when she grabbed Titan’s bastard ambassador off the street in public, she probably had her reasons.
“What the hell did you do, Kale?” I whispered to myself.
“Excuse me?” a fossil of a man asked from the table behind me.
I disregarded him and went to take another sip of coffee. I swallowed a small mouthful before I pictured the blood of Aria’s guards staining my whiskey and lost my appetite. I’d been part of a number of corporate feuds, and that was an act of war as far as I was concerned. If Venta did something like that to Pervenio in its heyday, that was when collectors would start being sent out to take shots until everyone’s lust for vengeance was satiated, and we could return to our uneasy economic alliances as if nothing had happened.
My real question was this: Was taking Aria meant to send a message to Kale for something he’d done or was she a trading chip? I couldn’t stomach either option. Leaving Aria’s life in the hands of a terrorist who fancied himself king wasn’t in the cards. I’d seen his people shoot at her right after she saved one of their lives back on Titan. If it came to it, I was sure they’d leave her behind if it suited their needs in a heartbeat.
So I needed to get to her first, which meant I needed to break into a building as secure as the USF Assembly. A double layer of guard posts stood within the front entrance, filled with heavily armed officers. Security drones whizzed around each terrace, keeping 360-degree watch along with cameras. Not that I was in any condition to climb a tower anyway.
I sighed and glanced down at my pulse pistol. I could offer its service back to Luxarn in exchange for help, though I doubted he would risk angering Madame Venta for my daughter, who he didn’t even know existed. As far as Sol was concerned, Aria was just another illegitimate offworlder. I spent a lot of energy keeping her a secret throughout my days as a collector so I wouldn’t get slapped for infringing USF regulations. If I told Luxarn the truth now all these years later, I doubted he’d care, but he might find out she was there on Titan that day. That we were the reason for Zhaff’s condition.
No, it was too risky. I had to go about this alone. Sneaking in wasn’t possible, but I could bull-rush them. Take out the guards out front, grab one hostage, and hop straight onto the elevator before anyone knew what hit them. I had the element of surprise on my side.
I stood, closed my eyes, and downed the swill the shop called coffee. Then I stormed out the front door and straight for the Venta Tower front entrance. My whole body was exhausted, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t have to last much longer, and I had Luxarn’s cybernetic gift to keep me upright.
The officers in the entry were too lost in conversation to notice me coming. Like anybody would. They might’ve been expecting reprisal from a Titanborn, but not from a wrinkled old wretch like me. They’d ask who I was once I was close enough, I’d tell them what I used to be, then they’d hesitate to contact Luxarn Pervenio for formality’s sake, and I’d grab one. All I had to do was provide Aria a chance to run, and whatever happened to me, well, I’d died once already.
I lowered my hand until it grazed the handle of my pulse pistol. My trusty companion. The sensation again brought me flashbacks of when I’d shot Zhaff on Titan, his eye lens glinting right before his head snapped back. I hadn’t fired it since. Hell, I wasn’t sure if I still could. Maybe that was the reason I’d spared Herald Jeremiah. Not because it was the right decision, but because I lacked the gumption to make the wrong one anymore.
It didn’t matter.
I unstrapped my holster and threaded my finger through the trigger guard. I’d pull it, even if it took two hands to apply the pressure. I had to.
Darkness suddenly fell over my eyes. Before I knew what hit me, my arms were wrenched behind my back, my gun stolen, and I was pulled forcefully to the side. I tried to gain a grip on the street using my artificial leg, but I was disoriented and being dragged backward had me at the wrong angle.
Dammit, Malcolm! That’s rule number one on a job. Never be so tired that you can only focus straight ahead. Someone had come up right behind me and bagged my head. Not someone. Two voices chattered back and forth.
Just breathe, I told myself. Figure out who this is. Kidnapping wasn’t Venta Co.’s MO. Double tap to the back of the head, that was what those two collectors would do to me if I wound up on their list. I glanced down to see the boots of my captors. They were worn and discolored, like they’d spent too much time wading through sewers.
Before I could analyze any more, I was thrown against a wall. The hood came off me, and all my questions were answered. Anot
her one of my sloppy mistakes had come back to bite me in the ass.
“Yep. That’s definitely the one,” the same tattooed foundry salt dealer I’d harassed in the alley earlier yapped. His eyes twitched like he’d just taken a huge hit. He kicked me twice hard in the gut until my other captor pulled him off.
He removed Haglin Amissum’s hand-terminal from my pocket and smashed it under his boot. “In case he’s being followed,” the man said.
“Smart. Let’s off ’em, boss,” crowed the dealer, though he wasn’t looking at his friend.
We were in an empty stairwell leading down to one of the less-used Redline stations in New Beijing. Both of them held me at gunpoint. The last kind of scum you want aiming a gun at you, so hopped up that their quaking fingers could accidentally squeeze the trigger at any time.
“Now, now, boys. No need to be hasty.” Those words came from a third, more restrained voice. It was cool and confident, but there was no denying the subtle tinge of madness clinging to the end of each word. He knelt in front of me.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groaned. This was the sorry lot that was going to keep me from my daughter? He looked like a clown. His frilly shirt was drawn open, with the mark of the Ringer Bones gang displayed prominently on the upper portion of his exposed chest. Bar piercings made his ears droop like wax from a hot candle. He even had white makeup smeared sloppily across his face to appear as pale as a Ringer, along with black eyeshadow.
“Thought you could hide from us, did you?” he said. He slapped me playfully across the face. That was when I recognized the lunacy he struggled to cage. His dark eyes stared right through me, like there was nothing there.
“You shoulda seen the way he came at me, boss,” the dealer said.
“I hope you guys know who you’re dealing with,” I muttered.
The leader sprang to his feet and started pacing. He had my pistol in his hands and caressed the barrel. “A retired collector who couldn’t stay clean.” He cackled like a maniac. “I found out! I always find out. You’re nothing anymore, Malcolm Graves.” Of course he had connections. That was what allowed gangs like theirs to rise to the top.
“What’re we gonna do with him?” the dealer asked.
“I haven’t decided yet, but it sure will be fun.”
“Well, you better think carefully,” I said. “I wouldn’t want the last thing you ever do to lack the flair of that outfit.”
“Oh yes,” he tittered. “So fun.”
“You’re the Ringer Boner crew, right?” I asked while I searched for a way out of this. I was unarmed, but I had my leg. When he got close enough, I could kick him into one of his cronies and hope the other missed me before I was able to disarm him. It was a long shot, but these weren’t trained collectors, just street bangers.
“Ringer Bones,” the dealer spat.
“The more you talk, the more fun we’re gonna have.” The leader holstered my gun in his belt and drew an unnecessarily long dagger from the back of his belt. He grinned from ear to ear.
“Ah, right,” I said. “And what’re you calling yourself? The Prince of Bones or something? The older I get, the more idiotic the little play gangs like yours get.”
My words didn’t faze him. He spread his arms wide, as if he were performing for a crowd from a stage. What the hell had I gotten myself into?
“You can call me—”
His head popped like a water balloon filled with fruit juice. The dealer’s buddy held his gun aimed at me while he searched from side to side to see where it came from. Then his body danced as it was riddled with holes. Terror gripped the drug-addled eyes of the dealer. His gun wavered in my direction, then he decided to drop it and run. He didn’t get far. From the shadows, someone grabbed him, wrapped hands around his neck, and snapped it.
I froze as I saw who emerged from behind his crumpled body. It was a Cogent, yellow eye lens shimmering as it reflected the ads through the open door into the upper city. I poked the Ringer Bones leader’s corpse to make sure this wasn’t a figment of my imagination.
“Zhaff?” I said softly. I knew it was crazy; he’d never get out of that tube. It took me a few seconds to recognize Varus, the Earther Cogent who I’d challenged to shoot me back on Undina. Their field suits had seen an improvement since Zhaff. The shadows clung to it to help conceal him, as if the fibers were fashioned to absorb their surroundings and reflect them.
He rushed over and heaved me to my feet with ease. Being a stout Earther made him considerably stronger than Zhaff was.
“Are you injured, Malcolm Graves?” he asked. His voice was as stale as my pastry in the café upstairs. It was like hearing an audio recording of my old partner. One day not drinking and, apparently, I’d fallen helplessly into a time trap.
“I’m fine,” I said after a few seconds of gawking at him. I patted the dust off my clothing, then knelt to reclaim my pulse pistol. As soon as I grabbed it, Varus took my arm and pulled me toward the exit.
“We must leave immediately,” he said.
I didn’t fight him. A retired collector, an agent from a “nonexistent” initiative, if we were caught with three bodies, it would get ugly. Varus led me away from the Venta Tower and around a corner to an empty hover-car transit stop. I sat on the bench and stretched out my human leg.
“I had that completely under control, you know,” I said.
He sat beside me. “From my vantage, it appeared these felons had you in a compromised position.”
“No jokes with your kind. Now I remember.”
“What did they desire from you?”
“My gun, I guess.” I rolled my shoulders. “Anyway, thanks for the assist, Varus, but I have to ask, what the hell are you doing here? Luxarn keeping tabs on me?”
“It appears that you and I have come to the same conclusion,” he replied. “Mr. Pervenio explained how proficient you are, so it is not a surprise. Did you forget to inform him that you reconsidered his proposition?”
“What proposition?”
“The elimination of Kale Trass.”
“Elimination? What…” I paused. Had a plan for breaking into the Venta headquarters come right to me? “Yeah. I decided to look into it. How’d you find me?”
“We have been watching you ever since the bombing subverted our best opportunity at Kale Trass.”
“You were involved in that?”
“Another agent had him in his sights before an unanticipated explosion knocked him off balance and allowed Kale Trass to eliminate him.”
“So why follow me?”
“Mr. Pervenio felt that with Kale Trass in New Beijing, you would be inclined to take him up on his offer. It appears, as usual, he was correct. After you discovered who was responsible for the bombing, I spotted you conversing with Titan’s ambassador.”
“I don’t care for being tailed, Varus.”
“Mr. Pervenio said you might say that. However, your deduction that using the ambassador would be the quickest way to expose Kale Trass was a brilliant tactic, Malcolm Graves. Based on recent intelligence, their relationship seems closer than expected, considering her origin.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, which Varus either didn’t notice or didn’t care about. I always harbored a sneaking suspicion that Luxarn had always known about Aria and who she belonged to. Now that she was in the spotlight, it seemed only more likely that he’d find out. But if his Cogents thought I was using her to get to Kale, it meant he truly had no clue.
“Brilliant,” I blustered. “At least until Venta took her first and those bangers got in my way.” I nodded toward Venta Tower, slicing up high above the New Beijing skyline toward the dome. “The ambassador is up there now. If we want her, we’re going to have to figure out a way to break in and fast.” If anyone could get it done, it was a Cogent. I could use him to get her, then we’d disappear. Easy.
“That won’t be necessary,” a familiar voice said through a hand-terminal that Varus placed between us. The Cogent gestured fo
r me to take it. I’m not sure why, but I hesitated for a moment, even though I already knew who it was addressing me. There was no getting used to talking directly to Luxarn Pervenio.
“Mr. Pervenio,” I replied after finally gathering the nerve to lift the device. He appeared as haggard as when I’d left him, sitting before the stark backdrop of rock and metal within his Undina office. “I apologize. I had no idea you were listening.”
“Can’t be too cautious these days,” he said. The corners of his lips lifted into a meager smile. “I knew you couldn’t stay away, Graves. It’s not in your nature.”
“The Tongueway doesn’t thrill like it used to,” I joked.
“It’s the job. The thrill of a challenge. Men like us, we can’t keep away from it. The moment I found out Kale was traveling to Mars, I knew you’d wind up leading us to him. We’re like addicts. Desperate for a fix.”
I stretched my dry eyelids open as far as they could go. “It even comes with the hangover.”
Mr. Pervenio chuckled. “I was worried all that wasted time would dull your wit.”
“Only dying could do that, sir. So what’s the move? Are your Cogents preparing to take the ambassador?”
“For the time being, we wait.”
I bit my lip. “We can’t use her if they have her.”
“Thanks to your intuition, we knew to risk hacking Madame Venta’s communications. She contacted Kale Trass, and they’re in the process of planning a hostage exchange.”
“Exchange?”
“Forgive me, I forgot that you have been operating out of the loop. It appears Venta Co. seized the ambassador in response to Kale Trass abducting Chief Engineer Basaam Venta.”
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 74
