Talon’s gaze fell to the floor and he exhaled. “I gave up on that life.”
“Yes I know. To survive! Because every child should grow up with their father.” Zaimur approached Talon and lifted his hand to carefully inspect it. He pulled off his glove, revealing the faint, abnormally blue veins branching over his hand like a strand of twisted vines. “But the mines have failed you in that regard, have they not?”
Talon didn’t say anything. His heart began to beat so rapidly that he thought it was going to burst from his chest.
“When that Gravity Generator exploded on Kalliope, I’m guessing. When was it, a little less than a year or so ago?” Zaimur traced the veins up to Talon’s elbow. Talon didn’t nod, but his eyes divulged the truth. “Someone always leaves with the Blue Death when that happens. My father got it that day as well, you know. A slow moving affliction, though it claimed his old body quicker than it’s taking yours. The poor man was once a general and now he can’t even get up from his own bed to take a piss. He would have spent anything to find a cure, but some fates have no remedy. As you know.”
Beads of sweat rolled down Talon’s forehead. How could he have known? He kept denying it to himself.
“Don’t act like it’s a surprise to you. I heard what happened down there, plus I don’t think those tired eyes are just from them.” Zaimur gestured to the guards. “I’d say you have another year or so left at best if you’re careful, at your age. Is a year a long enough time to spend with your precious daughter? Is that long enough to keep her from the couch of another rich man? I didn’t kill you earlier, Talon Rayne, because you’re dead already.”
“Then why would a corpse help you!” Talon snapped. The face of his young daughter filled his thoughts. “The Tribune is sure to add to the defenses of their freighters with so many stolen recently. Why hasten my death sentence?”
“Because I have something that you cannot offer her.” He leaned down to whisper in Talon’s ear. “A chance for her to become more than those two beautiful woman over there. Look into their eyes.”
Talon hadn’t really cared enough to analyze them earlier, but their faces were scarred and their eyes sunken as if they had surrendered their will to live. His lip quivered as he transposed his daughters face onto theirs with his mind.
“Get that Gravitum for me,” Zaimur continued softly, “and I give you my promise to provide her with the chance to serve me honorably, as you once did my father.”
“I trusted Zargo. How do I know I can trust you?”
He shrugged. “We share the same blood. Plus, there are plenty of pretty girls out there. It is no expense on me to help her, Talon. You killed Bavor and owe me a debt, but I bear no ill will toward you personally. I could just as easily send you off to the serve Keepers with the rest of the afflicted like I should, but I offer you this opportunity in good faith. My father trusted you to get the job done. I will trust you to do the same. Succeed or fail, I will make sure she is taken care of. I reward the men in my service well. Perhaps, had my distinguished father done the same, you would have never left him for the mines.” Zaimur patted Talon on the back before returning to his seat. The supple legs of the women waiting there immediately wrapping over his thighs as if they were members of a living throne.
“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Talon sighed, slumping back in his chair and staring at the slowly rotating map of the Circuit. All he could think was how far the leadership of the Morastus Clan had fallen since Zaimur’s father fell ill.
“I’m not so generous with those who spurn my kindness,” Zaimur said calmly, but his face was stern. His fierce, blue eyes bored through Talon like daggers.
Talon imagined his daughter staring at him with her big, beautiful eyes. A chance at leaving her protected was more than worth it. “I’ll do it,” he said. “But we’re going to do it my way.”
“Excellent!” Zaimur proclaimed, his expression lightening. “Recruit whomever you trust, and ensure them that they will be paid handsomely. I will provide all the resources you may need, just try to keep my involvement as quiet as possible.”
“I’ll try, but people usually like to know who they’re working for before they risk giving up their lives.
“And they will. Once you’re ready, I will personally review all of them. I’d like them to know that the Gravitum is for someone important. Just in case.” Zaimur put on a crooked smile.
“Of course.” Talon nodded and returned a similar expression. “One problem. I don’t know if I’ll be able to deactivate the tracking systems. The Tribune will probably disable the ship.”
“I don’t care about the ship! Just get me what it’s carrying and get out of there. They’ll be expected us to try and steal it. Who knows, maybe our little venture will unveil which of the other clans has been licentious enough to take freighters without me knowing.” Zaimur snapped his finger for one of the girls to get up and refill his drink. “Bring him one as well. I see the makings of a beautiful partnership.” He grinned widely and nodded at his guards, signaling them to unbind their prisoner.
Talon sat still as the cuffs came off, half staring into space and half trying to judge the quality of his new employer. A drink was placed in his hands. He had tasted alcohol before with Zaimur’s father, but at that moment he didn’t want any. All he wanted was to go and see his daughter again—to hold her in his arms for as long as he could. But at least he was still alive, and as he brought the rim of the glass to his dry lips, he knew that was something worth drinking to.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN—TALON RAYNE
Things Change
After leaving Zaimur’s chambers, Talon headed to the Underpass—the network of underground mag-rails which traversed the sprawling, subterranean conurbation that was Ceres Prime. After Earth fell, the asteroid Ceres, the largest in the solar system, was found to have such a surplus of water in its core that it was worthy of receiving its own Conduit Station. There was little in the way of ore there, but the countless cavities beneath the surface made it a perfect specimen for controlled, underground environments. Tunnels and caverns, some man-made like the Underpass, crisscrossed the subsurface to form a city second only to New Terrene in population.
The Underpass was mostly empty by the time he arrived at his line, which took him to West 534, a housing district known mostly for producing savvy mercenaries and prostitutes. There were more indecent places to live on Ceres however, where even the gravity generators were so obsolete that over generations the people had grown slightly taller and lankier.
That was how most Ceresians lived, toiling in their own filth as they scraped for a living extracting water in the depths of the asteroid or working what small underground farms were possible. It was getting worse too. As the rift with the Tribune widened, only the bare necessities came in or were sent out along the Circuit. Talon could sense the apprehension every time he was home. People were beginning to fear that the Tribune was even gaining control over the Keepers of the Circuit who ran the Solar-arks.
The housing district itself took up a massive cavity filled with an agglomeration of small, metal shacks piled in no real order. Shafts of corrugated metal wove in and out of crags and outcrops of natural formations. In the center of it all was a tall domed construction. That was where his tram was headed. Neon lights poured through the openings in its latticed structure, painting the whole district in an undulating aura of shifting colors.
Dome 534 was its unimaginative name, and it was where the people of that district and many others congregated at night to lose track of time. It wasn’t the finest club in Ceres Prime, but it was by far the most entertaining…a home to weary souls, degenerates, addicts, gamblers, strippers, synthrol, and last but not least, gladiatorial combat. Even some of the leading figures of the Clans ruling over the Ceresian Pact would make an appearance from time to time.
Talon got off at the station in front of the club, beneath a twisting canopy of iron which peeled up from the dome. He brushed some of the
dust off of the dark-blue tunic Zaimur had provided for him, then he followed a small crowd to the oversized, triangular entrance where only a loose canvas hung down to serve as a door. In front of it a human guard was flanked by three android. The guard wore a bland suit of light, composite armor with a tarnished blue and gray color pattern, the colors of the Morastus Clan who regulated Dome 534 and its district. They were run by Zargo Morastus, Zaimur’s dying and increasingly incapable father. It was a little-known fact that he suffered from the Blue Death like Talon did. Anybody who was discovered to have the affliction was supposed to be sent off to serve the remainder of their days as a Keeper, but he and Zargo shared the same secret.
“CP Card,” the guard groaned from beneath his tinted visor. With his unarmed hand he held out a scanner bearing a small HOLO-Screen.
Talon pulled his card out of his pocket and handed it over. It didn’t cost anything to get in, but in the colonies of the Ceresian Pact, the card carried more than money. It was a person’s identity.
“Talon Rayne.” The guard nodded and began stretching his gun-wielding arm. The loose parts of his battle-worn pulse-rifle clanked together.
“Welcome to Dome 534. Please remain behaved or force will be necessitated,” one of the androids advised with its monotone voice.
They were newer machines than the ones on Kalliope, but that was difficult to tell with their shoddy construction. Each of the three wielded a pulse-rifle, though they were no good in a firefight. Every Ceresian knew that. They could hardly move without causing a racket as loud as a group of shooting pistols, and outside of serving bars and other menial tasks, they were essentially useless. They weren’t quick enough to avoid fire, nor were their targeting systems efficient enough to hit a moving target. But they lasted long enough, and were content doing the grunt-work humans didn’t appreciate for free.
Talon remembered what Zargo Morastus used to tell him whenever he complained about one of the hunks of metal standing guard. “The Tribune’s genocide against robotics set us back a hundred years in the science,” he’d said. “There are a few experts here and there, afraid of what to do next until we see who’ll rule this Circuit of ours.”
“Move along,” the guard said.
Talon winced as he was nudged in one of his bruises by somebody pushing past. He started to say something, but deciding it was better not to start another brawl so soon. Instead, he took a deep breath of the musty air before peeling open the sheet enough so he could squeeze through.
The pungent stench of sweat, blood and sex greeted him like an ephemeral wall. It was probably enough to make newcomers nauseous, but after the first inhalation, Talon grew accustomed to it. Sometimes he feared that he even liked it. Nowhere else in the Circuit he’d been to while doing Zargo Morastus’ bidding could compare.
The club was buzzing. People were shouting, drinking, dancing, fighting and fucking. Electronic music pulsed through blaring speakers, with vibrant lights following the beat. Talon felt the heat emanating from all the hundreds of bodies. It was a stark contrast from the frigid mines on Kalliope.
“Tal!” Julius yelled from the bar. His tall frame made him stick out over everybody else. He was wearing an ear-to-ear grin as he saw his friend pass across the noisy dance floor.
“Julius,” Talon said. He returned the grin and gave his friend a light embrace. “Where are the others?”
“All turned in already. Buncha’ pansies. But there is somebody here for you.” Julius stepped to the side, revealing a young girl, no more than six, waiting patiently behind him. She was small. but well fed, with rosy red cheeks accentuated by her dark, messy hair. On her face there was the innocent but smug expression a child wears when they know their plan worked.
Talon’s eyes lit up before he rushed to her. He fell to his knees, and threw his arms around her, pulling her to his chest until her small voice became muffled. Her tiny hands struggled to wrap around his waist, but she reached as far as she could. It didn’t matter how much his bruised sides hurt from her efforts. His arms began to tremble and his eyes began to well, but he held her for as long as possible, and for the entire time she was there knew that he was the happiest man in the Circuit.
“Her mother’s been takin’ care of her. Hasn’t she, Elisha?” Julius asked her playfully.
Talon could hardly hear a word she said in response since she began muttering endlessly into his chest. When she was done he held her at arm’s length and stared into her big, blue eyes.
“How are the mines, daddy?”
“It’s…uhh.” He flashed a grim look toward Julius. He had done what he could to make sure none of the contusions across his body were showing and that the blood was washed off his mouth. “It’s great, Elisha, but I missed you.” He pulled her head closer and kissed her forehead as gently as he could. The cut on the inside of his lip still stung a bit.
“Where’ve you been?” Elisha questioned. She crossed her arms. “Julius said he’d teach me how to play cards.”
“I said I’d let you watch!” Julius laughed and hopped back onto his stool at the bar. “I swear, Tal, the girl’s as crafty as you sometimes.”
“He said that did he?” Talon said. He sat down next to his friend and lifted Elisha up onto his lap. “Trust me, you don’t want to learn from him,” he whispered into her ear. “He’s terrible.”
Elisha giggled. “You teach me then! I’ll take all his Pico like you do.”
Talon hurried to shush her, but glanced up to see his friend wearing a crooked smile. “Steal my money do you?” Julius said. “How ‘bout you use some of it to buy me a drink then! I’m parched.”
“Fine, fine.” Talon motioned to one of the androids behind the bar. “Two Synthrols, a water, and what kind of pills do you have today?”
“We have Nutrient Supplement A2 and 3 at the moment,” the android’s metallic voice responded, emanating from somewhere behind its static face.
“I’ll take two of each.” Talon place his CP card in a slot on the top of the bar. When he pulled it out the screen beneath it read 30 PICO and released an accepting ‘bing.’ The android then went to retrieve his order. He watched it move with aversion, tapping his finger on the bar as he thought about how much faster he could have readied the simple order.
“Did you eat today?” he turned to his daughter and asked.
“With mommy before her shift,” Elisha responded.
“That’s hours ago.” The android returned with a glass of water and he ripped it out of its grasp and handed it to her. Then he picked up two elliptical pills from a small tray, which rose from a duct in the bar. “Take these.”
Elisha wrinkled her face. She shook her head defiantly.
“It’s good for you. C’mon Elisha, I’m too tired to argue.”
Reluctantly she let him drop them into her palms and he watched as she took them one at a time with exceptionally long sips of water. The glass was so big that she needed two hands in order to raise it to her mouth.
The android placed down two shots of Synthrol. Talon shoved his own pills into his mouth and snatched his shot up. He and Julius clanked their glasses together before tossing the bitter tasting drink back as quickly as possible.
“Not often that Talon Rayne buys me a drink,” Julius said after he wiped his lips. “How much did you win back on Kalliope?”
Talon stayed quiet. He stroked Elisha’s hair, wishing he could remove his gloves to feel it. He wasn’t sure how to tell Julius the news, but decided it would be best to come right out and say it. “It’s not that. Zaimur Morastus made me an offer.”
“I thought you were done with them?” Julius’ eyes went wide but he remained calm for Elisha’s sake.
“I am. I mean, I was. But…” Talon lowered his voice so that his daughter wouldn’t hear him over the music. “Julius, I don’t have that much time.”
“Don’t talk like that!” Julius responded with a sharp whisper.
“I’m just being honest with myself, finally. I
guess it took what I did to Bavor to realize that.”
“The bastard got what was comin’ to him. You know that. We all know that.”
“I don’t care about Bavor!” Talon snapped. “I care about her.” He glanced down to see Elisha. She was falling asleep on his lap with her glass of water balanced between her hands and legs. He gently pulled it away and let her head fall to rest on his forearm.
“Ain’t that why you stopped servin’ his father in the first place?” Julius attempted to urge one more drop out of his drink, probably to mask his worried expression.
“Things—” Over Julius’ shoulder he noticed Elisha’s birthmother, Vera, approaching. She was dressed in a leotard so skimpy that she might as well have not been wearing anything. “Things change. We’ll talk about it when we’re alone.”
Vera smoothly swept around Julius to place a kiss on Talon’s lips before he could deny her. She had an undeniable grace, and even though she was so thin that her ribs showed there was no questioning her beauty. Short, tidy, black hair fell just above her shoulders to frame her soft face. But as lovely as she appeared, her outfit told the whole story. She wasn’t Talon’s wife. The only bond they had was the daughter they’d made, despite their best efforts not to. She was a professional prostitute, and a good one too. Truthfully, Talon hated leaving Elisha with her and her capricious ways, but he didn’t have a choice. All he could hope for was that the miracle sitting on his lap wouldn’t grow up to wield her flesh as a tool to make money.
“Hey handsome. Didn’t know you were back so soon,” Vera said before kissing Julius’ cheek. The giant man couldn’t help but blush and Talon couldn’t blame him. Her touch was as addicting as Synthrol and as toxic as uncontained Gravitum.
“Vee, I like your outfit,” Talon said.
“Shut up!” She slapped Talon playfully on the arm and then embraced him around the back. She brought her moist lips so close to his ear that a tingle ran down his body all the way to the tips of his toes. “You fuckin’ love it.”
The Circuit, Book 1 Page 11
