Holly frowned. “Did I not mention that I’ll pay you both?”
“No, you neglected that key point.”
“My mistake! Yes, you’ll make a good amount of money.”
Estelle’s eyes glimmered at the mention of money. “Enough to go on a vacation to Itzcap?”
Holly nodded, and scoffed. “Enough to do that fifteen times.”
“I’m in.”
15
Leaving her old haunt was a bittersweet experience. It was easier to ignore the past when it was behind her. But being in the school, she’d been drowning in it. As she walked away, she felt the ghosts fleeing. Voices of children calling her name. Laughter. Tears of frustration. Triumphant moments when everything came together. It wasn’t only the specter of her together with Elan. It was everything else as well.
She made it back to the Bird’s Nest as rain began to fall. There was a chill to the air, a portent of what was coming: autumn. The monsoons had stripped the city of its summer coating of dust. Weeks later, autumn was on the horizon.
Holly marched up the stairs to the Bird’s Nest, quickly bypassing Torden. She was on a mission now. If she stopped, she would change her mind.
“Hey, Drake,” Darius said, looking up from his work at his bay of computer monitors.
“Darius, I need something from you.”
“What is it,” he asked, seeming distracted. “Apologies. I’m just trying to find where in the Megaron those blasted keycodes would be.”
“One second,” she said, remembering that she wasn’t one hundred percent alone. On the way back to the Bird’s Nest, she’d had a quick chat with Odeon and Shiro, who were in the middle of a tense price haggling session with someone about the explosive devices they needed for the mission. She muted her mic, suddenly aware that this was a topic she didn’t want Shiro to hear about. Or Odeon, for that matter. Darius glanced at her and saw her muting her mic. He set the v-screen aside that he’d been entering location information into.
“This looks serious, Drake. Turning off the comms. Should I be worried?” He pursed his lips at her and cocked his head to one side.
“It is and it isn’t. The whole team doesn’t need to hear about this until I’ve got it figured out. For now, I have something secured to help with the mission—a plan for the children. But I need to see if you can find someone for me.”
Darius leaned back as though thinking and considering what she’d said. “Maybe. I’ve been known to find people before. Who is it?”
“His name is Elan. Elan Zephyr. He used to teach with me.”
“Druiviin?”
“How’d you guess?”
Darius shrugged and grinned. “No human would call themselves something so stupid. That’s a Druiviin pastime.”
Holly nodded and cocked her head to one side, finding the observation to be funny. “Yes, wherever did they get such a strange tradition?”
“Are you insinuating that it came from humans?” Darius asked, turning to his screens and punching in information and flipping through them. “Elan Zephyr. So mysterious.”
“I would never. Shiro Oahu. Aimee Voss. Charly Stout. All real names.”
“But they’re not grandiose names meant to show off some trait or an embodiment of an idea.”
“I’m just pointing out that humans do it too.”
“So tell me who he is, Drake. This Elan Zephyr. School teacher. What’s he to you?”
Just someone I would trust with my life. Which means he’s right for the job.”
“Of? Guiding the kiddies off the base?”
“And then keeping them safe.”
“You’re holding out on me. I can tell. Fine, yes, I believe you that you think he’s ideal for the job. But there’s more to it than that.”
“More to what?” A soft voice asked behind Holly. She jumped and turned, recognizing the tenor.
“Odeon.” Her heart thumped. “You startled me. Where’s Shiro?”
Odeon looked away, then he looked back at Holly, his vibrant eyes holding Holly’s gaze tightly. “We’re going to need an explosives expert, Holly Drake. We can’t be setting off explosions on the base without knowing more about them.”
Holly had learned that a Druiviin doesn’t look away when uncomfortable. If they were hiding something, they tended to intensify their stance rather than retreat and hope the other party lost interest.
“Is that what they told you at the black market shop?”
“Shiro disagrees, Holly Drake. He believes he knows enough about explosives to detonate small bombs without hurting the base. He is wrong. Please trust me.”
Darius laughed, but didn’t turn from his position at his workstation.
“I disagree, Ms. Drake, do not trust this fool, Odeon Starlight. What more can come from bringing aboard yet another unknown variable into the inner sanctum of our crew? How many more people have to betray us before we realize that we’re everything we need?” Shiro swept in, swishing his lion-head cane like a machete in front of him.
Darius laughed louder from his desk, still without turning.
“One small miscalculation and a hole will be blown in the base, sucking everything out into space with it. There could be children, parents, pets, flung into the pressureless void. The risk is too great. We must trust someone else.” Odeon slammed his Ousaba against the ground like he was calling forth the storm, the thunder, the rage.
“A small miscalculation and we bring someone on board who betrays us at the last minute, stealing the tanker and the children and leaving us stranded on the base.” Shiro slammed the ground with his lion-head cane, a loud crack like a whip snapping through the air.
Holly understood where they were both coming from, especially Shiro’s concerns, due to his current track record. Trust was now something he didn’t want to part with easily. But he was also wrong, in Holly’s opinion. Odeon had the higher ground—the last thing Holly wanted to do was accidentally blast holes into the base and put others in danger. She didn’t like the idea of putting her team at risk either, but the alternative was even less desirable.
“Stop,” she said, raising her hands and standing between the two men. “You both have strong points. Neither is inherently wrong, either. I agree with both of them.” She looked back and forth between them. Odeon’s head was tilted down like he would charge at Shiro given the chance. Shiro glowered at Odeon, his hand on the hilt of his lion-head cane and the other ready to pull the scabbard off. “This is too far, my friends. Are you going to have a duel?”
“I would consider it an honor to duel Odeon Starlight.”
“And you would be welcome to lose to me,” Odeon said.
“I’m sorry. A duel is not necessary. I will be the deciding vote. What do you think? Is that fair? That way neither of you must relent.”
Shiro waited for Odeon to nod his head slowly, and then he agreed to it.
“Then, here is my choice. I think we should err on the side of caution. On behalf of those who are not on our crew, but who live on the base. And we should get an expert, who knows how to detonate small explosions on ships.”
Shiro threw his hands in the air, turned, and stomped away. “Ridiculous, Ms. Drake. You chose your pet.”
The words stung, but that was all they did. Holly regretted that Shiro had such a view of it, but she refused to be cowed into a position that let her put the lives of innocent bystanders at risk.
“Now then, Odeon,” she said, quietly. “You must find an expert. All the better if you can get Shiro to help you.”
Odeon brilliant eyes settled on her face, a note of irritation in his gaze.
“It is your job, my friend,” she said, and smiled at him. Her communicator buzzed and she pulled it out of her blazer pocket. “Please try to make it work with him. You’re both important to the crew, to the mission. I have to answer this, if you can excuse me.”
She went into the stairwell to answer the call. “Hello?”
“HD,” the voice on the oth
er end said. It was Xadrian.
“Yes?”
“I’m requesting a meeting with you, if you please,” he said. “Are you currently free?”
She really didn’t want to go back out into the rain, into the chill, but the tension was still thick in the room. She knew there was a good chance that she increased the problems between Shiro and Odeon. It might be good to leave them to simmer in their own emotions. Perhaps they would work it out.
“I can be. For you, XT.”
“Wonderful. Our usual place, at our usual table, with the usual drinks?”
16
Holly stopped at the bar and ordered her drink—a dark, blood red wine. That was how she was feeling and Glassini didn’t carry beer.
“Thanks,” she said when the bartender slipped the three-fluted glass across the counter into Holly’s hand.
“No problem,” she said. “Good to see you. Here to see your man?”
Holly started. She meant Xadrian. That was the cover, but Holly hadn’t been forced to think about it much. Usually when she met Xadrian at Glassini, she avoided talking to anyone—except for that first time, when Odeon approached her.
“Yes, of course. We love to meet here,” she said.
The bartender smiled at her, studying Holly’s face. “He’s a good chap. Always tips well.”
“Does he, now?” Holly said.
“Do you want me to get his drink?”
“Actually, yes,” Holly said. She waited while the bartender poured Xadrian’s usual drink and then handed the drink to Holly. “Thank you.”
Holly carried the drinks to the usual table that Xadrian favored and waited for him. A musician played quietly on the stage, and Holly listened as she sipped her wine. She’d stopped at a taco wagon on the way over and ordered two street tacos filled with marinated jack-fruit. So the wine soaked into the food filling her belly, and she closed her eyes to listen to the strains of music filling the room from an erhu. The musician was a human female, playing softly.
“Hello, HD,” Xadrian’s voice said at her side.
“I’d recognize that lisp anywhere,” Holly said, not startled by Xadrian’s sudden appearance.
“I have a lisp? I don’t have a lisp,” he said sitting on the stool opposite her. “Thank you for getting my drink. Did you pay for it also?”
“Not yet, but I will,” she said, opening her eyes and leaning back. The wine hadn’t hit her hard, but it was creeping its way through her veins. She felt good. She felt like maybe she could do the mission, that maybe things would work out. “So what is the point of this meeting, XT? Did you miss me?”
He laughed. “Yes, very much. Very much.”
“It happens,” she said, shrugging.
“No, to be precise, I have been doing some drudging. And I thought you would like to know the information.”
“Drudging? I didn’t know you were drudging.”
“Yes, yes, I’m quite good at it, drudging.”
“Can’t say I’m surprised. You strike me as a drudger at heart.”
“Well, there you have it. She’s not surprised I’ve been drudging. Now then, all joking aside, HD.”
“Yes, tell me this information.”
“Someone we both know has stolen a small supply of hydrantium.”
Holly squinted. “Who?”
“Please, then, who do we both know. Who has access to hydrantium?”
“Voss.”
“Excellent. You are correct. Some just came on the market.”
Holly glanced around the bar and shrugged. “What’s the big deal of that?”
“Well, you would know it’s a big deal if you knew that the black market for hydrantium had always been dominated by the SC and myself, yours truly.”
She flicked her gaze away as though to find the reason this mattered somewhere in the air around them. “Still not making the connection.”
He leaned across the table toward her. “The connection is that there is no reason to enter the market unless Voss is making a play at someone else’s power or connections. Is she after me or the SC?”
Holly grimaced, finally seeing what he was getting at.
“What can you do with that sort of information?” He asked. “And now. Have you finally gotten your supply for the rescue?”
“No. I haven’t. We had to change our plans.”
“Why? What are your new plans?”
She twisted her head and looked at him askance. “Why? What do you need to know? And why?”
“Bollocks, HD, it’s just a question. Besides, it’s not for me that I want to know. It’s for him.”
“I’ll tell him. But I won’t tell you, sorry, XT.”
“Still, after all these weeks, all these missions, and you’ve got no trust in me.”
“I do, in fact, it’s just singular to you where I trust you, XT. I don’t just blanket trust. To prove it to you, I need your help in finding a reputable explosives expert. Can you get me one?”
“What for?”
She sighed. “Alright. I’ll tell you a tiny bit, if I can just trust you to help me find someone that can do the job.”
He put a beringed hand to his chest and gasped. “HD, I can’t believe that you’d think that you can’t trust me. And of course I know the perfect person for the job.”
17
Holly walked through the streets of the city, heading back to the Nest. It was dark save for the light spilling off the atmosphere of Ixion and cascading down onto the city.
She quickly called up Odeon and Shiro on the comms and delivered the name that Xadrian had given her. “Find her,” she said. “And stop fighting, please. We’re on the same crew.”
They muted their mics and left her alone, and then her communicator buzzed. It was Darius. “I know where he is. Your friend, Elan.”
Holly sighed and then bit her lip. He would be far away. On Joppa or Helo, one of the moons she hated. She stopped and leaned against the wall of the nearest spire tower in the Green Jade district. “Wonderful. Where?”
“He’s in the Sliver. But far north, in a small village on the coast. It looks like he gave up being a fisher of men and became a fisher of fish.” Darius laughed. “Sorry, Drake, that’s just too funny. Right?”
“Yes. Very hilarious, Darius.”
“Here’s the thing, Drake. I’m still at least two days away from figuring out how the fuck we’re going to break into the Megaron and get the keycodes. Unless you have some bright idea or insider information from one of your higher up contacts.” He paused. “Do you? Please say you do.”
He was referring to Dave. But Holly wasn’t going to risk that. “No. My contacts. You know how small my circle is. One of you guys should have unlimited access to everything, you have so many contacts.”
“Well, look, get back to the nest. We can talk about what I have so far.”
They hung up, and Holly, still leaning against the wall of a green jade spire, used her communicator to purchase a train ticket. She sighed and looked up at the night sky, the towers glittering all around her, the surface of Ixion as brilliant as a thousand gems, and then pushed away from the wall and hurried home.
In the bedroom of her condo, she pulled down her bag and shoved several changes of clothes into it. Her toiletries. Night clothes. Before leaving, she double checked the Equalizer, cleaned out the working parts and loaded new cartridges into it and left the old ones at home. If not used for a time, the cartridges leaked and could cause the spring mechanism to gum up and jam. And then she took a deep breath, told herself it was the right thing to do, and headed to the train station.
Traveling by train was much better than traveling by space-zeppelin. Holly had done it many times and had never minded the sway of the trains and the feeling of being trapped in a moving vehicle for several hours, if not more. There was something far more cozy about it than being on a zeppelin in space.
She hadn’t traveled as far north as the city where Elan was living, but as a child she had vis
ited her grandmother who lived on a vast swath of land, raising herd beasts and growing bamboo forests. Elan had settled in a town closer to the pole, where the cold seasons were longer and nights with very little darkness were normal in the summer.
The train would travel through the night, and by late morning, Holly would arrive in the town where Elan was supposedly living. As she stowed her bag in the compartment she’d reserved entirely for herself, Holly considered turning back. She held onto the railing above the small couch built into the wall beneath the bunk. I could turn back now. I could just find another teacher, like Estie and Val, and then I would never have to confront Elan. I could go back to pretending that he’d died.
“No,” she said aloud. This was why she had bought the tickets so quickly, almost thoughtlessly. If she focused on it too much, she’d never do it. She’d think about it forever and convince herself that the best course of action was no action. Hiding from the past. Hiding from the one person who had moved her beyond the darkness that had grown inside her. “I’m going.” She said, clenching her fist. She stowed her bag and double checked the Equalizer, then went to the dining and drinks car. The train was similar to the zeppelins, in that much of it was built of wood and brass and things beautiful to the senses. It smelled of oak and hardwoods that took ages to grow. Plus carpets lined the corridors and Holly felt a slight decadence as she strode through narrow corridor, brushing past other people who could afford the elegant car where her berth was.
The dining car opened up before her. A beautiful male singer was on stage, crooning a decadent, indulgent song in a hushed voice. Someone accompanied him on a mini-piano. Tables lined the rest of the wide car and the bar was at the end where Holly had entered. Being alone, she didn’t wish to take up an entire four-top table, so she stood at the bar, ordered a Kotan style ale and watched the tables fill as more guests settled in and went out in search of entertainment.
She sipped the beer and tried to avoid thinking about what she was doing. It was too late to change her mind about the train-ride, for sure. But she could still get cold feet the minute she arrived in Elan’s town and simply turn around without seeing him.
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