The Colossus Collection

by Nicole Grotepas

  “Bye. Thanks for the clothes.”

  George and Sonal closed the door behind them as they left. She scanned the room to see if there were cameras or other devices that would broadcast what she was doing.

  She went into the bathroom just in case, taking a change of clothes along. Once inside, she searched her hand to make sure the freckle was still there. It was, just by her prominent wrist bone. God I hope they can find me. But she wouldn’t wait around for that.

  She changed into the clothes, surprised they fit, but what the hell, it wasn’t that hard to figure out what size a person was, especially if you had taken them prisoner and they were asleep on your couch. On the one hand, Holly longed to stick around and find out her dad’s plans. On the other, this new information made her a bit worried that her father was a deranged lunatic. What else could he be capable of? Would he hurt her if she didn’t join him?

  From her window, it would be a crazy drop to the ocean below. But she could climb along the ledge and get somewhere, anywhere but here. And then figure out her next move. Improvisation. Easy as cake.

  She had nothing in her possession, so once she’d dressed and put on the boots and everything, Holly went to the window and opened it.

  She poked her head out the window and came face to face with Aimee Voss.

  28

  Holly jumped back, recovered from the shock, then leaned out the window. “Voss, what the hell?”

  “I followed you.”

  “How long have you been following me?”

  Voss shrugged, looking guilty. “Since your party.”

  “OK, I want to know why, but we can discuss that later. Right now, I’m trying to get out of here.”

  “This is where the Heart is, right?”

  Holly hesitated. What could she say? “Yes. This is where the Heart lives.”

  “And you’re just going to leave? You’re not going to destroy him? I thought that was what we all wanted.”

  “I don’t know what you want, Voss. You’re an enigma. At one time I did want to get rid of the Heart. But plans have changed. Move over.” Voss complied, backing away from the ledge. Holly stepped out and followed the blonde cat burglar who was dressed in white to match the color of the seaside home.

  “You’re weird. Running away. You could put an end to their shit and all the times you’ve nearly been murdered.”

  “How do you know about all those times? Shiro?” Holly asked, keeping her hands on the raised ledge that ran along the house above her.

  “I want to lie and deny it, but I can’t. There’s no other option. Yes. Shiro. We talk sometimes.”

  It stung a little, to hear that, but it was one of the primary reasons Holly had denied Shiro the night he’d kissed her. “I don’t think I’ll be nearly murdered any more by the SC,” Holly said.

  They followed the house around to an enclosed garden and climbed along the top of the thick wall bordering it. “Somehow I doubt that. You had him in your hands. You could do something.” She paused. “Or wait, did you?”

  Holly sighed, following Voss along the top of the thick wall. “Can you keep a secret, Voss?”

  Voss stopped and Holly nearly bumped into her backside. She turned and looked at Holly. “Why?”

  “Just say yes. Can’t you do that?”

  “It depends on what it is.”

  “The Heart is my father.” She blurted it, knowing that this would be the one time she told someone and that if she didn’t, the secret would eat her alive.

  Voss laughed, then saw the look on Holly’s face. “No kidding. Really?”

  “Yes. Not joking.”

  “He’s tried to have you killed,” Voss observed.

  “He claims that was never him. It was the Hands. He didn’t know they were trying to have me stopped that way. And he says they’re gone now.”

  “You can’t kill your own father.”

  “I know.”

  “Can you?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  They jumped down into the enclosed garden, with Voss leading the way. “This is how I got up there,” she said.

  When they reached the far garden wall, they climbed over it and jumped down on the other side. Holly straightened and dusted off.

  Shiro, Odeon, Grant, and Charly were standing there in the middle of the road, an auto waiting beside them on the street leading to the house. “Damn girl, you gave us a fright. We were just about to bust into this place when Darius saw you moving. Figured it out: She’s making a break for it. So we waited here.”

  “Charly. Odeon,” Holly said, breathing a hefty sigh in relief. “Grant. Shiro.”

  “Ms. Voss, what are you doing here?” Shiro asked.

  “Shiro,” Voss said, nodding at him. “I followed Holly when she was taken.”

  “Convenient, Ms. Voss. Well, it’s lovely to see you, as always.” He tipped his bowler at her.

  Grant had been hanging back, looking frustrated. They were all wearing the clothes they’d worn the night she’d been taken. She felt a pang inside at the realization that they’d stopped everything and came after her. She went to Grant, knowing that he’d likely been blaming himself. “This isn’t on you,” she muttered. “But I’m glad you’re still in that suit. Looks good on you.”

  “I let you out of my sight for two minutes.” He shook his head.

  She grinned. “Now you know how Odeon feels.”

  “So what the hell, Holly? Who are they?” Charly pointed at the gate. Beyond it, George and Sonal had walked down from the house.

  “Oh no,” she said, then realized there was nothing they could do. She’d gotten away. “It’s the Heart.”

  “You found him?” Odeon said.

  “He found me.”

  “There is a third choice, Holly dear,” George said as the gates opened.

  “Careful guys,” Holly said. “I don’t know what he’s going to do.” Her crew became alert, pulling out their weapons. She heard some of them repeat the word dear in disgust.

  George continued. “Sonal brought it to my attention just after we left your room.”

  Charly handed Holly her knife. “Brought these for you, just in case.”

  “I’m not joining you. I don’t think anything else matters,” Holly said.

  George shook his head, his eyes touched with sadness. “You’re sure about that?”

  “If you keep doing what you’re doing, I’ll just keep fighting you. But I’m not joining you.”

  “You dismantled my organization. The revenue is gone. But this house is still here. If you change your mind, there’s a way to reach me inside. Find it. You find me.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  He approached her and the crew moved to stop him, their weapons leveled at him, telling him to back off.

  He held up his hands. “I mean no harm. She’s my daughter,” he said.

  She could feel the air change as they all took sharp breaths. But they didn’t let him come closer.

  “Holly, please, I just want to give you a beso,” he said.

  She watched him, studying his face for a sign of deceit. There was none apparent, so she relaxed a little. “OK, you may give me a beso.”

  Odeon lowered his staff, Charly and Grant both took a step back, and Shiro lowered his sword. She noted that Aimee Voss was on alert, but not over Holly.

  Her father came closer, his arms outstretched. He gave her a ferocious embrace, then four kisses on either cheek. “I know you’re waiting for me to betray you. I know you already feel betrayed. And you have every right to feel that way. Because you had no idea what I was doing. And neither of us knew how our paths were crossing. And for that I am sorry.” He backed away, keeping his eyes on her face. She watched him, confused about his erratic behavior. Frustrated that this had just happened in front of her crew, her friends.

  A roar began in the distance, the sound of something approaching. Holly looked for the sound, as did her team, their weapons alert again. What w
as happening?

  A ship appeared in the sky above her father’s house. It was unlike any Holly had ever seen. It hovered over them. George waved at Holly and blew her a kiss. And then they vanished. The ship lifted into the air and shot into the sky.

  29

  “That’s why I left him,” Sophia said. “Don’t look at me like that, Holly. If I’d known you were running around the moon system saving children and fighting the Shadow Coalition, I would have told you—that’s your father, the one orchestrating it.” They were sitting around Meg’s counter discussing it. She’d told them how George disappeared on a strange ship—one that Grant said was from out of their system, and was possibly from a non-humanoid race. Now Meg knew that George was the Heart and responsible for the Shadow Coalition stuff.

  Holly stared impassively at her mother. “I guess we’ve all had secrets.”

  “That is what it comes down to,” Sophia said. “I still don’t even know all that George was doing. I’d ask him where the money came from, and he said that was on a ‘need to know basis’ and that I didn’t need to know. I could just enjoy the retirement he was providing and not worry about it. I found it infuriating.”

  Meg kept repeating “my own father” under her breath as she prepared a soup for dinner and listened to the conversation and inserted herself into it when it suited her. She got Lucy to head to Charm’s so that she didn’t hear the terrible things they were saying about her grandfather. Gabe was set to show up soon. According to Meg, he deserved to know the truth. Holly wasn’t sure she wanted to stick around to discuss it much more. Besides, she had a meeting with Grant.

  Or a dinner. Or something. They hadn’t labeled it.

  “At least he’s gone now, and you won’t have to keep worrying about it,” Sophia added.

  “That’s not the point, mom. I wanted to kill him,” Holly said, toying with the label on her beer bottle. “I did. Until I knew it was Dad.”

  Sophia sipped her wine. “You might have done the universe a favor if you had. He changed. I didn’t really recognize him much after we moved to Itzcap. It was like a midlife crisis gone wrong.”

  “I can’t kill my own father. Some people can. But I didn’t really see how evil he was. And he had excuses and I believed them—he wasn’t the one who had tried to have me killed.”

  “But the children, he ordered that,” Sophia said. “When I found out about the children, that’s when I left.”

  “Didn’t you ever wonder where all his money was coming from?” Meg asked, then shook her head again and muttered, “My own father.”

  “I knew. The hydrantium. But I didn’t know how he was getting it. When I’d ask he told me not to worry. That worked for a little while.” She shrugged. “And then one day, it didn’t. And I left.”

  “It must be awful for you, mom,” Holly said, thinking of how it impacted her mother and not how it had hurt herself. “I’m so sorry.”

  Sophia smiled and looked at Holly. “That is how life is, my girl. We get hurt and we get back up again. And hope that the people who love us keep loving us.”

  The conversation drifted away from what Holly had been through and the topic of her father, and into more pleasant realms. Meg finished making the soup and called Lucy home, which was Holly’s cue to leave. They said goodbye and she went out into the cold night, heading for her next appointment.

  Snow fell through Analogue Alley and made halos of yellow upon the curtains of white flakes. People dressed as strange and wonderful creatures strolled through the alley, heading to a zoo animal gala located in the central area of the alley. It felt like a dream as Holly shielded her eyes from the snowflakes and walked across the soft blanket of white beneath her feet. There were no autos allowed in the alley, which was one of the best parts about it. Her feet made fresh impressions as she crossed the center of the street to hurry up the stairs to Create Like Your Life Depended On It.

  Her crew were all out at their own events that night. Shiro was attending an early Christmas party, while Odeon was performing at the Glassini bar. Holly wasn’t sure where Darius was, but Charly would be hosting her own shindig at the Surge. Holly wanted to be everywhere, supporting her friends, feeling warm and grateful for her crew that had her back.

  But tonight she would be in the place she wanted to be more than anywhere. She opened the door to Iain’s shop and the bell tinkled. She locked the door behind her and switched off the open sign. She weaved through the shelves and displays and called out a hello to Iain, wherever he was.

  “Back here.” His voice came from deep in the shop.

  She passed through the doorway into his office. A record played on the turntable. Candlelight lit the room in flickering yellow hues that prompted some primal cozy feeling in Holly. Iain handed her a glass of wine and smiled at her.

  “Sit with me?” he asked, taking her hand and leading her to the couch against the far wall. “We’ll eat later. Dinner is in the oven upstairs. You OK with going up to my living quarters?”

  She sat next to him. “You mean, I’m being invited into the inner sanctum?”

  He laughed softly. She felt it beside her, deep in his chest.

  “Listen to this song,” he said. “It’s a really good one.”

  She leaned back into the couch and fell against his side. He wrapped his arm around her, and held her tight.

  The End

  Or is it? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Due to reader demand, there will be more Holly Drake Jobs in the fall! In the meantime, Gears of Aether: Shiro and the Orrery is already up for preorder. Join him as he teams up with Aimee Voss for their very own heist.

  And join me for future releases and more adventures with Holly and her crew!

  SIX SHADOWS

  My fridge was almost totally empty except for three bottles of the best Kotan-style double IPAs, a chunk of brie cheese, and some juka-berry preserves to eat with the brie. These were the remainders of my contribution to a party I hadn’t wanted to attend, and the “contribution” was the only thing I knew I’d want to eat when I ended up going.

  I pulled out a beer, opened it, and put the preserves and brie on the counter. The beer hit my mouth hard and woke it up, then rippled through my body like a numbing tidal wave. I hadn’t eaten all day and the alcohol went straight into my bloodstream. The crackers that I’d taken to the party were in a cabinet. I pulled them out and began spreading brie and preserves over them. From a stool at the counter, I looked across the room and out the window to the city spires glittering in the afternoon light. I always kept my windows wide open. The view helped alleviate some of that feeling of being suffocated from living in the massive, teeming city.

  The day had been long, though it was only noon. I’d been awake since four when the homicide unit had gotten a call about the body of a witness related to the Trippel investigation. I’d gone in because my daughter Lucy was with her mom. The witness had been slated to testify against a corrupt government official, Enzo bloody Cole, who was still in office. Trippel had been his advisor. She’d been murdered.

  And now Ynes Oliver was also dead. Ynes could have broken the silence on whatever the hell was happening with the human proxies to the Centau-run Syndicate government—the race who ran the 6-moon system. And now, nothing.

  My communicator rang. “Shit,” I said, before I even saw who it was. I had a hunch that it would be someone from the precinct.

  I held my communicator up to my ear. “Gabriel Bach.”

  “Hey Gabe. Having a good afternoon?”

  It was Miko, from the station. So I’d been right, but then I’m usually right about that because they’re the only ones who call me.

  “I was, but now I’m not.”

  “Sorry. I had no choice. We’ve got another dead one. Looks like murder.” She sounded unnaturally chipper. Probably because she hadn’t been at the early morning fun with me.

  “Then it probably was,” I sighed, rubbing my eyes. “Does anyone in this city ever die of natural causes?”
/>
  “That’d be nice, for once . . . Oh, and Gabe, it’s a Druiviin. So it’s worse than normal.”

  She was right: the Druiviin were the peaceful race. Sure, they could be scoundrels, but if someone was murdering them, it was more a reflection on the murderer than anything the Druiviin had done.

  “Damn. This won’t be good—they never are, but a Druiviin? Murder weapon?” I paused, then added. “And where’s Meg? Is she with you?”

  “She’s not here. Just me and a couple of uniforms. We haven’t recovered the weapon yet. Still can’t tell how it happened. They’re looking. We’re looking.”

  “Alright. Find Meg for me. I’ll be there soon.”

  * * *

  A feeling permeated the victim’s condo. I knew it well, the strange fog that hung in a room where death lingered, a dampening of spirit that pressed up against the living. It was more an impression, a sense that the world wasn’t right more than anything else. It was an altogether different animal from the stench that accompanied bodies that had been left for a week or so.

  “Where’s Meg?” I asked Miko, who stood to my side scrawling stuff into her small notebook.

  “I called her but she said she’ll be at the station later. ‘I’m not Gabe’s lapdog.’”

  “Her words?”

  “Yep.”

  “Funny. I guess she and I think differently about that.” I stopped one of the forensic workers and asked him two things. One, if he could clear out for a few moments so their team didn’t overwhelm my space and make it hard for me to focus. And two, if he’d turn the temperature down in the room. We were in the middle of a Kotan summer and the days were especially hot in the tops of the spires where the sun beat hard on them. “You get a profile on the victim yet?”

  Miko flipped through her notebook. “Name’s Lennox Fogg. He lived here alone, but the neighbors often saw him bringing girls to his apartment. A while back, maybe seven or eight months ago they continually saw him with one woman. They say he spent most of his time in here, however. Didn’t have a job he went to, at least not one that had him leaving at regular times.”