by Kate MacLeod
Daisy led them around the marketplace wall and then down a smaller side street, away from the center of the city and towards the city wall. Then she ducked down an even smaller street before stopping at one of an endless row of exactly identical doors.
“This is it?” Scout asked. She could see no markings of any kind.
“This is it,” Daisy said and skipped up the three shallow steps to push the button.
Nothing happened. Daisy pushed it again, holding it a moment longer.
After the third try, Scout fished out the door-opening device she had on her marshal’s belt. Daisy stepped back as Scout set the little box over the part of the door containing the locking mechanism. The little light on the side of the box went from red to green, and the lock clicked open, the door swinging ajar.
Beyond the door was a long corridor filled with still more doors, all closed, all unmarked. Daisy led the way to the correct door, then pushed the call button and rapped on the door itself loudly.
Her augmented knuckles made an impressive boom. Scout could hear it echoing through the apartment beyond as well as up and down the hallway.
But still, no one answered.
“Maybe they’re out,” Scout said.
“Maybe you should open this door too so we can be sure.”
Scout set the device on the door again. The light turned green, and the door was open.
They didn’t bother to step inside. The entire apartment was visible from the doorway, and it was completely empty.
“You’re sure this is the place?” Scout asked.
“Yes. Unless they moved without updating the city directory, but there are fines for that.”
“No luggage, no food in the kitchenette over there. I don’t think they ever got here,” Scout said.
“No, no one has been here for days,” Daisy said. Scout didn’t ask how she knew that. Given the way she seemed to be smelling the air, Scout really didn’t want to know.
“They might have gone straight to the Torreses,” Scout said. “Because I stayed behind, or because they felt like it would be safer together, maybe.”
Daisy swept her eyes over the room one last time, then stepped back and shut the door.
“I hope you’re right,” Daisy said and led the way back out of the building.
Scout wasn’t sure she was right. She had a tight feeling in her stomach, a growing certainty that everything had gone very bad up here just as it had down in the village.
And from the tightness of Daisy’s jaw, Scout guessed that Daisy felt the same.
23
The Torreses’ apartment was on the far side of the city. Daisy led the way, first towards the marketplace, then up to the top of a five-story building to catch the next transport. The roof was open to the air and Scout could see the dome curving down to meet the wall only a couple of blocks away. They were at the very edge of the city.
There was a small crowd waiting when the train arrived, but not so many that they couldn’t get one of the small cars to themselves.
Scout settled onto the seat, and the two dogs hopped up to sit on either side of her. This station was on top of the building, not in the heart of it, and Scout could see the city through the windows even before the train started moving. They followed a level rail that ran parallel to the city wall, curving around the outer edge of the city, skimming over the low buildings.
The gentle swaying of the car as it glided along the rail was hypnotic, but the train stopped at too many stations for Scout to drift off for more than a moment or two. The little not-quite-naps were leaving her feeling more exhausted than ever, and she could feel the beginnings of a headache tightening up behind her eyes.
“When are we going to get food for you?” Scout asked after being lurched back awake yet again.
“When we get to Shi Jian,” Daisy said. She was starting to look distinctly gray.
“Maybe we should stop so you can eat however much normal food you need to make up some of the difference?” Scout suggested.
“No,” Daisy said. “Thanks for looking out for me, but I’ll be okay. I just want to see this through. And it’s probably irrational, given that most of her assassin army has to be still out there in the snow, but I’ve got this nagging feeling like time is running out.”
“I’m feeling that too,” Scout said. “And I kind of doubt we’re both being irrational.”
“Me too,” Daisy sighed.
The car was suddenly plunged into darkness and Scout start to rise to her feet up in panic, but then she realized they were just pulling into a station that was inside a taller building. She had been looking at Daisy and hadn’t seen it coming.
“This is us,” Daisy said, turning towards the door as the car braked to a standstill. Scout gathered up the leashes and followed Daisy out onto a nearly empty platform. One man was just stepping onto a car on the other end of the train, and a sole woman was sitting forlornly in a little shop that sold hot beverages and snacks. She glanced up at them long enough to see they weren’t heading her way and then returned her attention to whatever she was reading under the counter.
“They’re in this building, but further up,” Daisy said. “The elevators are over here.”
The halls leading off the platform were clean but utilitarian, designed to handle crowds of people and clean up easily after they were gone.
When they stepped off the elevator several dozen levels up, they were in quite a different space. It was clearly a private space, narrower and more warmly lit. Some of the doors they walked past had little decorations on them, something about the occupants, their family, or their culture. Most had more of the silver snowflakes, some cut out and some printed on blue banners.
A few had little tables sitting outside the door with bowls of flowers or candles or candies. The sounds of one family dinner or another could just be heard through the doors, laughter and the excited chatter of children.
Scout’s attention was caught by a particularly elaborate handwoven family crest hanging from one door when she nearly collided with Daisy’s back. Daisy had come to an abrupt halt and was standing stock-still in the middle of the hall.
Scout looked over her shoulder and saw that the last door on the right was standing open. Not all the way open, but not quite closed either.
The locking mechanism looked twisted, as if someone had forced the door open and it would no longer close properly.
“Daisy?” Scout whispered, clutching the leashes tightly to keep the dogs close. They were both sniffing the air; their ears twitched back in what she recognized as nervousness.
“Stay here,” Daisy whispered back to her, then advanced to push the door fully open.
The apartment beyond was dark, lit only by the lights from the city streaming in through the windows. Daisy flipped a switch, but the lights still wouldn’t come on.
“It’s a trap,” Scout said.
“More like a lure,” Daisy said. “We were meant to find this.”
“And do what?” Scout asked. She put both leashes in one hand, then found her light with the other and clicked it on.
“Go after Shi Jian,” Daisy said. She had gone all the way into the room but looked back when Scout started shining her light around.
The room had been destroyed. Every piece of furniture was smashed, fabric torn to shreds. The computer unit built into the wall by the kitchen had been completely disassembled, components strewed everywhere. Even the bathroom looked like it had been methodically dismantled.
“Were they looking for something?” Scout wondered.
“Doubtful,” Daisy said. “The Torreses don’t have anything the Tajaki trade dynasty doesn’t already know about. They just want it to look like some other crime happened, I guess. It wouldn't take much to make local security decide there was nothing worth investigating further. Just a robbery of an unoccupied apartment. It wouldn't even be odd to find they had gone. People from other planets never stay here long.”
“But how did
they do this without anyone else in this building hearing?” Scout asked. She hadn’t met any of them, and yet from the warm displays on their doors, they all seemed so friendly.
“They took their time,” Daisy said. “It wasn’t as violent as it looks. They probably took the Torreses away before they even started dismantling the place.”
“Away to where?” Scout asked. “Do you think the McGillicuddys were here when they got here?”
“Back to her ship,” Daisy said, “and I’m afraid so.” She held up a scrap that took Scout a long moment to recognize.
Emma’s scarf.
“Her ship,” Scout started to say.
“We have to get up to the port,” Daisy said. “Stars, everything is making sense now, and I really don’t like it.”
“What makes sense?” Scout asked, but Daisy was already pushing past her, running back to the elevators. Scout took another look around the apartment, saw an enormous box of energy bars left sitting in a ransacked cupboard, and grabbed it before running after Daisy.
“You need it,” she said when Daisy glared at her from where she was holding the elevator door. “You can eat on the transport.”
“It won’t do more than take the edge off,” Daisy all but growled, then took a deep breath. “Sorry. Clearly I need to take the edge off. I’m getting cranky. Thank you, Scout.”
“We take care of each other, right?” Scout said.
Daisy’s face started to crumple like she was about to break down into tears, and Scout felt a rush of panic. But Daisy pulled herself back together, squaring her shoulders back and blinking hard.
“Yes,” Daisy said.
They had to wait for two trains to come and go before their train arrived, but in that time, Daisy had scarfed down the entire contents of the box. Scout was nauseous just watching her, but also a bit in awe. How did she even fit all that inside her stomach?
But when the last bite was swallowed and the wrappers disposed of, Daisy was looking better. She still had dark circles under her eyes and a hollow look to her cheeks, but the gray color was gone from her skin, and her eyes had lost the dull sheen that had made her look like she was ready to give up on everything.
It was a short ride to the city center, then up an elevator back to the processing center. Daisy took Scout’s arm, pulling her into a door she was certain they weren’t meant to be using, then through a maze of narrow corridors and up stairs so steep they were nearly ladders.
At the end of it all, they were back in the very topmost room of the building, the one with the domed ceiling, the star-shaped one with all of the ramps radiating out like rays from a star, leading to where airships docked.
“Which way?” Scout asked as Daisy looked up at a display board over one of the doorways out into the thick clouds that concealed all but the first few steps outside the building. “Did you come down in a harbor ship?”
“No, shuttle,” Daisy said, her eyes darting over the long lists of ship names and arrival and departure times.
Then her eyes stopped on a name, and her shoulders fell. It was like her entire posture just collapsed in on itself.
“What is it?” Scout asked. “They’re gone?”
“Not just the shuttle,” Daisy said. “The ship itself.”
“Gone?” She bit back the words “without me?”
“Leaving,” Daisy clarified. “I’m sorry, Scout. I’m so sorry. I don’t think Shi Jian was ever after you at all.”
“What do you mean?” Scout asked. “They blew up the station and attacked me at the cabin. They chased both of us all over the mountain.”
“All over the mountain,” Daisy agreed. “Kept us busy. I don’t think they found anyone in that apartment, as much as she wants us to think so. I think your friends were cleverer than that. They hid from her and her spies for days, but they’ve got them now.”
“Why? If not to get to me, then why?” Scout asked.
“The Torreses are a far bigger problem to the Tajaki trade dynasty than you could ever be,” Daisy said. “They’ve been hiding for years. Evading capture. Outside of the courtroom, they’re like ghosts. I think Shi Jian was looking for the McGillicuddys to use them as leverage against the Torreses. I don’t think she expected to get them both. I don’t know.”
“I led her to them,” Scout said, starting to put the pieces together herself.
“She knew I was watching,” Daisy said. “She knew what I would assume, that I would want to get to you. She manipulated me, and I fell for it. All of that psychological testing . . . she reads me like a book. I always discount that, but she does. I think it’s such a victory that she can’t just tell me what to do and I do it, but if she can make me do what she wants by other means, I haven’t gained a thing by fighting her. Nothing I can do will ever be unexpected to her.”
“Look, this doesn’t change anything,” Scout said. “We still have to rescue my friends. That means getting to Shi Jian.”
“It’s impossible,” Daisy said. “The shuttle is gone, and the ship is already leaving the harbor area.”
“How fast?” Scout asked.
“What?” Daisy asked, blinking as if the question caught her off guard. “Not very. There are rules. The harbor is full of ships; the traffic is heavily regulated.”
“Do you mean controlled? Like by someone here?” Scout asked.
“Yes, but what good does that do us?” Daisy asked.
“We might have a chance to slow them down and to catch up with them before they gun their engines,” Scout said.
“How?” Daisy asked.
“Check those boards again,” Scout said. “Where is the airship Hikosen?”
Daisy squinted up at the boards, then pointed to one of the ramps.
They both ran towards it, charging out of the doors and back into the cold, oxygen-starved atmosphere high over Schneeheim.
24
All of the tiredness that had been dragging at Scout since they had left the Torreses’ apartment was blasted out of her by the first touch of the freezing air outside. The cloud was all around them, coating her in a wet layer that hardened into ice almost instantly.
They still had their coats with them. They just didn’t have any time to spare getting them out of the pack and putting them on.
They ran towards the end of the ramp, the massive outline of a balloon slowly emerging from the blowing wisps of white cloud ahead. They weren’t too late.
Then Shadow barked his happy greeting bark. Gert, who saved her bark for enemies, nevertheless was hopping up and down in excitement. Then Scout saw her too: Minato, walking towards them down the ramp.
But Scout quickly realized that something was wrong. Minato was barely pulling herself along with her crutches, dragging her feet over the ground rather than stepping. Her head was bent down, but she looked up when she heard the dogs, and her expression was one of such weary sadness Scout felt her own heart squeezing tight in empathy.
“What is it, Minato?” Scout asked, handing the dogs’ leashes over to Daisy so she could keep them from jumping all over Minato as Scout moved closer, putting a hand on Minato’s arm.
“My father,” Minato said, and her body seemed to slump even further. “He’s downstairs, in intensive care.”
“Oh, Minato. I’m so sorry,” Scout said. “Is he going to be all right?”
“They can’t say. It will be hours yet before they even know if he’s responding to the latest treatment. But I can’t be with him. I’m not even still supposed to be here; I’ve exceeded my gravity time for the week already. But I can’t just… leave.”
“That sounds really hard,” Scout said. She could see that even the light pull of gravity on the ramp was exhausting Minato, and Scout suspected she wasn’t even willing to sit down to rest. She looked like she had been pacing the ramp waiting for news.
There was no kind way to tell her she was going to kill herself if she kept it up.
“Scout?” Daisy said. When Scout glanced at her, she tipped h
er head back towards the station, suggesting they find another option. Scout bit her lip.
They needed to get to Shi Jian, but just abandoning Minato felt like the wrong thing to do.
“What are you doing up here anyway?” Minato asked, not having missed the exchange of looks between the two of them.
“Well,” Scout said, not sure what to say.
“We need a ride,” Daisy said. “Someone very dangerous is going to hurt a lot of people if we don’t stop her in time.”
“We can find another way . . .” Scout started to say.
“No,” Minato said, raising her chin. “This is exactly what I need. Get on my ship. I’ll take you anywhere you need to go.”
“Do you need help?” Daisy offered.
“No,” Minato said, turning herself around on the heel of one braced foot and marching with impressive speed to the end of the ramp, up into the gondola of her ship. Scout and Daisy got the dogs aboard, then closed the door behind them.
By the time they reached the bridge, Minato was already buckling herself into a support structure that now stood where her father’s tank had been. This was more like a padded rail she could lean against, with a narrower padded semicircle that braced her up under her arms. She had tossed her canes aside and was just reaching for a lever. The docking mechanism, Scout realized, and she caught hold of the edge of a panel as the ship dropped out beneath her. The falling sensation ended in a stomach-roiling swoop as the balloon started to ascend, pulling the gondola up after it.
“Which ship?” Minato asked, bringing up a series of displays.
“The Ming Yue,” Daisy said, moving forward to examine the displays. “There.”
“I see it,” Minato said, hands on the controls.
“It’s nearly out of restricted harbor space,” Daisy said.
“What does that mean?” Scout asked.
“It means they will no longer have to observe Schneeheim velocity restrictions. They will start accelerating. We’ll lose them.”