“Then you aren’t very good at negotiations,” Caden told him. “Because whatever it is you want from me is apparently worth the risk of pissing off your Spector boss. And pissing me off, too.”
Behind the mask, Apollo’s eyes narrowed into slits. He didn’t move for a long time, choosing instead to breathe out a long sigh, very slowly. When he finally did speak, his voice was as low and threatening as Caden’s had been. “The UDA has several facilities where they house persons and objects of… interest. I need the locations for some of these areas.”
“The safe houses?” Caden asked, voice puzzled. “Why those? They’re just empty buildings monitored by the UDA when someone is being protected. They’re useless.”
“Not just someone,” Apollo said, “something. One of these locations is holding something important to me. If I get the address for the one on Ganymede’s station, then I’ll help you. If not”―he shrugged, standing to his feet―“nothing. What will it be, Spector?”
Caden considered for a moment, not speaking, not moving. His brows furrowed as he studied the table, wheels in his head turning as he considered the request.
“Why there?” Kita asked, curiosity getting the better of her. “What’s so important to you that you’d go to a UDA-controlled safe house to get it?”
Before Apollo could reply, Caden cut in. “Evidence. He’s not an informant by choice. Taav’s got something on him. He’s probably tracked it to that moon―”
“Keep your mouth quiet with that word,” Apollo hissed at the mention of “informant,” breaking his façade fully for the first time. “Do you know what people would do if they knew that I was talking to the UDA and helping their pets?”
“We are not pets,” Aralyn spat. “And don’t you think that if we had a way out of this other than Taav that we would have tried that avenue first? You’re supposed to be helping us, not the other way around. So don’t fucking forget it.”
Apollo’s chest heaved, but he took a step back and regained his composure, tugging his jacket neatly back into place. “What will it be?”
“Fine. I’ll tell you.” Caden nodded. “On the condition that we get choice picks of whatever it is you’re not after.”
Aralyn and Kita looked at him as though he’d grown two heads.
“You’re going to steal… from the UDA’s evidence lockup in a safe house?” Aralyn asked, unable to disguise the surprise in her voice.
With a shrug, Caden said, “They’ve stolen plenty from other people. It’s time to return the favor.”
“You’re just going to… help him… just like that?” asked Kita.
“Are you sure?” Riordan asked, eyeing Apollo suspiciously. “If we give him what he wants, why would he help us still?”
“I’m a man of my word,” Apollo scoffed, as though wounded. “I will do the job as you requested. Where are the station safe houses located?”
“I’ll tell you,” Caden began again. “After we get where we need to go.”
Apollo chewed at his lip, narrowed his eyes, and sighed. “Fine.” He stuck out his hand for Caden to shake it. “A gentlemen’s agreement, then. I’ll trust that you’re a man of your word as well, despite your… proclivity for violence.”
Caden stood from the table and reached for his hand before rearing back and slugging Apollo so hard in the jaw that his holo-mask went askew and only covered the right side of his face. Surprised, he fell to the ground, landing hard on his backside and rubbing his jaw. Angrily, he pulled his mask back into place and stood, body rigid like he wanted nothing more than to return the blow. The bottom portion of his holo-mask began fritzing out, revealing the grim set of the informant’s jawline beneath the indentation of Caden’s knuckles.
“That’s for threatening Aralyn,” Caden said, fists curled and begging for the chance to do more.
The two bouncers began running over from the other side of the room, but Apollo held them off with a raised hand once more, then rubbed at the side of his jaw. The bouncers hovered like anxious nannies before returning to their posts until they might be needed again.
“And what was the first attack for, then?” Apollo demanded.
Caden shrugged. “I just really don’t like you.”
“I want you to know,” said Apollo, slowly, through clenched teeth, “that if I didn’t need you, your guts would already be decorating the dance floor and I would squeeze the eyes out of your head and let the whores in the back skull-fuck you to death. Slowly.” His body practically vibrated with pent-up rage. It felt like a dark cloud descended over the group.
“Whoa,” said Kita, eyes wide behind her mask. “He is like, amazingly good at insults. That was genuinely awful.”
“Not an insult,” Apollo interjected. “A threat. I never say something I can’t genuinely accomplish. After all, I am a man of his word.”
“I don’t care what it was,” Caden said. “Come near her again, threaten her again, do anything to endanger any of us, and I will quickly decide that this plan is dead in the water.”
Aralyn blinked in surprise. This was certainly a side of Caden she hadn’t seen before.
The corners of Apollo’s mouth turned upward into a tight smirk. “Very well. This is good, to see where we stand with each other then. Not a partnership built of trust, as I had hoped it would be.”
“You don’t kidnap people and ask them to trust you,” Aralyn said, standing to her feet, Kita and Riordan sliding out of the booth behind her. “Now let’s talk about this ‘in’ you have for us―”
Before she could finish talking, an energy bolt went whizzing past her, landing solidly into the booth behind them.
“What the hell?” she said, turning to follow the trail to find where the bolt had been fired from.
A man dressed head to toe in black floated just off the ground outside of the entrance to Redux, aiming the gun at them again.
“Kafīr!” Apollo screamed, voice carrying over the loud music. “Gun!” He pointed to the man in the doorway and the bouncers pulled their own weapons, heading toward the would-be assassin.
The club filled with screams as the guards raised their guns and opened fire with their stun pellets. The small projectiles bounced ineffectively off of the shooter’s metallic vest and then hit several people running from the dance floor. They shook with the electric jolts, then fell to the ground, unconscious. The club became a beehive. The music stopped abruptly, leaving only the sound of crying and screaming as people flooded toward the walls and booths to hide from the gunman. The dim interior lights turned on as the bouncers rushed forward, shoving party-goers aside to get another clear shot.
“How did he get past the airlock?” Apollo shouted, cursing eloquently before heading toward the doors to the sex den. “Come on!”
“Why are we going to hide?” Caden demanded. “He’s blocking our way out!”
“Follow me!” Apollo said, ripping the mask off of his face. “I know where to go.”
When two more bolts headed their direction in rapid succession, Aralyn grabbed Caden’s arm. “We don’t have a choice,” she hissed, pulling him along. “Let’s go!”
The four runners followed Apollo toward the doors, rushing past a sea of mystified faces as they ran through the first virtual sex booths toward the back.
“There’s nothing back here,” called Kita. “We already looked.”
Apollo cast a knowing grin over his shoulder. “I own this place, love. I think I know a thing or two about making its emergency exits.”
Aralyn’s eyes grew wide with shock. “You own Redux?”
He barked out a laugh as they took a left into a sea of half or completely naked people, nearly crashing head first into several of them as they weaved through the crowd. “Not just Redux, jameela. I own this entire piece of rock.”
“I guess that explains why you wanted to meet here to begin with,” Riordan grumbled, holding up the rear with heavy, panting breaths. “Where are we going?”
“Over here,�
�� Apollo said, heading directly for one of the sex rooms at the end where the rock wall dead ended.
He lifted aside the velvet curtain and ushered them in with a sweeping arm.
Everyone hesitated at the small dark booth, but Aralyn rolled her eyes and stepped forward. “If this gets us killed or imprisoned, believe we are coming for you when we get out of it.”
Apollo’s concerned face blossomed into a delighted smile. “I’d expect nothing less.”
Aralyn ducked into the room, and then Caden and the others followed. Once inside, Apollo drew the curtain and flipped a switch panel on the wall. A small overhead neon light bathed them in a faint purple glow. The only furniture in the room was a mattress lying on the floor covered in various stains and sporting a couple of pillows.
“Cozy,” Kita said, keeping her limbs close by her sides as though she was afraid to touch anything. “So do we just wait here until the lunatic with the gun finds us and hope he just wants to relax instead of kill us?”
Apollo ignored her and knelt by the back wall where he felt gingerly around the edges of what appeared to be a metal air vent panel. His eyes narrowed as he focused on his task, and was soon rewarded with a small click as the panel released and revealed an opening about three feet wide into a tunnel on the other side.
“Everyone get in,” he said, moving the panel aside. “This will lead us to the docks.”
Caden eyed Aralyn before kneeling down and crawling through the opening into the space beyond. From not far away, several prostitutes began screaming, and Aralyn cursed, pulling her shotgun from its holster. Apollo’s eyes widened with delight.
“You are just full of surprises, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Yeah, well you get screwed over a couple times, you figure out how to screw other people over first,” she replied.
Once Kita and Rio went through to the tunnel, she ducked down as well and went inside. Behind her, Apollo lifted the panel by a small handle and secured it back into place before turning to face them, a finger over his lips to keep them from asking any more questions. He pointed the way down the barely-lit hallway behind them, and then pushed forward to lead the way himself.
The hall was likely another mining tunnel, crudely carved from the stone around them.
“Helios,” Caden hissed as he smacked his head into a lower-lying outcrop of rock for a third time. “Did an orachal fiend mine this tunnel?”
The only reply was a withering glare from Apollo in front and he quieted down again. They made their way through the mineshaft, the gravity decreasing until they were once more in the semi-floating low gravity of the entrance area. By the time they reached another similar panel in the wall, though, Aralyn’s low-lying claustrophobia had kicked in and her hair was damp with sweat like she’d jumped in a pool. Apollo gestured them closer, speaking in a whisper.
“This comes out on the other side of the air lock leading to the docking area. We’ll need to move fast. Once we’re inside, get your guns and be prepared; there could be more men on the other side waiting for us.”
“Duh,” Kita said, pulling her mask off. “Do you think this is the first time we’ve run from some psychos with guns?”
Apollo was quiet as he knelt and shoved the panel aside and popped his head out to check the hall, floating half in and half out of the opening.
“It’s clear,” he said. “C’mon.”
He pulled himself out and then reached a hand to help pull the rest of them through. Once on the other side, Aralyn took a good look around as he replaced the panel, recognizing it as the entrance near the docks, just as the informant had promised. Once out into the open air, she felt that she could breathe once more.
“Live in a tiny ship for months, not a problem, but get stuck in a tunnel and I look like a half-drowned rat,” she muttered as they went.
“This way,” he said, hurrying as well as he could toward the large door that led to where their ship was.
The doors opened and once they’d all piled inside the large chamber, the obnoxious voice that had first instructed them to take their guns and place them in the chambers came back on over their heads.
“Ah, leaving so soon?” he pouted. “But you barely enjoyed what Redux had to offer―”
“Herris, enough,” called out Apollo. “Give them their guns. There’s a shooter in the club. Get all available security there now.”
All lazy triteness disappeared from his voice as he said, “Of course, Apollo.” The drawer with their weapons slid open and each one of them returned their masks and picked up their guns. Aralyn rubbed at her eyes, grateful for her mask’s absence. It wasn’t easy to constantly view the world through the slight purple glow of the holo-mask just around the edges of her sight like a halo.
Once they’d retrieved the guns and armed themselves―Aralyn switching to her handgun, which would be a lot less likely to puncture holes in the metal―the doors creaked open to reveal the slab of dock, devoid of any armed gunmen. Their ship was still in the same port and didn’t appear to be vandalized; something Aralyn was grateful for beyond words for the moment.
“Over there,” said Caden, pointing to the ship. “Let’s go.”
“Low gravity is so much less enchanting when you’re literally hopping away from someone trying to kill you,” Kita said, bouncing fervently toward the Phantom.
“Reserve comments for when we’re out of this,” Aralyn said, gritting her teeth as she, too, floated as quickly as she could toward the ship.
From the shadows to their left was a spot of motion and Aralyn turned too late; the gentle sound of a hammer clicking into place sent a tingle of fear down her spine.
“Stop right there,” hissed a man hidden in the dark.
The only obvious thing about him was the barrel of the gun clenched in his gloved hand. Aralyn couldn’t make out any of his other features.
“What do y―” Apollo began, but the gunman raised his weapon higher, effectively silencing them.
“Turn around and head back toward the station,” the stranger rasped. “And don’t think about using those guns. I’ve got a twitchy trigger finger.”
Obediently, they turned and headed back the way they came, but anger rose in Aralyn’s throat, hot and searing like bile.
“Stars, I have had it with this shit,” she muttered.
As she landed on her next step, she kicked off hard with her foot, bouncing high in the low-g air. She spun as the gunman fired on her, missing both times. She leveled her sight on him and fired, sending a bolt straight through his head and leaving a crater where his face had once been.
“And they say violence doesn’t solve anything,” said Kita. She gestured back to the ship. “Shall we?”
“Don’t you want to know who the hell that guy is?” Rio asked, looking away from the bits of tissue and blood rising into the artificial air.
“It’s not worth it. There’s another one on our tail, remember?” said Caden.
“In this instance, the Spector and I agree,” said Apollo. “We can worry about that later on when we’re far away from here.”
Once on board, they started the engines up and hurried into their positions, Riordan monitoring the systems for any odd activities while Aralyn jumped into the pilot’s seat, Caden took the co-pilot’s seat and Kita kept a careful eye on Apollo.
“Well,” Kita said once they were safely underway, “what’s the first step in your big plan―you know, the one that comes after ‘blackmailing the people you’re supposed to be helping?’”
“First things first, shouldn’t we, as your hacker said, find out who was shooting at us?” Apollo asked.
Caden shrugged. “They don’t matter. It probably means that the news has broken that we’ve escaped lockup and hunters are already after us, or that Eladia tracked us down again. Either way, the answer won’t change what we need to do.”
“Maybe they were shooting at him,” Riordan suggested, jutting his chin toward Apollo.
“That
’s rich coming from anyone in this anti-social group,” said Apollo. “I, on the other hand, play extremely well… with everyone.” He grinned at Riordan, who flushed and looked back down at the keyboard with a scowl.
“So where exactly do we need to be?” Aralyn asked, still piloting away from Hallis Three as quickly as she could get. “I need a destination.”
“Spill it,” said Caden. “We’ve got work to do.”
Apollo sighed as though the idea pained him. “I suppose so,” he began. “But none of you are going to like what I have to say.”
“I haven’t liked a single thing that you’ve said so far, so I’m not seeing an issue,” Caden said.
“Try us,” Aralyn called over her shoulder. Once they had plotted a course away from Halis Three, she stepped out from behind the cockpit, crossing her arms over her chest.
“It’s not like you have anywhere to go in the meantime,” Kita reminded him, gesturing to the ship around them.
With a smile that was halfway between sneer and grin, Apollo acquiesced, bowing his head in agreement. “There’s a party ship,” he began. “It runs through the inner planets.”
Annoyed, Riordan cut in, “How’re we supposed to find―”
Apollo shook his head. “Finding it isn’t the issue; I know where it is. I have the schedule. What happens after we find it, however, might be.”
“Party ship,” Kita spat. “What he means is that it’s a private event for a bunch of rich douchebags to go and buy more slaves. I had to deliver the orachal there a couple times, when they first started making me run it.” Her cheerful demeanor was gone. In its place was something dangerously close to fury.
“And in order for us to get in,” Apollo continued, “we are going to have to be those… ‘rich douchebags.’”
“Somehow that doesn’t seem like a stretch of character for you,” Caden said, rolling his eyes.
Apollo practically lunged at Caden, spearing a finger toward his face. “Ayreh feek. I don’t care what you think of me. I made the decisions I thought were necessary to survive in life. I didn’t get the chance to flip sides whenever I felt like it.”
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