“Don’t leave unless you’re taking Danny with you!” Alex exclaimed.
“Alex,” Danny admonished, knowing how much Chase hated to be ordered around.
“Son, you need to get out. I will call you if there’s any change,” Alex said, waving his arm, then regretting it instantly. His eyes glazed with the wave of pain that came over his ribs.
“There’s no change?” Chase asked gently, taking half a step into the room.
“They say she’s not in a coma anymore, but I’ve never seen my wife sleep this deep,” Alex said, taking shallow, but steady breaths.
“At least you’re doing better, sir,” Chase said.
Amanda giggled again and Alex shot her a look. “Sir,” she teased.
“I cannot thank you enough for staying with him. You are so much better than any of us deserve,” Danny said, meeting Chase by the door and hugging him into the room.
“Well, he has a ship to prep and I’m done with yours,” Chase commented, his whole body starting to shake. It was more than being ordered around that was getting to him.
“What’s wrong?” Danny asked, taking a step back. “You’re usually cracking jokes left and right? Did something happen? Was it Coro? Sikorsky? Did someone come after you?”
Chase shook his head, his eyes never meeting Danny’s. “I thought you were leaving. I heard Oriana’s shipping out tomorrow.”
“Where did you hear that?” Danny asked.
“Around,” Chase shrugged, his brows furrowing. It was the kind of expression that Danny normally responded to with a kiss and a joke, but he wasn’t sure where he stood with Chase anymore.
“You’re not leaving?” Chase asked, taking a big breath.
“Well… not tomorrow. I don’t think. Unless someone’s making plans that I don’t know about,” Danny said, pausing when he felt his Virp vibrate. He skimmed the message from Tray. “How about that? Tray’s making plans I don’t know about.”
“Oh, good. I have enough troubles with Coro thinking he owns my ship,” Alex commented. “Go Captain your ship before Tray hires someone else.”
Danny cocked his head, looking suspiciously at Alex until he was sure this wasn’t a conspiracy. Then he looked at Jennifer, lying in bed, her skin splotchy, her lips cracked.
“Go. I will vring you the moment she wakes,” Alex assured.
“I know. I just wanted to be here for her,” Danny said, taking Jennifer’s hand and giving it a kiss. He looked at Chase. “Kemah?”
Chase opened his mouth, then closed it, his brows knitting again. “I came to talk to Alex.”
Danny found that weird, but he didn’t argue. He didn’t know anything about Chase’s life now or even what the man had been up to since they built the Bobsled. His head hanging, he left the hospital room, only slightly relieved when Amanda came beside him.
“Where are you going?” he asked, touching his neck again. His beard was gone—shaved so that he could wear the oxygen tube more comfortably.
“I’m not staying in there with a whole bunch of strangers,” Amanda said, sounding like her teenage self, talking to an idiot grown-up.
“Alex is not a stranger,” Danny said.
“He is to me,” Amanda said. “As much as I know I knew him in the past, I don’t remember knowing him. No matter how good these meds are, the memories just aren’t there to be found.”
“You could make new ones,” Danny suggested, linking arms with her.
Amanda shrugged and shook her head. “Chase wanted to talk to him.” She smiled softly at his name. “He’s cute.”
“He’s too old for you. Also, he has a girlfriend,” Danny said, biting his cheek. He didn’t know how to feel anymore. He was just taking things one hour at a time, but he was relieved Oriana was going to fly again soon.
They weren’t two steps out of the hospital before that relief died.
“Matthews,” Damien Coro growled, his two bodyguards positioned so that Danny and Amanda were cornered.
Amanda activated the stunner mounted into her glove and Danny didn’t even have the heart to pull out his pulse rifle, he felt so defeated.
“What now, Coro?” Danny asked tiredly.
“You’re flying to Terrana,” Coro said.
Danny glanced at his Virp. “I don’t know what Tray’s plans are, but I doubt Terrana is on the itinerary.”
“It is now,” Coro said, motioning Danny and Amanda to walk. One of the bodyguards pressed a knife to Danny’s back to encourage him. “You will take me to the Panoptica.”
“What makes you think I know where they are?” Danny asked.
“I think she can find them,” Coro said, pointing to Amanda.
Amanda exchanged a look with Danny, the slight shake in her head telling him that by agreeing, they’d only be delaying their inevitable executions.
“The endemic trade is over, Coro. Or haven’t you read the news?” Danny groused.
“This is not a trade, it’s a rescue,” Coro said. “Sky stole my wife.”
“Sky wouldn’t have taken her against her will. She doesn’t take prisoners,” Amanda said. “And she doesn’t trade in lives.”
Coro bristled. “If you do not take me—”
“What?” Danny challenged, planting his feet, feeling something sharp dig into his back. “What do you think you can do to us, Coro?”
“Mr. Matthews, is that any way to treat your passengers,” Sikorsky crooned, appearing in the circle created by Coro’s guards. Amanda shivered, and Danny swore he felt the residual chill of teleportation radiating off of Sikorsky’s skin.
“Passengers? Plural?” Danny asked.
“I have granted Tray peace and protection with his family these past few days,” Sikorsky sneered. “That doesn’t come free.”
“Can I kill him?” Amanda whispered.
“You would hurt your own grandson?” Danny asked.
“I do this to protect him,” Sikorsky said. “We must take down Deivon Parker.”
“Oh. Well, it’s hard not to be on board with a government coup,” Danny said glibly, shooting a glower at Sikorsky. “You realize, the locals attempted this ten years ago and failed?”
“They were fighting an impossible fight,” Sikorsky said. “Parker had leveraged the Panoptica to make people Disappear. But we can use that as well.”
He nodded toward Amanda when he said the latter.
“She can’t go back there. She barely got out the first time!” Danny cried.
“They don’t care if I get out,” Amanda said. “Coro was trying to use me as an entrance fee just so Parker would let him in.”
“That’s why I let your friend live,” Coro said. “You are the only one of value.”
“That never would have worked Damien,” Sikorsky criticized.
“You think she’s more valuable as a radar?” Coro retorted.
“It doesn’t matter what she can do!” Danny said. “She can’t go back there. People want to kill her on Terrana!”
“People want to kill me here,” Amanda commented. “And for stupider reasons than up there. At least there, I know who my enemy is. And it’s not like I’m staying there either. What if Cordova is a nice place? Or Rocan.”
“Do you remember Rocan? They tried to breed you,” Danny said. He couldn’t tell if she was serious, or if she was trying to cheer him up with her preposterous suggestions.
“They do that to everyone. It just means they love you and want more people like you around,” Amanda said, taking both his hands. “If Sikorsky wants to die fighting Parker, I say we give him a chance. If he stays here, he’ll be a constant threat to Tray and Hero.”
Danny started to protest, but he was the only one against the idea and he’d already lost. “Fine, I’ll take him. But you’re staying here with Alex and Jennifer. I don’t want Sikorsky near you. He moved you once against your will, and he’ll only get better at it.”
“You believe funny things, Danny,” she smiled, giving him a kiss on the nose. “F
unny, funny.”
Danny took a breath, wondering if he could sedate her long enough to leave her behind, but knowing her, she’d steal a ship to follow. Giving a wary eye to Coro’s guards, Danny pulled Amanda close and tapped his Feather. “Tray, we need to talk.”
43
Tray extended one of his crutches, hobbling around the winding displays of the insect museum, keeping his son in view. He’d had a brief reprieve when a bug demo started near some benches. Hero was ecstatic to hold a cockroach in his hand. The bug species had come with them from Earth, and was rumored to have survived multiple extinction events. Tray was just glad he knew how to cook them. The insects thrived in the forest area, and because of their wild diet they had sort of a nut flavor, and sort of a pork flavor. City-born bugs required a lot more seasoning to be edible.
Mikayla kept her distance from Tray, standing on the opposite side of the hall. Her clothes were plainer than his, and she bounced on her heels, eyes alert. The grasshoppers in the terrariums had her on edge, but she seemed to prefer constant flinching over associating with an aristocrat. She behaved differently outside the estate.
“You didn’t have to come, Mikayla,” Tray said, brushing her shoulder as they passed through a bottleneck point.
She moved her jaw side-to-side, then slipped her hand over his, her anxiety abating at the connection. “When you said we were going to Kemah, I figured we’d go to the fairgrounds. I didn’t even know this place existed.”
Tray chuckled. He’d happened upon the museum by accident when searching for cricket recipes. “This kid has an unhealthy love of six-legged critters.”
Her thick lips curved into a smile and she walked him to a circular bench in the center of the room, letting him sit while she kept watch over Hero. “I can’t believe I’m in Kemah and I’m not being arrested,” she said, crossing her arms, tugging the sleeves of her shirt.
“You’re welcome,” Tray said, leaning against the back of the bench. It was designed to give his legs a rest, but wasn’t comfortable for his torso.
“Don’t even try to take credit for bringing down Ketlin. They brought themselves down. You were just a catalyst,” she said.
Tray cringed at the biting remark. When they were married, she’d talk down to him all the time, undercut his confidence, and discredit his work. Back then, he thought she was being a realist and keeping him from getting big-headed. Now, he recognized the verbal abuse.
“Oriana’s leaving tomorrow,” he said, changing the subject.
“And you’re going with them?” she asked, giving him a hard look.
“No, I just thought Hero might like to say good-bye to the crew,” Tray said, planting his crutches and rising to his feet. He didn’t like her looking down on him.
“Tray, it’s bad enough you’ve dragged me to a bug museum in Kemah. You are not taking my son anywhere near that spaceport. I don’t want him knowing where that place is,” she snapped.
“You realize he now knows where this place is,” Tray countered. He could imagine getting a call in the middle of the night from a security guard because Hero teleported in to watch the glow-bugs.
“You know, it’s a miracle he actually landed on the boat to find me,” she ranted under her breath. “He could teleported into the bay, and then what?”
“He would have come back home, soaking wet,” Tray said. She glowered and he shrugged. “He went to the pool once, by accident. That’s why I want him to practice. So he can land next to the pool.”
“What can you teach him? You don’t do what he does,” she argued, turning her back to him, then turning again to see Hero.
“Can you?” Tray asked, stepping into her field of view and dropping his voice. “Is that why you didn’t want kids? Why you didn’t tell me we had one?”
She stayed silent. He couldn’t even catch her eye.
“We can’t change what he is. People like Lois Ketlin will kill for his power. He has this power. He should be able to use it to his own defense,” Tray pointed out. He didn’t understand why she couldn’t concede that point.
“This is why I didn’t want him knowing you. Or Sikorsky,” she muttered.
“I want him to be able to say good-bye to his uncle tomorrow,” Tray said firmly.
“He has school. Then swimming. So much to catch up on,” she said, shuddering with a wave of grief and regret.
“I don’t want him growing up isolated from his family. I want him to have a normal life with school and friends and no weapons or evil people trying to take him hostage. I’m fighting for the life I want him to have, and that includes his family,” Tray insisted, taking Mikayla’s hand. “That includes you.”
For a moment, the aura of anger broke and he thought she’d cry. She leaned in to kiss him, but he pressed his lips shut and looked away.
“Still can’t handle public affection?” she teased, crossing her arms.
Tray stammered, feeling helpless. “You know me,” he mumbled.
“You were pretty open about kissing Saskia in public,” she taunted, the cruel glint returning to her expression. “What’s the story? Were you planning to keep a mistress on the side while publicly reconciling with your ex?”
“No. She’s… leaving with Oriana,” Tray stammered, his stomach turning somersaults.
“How convenient,” she sneered.
“Well, I—you—Hero—” How could he stand up to her without jeopardizing his connection to Hero? “No, I had no intention of keeping her on the side while I…”
“Spit it out, Tray.”
Tray looked at Hero, standing next to an ant display, lecturing the other kids like a tour guide. Families surrounded them, some stressed, but most happy. And here he was, cowering while Mikayla picked a fight.
“Why are you doing this here?” Tray asked shakily.
“Because I’m not going home with you, Tray,” she said pointedly. “I’m not going back to that house. I’m not taking Hero back to that house. I’m not an aristocrat, Tray. Never was. You want to save Hero? That house is what we need to get him out of. That legacy. That Vimbai association.”
Tray nodded.
“We’ll start over in a new city with new names. The smaller sub-domes make it easy. Ketlin won’t even know to chase us,” she continued.
“And Danny? And Saskia?” Tray asked.
“We’re starting over, Tray. There is no past,” she declared.
“My father tried that. He changed my name and tried to distance me from this legacy. But no matter how hard he whipped me, I still looked for my mom,” Tray said. “I still found my brother. I found where I came from. Hero knows that place already.”
“He’ll forget.”
“No,” Tray said, raising his voice as much as he dared. “No, I can’t let you do that to him. I won’t. I can’t do that to Danny. I can’t do that to Saskia. I can’t.”
“Daddy, what’s wrong?” Hero asked, shifting Tray’s crutch to the side and coming under Tray’s arm.
“Your mother thinks she can hide you from me,” Tray said, angry at the thought of losing his precious boy.
“Oh, sure. Make me the villain,” she groused, giving Tray a glower, then bending down to get at eye level. “Hero, you hate that big house. We’re moving out. That’s all.”
“She wants to change your name so no one can find you,” Tray said.
“He wants to parade you in front of dangerous people and trust his wealth to protect him,” Mikayla huffed. “Look at him—bruised and battered, barely walking. That’s some pretty impotent money.”
“Oh, was that a jab?” Tray snapped back. “You think you can make me feel guilty for loving another woman?”
Hero disappeared and Tray tumbled to the side. “Now look what you’ve done,” he accused.
“You started it!” she snapped. “When a kid asks you what’s wrong, you don’t tell him the truth. You tell him what he can handle!”
“I’m not going to sugarcoat things for a kid whose about to have
his life taken away from him,” Tray cried.
“Two weeks with him and you think you know what he needs?” she retorted. “I spent six years raising him. And I spent the last two months separated from him because you couldn’t let him go.”
“Couldn’t let him go?” Tray sputtered. “Mikayla, I was just trying to get a hold of him for a split second. See his face! Hear his voice!”
A museum security guard came into the room, and they both quieted. Mikayla crossed her arms and scanned for Hero. “Do you think he’s coming back?”
“Who knows?” Tray grumbled, checking his Virp. “But unlike you, I was smart enough to put a tracker in his shoe because I am willing to acknowledge that he has a special ability and I can’t control when he uses it. He’s at home.”
Tray started walking and she overtook him on the way to the exit. “Thought you were never going back there.”
She turned, her lips curled threateningly. “Tray, you may not have kidnapped the boy, but when you discovered he was a prisoner, you didn’t report it. That’s child endangerment. Didn’t let him go to school. That’s neglect. I can have you removed and declared unfit, and legally, you will not be permitted in the same room as Hero ever again.”
“You wouldn’t do that,” Tray said.
“I kept him from you for six years already,” she sneered.
“You couldn’t. I’ll fight for him,” Tray said.
She turned and left, moving faster than he could follow. Tray was in shock from the threat, and by the time he made it to the train, his arms were giving out, his elbows buckling every time he put weight on the crutches. He found Mikayla in the middle of the car, her face pressed to the window, a damp napkin crushed in her fist.
“Please, Mikayla. Please don’t hide him,” Tray begged, falling into the seat next to her. He didn’t know where to take the conversation, but he knew that reconciliation—even for Hero’s sake—was impossible. “If you don’t want to live in the house, fine.”
“I can’t move down the street and keep my name,” Mikayla said. “It’s not safe for us. Sikorsky will swoop in, and his protection is not what’s best for us.”
The Gray Market: A Space Opera Adventure Series (The New Dawn Book 5) Page 35