Three stops into their trip Biren got up and exited the car without warning, forcing her to hurry after him as the doors shut. They emerged from the auto-sub exit tunnel among a clutter of blue and brown market tents surrounded by buildings covered with holographic signs written in the flowing Isinaru script.
What’s he doing here? she wondered, pursuing him among the mostly tree-green crowd. Perhaps he hadn’t given up on infiltrating Elthroa after all and Lalande was not going to take her up on her offer. It saddened her to think so. The Gaians were directly involved and had access to knowledge she needed, but she also wanted her friend back. Boa was the only one she felt she could really trust—other than, perhaps, Giselle. Then why did I betray her? The thought stung like a knife in her gut. It was a very stupid thing to do, and for what? Information she probably could have gotten another way without too much effort.
Shouldering her way through the crowd she watched Biren duck between a takeout restaurant of some kind and a smartfiber repair shop down a narrow alley barely bigger than the width of his shoulders. She waited ten seconds, then followed him in. The sidewalk beneath her feet grew slick with grime. It took her a full twenty steps to reach the alley’s exit. She paused at its edge, unable to see Biren in the fastcrete courtyard between four residential buildings. She waited a few minutes, listening to the hum of air traffic and the murmur of the crowd behind her, but he never materialized.
She couldn’t see to either side of the courtyard without poking her head out, but if Biren was in either blind spot it would expose her. She couldn’t see him through the glass entrance of the building ahead of her, and didn’t think he could have passed through it and gone out of sight in the time it took her to follow him to this point. Though he wouldn’t recognize her as herself, he might recognize her from the auto-sub as someone following him, and she didn’t really have a good story as to why she was there. She waited another five minutes before deciding to throw caution to the wind and brave a more in-depth peek.
The moment she stuck her head out a hand grabbed her jacket, and she felt her body pulled off its feet. She was swung around so that her back struck the wall hard enough to give her a jolt, but not enough to hurt her. Biren’s dark eyes stared right into her own as he released her and put a hand on either side of her shoulders.
“So why are you following me Cygni?”
“You know?” She was shocked.
“You look very different, I didn’t know you could do that. Too bad you didn’t bring it up when we were still sharing a bed.” A lazy smile broke out on his lips. “You also forgot something about me, didn’t you?” He tapped his nose with one finger before restoring his hand to the wall beside her.
Her eyes narrowed as she searched her memory. Oh damn, she thought when she realized that he was right. Biren, as an Evolutionary, had his genes altered when he joined the sect. Among other abilities, he had the nose of a cerberai and could track people by scent. She felt like a total idiot for forgetting since he used the ability to help her on Minlea. Now that she thought about it, Shkur could do the same, and that made her feel twice as stupid for forgetting.
“Yup,” he said when it became apparent she remembered. “I can never forget your scent. I knew you were around since that gust of wind brought you to my attention in the tubes.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“So why are you following me?” The smile remained on his face, though not in his eyes.
“It’s not what you’re thinking.”
“And what am I thinking?”
“Don’t be coy with me, Biren—“
“And don’t get all high and mighty with me, Cygni. I’m not the one who put a spy-grain on my best friend.”
She chewed her lip. “Okay, fair enough. You’re right. I screwed up, but so did you.”
“That’s ancient history, and if you’re going to bore me with it I don’t think I’ll be interested in what you have to say much longer.”
She sighed. “All right. All right, wait. I followed you because I need—“ the words caught in her throat as the ghost of the pain he put her through surfaced. She fought to swallow it down, knowing that if she didn’t she would lose the opportunity to gain his help and her best friend back forever.
“You need something?” Biren rolled his eyes. “Maybe I’m not interested in helping you.”
“I need your help,” she said with a knot in her gut.
“So you can fuck us over again?” He cocked an eyebrow up. There was something odd about his tone. She’d seen him angry before, like when they finally found the Gaians the Orgnan had taken, but this wasn’t the same.
“Of course not, Biren. I’ve waited outside the Biodome every day this week, twice a day, for a chance to talk to you or Boa because I’m in over my head.” She waited, watching his reaction.
He leaned back, removing his hands from the wall behind her. She looked around the courtyard. There were windows in the buildings so they weren’t exactly in a private space, but she didn’t think she could hold his attention long enough to bring him somewhere so they could talk.
I watched them beat up one of their own, she transmitted to him. Her UI showed the link was still being established, and for a moment she thought he might not accept it.
“Who?” he sent back when they connected.
Baron Keltan. Revenant had the poor guy thrashed and strangled right in front of everyone like he was nothing. It’s more than that, though. This thing goes deep. Revenant is involved in a lot of heavy shit, and—and—I’m scared. She hated to admit it, but honesty, brutal and direct, was the only way she could think of to win him over. As much as she hated him for deserting her, and hated him for making her feel old feelings again, she realized that’s what she needed to do.
“Please,” she said aloud.
The word had an effect. He took a half-step back, his eyes darted between hers in rapid succession. “Holy shit. You’re really scared.”
She nodded, looking down at the ground.
“What you did is unforgivable,” he said without force. “But I guess I’ve done things like that, too. Haven’t I? Boa’s still pissed. She’s urging mom to take what you’ve got and leave you out in the cold. I’ve never seen her this angry, Cyg. You did a lot of damage.”
Cyg. He hadn’t called her that since Minlea.
He looked to the side, pursing his lips in thought. “I’ve already had to turn a beautiful woman down this week, I guess I don’t want to make it two.”
Who? she wondered for a moment before deciding it didn’t matter. “So you’ll help me?”
“I guess so. You’re hard to say no to.” He inhaled and let it out slow. “What do you need from me?”
A lot more than I want to admit, she sent. But first, I lost my access to the spy-grain I have at Elthroa when Ila decided niu loyalties lie with niur company. I can’t show up to the morning prayers anymore without niu suspecting I’m there to harm niur bosses. Cygni stared at him for a moment and something occurred to her. “Niu is still at work right now. What are you doing here in the Isinari district?”
He looked to the side again. “Um, well, I was trying to develop her as a contact. You know, in spite of you.”
“She is not a she. She’s a niu.”
“A niu? Wait, like the Galaeneans? Isinari switch sex?” His eyes widened.
“No, and the Galaeneans are only gender-neutral when they’re in their interstage. Isinari are male and female at the same time, all the time.”
He blinked, looking like the world just fell apart around him. “Oh.”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “You’ll have a wild night if you ever get into niur pants.”
“Oh,” he said again, then surprised her when the confusion cleared on his face. “Okay.”
“Really? Oh, ah, wow. Okay,” she said, recovering from her own surprise. And we can’t trust nium. Ila’s made a choice.
He nodded. “Okay. I guess I don’t need to keep going to s
ee her—nium now, then.”
“Niu is home?” She looked up the edifice of the building before her, wondering if his sudden recovery was due to a decision not to manipulate Ila romantically, or if it was due to a decision to move forward with it anyway.
“We’re meeting up here for lunch.” He nodded.
No, wait, maybe you should go ahead. Just don’t let on that anything’s changed. Maybe Ila will give you some information we could use, and I need access to that spy-grain. I’ll—she hesitated, but there was no other way. I’ll give you the codes to access it.
“Thank you for letting me know about Ila. I think you just saved me from making a huge mistake.”
He seemed earnest, so she continued. I’ve discovered a lot, and I’ve got a lot of footage to prove it. I need the data in that spy-grain to corroborate things. I think Baroness Sophiathena Cronus may be on to what Baron Revenant is doing, and I think he’s working with a very powerful group. Maybe it’s about a coup of the government.
He frowned. “Revenant is already in charge. Why would he want a coup?”
It was a good question, but she’d already thought it through. He doesn’t control everything. It’s possible I’m wrong, and it’s his allies that want to take over, but that means they’re controlling him. Functionally, I guess it’s the same thing, and it’s bad for all of us.
“His allies?”
She hushed him.
“Sorry. His allies like the other barons?”
She hesitated. Should she tell him who she knew it was? What would he do with that information?
I’ll tell you later, okay? Just trust me that something big is going down. Your own investigation should have uncovered that by now, right?
He looked about to say something, but nodded instead. “No, you’re right. We’ve been watching Baron Revenant for a long time, and now we have to watch his daughter. It’s worse with her.”
It was hard to imagine how that could be true. Cygni remembered the image of her at Mitsugawa Yoji’s crime scene. Her eyes looked rapturous as she watched the blood flow from his body, yet as creepy as that was, how could she be worse than Revenant? Was it possible she was a part of the murder?
“She knows a lot about us. She was on our side once.” He sighed.
On your side? Wheels turned in her brain, spinning faster when she recalled her original suspicion that there was a connection between House Mitsugawa and the Gaians: The Abyssian Praetor investigating Baron Mitsugawa Yoji’s death went to the biodome after visiting the scene of the crime. It was just an odd piece of information then, something that bothered her, but that she had no place for up until now. However, if the biodome considered Baroness Sophiathena, step-daughter of Baron Mitsugawa Yoji, a threat because she knew a lot about them, and if the Abyssian was investigating a connection between Yoji and the biodome—
Mitsugawa’s the link. You were working with him against Revenant, weren’t you?
Biren nodded. “You were always good with puzzles, Cyg. You got it.”
She took in a deep breath. Her hands were shaking. “How bad is it? How much does she know?”
“Bad. She knows everything, including that we know about Siren.” He looked around as though he’d just said something he shouldn’t have.
She tapped her head to remind him to use his implant. What’s Siren?
“Siren is a weapon, a nanomachine capable of altering the thoughts of those it infects. We think it’s what Baron Revenant used on Baron Mitsugawa to get him to throw himself out that window.”
Her mouth opened on its own. So it had been murder; she was right. Can you prove that?
“There’s no link. We have an agent on Elmorus investigating it, but if that doesn’t pan out…”
Elmorus, where the Abyssian went after visiting the Biodome. She nodded. It was coming together now. Praetor Graves stumbled upon the same plot that she was investigating. They were working towards the same end, which was a strange and hollow comfort to her. The Praetors didn’t help reporters. Still, it meant that there at least would be something of an ally in Daedalus if she could find a way to use the connection. It was too bad she couldn’t just reach out to him now to compare notes, but maybe she had the next best thing.
Is Praetor Graves working with you?
“I wouldn’t say that exactly,” Biren transmitted. “Along the same lines, may be more accurate.”
What about the new Baron Mitsugawa?
“We’re unsure of him. He hasn’t reached out.”
She nodded. Something tickled at the back of her mind. You said Siren was a nanomachine?
He nodded.
Does it look like this? She transmitted the image of the nanomachine Giselle showed her in Rega’s lab.
His eyes glazed over while he looked at it with his mind. When he returned to himself he shook his head. “I don’t know, could be.”
“Okay, at least I know that angle’s worth looking into.” She looked around as he had, the feeling of being exposed returning.
“You said you have more than this.” Biren’s eyes searched hers.
She nodded. “I know more about who’s involved, but we should probably get moving. We’ve been here too long already.”
“You’re right, and Ila’s waiting. Niu is very punctual.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, niu is—and remember to keep using the right pronoun.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll call you after I get your data. We should meet up somewhere after.”
“Someplace without ears,” she said.
“Okay, and I’ll talk to Boa for you, get her to relax a bit maybe.” He shrugged.
“Thank you. I appreciate it.”
He cocked his head to the side for a moment, then stepped in close and wrapped his arms around her. The move was so sudden she didn’t know how to react. She stiffened at first, but he kept holding her against his warm, muscular body and after a moment she hugged him back.
“Take care of yourself, Cyg. This is very dangerous stuff.”
“You too, Biri.”
He smiled at her, and for the first time since Minlea IV, she felt it might actually be genuine.
Home, and looking like herself again, the last thing she wanted to hear while attempting to scavenge a clean jumper from the display of entropy around her was the downstairs door chime. She was running late so she ignored it and looked under her sofa. There was an old popcorn-bar wrapper laying among half-a-dozen dust-bunnies, but no clean jumper. Shelves loaded with memorabilia from her journalistic cases occupied the space on either side of her apartment living room. In the same space she managed to fit a small holographic projection unit-cum-Cyberweb uplink node, and her well-worn, burgundy sofa. It left little room for walking around, and made coming in the front door difficult, which was why it was so mystifying she couldn’t find the jumper.
Maybe I left it in the bedroom? She asked herself for the fourth time in the last ten minutes. She had already searched it twice.
The electronic lock on the front door clicked, causing her to take a step back away from it in surprise.
“Shkur?” She said when it slid open, and wrapped her arms around her bare chest. He glared at her, walking into the apartment dressed in his uniform. A draft of cold air along with the smell of old cabbage followed him in.
“One of your neighbors let me in,” he said after the front door slid shut behind him. “I guess your building changed the security code downstairs.”
“Oh, shit. Yeah, management did. I meant to message the new code to you but I got distracted.”
“Work?”
“Yes.”
It was only partially true, but she didn’t want to get into why she’d been so busy the last few days. She felt bad, but it all really didn’t leave much time for him. For that matter, it didn’t leave much time for being home either. Her apartment had become just a place to catch some sleep between tasks and meetings.
Shkur looked her over.
“Let me get something
on,” she said, realizing that whatever he was going to say, she didn’t want to hear it in her underwear.
“Cygni, is something going on?” He asked as she hurried into the bedroom.
“What?”
“Do I have to battle someone for mating rights?”
How very Nyangari of you to put it that way, she thought. She started looking for her jumper in the cluttered bedroom again. “Shkur, my darling, you are the only male for me. I am not mating with anyone else; I’m not interested in that.” In desperation she yanked open her dresser and started flinging its contents out onto the bed.
He walked into the doorway of the bedroom with his tongue hanging out.
At least I could amuse him tonight, she thought.
“What are you looking for, pupling?” He returned his tongue to the inside of his mouth.
“My jumper,” she said, sitting down on the bed in frustration.
“This?” He picked up a yellow jumpsuit from the floor.
“That’s dirty, and it’s not a jumper. I’m looking for a smartfiber jumper; the one without sleeves. It’s like a dress. I’ve got work to do tonight.” She hung her head, hating to lie to him. The truth was she asked Sanul and Giselle to meet her at the bathhouse again. The lunch-time meeting with Biren had changed a few things in how she was approaching the investigation, but she wasn’t going to mention his involvement to her allies just yet. Though she felt bad about not telling Giselle, she wanted to be sure of him first.
Shkur stuck the flesh-petaled rose of his olfactory organ up into the air. It fluttered, as if blown by a breeze that only he could feel. He turned his head one way and then another before opening the closet door beside her dresser and plunging into the crowded mess of clothes within. Moments later he emerged holding her blue, smartfabric jumper.
She smiled. “My hero.”
He looked at it, then back at her. “This is a sack with holes in it, not a garment.”
Keltan's Gambit: Chronicles of the Orion Spur Book 2 Page 38