Gabe cleared his throat and Holly caught him exchanging a look with Meg.
“Uh oh. I know that sound. And that look. What’s going on?” Holly put down her knife and folded her arms. She leaned back against the counter.
“There’s another reason we wanted to meet with you tonight.”
“You don’t say?” Holly teased. “Besides the warning that mom is coming back to Kota? She’s finally giving up on Joppa and dad?”
“Yes, that was important,” Meg admitted.
Before Gabe or Meg could explain further, the front door opened and Odeon strolled in. He used his Ousaba staff as a walking stick. His hair was getting longer and hung down nearly to his shoulders. Charm shouted with glee when she saw him and ran to greet him.
“I didn’t know Odeon was coming,” Meg said from beside Holly.
“He’s got unlimited access to my condo. So he comes and goes as he pleases. He’s like a cat.”
“A bit insulting, isn’t that?” Gabe joked. “How would you feel if I said you were like my cat?”
“Oh, did I say he was my cat? I didn’t mean my anything. The man does whatever he wants. And I observe from a distance, enjoying it. When he chooses to be with me, I enjoy it even more.”
Gabe grinned and sipped his drink. “I bet there are plenty of guys who would love to be your cat anyway, kiddo.”
“Gabe, really.” Meg said, her voice dripping disdain.
“Meg just hates it that I’m her cat,” Gabe stood up and sauntered over to Odeon.
Meg sighed, then laughed and rolled her eyes as though exasperated. “Please. The last thing I need is a pet. Let alone a cat. Snobby. Elitist.”
“Hello, Gabe,” Odeon said, finishing his bows with Charm. Then he gave her a big hug, lifting her feet off the ground and twirling her around. Holly caught herself grinning widely. Odeon put her down, and the two girls ran back to their spot on the couch. Odeon strolled over to Gabe’s side. He slapped Odeon on the shoulder, but Odeon moved in for a more traditional beso-greeting, delivering the detective a kiss on each cheek.
“Can I grab you a drink?” Gabe offered as he recovered from the greeting.
“A drink. Yes. Please,” Odeon said, following Gabe into the kitchen area. “Hello, Meg.”
“Good to see you, Odeon. Are you staying for dinner?” Meg asked. Odeon gave her a beso and Meg laughed awkwardly. They still weren’t quite used to Odeon’s un-self-conscious approach.
“Holly,” Odeon said, standing beside her where she was finishing up the tofu.
“Hey, Odeon,” Holly said. “Did you know that Gabe and Meg were going to be here tonight?”
“You’d mentioned it. So I came to see them,” he said plainly. “And you.”
“Of course, me. Two hours ago at Surge wasn’t enough.”
“It never is, Holly Drake,” Odeon said.
Gabe handed Odeon a bottle of beer he pulled from the fridge.
“Make yourself at home, Gabe,” Holly said.
“You know you never need to ask, kiddo. What are you having?”
Holly hesitated. She’d begun to wonder if she was relying too much on drinking, and with all the inter-moon travel, there were times that she really needed it. Like medicine. Otherwise she had to lean too heavily on Odeon’s singing to calm her. But this was a social occasion. “Just a standard ale. Whatever I have in there, Gabe. Thanks.”
The chopped tofu on the flat of her blade slipped into the hot oil with a hiss. She slid the knife under the remainder and transferred the rest of it into the wok. She left the knife on the cutting board and grabbed the handle of the wok and shook it to toss the tofu in the oil. Gabe passed her the open bottle of ale and she sipped it while she cooked. She turned away from the stove and moved to the island counter.
“Gabe. You were about to tell me the real reason you and Meg wanted to come by tonight.”
“That. Right. Yes.” Gabe took a long drink of his ale. When he finished he glanced at his ex-wife. There was a glimmer in his eyes. “Er, Meg? You want to take this one?”
Meg shook her head. “It’s not that crazy, Holly. We’ve narrowed down who the mole is. Moles are. The traitors. We have a couple people we think it is. And we’re low on manpower. Plus they know me and Gabe. So we wondered if there was someone on your team that could put in some hours tailing one of them.” Meg turned to check on the tofu and then lifted the cutting board over the wok and dumped in half the vegetables.
“That’s it? Have someone on my crew follow your dirty cops?”
Gabe tilted his head as though embarrassed that he was asking for something. “Still, we hate to ask for a favor.”
“You hate to,” Meg said. “Gabe thinks it’s a sign of weakness to ask for help.”
“And Meg has never had a problem asking for help,” Gabe pointed out, his tone laced with sarcasm.
Holly cleared her throat. “Get a room. And not one of mine, thanks.”
“That’s always been one of my favorite human expressions,” Odeon said. So far he hadn’t touched his beer.
“Odeon, did you want some wine?” Holly asked, noticing his untouched beer.
“I couldn’t ask you to spoil this perfectly good beer for me,” Odeon said, his gaze landing on the beer. He’d been avoiding it like a dead fish.
“It won’t be spoiled. I’m sure Gabe will be happy to finish it off.”
“Not really finishing it, when he hasn’t even started it.” Gabe laughed and leaned across the table to snag Odeon’s unwanted beer.
“Meg, you got the stir fry?”
“Wouldn’t be very much of a sister if I didn’t,” Meg said. Checking the wok again. They’d grown up cooking together, especially when they were older and their parents worked so many hours. They’d learned to split up the duties and tag-team meal preparation. If they hadn’t learned some basic healthy dishes like the stir-fry, they would have been stuck eating toast and jam for their entire lives.
Holly went to the buffet and opened a cabinet. She withdrew a bottle of Centau wine. “Sorry, Odeon. I’m out of Druiviin wines.”
“I’ll take whatever you have.”
“So,” Holly began, drilling the corkscrew into the wine top. “If catching the traitors on your squad requires a tail, then I can ask my team if any of them would be willing to spend time following the moles. I’m not sure if any of them will want to. Jace might. But I know the others won’t. They’re too busy.” She pulled on the cork until it popped. Then she took a glass down from the shelf where it hung upside down from the stem, and poured the dark blue wine.
“I would do it, Holly,” Odeon said, accepting the freshly poured glass of wine.
“There you go, Gabe. A volunteer.”
Gabe spun on his stool to study the Druiviin. A grin flickered at the corner of Gabe’s lips. “You sure, Odeon?”
“As I understand it, one reason Holly and I have been working on this kidnapping case is due to the leaks at your work? If you had a squad that you trusted, there would have been no trouble in rescuing the children on the Ixion base yourself?”
Meg shrugged from her place tending the stir fry. “Sort of. Maybe, yes. We would have been able to do more on that case.”
“Then helping you is worth the sacrifice.”
Holly grinned at Odeon, studying her friend’s face. He was a brilliant thief, she was learning. But his honor was still beautiful, all the more so because he had a sense of when his honor didn’t follow the traditional codes. He thought about it. It didn’t simply run through him like blood, oblivious to its role in his life.
“Jace might be willing to help as well,” Holly said, glancing at Gabe. She caught the faintest suggestion of bristling from Odeon when she said this. “Seems smart to have two people doing it.”
“Jace?” Gabe echoed. “Who’s Jace?”
“Jace is an alias. Don’t try to guess who’s on my crew, Gabe. You’ll fail. And then I won’t do your favor.” Holly grinned cheekily at her ex-brother-i
n-law. “Speaking of favors. If I do this for you, would you guys be willing to do some snooping into what is known about the hierarchy of the Shadow Coalition? The Hands. The Heart.”
Meg turned from the stove to glance at Gabe. He nodded. “We can.”
“But don’t get yourselves killed doing it. I know I don’t have to say that, right?”
“You don’t. But thanks for the reminder, Holly” Meg said, lifting the wok from the heat and moving it to a cool burner. “This is done. Let’s eat.”
4
The bartender at Glassini was becoming a familiar, friendly face. A female Druiviin with bright green eyes, she smiled and waved at Holly as she strode toward the table Xadrian Tyanne currently occupied. Holly sighed. Xadrian Tyanne. The go-between separating Holly from Dave, the government official. The man with a plan.
“They should start charging you a table tax,” Holly said as she sat in the tall stool across from Xadrian. He looked up and gave her a cursory smile. It vanished quickly.
“They appreciate my return patronage.” He pursed his lips at her. They were cherry red and his eye shadow was night blue. His white, sequined cowboy hat glittered and winked in the soft amber lights. Gold and silver sequins covered his long dress coat. Being next to Xadrian always made her feel underdressed.
“I don’t doubt that,” Holly said.
He lifted the three-fluted wine glass to his lips, and paused. “Why are we here, HD?” He took a sip of the wine, using the pet-name he’d given her from their first meeting, which she’d of course riffed on herself and now teasingly referred to him as XT.
“I think you know,” Holly said. She tilted her head to one side and gave him an expectant look, tempering it with a grin.
Xadrian groaned. “You want me to buy you a drink?” His voice sounded chipper as he asked it, but there was a sarcastic bite to the tone.
“Go for it, thanks. I’d take a glass of wine,” she said, leaning back in her seat, stretching. She touched her pony-tail and adjusted it slightly. The worry that Xadrian wouldn’t give her what she wanted niggled at her. And if he didn’t, then what would she do? Just show up at Dave’s office? “But I want something else.”
Xadrian waved for the bartender and gestured at Holly when the Druiviin looked at him.
“Drink ordered. Now, what is the purpose of our meeting? And don’t tell me that I should just know.”
“XT. Come on. I only ever want one thing.” She waited for him to nod in acknowledgement. When he maintained the baffled look he’d adopted seconds before, she continued, “I need to seem him.”
He made a frustrated gesture. “I’m beginning to feel like you don’t appreciate the time you get to spend with me.”
“I don’t.” She shrugged and winked to soften the insult. Why push her luck? He still had what she wanted.
“You do remember that there are parties interested in hurting him? And I am the protection against that, and when you repeatedly ask to bypass the safety measures he’s put in place to keep himself and his other interests—and don’t make me say who they are—out of harm’s way, you actually put him in harm’s way?”
Holly knew that Xadrian was right, and it actually sounded like he was simply concerned for Dave and his son Malcolm—who had already been kidnapped once before—and not just being petulant about Holly wanting to keep him out of the loop. She didn’t like the idea of compromising anyone’s safety. The issue was that Xadrian was a middle-man. He didn’t know everything that was happening. He didn’t have access to Dave’s knowledge, or Dave’s money.
Did she show a softer side to Xadrian to get what she wanted or was it better to play hardball with Xadrian? She still wasn’t always certain which tactics would work with such an ostentatious human. There was something unpredictable about him—the only thing she could rely on with Xadrian was that he was going to surprise her.
She opted for hardball. “I know. Yes. My goal isn’t to put him in danger. But you’re a middle-man. And this is something I need from him.”
Xadrian scanned the room. His gaze settled on the small three-piece band performing on stage. Their music was slow and sultry. Patrons at their tables swayed gently, almost absently as the number meandered on. When Xadrian looked at her again, there was an intensity in his expression. “If you want me to scratch your back, HD, then you’ll need to scratch mine.”
Holly held back a laugh. She cocked her head at him. “What is it that you want, XT?”
Xadrian first took another small drink of his wine, then leaned across the table and beckoned with a heavily ringed finger for Holly to get closer. “You might have heard that I dealt in hydrantium, the aether trade?”
She nodded. His breath was heavy with the sweetness of his wine.
“I know what you’re next move is. What I want from you is the left overs.”
“The what?” Holly looked askance at him.
“The hydrantium that remains after you deal with the coalition.”
“XT. Seriously, I have no idea how I’d even do that.”
“So you won’t?” He jerked back as though she’d stung him.
“Not saying that, no. I just have no idea how to keep a promise like that.”
He raised an eyebrow and looked sidelong at her. “Are you asking me to tell you how you could do it?”
“No. I’m telling you to spell it out for me.”
He leaned forward again. “Wonderful. Well, my dear HD, if you succeed in your mission, I will have parked a ship in the landing bay full of a team that could load the SC’s remaining hydrantium.” He pantomimed with his large hands a visual representation of a ship scooting into the base. “They’d be ready to round up the element and get the hell out of there, before the Centau can swoop in and confiscate it.”
“That’s it?” She was skeptical. “That’s everything? The only thing required of me, then, is an answer? You want me to say it’s fine with me if you take the spoils of war and make a run for it?”
He nodded and drained his wine glass. “That’s it.”
“Then yes. Now get me my meeting with him, XT.”
“Do I have your word, HD?”
Holly shook her head, a soft laugh escaping her. “You’re unbelievable. Yes. You have my word.”
He lifted his cowboy hat at her. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“You’re ridiculous, XT.” Holly couldn’t help but grin at his excesses.
5
An aether core drive dangled from a hoist above the engine of the SC Olavia Apollo. A Centau mechanic directed the human assistants as they guided the drive down into the exposed innards of the ship.
Odeon stood beside Holly, his hands gripped loosely around his Ousaba staff as the two of them watched what was happening. Trip oversaw the process. She was definitely a Centau with the controlling tendencies that seemed to run through all Centau. She didn’t trust who she’d charged with taking care of her ship. So she insisted on being present for the work. Centau appreciated order, but didn’t always enforce it with the vigor one might expect from people given to a fondness for structure and organization.
“Will it be faster once the engine is updated?” Odeon asked.
“I don’t know. Trip hasn’t told me yet. Maybe it’s a routine thing.” Holly scanned the room. It was a vast hangar on the south end of the Sliver, just outside the City of Jade Spires. Beneath the brilliant lights there seemed to be an entire fleet of mid-size space cruisers being worked on in one form or another. Grunt workers dressed in yellow coveralls rolled ship parts to and fro and handed tools to master mechanics dressed in bright blue coveralls with yellow and orange piping. There were landing pads and strips for ships of the smaller variety like the Olavia Apollo surrounding the central area where the hangar was located. The procedure had been scheduled for a while, which was one of the primary reasons that the crew had attempted to snag the fuel canisters before they’d even secured the big ship. The work on the Olavia Apollo would keep it out of commission for ten mor
e days but the job needed to be done and scheduling everything to work seamlessly meant that the fuel couldn’t hold them back.
Trip shouted something at the mechanic and Holly snapped her gaze back to the Centau pilot, who wore her goggles up on the front of her head. White stubble covered her light brown skull and her bright eyes flashed as she barked at the mechanic.
“What’s happening?” Holly asked.
Odeon craned his neck to see what was going on beneath the ship. “I don’t know. I can’t tell. Watching whatever they’re doing is like trying to decipher Centau calculus. I would not be able to decipher Yasoan calculus either, Holly.”
She laughed. “That makes two of us.”
Trip exchanged a few more heated words with the head mechanic, who matched her for volume and vehement gestures, drifting into the Centau language, and then he marched off. Trip shook her head and then approached Holly and Odeon where they watched from the perimeter, near the bay of controls for the hoists and other mechanical devices.
Holly exchanged a quick look with Odeon. Would Trip yell at them as well?
“This is infuriating. Trusting them with my life,” Trip said. “What do you need, Holly Drake and Odeon Starlight? It’s a bad time. Their negligence destroyed a core modulator. We were arguing over who would pay to replace it. They should pay for it. Not me.”
“Hard to argue with that,” Holly said and smiled. “So look, Trip, we thought it was time that you come to the crew HQ. But if you’re busy, we can do it another time.”
“Ah, so I am going to be allowed to be in on the crew’s darkest secrets? And shown the secret hideout?”
Holly blushed. “It’s not a hideout. But yes. We feel that you’ve proven yourself worthy of this.”
“The crew voted, Trip Taurus. It’s a good position to be in. Will you come with or should we do it another time?” Odeon gestured toward the massive doors that lead out to the landing strips. Beyond them there was an exit to the city that existed to support the goings on at the earth-side space port. There was a train station there that would take them back to the City of Jade Spires.
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