The Colossus Collection : A Space Opera Adventure (Books 1-7 + Bonus Material)

by Nicole Grotepas

  26

  Though much of her day was spent training at the Center with Aeolionaias and her muscles still ached from that, Holly was in top form the night of the soiree. She was there early to prepare with Charly, and then, before it began, she watched from the window in the Bird’s Nest as the Surge Club began to fill up. She was dressed in a black sheath dress that went to just above her knees. It was sleeveless and her black hair cascaded down her back.

  Darius sat at his bay of v-screens, keeping track of everyone. She’d never seen a job from this angle. Usually she put herself on the frontline and dealt with problems as they happened to her. She caught him giving directions to Shiro as they worked to prepare for the heist portion of the night. Their mark had RSVP’d and so things were moving forward.

  “Check, check.” Iain’s gravelly voice came over her earpiece.

  “Grant!” Darius said, his voice sounding like he was smiling. “How’s it going? Glad you’re joining us tonight.”

  “Ah, hello. Just checking to see if this thing still works,” Grant said. “I’ll be there soon. Heading over now.”

  “See you soon, Iain,” Holly said, then muted her mic. “Guess I’ll head down there, Darius.”

  “Sounds good, Drake. You look swell, you know?” Darius said, turning in his chair. He rose and went to the kasé brewer and prepared it. “This might be a late night. I need to get all my supplies lined up before things start to get hot.”

  “Good call.”

  “Keep an eye out. Just because it’s going to be a room full of supposed elite, doesn’t mean someone won’t show up we don’t know or expect. And you’re apparently a wanted woman,” Darius said. “We’re this close to finishing off the Heart for good, we can bet he’s got his eyes on us too.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out, Darius, if you swear to keep an eye on me,” she said, pausing at the stairs.

  “When have I ever not had you in my sights?” Darius asked, pretending to be offended. Their earpieces were suddenly filled with feedback noise. “Wait, what? Shiro is that you? Come in? Come in. You’re all fuzzy, man. Stop holding the comm unit up by your ear. You’re getting—oh my god. Sorry Drake, gotta solve this issue with Shiro. Get down there and party.”

  Holly laughed and complied. It was interesting to see things from Darius’s position. How often did she seem like the bumbling fool from this end? She’d have to razz Shiro about it later.

  When she sauntered onto the main floor of the club, she suddenly felt immensely out of place. What was she supposed to do now? Just walk around? Mingle? Their mark wasn’t there yet, and Charly was greeting people as they arrived, carrying a champagne glass in her hand. Holly went to the bar, greeted Torden, and asked for a beer.

  He stared at her.

  “What?”

  “A beer, Holly?” Torden shook his head. Tonight his hair was combed up into a pompadour and he wore a crisp white jacket.

  “Is there something wrong with beer?”

  “Normally, no. But this is a party. You want to look elegant. You want something that matches that dress.” He poured her a glass of sparkling blue champagne and handed it to her. “Drink that. No beer. Not tonight.”

  She took the champagne and sipped it, shaking her head and giving Torden a wry smile for giving her a hard time about her typical taste.

  Now, she supposed she would keep busy till Grant showed up. She bit her lip in anticipation. Could he still wear his military uniform? Or would that be in bad form? Had they taken it from him when he was discharged? That was perhaps the saddest part of his leaving the military the way he had—that he could no longer dress in the uniform and demand the respect that he clearly deserved for having kept the perimeter of the solar system free from the uninvited. She wrinkled her brow, thinking about that. Though, were they really in danger? Was it just a weird isolationist move? What lay out there, beyond the heliopause? What sort of amazing creatures were in the universe?

  She’d thought that she would see Grant come in, but her thoughts were wrapped up in how the Centau leadership had dealt unfairly with him. He was suddenly beside her, where she leaned against a bar stool, casually drinking her champagne.

  “This seat taken?” Grant asked, his voice near her ear over the live music.

  She laughed. “Hi. What are you drinking?”

  “Water. I’m on duty tonight. You are my charge, apparently. Odeon demands it.”

  She tilted her head to give him a long, appraising look. A black tuxedo trimmed his lean, tall figure, accentuated by a white dress shirt and a blue bow tie with matching cufflinks that glinted in the muted bar lighting. He sat on the stool next to Holly, placing one shiny black shoe on the foot rest. It was a very old school look, and would have fit at any Analogue Alley gala. She took a deep breath, clearing her thoughts.

  “That’s no fun,” she said, in response to his no drink answer.

  “Agreed. But I don’t take duty lightly, ever. And I agree with Odeon. You’ve got too many targets on you to count and I don’t see how this one would be any different.”

  “Fine,” she said, trying to not pout. “So, just before you showed up, I was thinking about your military career. When will you tell me the sort of things you saw out there?”

  “Who gave you that drink?” Grant asked, suddenly zeroing in on her glass of champagne.

  “Torden, don’t worry. I haven’t let it out of my sight.”

  He studied her face, a smile dancing at the edges of his lips. “Brilliant.”

  “There’s something you should know, Iain,” Holly said, feeling something withering in her chest. She made sure her mic was muted and asked Grant to make sure his was also muted. He pulled the communicator from his pocket and showed her that it was.

  “What is it?” he returned his gaze to hers from scanning the growing crowd of revelers.

  “Odeon is like the brother I never had. He’s loyal. He’s kind. I admire him, and find him adorable in many ways. He always has my back,” Holly explained.

  “Except, kind of that once,” Grant pointed out, clearly irritated about that. Which surprised her.

  “That was my fault. I can’t blame someone else when I neglect to be aware of the danger or fail to take care of myself,” Holly said, with a soft laugh.

  Grant’s eyes began to glimmer like he knew where she was going with her lengthy explanation.

  “What is it, Holly?” he asked again.

  “I don’t love being coddled. His concern for my safety sometimes begins to feel—how do I say this without sounding like a royal bitch? Hmm. Sometimes it suffocates me. But I know it comes from a good place within him.”

  “And you don’t want me to—?”

  “Treat me the way Odeon does.”

  “Yes, I can see that.”

  “I can take care of myself. I have. I did before you or Odeon or Shiro appeared in my life. I mean,” she shrugged one shoulder, “I ended up in prison, wrongfully, yes, so I’m not completely perfect at it. But I’ve done a decent job of it, to say the least.”

  “I have noticed that about you. You’re strong. You don’t back away from hard things. You would have made a good soldier.”

  “Thank you,” she said, considering it a high compliment coming from Iain. “You’re here tonight, partially to make Odeon feel OK about leaving me behind. You know how it is to try to make a team happy. But, now that we’re here, well,” she hesitated, nearly saying that they should act like a couple. As part of their cover, of course.

  “Let’s have a good time?” he said, standing up and moving in front of her.

  “That. Yes,” she shrugged, and smiled. “I’d call it fun, but yes, same idea.” She took his proffered hand.

  “Fun, yes. It’s not a word I use often,” he admitted, leading her out into the crowd, weaving through the tall cocktail tables and low couches surrounding knee-high, parabola-shaped coffee tables. The live band continued to play music, not too loud though, a sensible, respectable volume—the elite
of the City of Jade Spires had reputations to consider. Raves weren’t the going social currency. Rather, music just below a threshold that still allowed conversations to continue and at which it was still possible to dance slowly to, should it move them into motion. Grant stopped just where the crowd was swaying together on the floor, paired off in couples as the Yasoan band on stage strummed and plucked their instruments to the crooning of a male singer.

  “We don’t have to dance,” Holly said, suddenly realizing that perhaps that was his intention.

  “Why not?” Grant asked. “You don’t like to dance?”

  “That’s not it,” Holly said. She was suddenly concerned with where Charly was. Was their mark in the club yet? She didn’t want to fall prey too much to the Siren song or the enchantment of Grant dressed up and the possibility of dancing with him.

  “I dance. Military functions included parties not too different from this one.”

  “Grant, will you dance with me?” Holly said, seeing that their mark was on the dance floor and realizing that balking at it could be seen a confession that she wasn’t confident on the dance floor.

  He blinked, then grinned. “Oh now you think that I want to dance?”

  “Don’t you?”

  He hesitated. “I know you don’t want me to coddle you or worry. But I do want to be alert. Not worried, no, but I am torn between being alert, and letting go and having a good time.”

  “Is there anywhere safer here, tonight, than in your arms?”

  A flash of something rippled through his eyes. Holly saw it, and she felt perhaps the same thing explode in her heart.

  On the dance floor, on the dance floor! “On the dance floor, that is.”

  “Of course. No, you’re right. Let’s do it.” He turned to her and took her hand in his, sliding the other hand along her waist. He led her in the steps and she was surprised to sense that he did know how to dance, how to move with the rhythm the musicians guided the crowd with. His extended hand swallowed hers and with the position of his other hand on the small of her back, he guided her using gentle pressure from his fingers. Her skin burned where he touched her. Music and her pulse roared in her ears. She’d been close to him before—slept next to him in a bed, stood next to him as he demonstrated his antique prized possessions to her, rescued hundreds of kids with the aid of his expertise, counted inventory with him, guided a zeppelin back on course next to him, for the love of Ixion fought beside him.

  And this was just another thing like all that. Wasn’t it?

  No. This is so much more. She wanted much more with him. Much, much more. She wanted to see the edge of the heliopause with him. To hear about his exploits out on the frontier of the Yol system. Maybe see a non-humanoid sentient species with him.

  Oh my god.

  She wanted him so badly.

  “Hey kids,” Charly said, smiling, suddenly beside them.

  Holly jumped slightly. She’d been staring into Grant’s eyes, unaware of the entire room around her. If Charly hadn’t disrupted the moment, Holly might have tried to kiss him. His eyes were a drug.

  Charly laughed and took Holly’s hand in one hand and Grant’s in the other. “We got stuff happening. You’re needed. Turn your mics on. You got work to do.”

  27

  “Ume Kauss. Art collector. Sworn bachelor. Thief—though he justifies it with his rich privilege. Claims that the statue was stolen from another Centau, and therefore hiring out to get someone else to steal it for him is fair,” Charly said to Holly and Grant at the bar. She drank sparkling water, knowing that she wanted her wits about her. When Torden asked Holly if she wanted another champagne, she asked for sparkling water as well. Charly took a long sip of her water. “That’s why we’re getting it back.”

  “Is that really what happened?” Grant asked, watching Ume laughing and drinking at a cocktail table. His face was light brown, with high cheekbones and pale eyes, while his hair was a light stubble. His dark violet robes were accentuated by several gold sashes. In short, he oozed wealth.

  Holly looked at Charly. “Sort of,” Holly answered.

  “You know that’s how the Centau do everything, right? That’s how all moral codes work. People bend them to fit their urges and needs, while demanding high standards from everyone else.” Charly looked at Grant. “Yes, this statue is currently making the rounds. It was in our client’s possession two owners prior. It’s almost a mark of respectability to have had it in your collection for a minute. But these Centau don’t think museums are necessary or that those beneath them can appreciate the grandeur of such a noble statue.”

  As they watched the crowd from the bar, Holly caught sight of a familiar face in the crowd. Dave. Human. Wearing a jacket over his typical suspenders. He caught her eye and raised his glass to her as though he was saying cheers. Charly caught it. “You know Idris Caron, Holly?”

  Holly nearly choked on her sparkling water. “No, never seen him before.”

  Charly looked at her friend. “He thinks he knows you. He’s like the highest ranking human in the Centau government. I always wonder how the hell he pulled that off. But when I ask him, he just chuckles and blushes. It’s so annoying.”

  “He looks nice enough,” Holly said, inserting an appropriate amount of innocent inflection into her words. “But I can’t say I’ve ever met him.”

  “Maybe he’s into you.”

  Iain watched both Holly and Charly, clearly curious about their interchange.

  Shiro came in over the comm. “We’re about to move up to the floors of the mark’s rooms, if all is well there. Do I have your go ahead, Holly?”

  “Yes. We have the mark in our view. If the other things are taken care of, then you have the go ahead,” Holly answered.

  “I’m confident I can get through the locks quickly. Darius has the camera feeds ready to hijack. Shiro is responsible for the security around the pedestal. And we have the replica to replace it.”

  “Brilliant, keep us apprised,” Holly said, suddenly feeling tense for the work that Shiro and Odeon were about to embark on.

  “Now, we take turns keeping an eye on Ume,” Charly said. “I’ll take this shift, Holly. You and Grant mingle. Don’t hang out here at the bar, it looks unnatural. Go back out on the floor, dance, sit, say hello to people you know.”

  “I’ve looked, I know no one except you, Grant, and Torden.”

  “Then go sit by someone and introduce yourselves like you’re hobnobbing in an attempt to get rank of some kind.” Charly said.

  Grant took Holly’s hand and asked her to accompany him. “I know how to hobnob, Holly. I did it in the military.”

  “Keep your mic on, Charly, and keep listening,” Holly said as she followed Iain.

  They went out onto the floor and sat at a bench chair around a coffee table. Her conversation with Grant would be heard by everyone, so Holly wasn’t sure how to keep them both entertained with her mic on. She wondered if he was aware of that as well, and struck up a conversation with the Centau couple sitting near them. Their interactions with Holly and Grant left a lot to be desired, and the discussion petered out quickly.

  “Ume is trying to leave,” Charly soon said. “You need to run interference right now, Holly.”

  Holly rose, quickly, and moved toward the entrance doors. She checked over her shoulder to see if Grant was with her. He was following close behind her. She formulated a plan as she approached the doors. When Ume showed up in his dark purple robes, Holly tripped against him. “Oh, pardon me,” she said, knowing it was the oldest trick in the book and perhaps one of the contenders for the worst.

  “It is fine,” Ume said.

  “Oh, are you the art collector?”

  “The? Yes, I like to think that no others matter more than me,” Ume said, with a laugh.

  “I’m—“ she almost said her real name, then stumbled on a cover name. “Gina Regatta,” she said, spitting out the first name that came to her mind.

  “A pleasure, Gina Regatta
,” Ume said, then introduced himself to her and then to Iain. Iain didn’t offer his hand or an introduction.

  She asked him about his opinions on modern art collecting, avoiding the question of whether or not he was leaving, believing that if he were indeed leaving, that to acknowledge it would only increase the likelihood that he was on his way out and would provide him the excuse to leave.

  As Ume began to share his thoughts on modern art, Grant involved himself in the discussion. Holly realized that Grant was perfect for it—he dealt in the tools of the trade and even made his own. As the conversation continued, Holly cautiously, slowly, moved them away from the doors and towards a cocktail table. Ume dug deeper, and Iain went with him into obscure areas. Holly watched Iain. His face was animated as he talked of his passion and Holly became absorbed in her own thoughts about him.

  The champagne she’d had earlier had hit her bladder. She excused herself from the conversation with the promise that she’d be right back. As she strolled to the restrooms, she checked in on the team.

  “Grant’s got Ume cornered. That one is always useful,” she said wryly, hoping he heard the playfulness in her tone. She glanced over her shoulder and caught him smiling at her as she walked away. There was a glint of concern in his eyes, but he seemed to school himself. She was thankful he trusted her to go to the bathroom on her own, she thought sarcastically.

  “Great work, Iain,” Charly said. “How’s it going, boys? We just saved your hineys from the mark showing up at home.”

  “And we shall forever be indebted to you, Charly,” Shiro said.

  “I’d say. For so many reasons including this one,” Charly said.

  Holly laughed and went into the restroom. She finished her business and stood at the counter washing her hands. In the mirror above the sink, a woman appeared behind Holly, suddenly, without warning.

  “Oh, excuse me,” Holly began. Her gaze flicked to the tattoo on the woman’s neck and then everything went black.