by Jamie Hawke
“Maybe, maybe not,” Charm cut in, “but you were definitely saying her name, and it sounded like moaning.”
“It’s possible I was having a dream about…” I stopped when Charm shook her head, then came over and kissed me.
“Relax, relax. We’ve been talking, and some of us actually feel bad about not bringing her.”
“For real?” I eyed Aegriss. “I’m guessing you’re not one of them?”
“I’m not,” Aegriss replied. “But as one of the more recent recruits, I feel my opinion matters less, anyway.”
“That’s wrong. What’s your opinion?”
Aegriss cocked her head, tucked her straight, black hair behind her ear, and batted her eyelashes. “Honestly, whatever it takes to do the job, please you, and have fun along the way. Maybe she would make me jealous at first, but maybe not. All I’m saying is, I think it’s good we went the way we did, so it gives us all time to adjust to the new members we already have.”
Her eyes roamed over to Laurel and Harp, who smiled in response.
“I agree,” I said, setting Aegriss on her feet as I stood. “Point is, Muerta put up a good fight against us, and it’ll take some time for any of us to change our mindset of her being an enemy. Sam will likely take advantage of the chance to grill her, too, so it’s all worked out for the best.”
“But you’re telling us you really don’t remember any sex dream?” Gale said, doubtful.
I laughed, shaking my head, when all of a sudden part of a dream came back—Muerta, with her long legs kind of wrapped around me as if she were a stretchy toy, both fucking me and going down on me at the same time, somehow.
“Images, now that you mention it,” I said. “But… sorry. Where are we?”
Indicating the screen and not sorry to move on, Twitch showed me an image of a space station.
“Station Eshu hosts three of the guilds, namely the Herans, the Packers, and the Diviners. We’re still in the Oram system, and when you hear of ships going missing, often small ships that belong to some group only vaguely loyal to the Citadel, this would be down to them. Dangerous, but smart enough to keep their heads down far enough to not earn a full-scale retaliation attack from the Citadel forces.
“Unless we find out they’re directly helping the enemy,” Andromida said. “Then it’s slaughtering time.”
Twitch nodded, zooming in to show a port on the station, where several ships were docked, others flying in and out.
“Our in, naturally,” she continued, “will be via a channel Charm is familiar with.”
A face appeared. Stout, face sort of pushed together and wrinkled like a bulldog, with beady little black eyes. Not quite human, I assumed, or maybe related to his super mutation.
“Council Amand,” Charm said, practically spitting out the words.
“Knew him?” I asked.
“He always disliked me for what I am,” she said, voice heavy with vitriol. “I believe my last words to him were something along the lines of, ‘Go fuck yourself, you one-balled, erogial-brained, shit-eating piece of maggot-farts.’ And he deserved it.”
“And an erogial is…?”
Shimmer chuckled. “That’s the most important part of what she just said?”
“Just a strange animal without much for brains,” Gale said, waving off the comment, but leaning in toward Charm. “So how do we get an in, if you told this guy to go fuck himself?”
“My thought is, we’re here to see if the enemy brought a Per-Neter here, right?” Gale pointed to A.I. Lamb, who nodded. A moment later, a section of the metal near her opened, revealing a Per-Neter. “Hadrian sent it, but didn’t want to mention it back there in case there happened to be any moles or other ways for the enemy to find out.”
“Shit,” I said, scratching my jaw. “We’re practically delivering it up!”
“No, it’ll stay aboard,” Gale said. “At least, that’s what he wanted. The idea was that when we get close, like we are now, we’ll be able to get a better idea of where, exactly, the other one is.”
“If it’s even still here,” Twitch said.
A.I. Lamb waved her hand and it opened, revealing its star map that floated between us.
“No fucking way,” Charm said, and then laughed.
“What?” Gale asked.
“That’s the prisons right there. The whole reason I told the fucker to fuck himself was to get thrown in there, to meet a contact and get out of here, to find my sister. But breaking in… that’ll be interesting.”
“And why would it be there?” I asked. “In a prison of all places.”
“On the one hand,” Twitch said, “it might mean the guild isn’t helping them. This all might be happening right beneath their noses.”
“Meaning we might be able to ask them for help,” Aegriss finished the thought.
“It’s a long shot,” I admitted. “What, fly up there and announce that we’re with the Citadel, see what they say?”
“Worst that can happen is they attack us,” Shimmer posited. “Best, they help and we find our answer sooner than later.”
“Question is, can we take them?”
We all turned to Charm, who licked her lips uncertainly. “They don’t have a lot of supers, but the ones they have…”
“Such as?”
“Tarantula, for one. Named after a type of Earth spider, I think.”
“Yeah, big-ass ones.”
She nodded. “There you go—he’d be on the top of my list of worries. Then there’s Amand himself, but he’s more powerful in position than in personal skills. Still, hard to kill, I hear.”
“Might have some sort of power that protects him,” I suggested.
“It’s a definite possibility.” She thought, shaking her head. “Most of the stories about his survival definitely hint at that being the case.
“Then it’s settled.” I returned to my seat. “Lamb, fly us in, please. But for the sake of Oram, please, hide that Per-Neter.”
We began our descent, when Gale glanced over at Charm. “In case it comes to it and we have to break in, we should know—how’d you break out, before?”
A darkness passed over Charm’s face and she glared at me for a moment, causing me to wonder what I’d done wrong. When she spoke, I soon understood.
“I had friends here, one in particular who could do things with metal.” When a couple of people turned to Andromida, she added, “Not her.”
“Oh, shit,” Twitch said, grimacing. “Metallica?”
Charm nodded.
“I didn’t realize you two were so connected,” Gale chimed in. Her eyes went to me, narrowing. “Damn, Breaker.”
“I fucked up,” I mumbled, not liking that this was coming back to my one big mistake as far as all of them were concerned. “Not ever going to happen again.”
Charm held up a hand and shook her head. “Guys, not something any of us want to think about. And I didn’t even remember that side of it until I got my memories back. Since then, I’ve been kind of bottling this up, not wanting to rehash all of that. So… don’t. Please.”
Twitch looked my way, then moved on and indicated the screen. “They’re pinging us—trying to run scans, it looks like. Shall we make introductions?”
“No need,” a voice said, echoing through the ship. Everyone looked confused except for Charm, who looked a bit pissed, but also maybe a bit scared. The voice laughed. “It’s good to see you again, Charm.”
“Council Amand,” she replied, voice low.
Twitch glanced back at her, then to me, clearly thrown by the fact that someone had managed to hack into her system.
“What are you waiting for?” Amand said, appearing on the screen. “A visitation from the Citadel that includes our old friend, Charm? Come, I’ve already set up a feast in your honor.”
It’s a fucking trap, Harp’s voice came first, followed by Aegriss with the exact same thought.
I simply nodded, seeing that Charm knew it. That said, we were the type to ru
n in, all guns blazing. If this guy thought he could trap us, we were about to show him he had another think coming.
26
As we came in for a landing, we refrained from discussing the plan, now knowing that this guild leader could see and hear what was going on in our ship. He either had a super with interesting abilities with him or was a damn good hacker.
Instead, we took the moment to analyze the ground we were approaching. The station was a cylinder with large plates of metal, likely defenses, and inner cylinders that probably acted as living quarters. Several landing stages protruded out from the sides, and there was a string of enemy ships lined up for our arrival. To their credit, they didn’t try to shoot us right then and there.
“Because he wants me as his trophy,” Charm hissed.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Amand said, appearing on the screen again. “The fact is, a lot has happened since your little disappearing act all those years ago. Some of which, I’m hoping you can help out with.”
Charm arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Better to discuss in person.”
“Which we’ll be able to do shortly,” Twitch interjected. “Would you mind giving us our privacy until then?”
“I would be happy to,” Amand said. “Although, since you think of me as an enemy, I can’t really see why you would trust me to be gone.”
“He has a point,” Aegriss admitted. “I was just thinking that.”
“Very well,” Twitch grumbled.
Soon we had landed, and during the process we’d been able to share some covert verbal communications, hopefully without Amand hearing any of it. We all agreed we would be ready for whatever he threw at us. Docking, Aegriss agreed to stay on the ship and see what she could do about their hacking into our craft, and Andromida would stay with her in case we needed a big weapon on the outside to get us out of a bind. In a situation like this, she provided the most muscle.
Charm followed me down the ramp, to where Amand stood waiting with a guard of ten. He was every bit the short bulldog of a man he appeared on the screen, but perhaps a bit more exaggerated in person. His team was half of the robotic persuasion, the rest a mix of space-pirate looking types.
“There she is,” Amand said, voice hiding the disdain that his eyes couldn’t conceal.
“Last time I saw you…” Charm let the rest of that hang, simply smiling.
“What is it you think we can help you with?” Twitch asked, getting down to business.
“We have a prisoner,” Amand explained, stepping closer, beady eyes focused on Charm, “one I think you’ll be interested in seeing. All he goes on about is how you messed up his plans.”
“Who?” Charm asked.
“A man called Prancer.”
Although Charm had been playing cool up until now, she snarled. “That little shit.” With a glance back our way, she added, “He was involved in the situation on Junos, with Supralines and all that.”
“And now he’s here.”
“How’s that our problem?” Charm asked. “Or anything to do with me, really.”
Amand took another step closer, but this time I moved into his path, ensuring he knew that was close enough. He sized me up, nodded, and said, “You noticed how I listened in to your ship? More than listened, really.”
“We did,” I said.
He nodded. “Well, this guy doesn’t know it, but when we’re not around, I’ve been listening in. Seems there’s a whole support going on for the Nihilists and their masters, right beneath my nose. Only problem, I haven’t been able to figure out how.”
“But you’re sure?”
He nodded.
“It just so happens,” Charm said, giving him her best fake smile, “we’re here for a similar reason. The enemy took something from us, and we believe they came through here.”
“A Per-Neter?” Amand said, and seeing our expressions, nodded. “I heard talk of one, when I was eavesdropping. Shall we go to the feast, or would you like to go directly to the prisoner?”
“Prisoner,” Charm replied, and I was sure we were all in agreement. As if any of us would trust the guy to give us food that wasn’t poisoned, anyway.
He gave us a knowing look, chuckled, and then turned, heading for the doors. “You remember the way, I’m sure, Charm?”
“I remember how to get there,” she replied. “A few simple words your way, maybe a punch or a kick to help?”
He laughed. “You played me, that’s for sure. In truth, I only meant to send you down there for a few days, teach you a lesson. Then you up and vanished on me. As repulsive as I find you and your kind, I knew you’d be useful if you stayed with us long enough.”
“Watch it,” I said.
He eyed me, nodded, and then his team stood aside as he led the way in through the doors. I eyed each of them in turn, weighing them up, checking my screen to see what I was dealing with. To my surprise, they barely had any powers between them. Only a couple of small fry skills, like strength and speed increases, and one with a sort of telepathy skill that was more about sensing trouble than anything else. One, though, gave me interference. I didn’t linger on him—a tall guy with whiskers like a cat and eyebrows to match—figuring there was some power there that might pick up on me scanning him. He’d be the only one we would have to watch out for.
“Doesn’t opening your doors to the Citadel kind of put you in a tight space?” Gale asked as we walked along a long corridor, stopping at a bank of lifts at the end. “You being a thieves’ guild, and all.”
“Are we not in good standing with the Citadel?” Amand asked in mock surprise. “Here I was wondering why we don’t get many visits.”
I grunted, but then he looked my way and said, “And this Prancer character? We figure out what he’s up to, how, and stopping it is in your best interest because…?”
“Exactly what we’re discussing. I have no interest in joining the enemy. I have no interest in being targeted by the Citadel. We wanted to stay neutral in this regard.”
“Neutral?” Charm scoffed. “Don’t forget, I was once one of you.”
“You were never one of us.
“Fucking ass.”
The guards with him turned, but he didn’t bother, simply gesturing as the doors to the lift opened.
Soon we were making our way in, then down, down, down. Harp had to fold her wings in tight behind herself, Laurel glancing my way nervously. There were a lot of us tucked in that tight space, and if shit hit the fan, we’d have an interesting time fighting our way out of there. Luckily, that wasn’t necessary. The doors opened, leading us out into a passage with windows on either side. Past the windows we could see grungy, swamp-like cells, along with more open areas where several prisoners were milling about, some in discussion, others exercising, and two beating the hell out of each other.
“They can’t see us,” Amand said. “Also, attacks are unlikely. While it can’t block out all powers, we have a dampener in effect.”
“Tech that acts like noise cancellation headphones, but for powers,” I said, nodding. “Your point?”
“Common practice to let visitors know, in case anyone gets the idea of trying to break out a friend.”
“Not likely to have friends in here,” Charm said, glancing around.
“Is that so?” The way he said that, my senses went on high alert.
It wasn’t until we passed the third turn, though, that we found out why. When Charm threw herself at the window, breathing in white light and smashing her fist against it.
“You fucking piece of shit,” she said, turning back to him and leaping, knocking Amand to the floor and placing her claws at his throat. “How… why…?”
“Security,” he said, holding up a hand to keep his guard from moving. “See, after you disappeared we used our contacts at Rocadium to track you down, found out about you, and… when Lamb went missing, we snatched her up.”
“Snatched Lamb up?” I asked, confused.
“Not Lamb,” Charm said. “Her niece. Olena.”
“And the best part,” Amand went on, “is that everyone thinks she’s on a mission. Another little trick, all so we could ensure your cooperation should you ever return.”
“You took someone prisoner so that you could hold them as leverage over someone whom you had no clue whether they would return or not?” I stared at him in disgust, then looked up at the woman held in chains on the other side of the glass. It was too dark to see much, but her face was angled our way now, dark hair covering most of it. “See, Council Amand, I think all your work trying to avoid having a problem with the Citadel just became a problem.”
“You do anything to me, she fries.”
Charm breathed in, deep, closing her eyes. Color flooded into her, light shining bright on Amand’s face, highlighting the worry etched there. Then more, another breath—more light glowing out of Charm than I had ever seen.
“Men, prepare our insurance,” Amand hissed. “Ensure she dies if anyone here makes a move we don’t like.”
“I thought you wanted help,” Gale spat out, stepping in the way of one of the guards who was about to make a move. “How does this help?”
“Simple. You all stick to the plan, then leave—and leave Charm with me.” Amand grinned. “You find out how to track down the Per-Neter, I get back what belonged to me.”
“You… fucking… idiot,” I said, slowly, shaking my head, watching as Charm began to shake, breathing even more light in.
“There’s something you don’t know about me,” Charm said, voice almost a chant. “And it has to do with the aunt of that woman in there. What she taught me, taught us all. You think your dampener can hinder our powers? That it gives you the upper hand?” She leaned in, face an inch from his. “You’re wrong—it just pisses me off even more.”
“Now!” he shouted to his men and two lunged toward us, but they didn’t make it far. Charm had erupted in light. It flowed all around her as a fourth tail appeared. In that moment, I realized what she had been doing—realized that she had been focused on that inner core stuff Lamb had taught her once upon a time, and apparently, she’d just reached another level of skill and power. When she moved, this was even clearer.