Heart of the Colossus: A Steampunk Space Opera Adventure (A Holly Drake Job Book 3)

by Nicole Grotepas

  “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-in-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.”

  FOUR

  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 sideways 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.

  ***

  Dave’s satellite office was the location where Holly could meet him without arousing suspicion or leading the malevolent forces behind the Sh
adow Coalition directly to his doorstep. Or, at least, that was the idea behind the ancillary locale. It was several districts away from the Centau Syndicate governmental offices—the megaron, a cluster of exquisite spires at the very center of the City of Jade Spires. The SC knew where he was anyway, because he used to be dirty, and they still believed that he was. It seemed to be window dressing, then, at least the fact that it should protect Dave from the Shadow Coalition. More than anything, it seemed to shield him from the prying eyes of the government. Holly suspected he’d used it the most during his days of shady dealings with the SC.

  Dave’s extra office was outfitted like the posh, fattened politician that he played. When Holly walked in, he was standing in that spot he favored at the window, staring out at the twinkling city, glittering beneath the afternoon sun. He leaned against the frame of the window, his body balanced against one hand, the other hand in the pocket of his suit pants.

  “HD,” he said without turning. He had a slight, interesting accent that Holly could only hear occasionally. A carry-over from their Earth ancestors. “What is it this time?”

  He was annoyed. Holly could tell immediately from the way his shoulders bent around the window, around his body as though he were holding something in. Her own ire rose to the occasion. Did he want to hide in his ivory tower, far away and safe from the frontline, where she put her own safety, and that of her crew, on the line to clean up the shit-show that his previous dirty ways had helped to grow? Was he so irritated with her for wanting to see the face that sent her out into the fray, seeking guidance from him? It irked her, but showing that wouldn’t help matters.

  She bit her lip, adjusted her blazer, felt the Equalizer against her back and took several small breaths to distract herself from the frustration. Taking Dave’s mood in and adapting to it, that wasn’t her role. His feelings were his own. Holly was stressed, anxious, and worried about the children still out working as slaves for the Shadow Coalition. But she could try to be in a decent mood.

  “Dave,” she finally answered.

  He turned and looked at her. “There you are.”

  “Yes. Here I am.”

  “Summoning me for meetings. Is that your new pastime?” He moved to the slate gray, stone side table where a selection of alcohol and liqueurs was on display. He poured himself a drink of honey brown liquid. He held the tumbler up. “Bourbon? We might as well get to it. No more beating around the bush. We both love an expensive bourbon. Would you care for a glass?”

  “Not today, thanks,” Holly said.

  He frowned at her.

  “I already had something. With Xadrian.”

  He nodded and took a swallow, watching her thoughtfully. “It’s wise to not bury yourself in alcohol. But sometimes it’s necessary.”

  Holly cocked her head to one side and sat down at the chair next to his desk. “Is that what you’re doing?”

  “Maybe. Maybe,” he mused.

  “I’m not here to judge, Dave.”

  “When are you going to stop calling me that?”

  “Never. When you’re out in the open. When we’ve got nothing left to hide.”

  “I don’t anticipate that happening soon.”

  “Neither do I.” She stood up and went to the window. She was anxious and he was grumpy. The atmosphere was thick with their respective moods. It was clouding her thoughts, her intentions. Maybe when the alcohol burned through his blood, he’d loosen up. She waited at the window, silent, unwilling to back down simply because he was wielding his mood like a shield, blocking her out.

  Overhead, Ixion waxed, its yellow-orange boundaries peeking out around the spires to the west. The afternoon sun winked like a thousand lights across the jade spires, flashing messages at Holly that said absolutely nothing. She sighed, appreciating the freedom to be wherever she wanted. Sometimes she almost forgot that she’d spent over a year of her life in prison, falsely convicted of murder. She hadn’t thought about that for a while. She didn’t want to think about it now. If Dave would get his shit together she could be thinking about the reasons she needed to see him.

  She’d had enough of this. She turned to face him. He stood at the other window, nursing the tumbler of bourbon.

  “How can you help me? You know what I’m about to embark on. Am I in this alone?”

  He turned his half-lidded gaze on her. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I’m getting pretty tired of this. I hate traveling in space. Since I started doing this, it’s almost all that I’ve done. Rescuing kids. Putting myself out there in dangerous situations. I don’t think you even know all the times I’ve nearly been killed. I’ve been dealing with traitors, murderers, violent criminals, and you’re up here in your luxurious tower, drinking bourbon, ensconced in swaddles of safety. I’m about to just walk away. Maybe start stealing high value shit and selling it on the black market. Because I don’t need this.”

  He blinked at her, then moved closer to her as though he would give her a shake or a hug. She took a step back.

  “Good lord, Holly, what are you afraid of? I’m not going to touch you.”

  He called her Holly, she noted. Not HD. Or Drake. She blamed it on the alcohol.

  “Old habit,” she said, looking way from him.

  “You’re not giving up. Are you?” He put the empty glass on his desk and resumed his position at the window, hooking one of his fingers under a suspender.

  Her hackles were settling down. “No. I’m just frustrated.”

  “Good. Now then, what do you need from me?” He glanced at her, then back out the window. Across the way they could see people moving behind the windows, though what they did was imperceptible. The tower was full of offices.

  “We’re working on a way to get all the children. But when we get them . . . If we get them . . .”

  He held up a finger. “When you get them. I’ve no doubt you will, HD.”

  “Fine. When we get them. I suspect that some of them haven’t got parents. And otherwise, we’ll need a place to hold them, a house, or something to keep them in. Something nice, while we sort out the the details. Figure out what moon they live on. If they have living relatives. But I want it to be better than the place we’re taking them from.”

  “And you want me to secure something?”

  She nodded. “With your money. With your clout. If you can. My crew and I, we’re juggling about forty other things. The logistics, ships, orbital patterns. I have no sway in this city. My money would be able to pay for a condo for a month, maybe less. But one condo isn’t enough. I’ll need more than that.”

  He nodded and rubbed his chin, then ran a hand through his hair. “I can take care of that, Drake. You need any other assets? Money? I can give you an advance if you need more.”

  His offer to give her more touched a tender spot beneath the grouchy shield she’d put up. With a sigh she shrugged and ran her hand across her hair, then adjusted her ponytail. She’d been irritated at him, but he was decent. She wasn’t alone at the top. Sure, her crew surrounded her and cared for her. But she was the leader. She was calling the shots, though she tried to keep it as democratic as possible as often as she could. There were times the burden crushed her. Having Dave offer help as an equal or a superior, it hit her for a moment. She inhaled and forced herself to laugh.

  “At the moment, I don’t really know. It’s possible. We’ve got a solution for fueling the ship, which is incredibly costly. But I think we can manage. This issue about where to keep the children as we sort out who they belong to is the one I can’t do without you.”

  He gave her an awkward slug in the arm. “Got it. I’ll get Xadrian on it.”

  “And if you hear anything on the movements of the SC or the Hands or the Heart?”

  “Yes?”

  “Let me know. Please. I know this isn’t going to go the way I plan, and they’ll be the reason why.”

  FIVE

  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 more 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.