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

by Nicole Grotepas

  Darius laughed, but didn’t turn from his position at his work station.

  “I disagree, Ms. Drake, do not trust this fool, Odeon Starlight. What more can come from bringing aboard yet another unknown variable into the inner sanctum of our crew? How many more people have to betray us before we realize that we’re everything we need?” Shiro swept in, swishing his lionhead cane like a machete in front of him.

  Darius laughed louder from his desk, still without turning.

  “One small miscalculation and a hole will be blown in the base, sucking everything out into space with it. There could be children, parents, pets, flung into the pressureless void. The risk is too great. We must trust someone else.” Odeon slammed his Ousaba against the ground like he as calling forth the storm, the thunder, the rage.

  “A small miscalculation and we bring someone on board who betrays us at the last minute, stealing the tanker and the children and leaving us stranded on the base.” Shiro slammed the ground with his lion head cane, a loud crack like a whip snapping through the air.

  Holly understood where they were both coming from, especially Shiro’s concerns, due to his current track record. Trust was now something he didn’t want to part with easily. But he was also wrong, in Holly’s opinion. Odeon had the higher ground—the last thing HOlly wanted to do was accidentally blast holes into the base and put others in danger. She didn’t like the idea of putting her team at risk either, but the alternative was even less desirable.

  “Stop,” she said, raising her hands and standing between the two men. “You both have strong points. Neither is inherently wrong, either. I agree with both of them.” She looked back and forth between them. Odeon’s head was tilted down like he would charge at Shiro given the chance. Shiro glowered at Odeon, his hand on the hilt of his lion-head cane and the other ready to pull the scabbard end off. “This is too far, my friends. Are you going to have a duel?”

  “I would consider it an honor to duel Odeon Starlight.”

  “And you would be welcome to lose to me,” Odeon said.

  “I’m sorry. A duel is not necessary. I will be the deciding vote. What do you think? Is that fair? That way neither of you must relent.”

  Shiro waited for Odeon to nod his head slowly, and then he agreed to it.

  “Then, here is my choice. I think we should err on the side of caution. On behalf of those who are not on our crew, but who live on the base. And we should get an expert, who knows how to detonate small explosions on ships.”

  Shiro threw his hands in the air, turned, and stomped away. “Ridiculous, Ms. Drake. You chose your pet.”

  The words stung, but that was all they did. Holly regretted that Shiro had such a view of it, but she refused to be cowed into a position that let her put the lives of innocent bystanders at risk.

  “Now then, Odeon,” she said, quietly. “You must find an expert. All the better if you can get Shiro to help you.”

  Odeon brilliant eyes settled on her face, a note of irritation in his gaze.

  “It is your job, my friend,” she said, and smiled at him. Her communicator buzzed and she pulled it out of her blazer pocket. “Please try to make it work with him. You’re both important to the crew, to the mission. I have to answer this, if you can excuse me.”

  She went into the stairwell to answer the call. “Hello?”

  “HD,” the voice on the other end said. It was Xadrian.

  “Yes?”

  “I’m requesting a meeting with you, if you please,” he said. “Are you currently free?”

  She really didn’t want to go back out into the rain, into the chill, but the tension was still thick in the room. She knew there was a good chance that she increased the problems between Shiro and Odeon. It might be good to leave them to simmer in their own emotions. Perhaps they would work it out.

  “I can be. For you, XT.”

  “Wonderful. Our usual place, at our usual table, with the usual drinks?”

  SIXTEEN

  HOLLY stopped at the bar and ordered her drink—a dark, blood red wine. That was how she was feeling and Glassini didn’t carry beer.

  “Thanks,” she said when the bartender slipped the three-fluted glass across the counter into Holly’s hand.

  “No problem,” she said. “Good to see you. Here to see your man?”

  Holly started. She meant Xadrian. That was the cover, but Holly hadn’t been forced to think about it much. Usually when she met Xadrian at Glassini, she avoided talking to anyone—except for that first time, when Odeon approached her.

  “Yes, of course. We love to meet here,” she said.

  The bartender smiled at her, studying Holly’s face. “He’s a good chap. Always tips well.”

  “Does he, now?” Holly said.

  “Do you want me to get his drink?”

  “Actually yes,” Holly said. She waited while the bartender poured Xadrian’s usual drink and then handed the drink to Holly. “Thank you.”

  Holly carried the drinks to the usual table that Xadrian favored and waited for him. A musician played quietly on the stage, and Holly listened as she sipped her wine. She’d stopped at taco wagon on the way over and ordered two street tacos filled with marinated jack-fruit. So the wine soaked into the food filling her belly, and she closed her eyes to listen to the strains of music filling the room from an erhu. The musician was a human female, playing softly.

  “Hello, HD,” Xadrian’s voice said at her side.

  “I’d recognize that lisp anywhere,” Holly said, not startled by Xadrian’s sudden appearance.

  “I have a lisp? I don’t have a lisp,” he said sitting on the stool opposite her. “Thank you for getting my drink. Did you pay for it also?”

  “Not yet, but I will,” she said, opening her eyes and leaning back. The wine hadn’t hit her hard, but it was creeping its way through her veins. She felt good. She felt like maybe she could do the mission, that maybe things would work out. “So what is the point of this meeting, XT? Did you miss me?”

  He laughed. “Yes, very much. Very much.”

  “It happens, she said, shrugging.

  “No, to be precise, I have been doing some drudging. And I thought you would like to know the information.”

  “Drudging? I didn’t know you were drudging.”

  “Yes, yes, I’m quite good at it, drudging.”

  “Cant’ say I’m surprised. You strike me as a drudger at heart.”

  “Well, there you have it. She’s not surprised I’ve been drudging. Now then, all joking aside, HD.”

  “Yes, tell me this information.”

  “Someone we both know has stolen a small supply of hydrantium.”

  Holly squinted. “Who?”

  “Please, then, who do we both know. Who has access to hydrantium?”

  “Voss.”

  “Excellent. You are correct. Some just came on the market.”

  Holly glanced around the bar and shrugged. “What’s the big deal of that?”

  “Well, you would know it’s a big deal if you knew that the black market for hydrantium had always been dominated by the SC and myself, yours truly.”

  She flicked her gaze away as though to find the reason this mattered somewhere in the air around them. “”Still not making the connection.”

  He leaned across the table toward her. “The connection is that there is no reason to enter the market unless Voss is making a play at someone else’s power or connections. Is she after me or the SC?”

  Holly grimaced, finally seeing what he was getting at.

  “What can you do with that sort of information?” He asked. “And now. Have you finally gotten your supply for the rescue?”

  “No. I haven’t. Bu the had to change our plans.”

  “Why? What are your new plans?”

  She twisted her head and looked at him askance. “Why? What do you need to know? And why?”

  “Bollocks, HD, it’s just a question. Besides, it’s not for me that I want to know. It’s for
him.”

  “I’ll tell him. But I won’t tell you, sorry, XT.”

  “Still, after all these weeks, all these missions, and you’ve got no trust in me.”

  “I do, in fact, it’s just singular to you where I trust you, XT. I don’t just blanket trust. To prove it to you, I need your help in finding a reputable explosives expert. Can you get me one?”

  “What for?”

  She sighed. “Alright. I’ll tell you a tiny bit, if I can just trust you to help me find someone that can do the job.”

  He put a beringed hand to his chest and gasped. “HD, I can’t believe that you’d think that you can’t trust me. And of course I know the perfect person for the job.”

  SEVENTEEN

  HOLLY walked through the streets of the city, heading back to the Nest. It was dark save for the light spilling off the atmosphere of Ixion and cascading down onto the city.

  She quickly called up Odeon and Shiro on the comms and delivered the name that Xadrian had given her. “Find her,” she said. “And stop fighting, please. We’re on the same crew.”

  They muted their mics and left her alone, and then her communicator buzzed. It was Darius. “I know where he is. Your friend, Elan.”

  Holly sighed and then bit her lip. He would be far away. On Joppa or Helo, one of the moons she hated. She stopped and leaned against the wall of the nearest spire tower in the Green Jade district. “Wonderful. Where?”

  “He’s in the Sliver. But far north, in a small village on the coast. It looks like he gave up being a fisher of men and became a fisher of fish.” Darius laughed. “Sorry, Drake, that’s just too funny. Right?”

  “Yes. Very hilarious, Darius.”

  “Here’s the thing, Drake. I’m still at least two days away from figuring out how the fuck we’re going to break into the Megaron and get the keycodes. Unless you have some bright idea or insider information from one of your higher up contacts.” He paused. “Do you? Please say you do.”

  He was referring to Dave. But Holly wasn’t going to risk that. “No. My contacts. You know how small my circle is. One of you guys should have unlimited access to everything, you have so many contacts.”

  “Well, look, get back to the nest. We can talk about what I have so far.”

  They hung up, and Holly, still leaning against the wall of a green jade spire, used her communicator to purchase a train ticket. She sighed and looked up at the night sky, the towers glittering all around her, the surface of Ixion as brilliant as a thousand gems, and then pushed away from the wall and hurried home.

  In the bedroom of her condo, she pulled down her a bag and shoved several changes of clothes into it. Her toiletries. Night clothes. Before leaving, she double checked the Equalizer, cleaned out the working parts and loaded new cartridges into it and left the old ones at home. If not used for a time, the cartridges leaked and could cause the spring mechanism to gum up and jam. And then she took a deep breath, told herself it was the right thing to do, and headed to the train station.

  Traveling by train was much better than traveling by space-zeppelin. Holly had done it many times and had never minded the sway of the trains and the feeling of being trapped in a moving vehicle for several hours, if not more. There was something far more cozy about it than being on a zeppelin in space.

  She hadn’t traveled as far north as the city where Elan was living, but as a child she had visited her grandmother who lived on a vast swath of land, raising herd beasts and growing bamboo forests. Elan had settled in a town closer to the pole, where the cold seasons were longer and nights with very little darkness were normal in the summer.

  The train would travel through the night, and by late morning, Holly would arrive in the town where Elan was supposedly living. As she stowed her bag in the compartment she’d reserved entirely for herself, Holly considered turning back. She held onto the railing above the small couch built into the wall beneath the bunk. I could turn back now. I could just find another teacher, like Estie and Val, and then I would never have to confront Elan. I could go back to pretending that he’d died.

  “No,” she said aloud. This was why she had bought the tickets so quickly, almost thoughtlessly. If she focused on it too much, she’d never do it. She’d think about it forever and convince herself that the best course of action was no action. Hiding from the past. Hiding from the one person who had moved her beyond the darkness that had grown inside her. “I’m going.” She said, clenching her fist. She stowed her bag and double checked the Equalizer, then went to the dining and drinks car. The train was similar to the zeppelins, in that much of it was built of wood and brass and things beautiful to the senses. It smelled of oak and hardwoods that took ages to grow. Plus carpets lined the corridors and Holly felt a slight decadence as she strode through narrow corridor, brushing past other people who could afford the elegant car where her berth was.

  The dining car opened up before her. A beautiful male singer was on stage, crooning a decadent, indulgent song in a hushed voice. Someone accompanied him on a mini-piano. Tables lined the rest of the wide car and the bar was at the end where Holly had entered. Being alone, she didn’t wish to take up an entire four-top table, so she stood at the bar, ordered a Kotan style ale and watched the tables fill as more guests got settled and went out in search of entertainment.

  She sipped the beer and tried to avoid thinking about what she was doing. It was too late to change her mind about the train-ride, for sure. But she could still get cold feet the minute she arrived in Elan’s town and simply turn around without seeing him.

  But. Holly knew herself. She was too practical to completely deny what she set out to do. If she went that far, went all the way to the city he was in, she would have to be a total idiot to not complete the task and see him.

  The singer finished his lusty, bedroom number. The patrons at their tables who noticed, clapped and then he began another, his voice dropping an octave as he began, and then flitted around the notes from the mini-piano.

  Something tickled her side. She was so absorbed in her thoughts, she barely noticed. It stopped, then began again. Holly finally realized what was happening, and touched her blazer pocket. Her communicator was buzzing. She pulled it out of her blazer pocket. It was Odeon. She sighed. He would know. He would ask where she was—it was, after all, late, and she wasn’t at home or at the Bird’s Nest.

  “Hello,” she said into the communicator.

  “Holly, where are you?”

  “Why? Where do you think I am?” She responded, evasively.

  “I don’t think you’re near me. And you have turned off you comms unit, so I can’t tell if you are safe from that. And I’m worried,” he said, His voice was gentle but urgent.

  “Thanks for being worried about me. I’m ok, my friend. What I’m doing,” she said, thinking about how to approach it. “Let’s call it a quest. A special mission that will help us in our goals. And I had to do it alone.”

  “But, where are you? And why did you go alone?”

  He sounded hurt. Holly couldn’t blame him, but at the same time, she felt a stab of irritation that he expected to be included in everything, that she could not function as an individual without Odeon desiring to be part of it. She loved it. But there was also something oppressive about it. He was not her. He was a being apart from her.

  “I’m sorry, my friend. But this one is a one-person mission.”

  He sighed. “All right. But please be safe. I’ll be here if you need me. Shiro won’t be. But I will.” Holly caught the sound of someone shouting something when Odeon used Shiro’s name.

  She ended the connection between her and Odeon, and tried to find a way to relax again. Another sip of her beer, another song beginning in the background, and Holly gazed out at the small car and the people populating it. Druiviins, Centau, a few humans, one or two Consties.

  And then her communicator buzzed again. She picked it up off the bar and glanced at it. “Shiro,” she said into the communicator.

&
nbsp; “Ms. Drake. Odeon tells me you’ve run away.”

  “Not run away, Shiro. I’m on my way to recruit someone for the mission.”

  “What sort of someone?” Shiro asked.

  “Someone who can take care of the children while you and I do the hard parts.” She hoped the compliment would take his mind off the particulars. She heard him sigh.

  “That will be necessary. I should tell you that I trust your judgment. More than ever before. You have,” he hesitated, and Charly could be heard in the background greeting him, “proven yourself repeatedly, handling difficult situations that call for strength that not everyone possesses.”

  Holly blinked, wondering if she was dreaming. “Thank you, Shiro.”

  “I must go, but please be safe. No one has your back, wherever you are. And—“ he paused again. “That worries me. But I know you’re strong.”

  He ended the call before she could say anything more. She felt a bit stunned. Then lifted her gaze to the train car and the people in it. With the music and the setting, there was something surreal about the whole scene.

  She wanted to stay and enjoy the time. Decompress, indulge, get away from the pressures mounting around her like waves that would crash down upon her at any minute.

  She glared at her beer, suddenly resenting it for dulling her senses. Shiro was right. She was alone. No one had her back. It was a terrible idea to pretend that she was safe and that relaxing was a good idea, let alone a possibility.

  Pushing the beer aside, Holly rose and went back toward her own berth, leaving the dining car behind. She pushed through the doors separating the cars and entered the next. Her thoughts clung to Shiro’s words. She was absorbed in them. As she walked across the carpeted corridors she began to feel exposed and anxious, as though someone were following her.

  Her pace quickened. She would be safe in her berth with the door locked. No one would dare to break the glass—it would alert the other passengers.