Leo would come back around, or he wouldn't.
But in the meanwhile, she had better let Zyr know what was going on.
It had to be significant, the Cores trying to take out one of the biggest crime lords on Garmen.
Zyr might get a little testy with her for seeing Leo, but that was no one's business but her own.
She had drawn that line in the sand when Rach had died, and no one was stupid enough to try and cross it.
Well, Veld had been. But that hadn't worked out so well for him, and now that Zyr was in charge, everyone knew the score.
She stood up and cleared away the dishes, a smile playing over her lips as she thought of Leo's surprise at her knowing his preferences with jah. It had thrown him.
He'd almost been more suspicious of that than anything else.
Her mouth stretched into a full-out grin. She liked keeping him off-balance.
It's how she felt around him, so it was only fair.
She got ready to go out, pulling on warm, loose trousers and a waterproof jacket.
The rain seemed to have intensified since Leo left, the drops hitting the window like tiny, tapping fingers.
She pulled her jacket hood up as she closed her front door, and ran down the narrow stairwell and out into the rain-darkened street.
She lived in one of the better areas of Tether Town, although nothing like the glitter and shine of the Felicitos apartments.
Even so, everything was run down.
The Cores didn't care how the buildings around Felicitos were built or what they looked like, as long as they didn't pose a danger to the tethered way station.
It showed in the general derelict appearance of everything.
The only places of any interest to the Cores were the warehouses where they stored their goods. Goods they sold to the traders who flew in from all over the galaxy to the massive landing deck at the top of Felicitos, where it poked its flat silver head out into space.
The warehouses were large, well-kept, and set on wide roads that led straight to the way station, but everywhere else, they let the flotsam and jetsam of Garmen fight it out amongst themselves.
Even if you had the money for an apartment inside Felicitos, which she was sure Leo did, unless you worked for the Cores you wouldn't get in.
A few people walked the street with her, heads down, scurrying along, headed for the way station.
She headed toward the way station herself, the procedure ingrained in her to make it look like Felicitos was her final destination before she ducked down a quiet street or alley and worked her way east to Zyr's apartment.
Even though the lake was to the north of the way station, the stink of lake weed, sulfurous and pungent, blew in on the icy breeze and she wrinkled her nose in disgust. Even the rain couldn't dampen the stench.
The waters of Lake Felicitos, lying below the tethered way station like a long, thin footprint, had been necessary for the building of the station, but the Cores had used it and then left it to rot, poisoned by the metals and solvents used in the building process, and unsafe to drink or swim in.
Lucky for everyone it rained a lot here. Almost every building had a water tank, or they'd all be sick.
She'd heard someone was working on a solution to the lake, but she'd dismissed it as wishful thinking. Gossip at its most optimistic.
A gust of cold rain pelted her, lifting the hood of her jacket and blowing it back so icy needles hit her face.
She turned her back to the wind to pull the hood up and her hands trembled a little as she spun back to face forward, hands gripping the hood to keep it in place.
Someone was following her.
She'd caught the quick dart of movement, the impression of a man, tall and in dark rain gear.
She cursed herself for a few steps, blind to anything but the acceleration of her heart.
She moved with the same purpose she had before, but she couldn't go to Zyr now, even though talking to him was even more urgent than it had been.
If they'd started watching her building since last night when she'd brought Leo back, then Leo was being followed too.
Did she send him a message? She fingered her comm set in her jacket pocket.
The Cores had their fingers everywhere. She wouldn't be surprised if her very ordinary comm unit had been hacked. And surely, with his security, Leo would have picked up a watcher far faster than she had?
Up ahead, with the way station a looming silver column in the background, she saw the warm lights of In the Shadows Cafe and angled toward it.
Two hovers came racing down the street toward her, weaving through the pedestrian traffic, and she used the fact that they flicked up rain water as they passed her as an excuse to turn and look after them in irritation.
Her watcher was still there.
She shook her head, as if annoyed, and then crossed the road and entered the cafe.
If her watcher came in, he'd have to order something and sit, and she'd have plenty of opportunity to watch him right back. It was why she'd chosen to enter a public place.
As she stepped inside, the light and scents broke over her in a warm tropical wave, with the sweet and spicy smell of fruni, the crisp pastries filled with pureéd fruit mixed with a hot chilli powder, tickling her nose.
After the chill and the gray of the street, it was a haven of warmth.
She rubbed her hands together, and got a smile from the woman behind the counter.
“It's like winter's come three month's early,” the woman said.
Sofie nodded and concentrated on the display case rather than whether someone was coming through the door behind her.
The cafe was almost full, with the gentle buzz of conversation that made her feel as if Garmen had a chance as a society. It wasn't always violence in the streets and being ripped off by the Cores.
She'd heard in the Verdant String you sat at your cafe table and ordered from the electronic menu embedded in the table surface.
Here on Garmen, things were done a little more primitively.
She wasn't hungry, she'd just had breakfast, but she chose a small, sweet biscuit, and a cup of jah, and turned to look for a table.
The watcher was still outside.
She paused, as if debating her choice of seat, and flicked a glance out of the small, metal-framed window as more rain threw itself at the glass.
She could sit down and pretend to have a cup of jah, and then walk home, having accomplished nothing, or she could step back on the resistance carousel she'd stepped off of after Rach died.
She'd been out of the game for a year, but she knew what to do, and choking down a cup of jah she didn't want seemed excruciating to her all of a sudden.
She turned on her heel.
“Problem, sweetie?” the woman asked.
“Just some creep who followed me here, hanging around outside.” She waved her mug. “Do you mind if I get this in a takeaway and leave out of the kitchen?”
The server's gaze flickered over her shoulder, and her lips pursed. “I see him. He looks like he's trying to decide whether to come in or not.” While she spoke, she took the mug, poured the jah into one of the thin paper cups stacked by the till and snapped on an equally thin paper lid. “Head on back.”
Sofie gave a grateful nod, and walked briskly through the tiny kitchen, smiling politely at the thin, nervous-looking girl standing beside a stove, and out into the rain again.
She moved fast, turning right as soon as she stepped into the narrow alley that ran the length of the block.
She made it to the corner, but before she could dart around it and get out of sight, she heard the sound of running feet behind her.
The sensation of being hunted wasn't new to her, but she hadn't felt it in a long time.
She hadn't missed it.
She ran, making no effort to hide the fact that she was trying to get away.
She dived into a narrow alley between two wooden buildings, the timber laid bare where the wate
rproof coating had peeled off.
She came out the other end of the narrow lane, and stepped into a street that stretched from the way station down through Tether Town in a straight line.
There were more people here and she tried to merge with a group of laughing teenagers, then drifted into a small, loose group of workers to reach the next alley. She ducked down it.
It was darker than back on the street here, the high buildings and rain-washed sky blocking most of the light. She hesitated for a moment, but the sound of footsteps in the street behind her spurred her forward at a run.
It was a mistake.
A small huddle of men standing beneath a broken awning which spanned the alleyway broke up and spread out as she ran toward them, and she slowed and then stopped, her heart feeling like it was trying to leap out of her chest.
She glanced behind her, but there was no one there. It looked like she'd managed to evade her watcher.
Out of one mess, into another.
She started backing away, eyes on the men as they braved the rain, coming out from under the awning toward her.
There were three of them, all wearing thin shirts which stuck to their skin in moments under the onslaught of the weather. One was seriously muscular, his arms and abs defined as the fabric of his shirt clung to him, his face a mean, hard-set sneer. The other two were not in as good shape, the one more pot-bellied than the other.
They advanced in a feral pack.
Sofie pushed back her hood so she could see better, and kept up her steady retreat.
Only a few steps until she was back on the main street.
One of the men lunged, hand out to grab her.
She threw her paper cup full of hot jah at him, and when he flinched back, arm raised, she kicked, high and hard, and heard the satisfying sound of a crack as her boot hit his forearm.
He didn't make a sound, he simply dropped to his knees, cradling his arm.
It seemed to spur his two friends on, rather than discourage them.
They moved together, in a way that told her they'd done this before.
And she couldn't fight both of them at once.
There was a whine and snap near her ear, and the attacker to her left collapsed.
The other one's gaze jumped over her, to focus on someone behind her, and Sofie didn't stop to see who he was looking at.
She jumped over the slumped body and raced past the third man just as a second snap sizzled in the wet air.
She smelled the ozone as he fell, and it made her run even faster.
She hoped, beyond anything, there was no one else in the alley, tensing as she ran beneath the awning the men had been standing under, and then heaving in a huge breath as she made it to the street beyond.
She wasn't safe yet, though.
She glanced behind her, and saw a grim figure in black drag one of the men out of the way and start down the alley after her.
She hadn't managed to shake him off, and she couldn't risk leading him to Zyr.
She headed home.
She didn't know of a single place that was safe enough if it was really the Cores who were after her.
At least there were dry clothes and hot water at her apartment.
If the Cores were coming for her, there was nowhere she could hide, so she might as well make herself comfortable while she waited.
They owned Garmen. And they would find her.
Chapter 5
“How's the side?”
Leo turned in surprise as Finkle stepped into the room, and realized he'd been rubbing the place where Zan's laz had hit him.
He shrugged. “They didn't want me dead, so it's already nearly healed.”
The solid night's sleep he'd had at Sofie's was mostly the reason for that.
“Just heard from Carver.”
Leo's attention snapped to Finkle and his eyes narrowed. “Trouble?”
He suddenly saw the massive hole in the plan he'd had to keep watch on Sofie. If the Cores came for her, there was nothing a single watcher could do but let it happen.
Why hadn't he persuaded her to come home with him?
“She went out,” Finkle said, and he was watching Leo right back, as if studying his reactions.
“And?” Leo could hear the snap in his voice, and didn't care.
“And she somehow caught on to the fact that Carver was following her. Led him on a bit of a chase.”
Leo took a step forward. “Chase?”
“He couldn't watch her if he couldn't see her.” Finkle lifted both hands in a fatalistic way that had Leo's temper rising.
He swallowed it back down. “No. But he could have pulled back, made her think she'd lost him.”
“If he'd done that, he might not have been there to save her from the attack.”
Leo closed his eyes for a beat, opened them. “Attack?” He kept his voice careful.
“Don't think it was the Cores,” Finkle allowed. “She was trying to lose Carver, ran down an alley, and had the bad luck of running into a group of oppos.”
Oppos were one of the reasons why Leo wanted to burn Garmen to the ground and rebuild it. Opportunists who took advantage whenever they could to rape, steal, and hurt.
The oppos used the lack of any consequence for crimes on Garmen to make life unsafe for everyone.
“Carver says she brought one of them down, some sort of kick, then he used his laz on all three of them.”
“Dead?” If they weren't, he'd go do it himself.
“Dead,” Finkle confirmed.
It was part of what Leo's organization did.
Leo had long made peace with being judge, jury and executioner in Tether Town. Someone had to take on the responsibility, and the Cores certainly weren't going to.
He tried to keep an emotional distance usually, but in this case . . . he knew he'd be acting in anger.
He realized with a jolt he was perfectly fine with that.
“And Sofie?” He tried to keep his voice steady.
“She went home. Carver doesn't know if she meant to go to the cafe all along, but got spooked when she saw him, or whether she was going somewhere else and then decided it was too dangerous and gave up on her journey.”
Leo thought it through. Had to lift his shoulders. He didn't know nearly enough about the woman who occupied too much time in his head.
“Put a second watcher on her. Carver obviously needs backup.”
Finkle looked like he was going to argue at the waste of resources, but he closed his mouth and gave a nod.
As he walked out, Leo turned and looked out of the big living room window that gave him a view of the far hills.
The tethered way station was on a flat escarpment, but there were foothills and then mountains in the distance.
He'd built his house at the edge of Tether Town, facing away from Felicitos. He didn't want it in his view, and he'd positioned the house so that it did not fall in the shadow of the way station, either.
If he brought Sofie here, there would be no way the stain of association with him could be rubbed off.
Right now, she was just a woman he'd been seen with socially.
He'd never installed a lover in his house before.
She would be seen as his weak spot, and that would be right.
She already was his weak spot.
Now he had to work out how to put that aside, and hope neither Sofie, nor the Cores, ever discovered his secret.
Sofie stepped out of her building and looked around.
She made no effort to hide the fact she was looking for watchers--that notion had pinched out to the black yesterday.
She'd seen no one from her windows, but that didn't mean much when her two views were the side of one building and the back of another.
Things looked normal. Just the usual people headed for work and the high, bright sound of children going in their walking bus to school.
The same two women shepherded them every day, and one of them nodded to her as they passed.
The children looked cold and too thin, but that didn't seem to dampen their spirits.
Above their heads, high on the wall they walked along, was a graffiti image of a shadow prowler.
Everyone in the street had breathed a little easier the morning they'd woken to find it there, six months ago.
It meant protection, which was ironic, given the shadow prowler was a relentless, vicious predator. But the group behind the sign was relentless only with the oppos--the opportunist criminals who took and even killed when it suited them--dishing out consequences for criminal behavior where the Cores never would.
In the Verdant String, Sofie gathered there were whole units devoted to keeping the citizens safe. In Tether Town, it was a shadowy, illegal organization who dealt death with no judge or jury.
And most were happy to have them.
She knew some of the hardcore resistance members resented whoever had taken on the job of dealing justice.
Whoever it was was winning hearts and loyalties. Diverting focus from the cause.
And there was probably some resentment because the shadow prowler was good imagery.
More exciting than the clenched fist symbol of the resistance, anyway.
She looked away from the stylized image of the lethal black beast and back to the children. Some of them were skipping, others walked slower, as if they didn't have the energy to spare.
It was wrong.
Wrong that they were going without, scraping a bare bones education here, through no fault of their own, when they could be on a Verdant String planet, cared for and educated to the highest level.
The life she and Rach could have had, if her father hadn't been seduced by the idea of Felicitos. Of a lasting legacy in his name.
She gave a bitter smile. That hadn't worked out so well. For him, or her and Rach.
Rach had had access to the interplanetary comms in her job, just a few times, but enough for her to have gotten the idea that the Verdant String would do something if they knew the children of Garmen's workers didn't have the right to leave, that they were bound by their parents' work agreements.
Rach had wanted to escape and get the word out.
Sofie fiddled with the bracelet around her wrist. The Verdant String had to know about the exit rules already. They'd have spies here, for sure.
Breakaway Page 3