His tone made clear he was wrapping up conversation, and as he turned away again, Sofie looked around the room.
It was a standard office, not the one room on each floor her father had . . . modified.
The modifications had been a game, in the beginning.
It had started with a lesson on Halatian architecture, on how the Halatians were the most innovative designers in the Verdant String.
Her father had left Halatia to work for the Cores, had married her mother when he was stationed at one of the Core Companies' offices on Arkhor, and had taken them all to Garmen when they'd discovered the Breakaways.
But life was brutal on Garmen, and their Arkhoran mother had died of one of the many diseases that had swept through Tether Town in the early days. And then shortly afterward, Halatia had been destroyed, the tectonic plates on the planet ripped asunder in a massive natural catastrophe that had killed most of the population and caused the rest to flee.
Her father had never gotten over it.
He'd thought he'd have the chance to go home again. Show her and Rach the wonders of Halatia and the beautiful cities built with glorious buildings.
But not only was Halatia destroyed, those who'd managed to escape had been taken hostage for ransom, and it had taken the Verdant String months to get control of the situation.
By the end of it, not only was Halatia gone, so were most of her people.
Her father had found it hard to grasp that he was one of the few Halatians left.
At the start, he'd coped by telling them stories about Halatia, and specifically about the quirks the Halatians liked to build into their homes, the secret rooms and hidden passages, the insistence on beauty as well as function.
They'd encouraged him to put a Halatian stamp on Felicitos with a child's delight in the idea of secret passageways and rooms.
But they'd lost him to it.
He'd become obsessed with dedicating the way station to his destroyed home planet. As a memorial to everyone he'd lost when it had been ripped apart.
As he sunk deeper and deeper into the abyss, she and Rach had to fend for themselves.
She still didn't know where his salary had gone. All she knew was that they barely had enough to feed themselves. When he'd died, she and Rach had gone through his financial affairs, and found he had been paid by the Cores. They weren't cheating him, as they'd suspected at the time.
It was a mystery. Her father had had only one vice, and that was his obsession with Felicitos.
Out of desperation, they'd aligned themselves with the construction crew, playing up and down the ladders and scaffolding as Felicitos was built from the ground up, forging networks and friendships that had kept them safe. Kept them sane.
Her father had coded her and Rach's birthdays into every lock as the tower rose up; more, she was sure, so that they could come and go without him needing to take them home when it was bedtime.
She hadn't met a door on Felicitos she couldn't open.
When her father had realized not only would the Cores never officially dedicate Felicitos to Halatia and its people, nor stop the smugglers who'd ransomed the Halatian survivors from hiding from justice by using Garmen as a safehaven, he'd turned bitter and angry.
And he'd built his secret rooms and passageways with a vengeance.
He made it a tribute to Halatia without the Cores knowledge or approval.
And because he couldn't do it by himself, because he needed the construction teams on his side, he'd fallen in with the resistance, and brought Sofie and Rach with him.
But her father, to her knowledge, had never considered including anything that would damage his precious tower into the design. He'd clung to the hope the Cores would change their minds, name the tethered way station for the Halatian victims, and hunt the smugglers down.
He loved this tower more than he loved either her or Rach.
He'd lived for it. He'd died for it.
“Sofie?”
She had walked to the window herself while Leo finished up his call, leaning against it and looking out over Garmen. She'd been cloud gathering, as her mother used to say.
Leo and Finkle were both looking at her, Leo with concern, Finkle with scrupulous politeness.
“Sorry. What did I miss?”
Leo gave her another careful look, as if she were fragile, and then waved at the screen on his desk. “I did a search yesterday for any mention of Veld or Garde. Nothing came up, but this morning there was a cryptic message waiting for me. Someone in Arkhor is interested in why I'm looking.”
“How did they know who you were?” She hadn't had access to interplanetary comms since she was about thirteen, when the Cores cut off gen-pop access, but she thought searches were anonymous.
Leo gave a cynical smile. “I'm guessing the VSC has their ways. Maybe they've set up an electronic trip wire on those search terms.” He shrugged. “They know I'm from Garmen, and they want to know how I know the names of two of the insurgents who infiltrated Cepi and tried to steal the alien enviro generator that covered the ruins.”
“So Veld and Garde were involved. And that means the Cores are, too.” Again Sofie didn't know if this was good or bad. If the Verdant String wanted to punish Garmen, they could put sanctions in place, and that would affect everyone, not just the Cores. If they were really serious about stopping the Cores, though, they could take the planet by force . . . and for her, that would be a better outcome.
“Who's the person in Arkhor who's interested?” Finkle asked.
Leo's lips quirked. “They wouldn't say. My guess is someone in Arkhor Special Forces.”
“So is Veld in custody? What happened to him?”
Leo shrugged. “So far, all I've got is questions, not answers.”
She could only hope Veld and his little side-kick Garde were locked up somewhere. “I'll need to pass this along to Zyr.”
Leo nodded. “I agree. Maybe he can speak to that source of his on the Deck again. If he knows what questions to ask, we could find out more.”
“Will you tell whoever on Arkhor has contacted you that Garde and Veld were working for the Cores?” Finkle asked.
Leo lifted his shoulders. “I don't know whether it's wise to let Arkhor Special Forces know that just yet. It's something I'll have to think about.”
“I'll send a message to Zyr and organize to meet up with him later.” Sofie turned toward the door. “Which office am I working from?”
Leo looked a little disconcerted. “I don't know. Eunice arranged that.”
She gave him a cool nod. “Well, I'll let you know what I hear back from Zyr.”
She stepped to the door, opened it.
“Sofie.”
She turned, saw Finkle looking down at his shoes and Leo standing with feet planted apart, as if ready to go to battle.
“Yes?”
Leo was silent for a beat, then sighed and shook his head. “Have a good day.”
She nodded politely and closed the door behind her.
He wanted it both ways. He wanted what they'd had before, but he also wanted to stay away from her, to keep her safe.
There was no safe, but he had to come to that realization on his own.
Her days of chasing after love were over. She either had enthusiastic participation, or she had nothing.
No matter how much it hurt.
She let her fingertips rest against the closed door of Leo's office, then straightened and walked away.
Chapter 14
The secret chamber on Leo's floor was in one of the bathrooms. There were six of them, and Sofie simply followed the floor tiles to the one on the far left at the end of the day.
Her father had insisted on designing the flooring, and the Cores had given him his way when he'd promised it would cost them no more than if they'd contracted out.
And if you knew how to read them, the floors gave up Felicitos's secrets like a loose-mouthed gossip.
It was, according to her father, very much
the Halatian way.
She slipped inside the bathroom and closed the door. She didn't lock it, she just moved quickly, bending down to depress the tiny tile in the corner.
The wall gave a delayed click and then popped open a little way.
It was clearly in need of some maintenance. She would have to bring some oil tomorrow and grease the hinges, because if she was working on this floor, she'd need to use it again--although not too often. In the full year she'd worked upstairs for the Cores, she hadn't used the secret tunnel once. It wasn't in a bathroom up there, it was in a store room, but if she'd been caught, she'd have been killed.
She'd made the decision when she started working there she would only use her escape hatch in a life or death situation.
But things were different now. The Cores had seen her twice interfering with their plans for Leo. Even if they weren't actively looking for her, if the wrong person caught sight of her moving through the public access spaces, they might just follow her.
That wasn't a good idea tonight.
She pulled the wall back, stepped through and it swung shut behind her.
As soon as it clicked shut, the lights flickered on, went dark, and flickered on again.
She was halfway down the passage when they went off permanently.
It wasn't lack of power, the whole of Felicitos was coated in a thin solar film that trapped enough energy to power not only the way station, but most of Tether Town as well.
There had to be a short somewhere, or a loose wire. She wished for once she had her screen with her, it would light the way, but instead she kept a hand on the wall and walked slowly until she came to the stairs, where the lights were on.
She ran down four flights until she came to a lift, and took that down to the floor where she'd met up with Zyr and Fallia after her jump across the hoverway.
The lift was hidden, lying back to back with the maintenance lift, and she stepped out, walked around the tight curve to the right, and then looked out through a wall of one way material, which allowed her to look out as if through a window, but on the other side, it would seem the same as the rest of the passageway. She waited a beat, but there was no one around, so she pulled the lever to open the door and stepped out into the maintenance tunnel.
She made her way to the room Zyr had taken them to the other day. It was dark inside, and she frowned as she entered, looking left for the light switch.
Even if Zyr had stepped out for a moment, surely he'd have left the light on?
She heard the whine of a laz and then pain exploded through her.
The last thing she remembered before she was swallowed into darkness was the smell of ozone.
She woke to someone patting her cheek. The pats started out softly, but then became a little more forceful.
“Careful. We want her to be able to talk, remember?” The man who spoke had a bored voice, and she heard him move just behind the one slapping her, a slide of expensive shoe on the hard floor.
She fluttered her eyes, just to stop the slapping, which had softened after the other man had given his warning.
“There.” The man stepped back. “She's awake.”
“Semi-conscious, more like it.” The bored voice again. “Give her some water.”
Because she felt really thirsty, she fumbled for the cup, sipping from it with both hands, her eyes still half-closed.
She wasn't restrained in any way and she was on some kind of couch or large upholstered chair. When she'd finished the water, she lifted her head, and forced her eyes open.
Two men stood in front of her, in the sharp, dark clothes of Cores bodyguards.
That wasn't a surprise.
What was a surprise was the room they'd put her in. It contained the couch she was sprawled on, a small desk with a chair, and nothing else except the murals on the wall.
She studied them.
This was her father's old office.
She half-remembered it. Back in the day, there was a huge desk here, covered in blueprints, and big screens up on the walls, where her father would scribble equations.
They had brought her to the Under Deck, just under the landing pad at the very top of Felicitos. The place her father had moved to when the bare bones structure was complete.
They had had to import so much of the building materials for the way station, it had been easier for him to be close to the top, where the ships were landing, than down below.
How odd they had turned his office into some kind of strange interrogation room.
At least, if they left her alone for even a minute, she had a way out that didn't involve the door.
Her father had of course made sure the secret tunnel on this floor was through his own office.
“She must really be out of it.” The man who'd been tapping her frowned, and Sofie realized she had been paying too much attention to the room, not enough to the threat in front of her.
She took her cue from him and groaned, putting a hand to her forehead.
“You probably used too high a setting,” the other man said. “She's not exactly large.”
“Where am I?” She blinked as she spoke, squinting up at them.
“That doesn't matter. We want you to talk to someone for us.”
She didn't know why her first thought was they wanted her to speak to Veld. She went still at the idea. “Who?” She stuttered it.
“Leo Gaudier.”
She was so thrown, she looked up at them, dumbfounded, and both men shifted a little uncomfortably.
“You know Leo Gaudier.” The man who stood behind the tapper frowned at her, as if she was being difficult. “You're his lover.”
She shot him an incredulous look. “Where did you hear that?”
He frowned again. “You saying you're not?”
“Yes, that's what I'm saying. Are you crazy?”
There was a heavy silence as the two men glanced at each other. “You know him, though.”
“I work for him, sure. So do plenty of people.” She relaxed back into the couch.
“You're going to call him and tell him you're dead if he doesn't come up here, answer a few questions we have.”
She was quiet for a moment. When she looked up, there was no need for her to pretend the fear and acceptance on her face. “Then I'm dead.” She shrugged, and closed her eyes.
“What?” The tapper shook her shoulder. “Why do you say that?”
“I'm a low-end employee of Leo's. Even if he were my lover, and he's not, you think he'd come racing over to rescue me, knowing your 'questions' are no more than a thinly veiled attempt to grab him on the quiet and kill him?” She actually managed a laugh. “You must be desperate.”
That didn't sit well with either of them. She guessed they had their doubts about the enterprise themselves, because they knew the Cores execs would have openly laughed at a threat like the one they were making if it was one of their employees being held captive. Laughed until they cried.
They didn't think Leo would be any different.
She could only assume someone in the resistance had sold her out for money, or because they were a mole for the Cores. Zyr and Sunny had called Leo her lover-boy, and she'd hinted to Fallia that she was sleeping with him. Someone had gotten the message, and thought it worth a shot to see if Leo would bite.
If he didn't, they'd still have messed with his head, and her death wouldn't weigh on anyone's conscience.
“You're going to contact him.”
She shrugged again, opened her eyes. “Sure. He's going to be sorry to lose me, sad I've been caught up in this. That's about it.”
They exchanged another look.
“Here's your comm set.” The tapper held it out to her, and she went cold at the thought of him searching through her pockets for it while she was unconscious.
When she took it from him, her hand trembled. She used her shock, used her revulsion, to project panic. “I'm no one to him. I'm dead.” She started to rock. “I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm d
ead.”
“Shit.” The tapper turned. “I believe her.”
“Whoever sold the execs this story was getting creative with the truth, all right, but we've got our orders. I'm following them.” He shouldered the tapper aside, gave Sofie a smack on the cheek of his own. “Pull it together.”
She choked back a hysterical laugh. “Pull it together? Why the hell should I?”
They were quiet, because what could they say to that?
He leaned forward, getting into her face. “I'll tell you why. Because right now, you're not in pain, but that could change really fast if you don't cooperate. Contact Gaudier. Now.”
She went still and looked straight into his eyes, saw the promise in them. He wouldn't take pleasure in hurting her, but he wouldn't lose any sleep over it, either.
She hunched over her comm set to give a verbal command. “Contact Leo Gaudier.”
She lifted her gaze to her two captors as it connected.
“Sofie?” Leo looked up at her from the tiny screen.
The tapper took the set from her. “We have your lover, Gaudier. Either you come get her from us, or we kill her. Just like those other two who worked for you.”
Other two?
Leo hadn't mentioned that.
“I've told them we aren't lovers.” She knew her tone had to be just right, felt her heart pounding in her chest at the thought of getting it wrong. She made herself sound exhausted. “I've told them there's nothing between us, and that they've got it all wrong.”
“Doesn't matter if it's wrong or not. She works for you. You come get her, Gaudier, or her blood is on your hands.”
Sofie grabbed her comm set back, hung on to it while the tapper tried to wrestle it from her hands. “I don't expect you to come, Leo. There's no reason for us both to die, because they're not letting me go, either way. Revenge me well.” She cut off the link.
The fury in the tapper's eyes flared up, and he finally wrenched the comm set from her. “What do you think you're doing?”
“Being logical,” she said. “Just connecting the dots. You going to tell me you'll let me walk out of here?” She let disdain drip from her voice.
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