Breakaway

by Michelle Diener

  She huffed out a breath. “It dug its claws into my skin.”

  That only made them laugh harder.

  Chapter 24

  They stopped just after midday to stretch and eat something.

  Leo never tired of Cloud Falls, the sheer height of them, the icy, crystal pool below, and the misty cloud of spray that gave the waterfall its name.

  It lay within view of the route, but they were deep in the mountains now, and there wasn't a good place to rest out of sight. The cliffs on either side of the narrow pass were high and unbroken. There were no gorges branching off them that he had ever found.

  And he had looked.

  Sofie stood at the edge of the pool with her back to all of them.

  The only person she seemed to not be angry with was Carver.

  He'd barely spoken to her after he'd returned with Sunny's hover. He and Carver had set up a warning perimeter, so everyone could get some sleep, and they'd set a low frequency fauna repellent as well.

  Carver had told her about it when they returned to a camp, and she had been visibly relieved at the news no spiders would be visiting while she slept.

  She had been friendly to Carver before, but now she positively beamed at him.

  He'd slept side by side with her, making sure his mattress was next to hers, but she had ignored him, and this morning, she'd taken Sunny's hover as her ride, her look daring anyone to object.

  “You've got some making up to do, lover-boy.” Zyr said from beside him.

  Leo went still, impressed at how quietly he could move. “I have some making up to do?”

  “Well,” Zyr inclined his head. “I do, too. But I've got the advantage of being her brother in everything other than blood. You, on the other hand, are not at that level.”

  Leo contemplated Zyr's face. He felt an overwhelming urge to add to the bruises that looked worse today than they had yesterday.

  As if he could read his mind, Zyr grinned, then winced as the movement hurt his lip. He held up two cups, and Leo caught the scent of jah.

  “I'm sure she'd be grateful for a cup.” Zyr handed them over. “You owe me, lover-boy.”

  Leo curled his lip in response, but he picked his way over the rocks to the edge of the pool and came to stand beside Sofie. He handed her a cup without a word.

  She took it, glancing at him in surprise. “Thank you.”

  He sipped his own, gazing into the pool. It was so clear, he could see all the way to the bottom.

  A large fish swam lazily through the water.

  “You're angry.”

  She gave a short, bitter laugh. “No, I'm not.” She sipped her jah in silence for a while.

  “You're going to have to speak to me, Sofie. Spell it out.”

  She looked at him. “Before I met you, I spent my life in the resistance. I've risked my life many times to get information for the leadership. Information I now know probably went nowhere because I gave it to Veld, but that doesn't take away from the risks I took. And since I met you, I've helped you kill two assassins and I've killed one myself.” She drew in an unsteady breath. “And now I find, despite my years of risk, Zyr doesn't trust me enough to let me know he's tracking me, not that it seemed to be of any help to him when Sunny, or whoever else is a traitor in the resistance, sold me out to Flunky and Tapper, and you disrespect me by ordering me to stay back like I'm some helpless ornament, rather than a respected partner and equal.” She turned to face him. “I'm not angry. I'm hurt. If this is how it is, I'm done with both of you.”

  She tipped her head and looked up at Valdos, the uninhabited water planet that hung close to Garmen. He had the sinking feeling she was planning a way to get up there, get free of them all.

  “I'm sorry.”

  She turned to him. Waited.

  “I'm sorry I ordered you to stay behind. It's not because I don't respect you. I just want to keep you safe. I should have taken you with me, used your skills. And if I had, you wouldn't have had a grass spider clinging to your hand.” He shuddered, and drew her in.

  She didn't fight it, but she didn't relax against him, either.

  He kissed the top of her head. “Sofie, you're more important to me than getting rid of the Cores, more important than sorting out the problems at the mines. I can see how my ordering you when I have no right to order you, and my subsequent annoyance that you hadn't listened would hurt you, and I will try to make sure it never happens again. The way I spoke to you after Dee killed Sunny was more reaction to seeing that spider on you than anything else. It scared me sick.”

  She relented a little, resting her head on his chest. “Dee called it a grass spider. I'm assuming it's not poisonous?”

  He swallowed. “It's the most poisonous spider on Garmen.”

  He felt her shiver.

  “And you all laughed?”

  “It was either that,” he told her, “or scream myself.”

  She stood quietly for a moment, then angled a little to one side so she could keep drinking her jah.

  “Am I forgiven?”

  She sighed. “Yes. But don't do it again.”

  “I promise to try.”

  Her eyes were narrowed when she looked up at him. “Try very hard.”

  He grinned down at her.

  “What are you so pleased about?” She sounded grumpy.

  “You're talking to me again. That makes me happy.”

  He saw the hint of a smile on her lips as she turned away and finished her jah.

  “I wish I could swim. This looks so good.” She crouched down and rinsed her cup, then flicked the water with her fingers.

  “I suppose Lake Felicitos was hardly safe.” Leo had learned to swim in the deep, swift-flowing streams that were all around Phansi.

  Sofie nodded. “A rash was the least of your worries if you dipped your toe in the lake. I certainly never risked it.”

  “Is it safe to join you?” Zyr was carrying flat bread wraps, picking his way over to them, and Leo put down a hand and pulled Sofie to her feet.

  He took two wraps from Zyr, handed one to Sofie, and then stood shoulder to shoulder with her.

  “That how it is?” Zyr's lips thinned. “Nice way to thank me, lover-boy.”

  “This has nothing to do with Leo.”

  He could hear the hurt in her voice, and Zyr must have, too, because he looked down at his feet.

  “Why didn't you just tell me about the tracker? Why not give me the courtesy of asking if I was okay with it?”

  “In those first weeks after Rach died, you were barely holding it together. I added the charm, and you didn't even notice. I thought telling you would be an extra burden at a time you had so many, you were staggering under the weight of them. And then, when enough time had passed, I thought it worked better without you knowing, because you didn't behave like someone who knew they were being tracked. You were completely natural.”

  “Except, it didn't stop the Cores grabbing her and taking her to Under Deck. What was going on with her tracker then?” Leo asked.

  “That would have been the evening Sunny was watching.” Zyr lowered himself down.

  Leo thought he probably had some cracked ribs, because he moved very carefully, but he'd seen Fallia run a regen wand over the big resistance leader's chest and face this morning, so he should be on the mend.

  “I went straight to Sunny to ask him about it. He said because you were working for Leo, he thought you were just going about your business for him, taking something up to the Under Deck. I have to admit,” he shook his head, “I believed him completely.”

  “Sounds like he wasn't so sure you did,” Leo said. “Were they trying to beat you up, or kill you?”

  Zyr rubbed his chest. “Definitely kill me. I was lucky--a couple of resistance members were right behind me, and they jumped in to help. And even luckier that whoever the attackers were, they were trying to make it look like an oppos attack, so no one had a laz.”

  “Did any get away?” Sofie's voice was
still neutral.

  “Two.” Zyr didn't say what happened to the other three, but Leo could guess.

  “Do you think Sunny decided to follow you on his own, or was he ordered to?” Leo asked.

  “No way to tell. We left a couple of hours after they beat me up, so there wasn't much time for either him or the Cores to make a plan.”

  “There's nothing in the storage hold on his hover,” Sofie said. “So that makes it more likely he jumped on and flew after you without a plan. Without anything.”

  She went still, her gaze fixing on the cliff to their left.

  Leo followed her gaze, and took a deep breath in. A shadow prowler stood looking down at them; body still, its focus intense. “We need to go.”

  Zyr swore softly. “How quickly does that thing move?”

  “Very quickly.” Leo grabbed Sofie's hand, started moving her toward the hovers.

  “I never thought I'd see one,” she said, still craning her neck to look at it.

  As if in answer, it roared, the spine-chilling sound echoing around them, loud even over the sound of the falls.

  Leo could only hope it had eaten recently.

  “Carver, you take the single hover.” He wanted Sofie right behind him, holding on tight.

  Carver shot him a grin and climbed onto it, and within a minute, they were skimming up the transport route.

  “I can see why you chose it,” Sofie whispered in his ear.

  “Chose it?”

  “The shadow prowler logo.”

  He switched the drive function to auto and looked around. “Why would I have anything to do with that?”

  She laughed in his ear. “Give up the act, Gaudier. Who else would care enough to mete out justice in T-Town?”

  Who else, indeed?

  Chapter 25

  Sofie considered the roar of the shadow prowler even as they approached Phansi. The deep, eerie call seemed to resonate in her head, and set her teeth on edge. But it was the look of it in the flesh--the massive shoulders, the long, almost prehensile tail, and the big, curved fangs, that really made an impression.

  Its short, dark fur seemed to suck light in. She'd only noticed it by the waterfall at all because its tail had flicked.

  Leo said they didn't come near Phansi often, but that didn't reassure her, and she noticed no one complained when they pushed through the night to make it to Phansi, rather than spend another night out in the open.

  The mining town sat on the flat part of the escarpment, above the mountains they'd spent the day ascending, and lightning crackled down, hitting the rocky hills that formed a ring around the northern end of the settlement. It illuminated low buildings, and the massive, boxy ore silos that stood like a line of sentinels on either side of the main road into the town.

  Beyond the silos, as they passed between the two closest to the road, was an even bigger structure, fully lit despite the fact it was past midnight, with automaton trucks rolling in and out of the huge entrance.

  Leo turned to her. “The weigh station.”

  She studied it more carefully.

  She could see nothing of her father's whimsy in it, but then, he'd been a specialist in designing mines and buildings associated with mining for many years before he was tasked with Felicitos.

  Perhaps this was his usual style.

  They rode through streets that lit up as they approached, on a motion sensor system that seemed to activate lights attached to the sides of buildings.

  Like Tether Town, the structures were square and efficient, and in the same state of disrepair.

  The tumbledown look of it shouldn't have surprised her, but somehow it did.

  Dee took the lead as they turned off the main road, and they followed her as she wove through a few smaller streets to eventually stop at a building in what Sofie guessed was the high end of town.

  The discrete sign on the gate said Gaudier Transport, and Dee turned down the drive. When they got to the end, a garage door opened up for them, smooth and silent, and Dee maneuvered the hover without hesitation into the large, well-kept space.

  “What's the plan?” she asked Leo in the sudden silence as everyone's hover was switched off.

  “We need to speak to Kalo.” Leo opened the storage hold and pulled out Sofie's bag and then his own.

  “That's handy, because I need to speak to you.” A man ducked under the closing garage door. His hair was an equal mix of black and gray, and his face and body looked hard-used and tough.

  Dee, Carver and Leo all suddenly had a laz in their hands, all pointed at the newcomer.

  Fallia slowly did the same.

  Kalo lifted both hands, saying nothing, and after a beat, Leo lowered his weapon.

  It took Dee and Carver a little longer to do the same.

  “Jim got to you with the message, then?” Kalo dropped his arms.

  “He did.” Leo bent to pick up the bags he'd dropped, slung them over his shoulder. “You been waiting out there long?”

  Kalo laughed, the sound husky and rough. “No, as a matter of fact. We didn't think you'd make it in until tomorrow at the earliest. But you obviously pushed yourself.”

  “And the Cores?” Leo walked to the door that connected the garage to the rest of the building and ran his finger through a laser lock.

  “There's no one new in town asking uncomfortable questions, if that's what you mean.” Kalo looked over at Sofie with dark, almost black eyes, then flicked his gaze to Zyr and Fallia. “Yet.”

  Leo held the door open for everyone.

  Sofie held back as they filed through, and took the hand Leo held out to her and stepped over the threshold with him as the door swung shut behind them.

  She looked up, and he gently tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering on her cheek.

  “You think this is a pleasure trip?” Kalo stood to one side, watching them with eyes narrowed. “This is serious business, Leo.”

  “I guess you've forgotten me.” Sofie turned to Kalo, sliding her arm around Leo's waist. “You looked me up a few times eight years ago, but I was a lot younger then.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kalo's voice didn't lose its belligerence.

  “It seems an introduction isn't necessary,” Leo said, and she could hear the chill in his voice. “But this is Sofie Erdo. Ronald Fadal's daughter.”

  The wave of fury that crashed over Leo took him by surprise.

  It was a direct reaction to the dismissive tone Kalo had taken with Sofie, and it was tempered only by the way she gave back as good as she got.

  Kalo had stopped talking after Sofie's challenge, and remained silent as they'd moved through into the big kitchen on the ground floor of the building.

  Dee and Carver took control of making jah and hunting up something for everyone to eat, while Zyr sat in one of the comfortable chairs near the window, clearly near his limit. Fallia stood beside him, wary and on guard.

  “I was interested to learn you and a few others looked Sofie and her sister up after Fadal died.” Leo led Sofie to another chair and then stood behind it, hands braced on the back of it. “Especially as you never mentioned it to me.”

  Kalo looked away. “We just wanted to make sure they were doing well, is all.”

  “Wanted to make sure we didn't know anything about our father's scheme and wouldn't make trouble for you about it, more like.” Sofie accepted a cup from Carver with a smile.

  “Maybe.” Kalo leaned back against the wall, arms crossed defensively over his chest. “You didn't know anything, though.”

  “Now I do,” she said, sweetly.

  He pursed his lips. “Too late, girlie, the fun ride is over. Only thing in our future is a nasty visit from the Cores. You want your fair share of that, be my guest.”

  “What are you really doing here?” Leo kept his voice clipped, because he didn't want Kalo to see how furious he was. “You stood outside, waiting for me to come riding in and bail you out of your trouble, although it sounds as i
f you don't think I'll be able to.”

  “I wanted to hear if you've got any inside information. Technicians who've been working the weigh station for the last eight years can't work out how to reset the algorithm, so I doubt you can.” Kalo straightened up. “I want to know how far behind you do you think the Cores are?”

  Leo released his hold on Sofie's chair and stepped out to the side. “Not far. We left yesterday afternoon. If they left this morning, and pushed it, they'll be here tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Do we stay or do we go?” Kalo asked.

  “You volunteered to wait for me tonight, didn't you? So you'd be the first to know if you need to cut and run.” Leo shook his head. “If we can't fix it, I say we stay and fight. But I know your thoughts on the matter.” He sank down onto the arm of Sofie's chair.

  “I only came to Garmen to make money. I never wanted a part in any rebellion.” Kalo slid his hands into his pockets. “Sure, I took the deal Fadal offered us, but that was to line the pockets of his revolution, not mine.”

  “The question is, will you stay neutral, or will you work against us?” Dee was sitting on a high chair beside the counter, both hands wrapped around her mug.

  Kalo bared his teeth at her, and flicked his hand, as if batting her away.

  Dee had told Leo long ago Kalo would be a problem when the time came to act, because he could only be trusted to look out for himself. She'd been sure if he thought he'd get a benefit from selling them out to the Cores, he'd do it.

  The way he was behaving now, Leo agreed with her.

  “We'll eat something, catch a few hours sleep, and then get to the weigh station.” Leo told him. “You want to smooth our way?”

  “What are you doing to do? If Donnie and Ursula can't fix it, what chance have you got?”

  “What does it matter?” Carver asked, and Leo could hear the anger in his voice. “You've got nothing to lose, either way.”

  Carver, and Dee, for that matter, had both grown up in Phansi. Had both come to work for him when he first started out.

  They knew Kalo better than he did, especially as their families still lived here and worked the mines.