Holly went to the counter where the Centau puffed on a pipe and studied a ledger on a v-screen. She looked up at Holly.
“What would you like?”
“I’m not here for drugs,” Holly said, feeling slightly disturbed by the environment. Her father had always claimed that the Centau were idiots about drugs. They needed to be regulated and used only for pain and mental illness. Not for recreation. Holly didn’t know what she thought, but she did find it uncomfortable to be a in place that sold them for recreation.
She felt Shiro come to stand beside her before she saw him in her peripheral vision. “Macav Onini sent us, madame. Do you know him?”
“Macav, yes. He is one of my clients. If he sent you, then you must want something he made.”
“We do, yes,” Shiro said, spinning his cane and then stopping it suddenly and placing it on her counter. Holly bristled at Shiro’s decision to hi-jack the conversation.
“We’ll pay you whatever you want,” Holly blurted, wanting to resume control. She was the leader, after all.
The Centau’s silver gaze settled on Holly again. Her skin glittered darkly. She seemed unperturbed by Holly’s nervousness. “You would benefit from Supernova. A four hour session should do it. Would you like to try?”
This was the reason Holly found such discomfort in joints like the place. “I’m here for business, not pleasure.”
Shiro shifted, and something about the way he moved told Holly that he was irritated that she’d cut him off. Touche, she thought.
A short time later, they were outside the Jungle of Delicious Delights heading to a hotel they had booked for the night. The next zeppelin didn’t leave Joppa till the morning.
“Fifty thousand novas, Ms. Drake,” Shiro said, his lips pressed together. He swished his lion-head cane furiously before him to clear a path in front of them, narrowly missing the back of a Constie laughing and strolling along with a group of friends. “Preposterous. What were you thinking?”
“I didn’t know she would jump to such an astronomical number immediately. We don’t have time for bartering, Shiro. Charm—”
“That is why you never say the words that you said. You play hardball. Keep your cards close to your chest,” he said.
“I know, Shiro,” Holly said, her face and ears turning hot. She found herself reverting to what had become her default to avoid conflict and a potential blow-out episode with Graf. She spoke quietly, next. “It was an accident.”
“I am an experienced negotiator. I could have gotten the part for ten thousand novas if you hadn’t interfered.”
“There is no point in this, Shiro,” Odeon said, reading Holly and stepping in. “Centau are hard to bargain with. They do not care to meet anyone on even terms. There’s no telling if you could have gotten her to go so low.”
They strode through the street, keeping to the side to allow autos to pass by. Holly hated this place now. It was the site of her embarrassment. She’d reacted to Shiro doing something she didn’t like and now she’d lost a sizable chunk of her money just for a part they may not end up needing if Darius could get the filters working well on the city-sweeping drone.
“I want to know what Ms. Drake was thinking. I want to prevent this from happening again in the future. There should be a designated haggler. And it ought to be myself, because it is what I’m good at. No, I am great at it.”
“Even with Centau?” Odeon probed.
“With any race. I’ve spent years studying it. It is one of my specialties.”
They’d reached the hotel. Holly cleared her throat, and kept her eyes averted. “You two, do whatever you want for the rest of our time on Joppa.” And then, feeling chastised, embarrassed, and irritated that she’d reverted to her old mannerisms, she muttered that she was going to the hotel bar for a drink and left Odeon and Shiro behind as she hurried through the front entrance and went to the bar.
***
Odeon and Shiro had sense enough to leave her alone for a time. They didn’t barge into her space sitting at the bar having a drink quietly. She hoped that Odeon had taken the thermo-core to their room and deposited it there safely.
The hotel bar was sparsely populated. It was still early in the day and maybe there were better places for a drink, but Holly didn’t want to go too far. Joppa unnerved her. The bartender took care of her drink—when she’d finished the first whisky, he poured her another.
For a while, she didn’t want to think about why she’d interrupted Shiro. What she wanted was to be done with the wild-fucking-goose chase. Things were never easy. It was always a complicated series of small tasks to make one big thing happen and it was getting exhausting, frankly.
After she’d had two sips of the second drink, she could finally admit to herself that it really bothered her to have Shiro upstage her negotiation. If they had discussed it prior to talking to the Centau, then perhaps it would have gone differently. As it was, it seemed that he had kind of dissed her by simply stepping in, pushing her aside as though she wasn’t important.
He was right. He was better at haggling. That didn’t bother her. She was willing to let people take different roles, and excel where they did—Charly was insanely brave, willing to do crazy shit that Holly wouldn’t want to do in a million years. Darius, the same thing—he knew how to work around problems using his tech skills. Odeon, the calm one, the quiet muscle and her rock, the thief, the rogue. He had multiple skills that were severely under-used such as breaking into safes and through locks. And Shiro. Chameleon. Haggler. People-person that could read a scene and adapt to what was needed.
And Holly loved that about her team. She didn’t love getting pushed aside, she guessed. And definitely not by Shiro. In fact, he was the only one brave enough to pull that move.
She took another drink of her whisky. She’d gone wild and ordered something she’d never order normally. Soon she became aware of the low voices of a conversation nearby. A husky, accented voice, talking sharply to another person, who spoke in a curious, naive tone.
“Because he’s the Hand, yeah? And I wouldn’t fucking cross him,” the husky voice said. Male. Possibly a Constie. Holly didn’t think it wise to turn and look for them, to tip them off that she was listening. So she continued to sit at the barstool, considering her drink and sipping it occasionally.
“A Hand. Jako. One of them. And he’s the weakest one. I’m not worried about it.”
Jako. Holly thought she’d heard that name before. Jako. Where had she heard it? They were talking about the Hand. One of them, they said. How many Hands were there?
“What’s the point of your existence in the first place? If you cross him, I’m not going to be there to find out what happens. So, go ahead, do it. Have your fun. Skim off the top. See what happens.”
“Give me a break. It’s not even a noticeable amount. It would fit two canisters at the most. In the scale of how much they bring in, he’ll never notice.”
“Yeah? You will to bet your life on that?”
“It won’t come to that. Unless, that is, you tip them off. And if you do, then you better hope I am dead.”
“The job is, mate, and I quote, ‘deliver the gas, get the hell out.’ There was nothing in there about changing the mass of the gas by taking some.”
Gas. What gas? Is that what they were doing here?
Holly’s communicator buzzed—the one she used for Xadrian or the official. She pulled it out of her blazer pocket and answered. “What?” She knew it was Xadrian, and she didn’t want to risk saying his name where other’s could hear her.
“HD, where are you? I’ve been trying to reach you for hours.”
“I”m not there.”
“So I had gathered. Where, pray tell, are you?”
“Off-planet.” She noticed in the back of her mind that the conversing voices had gone quiet. She turned, feigning interest in something behind her, and saw that the men had simply left the bar area altogether. She relaxed a bit and turned back to the counter, plac
ing her elbows on the surface and leaning against her hand.
“You were told not to do anything, I believe. To wait to hear from me.”
“It’s not got anything to do wth that, exactly. But anyway, I couldn’t just keep waiting. I’ve really got to keep moving, XT.”
“Not wise, HD. Not wise at all.”
“Maybe not. I don’t know. But I’ve got a plan.”
“Be that as it may, we have something for you to do. And it’s important.”
“I’m currently busy. What I’m doing is also important. And it’ll also get me the information I need to find her.”
“I’ll be patient. But I can only do that for a short time. So, when you get back to Kota, come see me immediately, if you still want the work. There’s only three days left to move on this. So you must hurry if you want to have time top pull it off.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
BY the time they were taking the space elevator back up to the platform to board their space zeppelin, Holly had cooled off. Shiro still seemed ruffled, but she wasn’t going to sweat it. If he wanted to talk over the subject further, she would engage with him. So conversations were quiet and consisted of the basics. “Hold my bag? Thanks.” “It’s our turn to board.” “After you.” “I’ll ride next to Odeon.” “I’d like to ride next to Odeon as well.”
And so Odeon was in the middle. Because Holly didn’t want to have to look at Shiro, really. And she didn’t want to smell his musky fragrance in the cramped compartment. And she didn’t want his arm brushing against hers as they sat in the restraints. It was bad enough having to be next to a total stranger on her other side. A Centau, this time.
As the carrier rose into the atmosphere, the air pressure adjusted. Holly’s ears popped. She kept her gaze away from Shiro, which also meant she couldn’t look at Odeon. So she watched out the windows as the sky faded from blue to a dusky color. The green jungle planet receded below them. Soon they passed the transition between Joppa’s atmosphere and where it faded into the coolness of space.
In the distance, far from the platform, Holly caught sight of a massive, behemoth tanker in orbit around Joppa. It’s exterior was orange and and blue like other Centau fleet ships.
“What is that?” she whispered.
The Centau female beside her answered. “A water tanker from Helo.” Her accent was thin. Her head was shaved and her dark skin reflected the dim capsule lights like dark brown porcelain.
Holly flinched when the Centau spoke. “Really? Why is it here? This moon doesn’t need more water.”
“Indeed. It is odd to see it here,” she agreed.
“What do you think, Odeon?” Holly asked.
“I do not know. Perhaps it is related to the conversation you heard at the bar.”
Holly had related the conversation about the Hand to Odeon. Maybe Odeon told Shiro. Holly wasn’t sure. Seeing the massive tanker stirred emotions of being dwarfed in the face of such awesome power and size. The grandeur and capacity, the applied ingenuity of the Centau gave her the chills.
“I could see a water tanker orbiting Po. They need more water. But this?” Holly said, a strange foreboding lodging in her.
***
Soon they were in their rooms on the zeppelin and settling in for the journey across the moon system. Being able to move freely at the windows gave Holly a better view of the giant tanker. It dwarfed the zeppelins. Small ships zipped out and entered the Joppa atmosphere. Meanwhile other ships returned to the tanker, disappearing into the vast landing bay.
“What’s going on?” Holly asked aloud, mostly to herself. She was in Odeon’s room and together they stared out at it, while Odeon did his song softly. Holly had plans for a drink soon, but for now, she was acclimating with her friend, watching the tanker, feeling disturbed by its presence.
Why would a water tanker do anything for Joppa? The moon didn’t need more water. In fact, Holly would have preferred Joppa much more if it’d had less water, less humidity. That would never happen. Centau liked the humidity, and when they got homesick, plenty of them visited and spent weeks there absorbing the ambiance like they were back on Centaurus. Kota was an odd location for Centau in the first place. It was a bit drier for their evolution. However, they’d made it as a place of unity for the four races and it did have the most diverse population of all the moons.
“I wish I knew,” Odeon said in his song-voice. “It seems that something is going on.”
“It can’t be water, right? Is it smuggling?”
“That is something I can’t guess without getting aboard it myself.”
Holly flipped on her earpiece and the mic that went with it. “Darius, you hearing this? A water tanker hanging out in orbit around Joppa.”
“Hey Drake,” Darius said. “I heard Shiro talking about it earlier. It is strange. And I think it has something to do with the SC. I’ve got some information here. New stuff. But not enough to do anything yet. Bits and pieces. Though I still don’t know where the little girl is, I’ve almost got enough to put it together.”
“Well, we’ve got both parts now—the one from Macav Onini and some other one we got from a drug mistress czar on Joppa. So we can get that new part of the plan together.”
“Great, nice work, crew. And that might just do it.”
“Oh and one other thing, Darius, Xadrian’s got something for us. Something he said we’ve only got three days to do.”
“We’ll have to hurry then. Any idea what it might be?”
“Unfortunately, no. None at all. He wouldn’t tell me. Said I have to be on Kota. I hope it’s about Charm.”
“Shit,” Darius said forcefully. Holly jerked, startled by the sudden change in tone. “Gah, sorry, Drake. Got to run. I just screwed something up.”
“Can’t you just . . .” she began, but he was gone. She finished weakly. “Work on it while we talk.”
“Darius is like that,” Odeon said. “When he needs to focus, he focuses hard.”
“I’ve noticed. But he does good work, and I’m glad he’s on the crew. Thanks to you.”
“And what about Shiro?”
Holly laughed. “What do you mean?”
Outside, the tanker had been making a slow trek around the moon. The light from Yol changed as the ship moved. Shadows appeared and vanished in a strange dance. The tankerwas vast and full of oddities. A thing from nightmares. If Holly hadn’t known its origins, she might have been frightened.
“You are upset with him. Any plans to repair what happened on Joppa?”
“Odeon, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” She hoped to pass it off as completely nothing. He was right, however. Since that moment, things had been strained between Holly and Shiro. What could she say? Odeon was her friend, of course, and she wanted to discuss it with someone, the only problem was she didn’t know herself what was bothering her about it. She just needed some time to think about it, to sort through the reason why what he’d done bothered her so much. It was still confusing her.
“Interesting answer. Shiro is good at his job. Sometimes I find that I don’t like him very much. There is a piece of his personality that bothers me. It doesn’t fit with me. But I know enough to see that he is an important part of the crew. I think that I wouldn’t like it if he left.”
Holly leaned against the window with one hand around the lip of the window head where it was raised to accommodate the rivets and large screws that held it in place. She turned from the window to look at Odeon.
“We’ll keep Shiro, Odeon. Unless he leaves because he’s unhappy. I wouldn’t let my feelings about whatever happened back on Joppa disrupt the dynamic of our crew.”
There was a soft rapping at the door, where the curtains were drawn. Odeon moved from where he sat on the lower bed and peered out around the fabric. “Shiro,” Odeon said.
“He’s welcome to come inside,” Holly said. “Besides, it’s your room.”
“I wouldn’t invite him in if my first guest didn’t want him to com
e inside.” He slid the door open.
“You two cats having a fun talk? Should I head to the dining room alone?” Shiro asked as he came in, swinging his cane. He’d changed into what he called the proper dining attire: a pin-stripe suit with a vest, tie, and blazer. His shoes were saddleback dark brown.
“Yes, let’s go, Odeon,” Holly answered, avoiding eye contact with Shiro. Looking at him, she was certain his eyes would betray the disappointment he must certainly feel after her failure at the drug bar. It was, for all intents and purposes, totally absurd that she cared what Shiro thought. Of course there would be time during their work together that they would fail or let one another down. It had happened between Holly and Charly. It would happen with Darius. It was bound to happen with Shiro.
Why would she care in the long run what Shiro thought of her? It was preposterous.
As she strolled through the corridor across the soft red carpet out ahead of Shiro and Odeon, her hand running lightly along the wooden and brass banister, her thoughts seemed to be getting louder. They spun around the topic of Shiro and what he thought of her and her frustration at him, that had caused her to devolve into a spiral of thoughts occupied by the concern over what he thought of her.
She almost laughed, as she realized that she was practically shouting at herself in her head.
They entered the dining room and Holly went to a table. Odeon followed her. She sat down and began watching the musicians on the stage, ignoring her friends.
“No drink then, Holly Drake?” Odeon sat down beside her and put his hand on her shoulder blade. She inhaled as the swirling storm of anxiety within subsided. The loud thoughts about Shiro scuttled away like shadows in the sunlight.
“I’m tired of being reliant on drinking to get through these trips, honestly, Odeon.”
“I can keep singing,” he said.
“You know, I think I’ll just head back to my cabin and try to sleep. I think I can make it.” She suddenly realized she didn’t want to be in the dining room, listening to the singing like she had nothing else to worry about in the universe. She had so much to think about—forgetting it for a short time helped no one that currently mattered.
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