“Boa, I know you’ve got that religious objection to them, but you really should get one. The benefits outweigh the risks by a lot. I know some people, I could make sure you get set up with top-notch anti-intrusion measures.” It was an old argument, but Cygni just couldn’t let it go. Her best friend had to carry around a hand-communicator just to receive phone calls—it was barbaric. She had to be saved, even if she didn’t know it.
“You just finished telling me that they were going to rip into your brain through it. That’s not a good sales pitch.”
“Fine, stay a savage.”
“These days it’s a lot safer. I see what you and my brother go through.”
Cygni sighed. Boadicea’s brother, Biren, was the whole reason why they were friends in the first place. He’d broken her heart once—
“Oh, oh, dammit. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring him up again. Just, you know-”
“Stop. It’s fine.”
“Hey, how’s that Nyangari working out? Is it still, you know, good?”
“I said it’s fine. There’s no need to try and distract me with talk about my boyfriend. And for the record, yes, it’s fantastic. You may want to try a cross-species relationship sometime.”
“My mother would die, I think.”
“It wouldn’t kill you. You’d be surprised about what a non-Solan has to offer. Different anatomy, different flavors—”
“Okay, okay. Are you done with your revenge now?” Boadicea was blushing furiously over her loose fitting, linen tunic. Below it Cygni could just make out the shadow of the beaded halter that marked her as a member of the Kosfanteri Gaian Tribe.
“Yes, I think I am. Can we talk about something other than males now?” She curled her lips into a smug smile.
“Yes, please.”
Both women stared at each other and laughed.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been a bit distracted since yesterday.”
The waiter, a young Solan man with blonde hair, came out of the shop and started refilling water glasses with a pitcher held in one hand and coffee mugs from a pot in the other. Cygni waited until he got to their table and nodded.
“More?” Boadicea said.
The young man did a double-take.
“You’re Cygni Lau-Aragon, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am—and it’s Aragón. Now pour my coffee, young man.” She saw Boadicea bite her lip out of the corner of her eye.
“Yes, ma’m. I’m sorry, I mean—”
“Just pour.”
The waiter did and hurried away quickly.
“What’s this ‘young man’ business? You’re hardly older than he is.”
“Hardly older? I’m twenty-five, he can’t be more than, what? Nineteen?” Cygni shook her head.
“Nineteen and twenty-five aren’t that far apart. People regularly live to a hundred-and-twenty these days, more if they can afford the rejuve tech. The difference between you two is—”
“Maturity,” she cut in.
“Really?”
“Shut up. You were saying, about being distracted since yesterday?” She took a tube of sweetener from the small holder on the table and injected it into her drink.
“Oh, yeah, that. My mother’s been in a huff since yesterday. Some Abyssian came by asking after things he’s not supposed to know about, and one of our guests decided to answer some of his questions.”
“Abyssian?” Cygni jolted forward in her seat, spilling coffee through the table’s metal lattice onto her bare legs. She ignored the sting, putting all of her attention on her friend.
“Yes, an Abyssian—What’s this to you, Cygni? You look like I just told you the sky was falling.”
“What was this Abyssian’s name?” Cygni asked. She’d never heard of more than one being on the same planet before, but she had to make sure this was her guy. If it was, maybe all was not lost for her scoop after all. Boadicea might be able to give her new leads, or some more insight into what was going on—but she was getting ahead of herself.
“Why are you so interested?” Boadicea’s expression turned grave.
Cygni realized she was pushing too hard.
“I just spent ten days as a guest of the state. Maybe I’m a bit on edge. There was an Abyssian at the crime scene where I got arrested. I’m just wondering if it was the same one.”
Boadicea gave her a sarcastic look with her sharp, brown eyes.
She shifted in her seat.
“Cygni?”
“Alright, fine. It has to do with the story I was working on. They deleted my recording of the incident and I need a new lead.”
“Cygni, this is biodome business. I can’t tell you.”
“I’m in a lot of trouble with my editor, and if you just tell me what his name is then maybe I can do the rest on my own and get back into the good graces of the publication. I just want to see if it’s the same Abyssian, okay?”
Boadicea shifted her weight, leaning back in her chair. Cygni felt bad stressing their friendship like this, but she didn’t want to give up on covering the crime of the decade. The other publications already had stories about it streaming on the Cyberweb, and all The Spur Herald could do right now was be part of the crowd. If she could get a lead, start working on the angles she discovered at the crime scene, then maybe she could put the publication and herself above the rest.
“Please?” She said in her most childish voice.
Boadicea leaned over the table, almost touching Cygni’s nose with her own.
“Not a word to anyone, okay?”
“Okay.” Cygni felt her extremities tingle.
“You didn’t hear this from me, or anyone, and you can’t talk about it in your news cast.”
“Done.”
“And you owe me, big time.”
“Done.”
“Alright.” Boadicea took in a deep breath. “I saw him, briefly. He was a big, beefy guy but his face was all cut up or burned or something. His name was Nero Graves, and he was with this CSA Agent, Sorina Khepria. Alright? I can’t tell you anymore than that.”
She leaned forward and kissed her friend on the lips. “Thank you, Boa. I mean it.”
“You owe me, don’t forget.” Boadicea sat back, shaking her head.
“I won’t. I promise.” Her smile hurt her face, but she didn’t care. The ‘dome visitors were her Abyssian and her Agent Khepria. She wasn’t sure what the biodome had to do with Baron Mitsugawa’s death, but she would find out.
“Cygni, be careful. Please, this thing is bigger than you might think.” Boadicea frowned.
“Thank you, I owe you one.” She got up from the table. “I’m gonna run with this now, hope you don’t mind. I’ll be in touch, okay?”
“I’m serious. Be careful.” Boadicea was still frowning.
“I always am.” She turned and headed for her car. She would use the secure node at the office to do a trace on the names and get their history back in her database, then she could start tracking down the leads from who was present at the crime scene. She still remembered snippets of conversation. The CSA didn’t take what was in her biological brain, after all.
Oh yes, it was going to be a good story. She could feel it.
Chapter Fourteen
Ikuzlu City, Kosfanter
41:1:3 CST (J2400:3062)
“I’m sorry to interrupt you, master,” Ben’s voice came from behind him.
Cylus turned just enough to bring his personal servant into view. Thousands of transactions rendered in glowing electric blue dominated his vision. He had been sifting through the public financial data of hundreds of minor baronies when Ben arrived, and stared at his white-eyed artificial through the translucent text.
Ben was framed by packed bookshelves of real paper books as he stood in the doorway to the library dressed in a formal black uniform. The smell of hot mint chocolate from a mug on the tray it carried mingled with the dry, mustiness of the old books, and conjured up memories of Anilon. Cylus’ father had been a collector o
f rare and ancient tomes that filled their manor house with the papery smell of knowledge. Every weekend Cylus had a hot mint chocolate in the manor’s library while his father downloaded the evening trading data.
He sighed. “It’s no trouble, Ben. Is that for me?”
“Of course, master. I thought you might want some with the stressful morning you are having.” Ben walked over to where he reclined in a high-backed leather armchair.
He accepted the mug with a smile. Trust Ben to give him exactly what he needed. Sometimes he wondered if it had programmed itself with a compassion routine, or had digitally evolved a heart.
“Thank you, Ben,” he said between sips. The mint streamed up through his nostrils while the rich, dark chocolate coated his tongue and made him tingle from scalp to toe.
“Any progress, master?”
“Some. You know Sophi. She’ll never let me live it down if I give her something too easy, but if it’s too big our new friends will be upset.” He half spat the word, ‘friends.’
Ben nodded. “Might I make a suggestion, master?”
“Of course, Ben.”
“Heiress Cronus is quite adept at social management. Perhaps something in that field might suit her and meet your requirements?”
Ben had a point. Under her mother, Sophi had learned the finer points of labor management and taken a turn at running some of the Intelligent Systems’ offices. She was great at getting people to agree with her. Something in the staffing field might prove both enjoyable and appropriate for her skills.
Cylus moved out of the directory currently displayed in his vision and entered new parameters into his search program. A list of companies offering both artificial and biological staff for rent and hire appeared. He scrolled up and down the list with his thoughts until spying a name that stood out. One quick glance at their financials, and a smile appeared on his face.
“Ben, you’re a genius.”
“Found something, master?”
“Elthroa Staffing Corporation. They’re an Isinari barony, just the right size, and just the right business for Sophi. I’m putting in the acquisition order now.” His words practically tumbled over each other.
With the task done, he banished the text from his vision and leapt to his feet.
“Where’s Sophi?”
“She’s up in the dining hall with Heiress Olivaar,” Ben responded.
The mention of Pasqualina’s name took some of the edge off of Cylus’ excitement. In the two days since his uncle first brought her by, there was hardly an hour of daylight that she didn’t spend over at his tower. Thankfully, he was able to dodge her presence by explaining he had to find Sophi a barony to run before he would have any time to spend at her side. Sophi had been good about that bit, sweeping Pasqualina from him and keeping her busy on the other side of his apartments within minutes of her arrival.
Though the thought of having to see Pasqualina curdled his blood, he figured he not only owed it to Sophi to give her some relief from his cousin’s unbearable company, but that she also deserved to know she was going to be a baroness in her own right as soon as possible.
“Let’s go.” He followed Ben out of the library.
The main dining hall was situated along the western side of the building. Ten meters of picture windows along its outer wall provided a panoramic view of the ocean beyond the city. The remaining walls were covered by brown velvet patterned to resemble twisting vines with spade leaves and the twelve-petal flower-within-a-flower of Anilonian Ivy. Several white marble statues of naked male and female goddesses stood sentinel at the doors, one of the recurring themes his father had made sure every social area of their properties had. They made Cylus uncomfortable but he couldn’t bring himself to change it for fear of offending his father’s memory.
The center of the room held the grand dining table. It was nearly as long as the room was, with place settings and high backed chairs for fifty. Light domes embedded in its surface were evenly spaced down its length. They made the pearl white of the table-cloth through which they protruded glow with a welcoming light.
Sophi, buried in her deep, brown-and-silver robe, sat at the northern head of the table with Pasqualina seated to her left. The latter woman wore a dark-purple strapless dress with detached sleeves that covered her arms. Both her back and midriff were completely exposed. The copper ringlets of her hair hung loose about her bare shoulders, and she had kicked out of her red sandals to leave her feet bare against the dark carpet. Her fingernails were lacquered solid black and gleamed in the sunlight.
At his entrance both women looked up from their conversation. A broad grin broke out beneath the spade of Pasqualina’s upturned nose. Ben closed the doors behind him, leaving Cylus alone with the women.
“Am I interrupting?” he asked, stopping his approach three chairs away from where his cousin was seated.
Sophi’s hood turned slightly towards Pasqualina in a peculiar way. “Nothing you have to worry about. What is it, Cy?”
He took a deep breath. “I’ve found you a barony.”
“Which?” Sophi asked.
“Elthroa Staffing Corp, it’s about the right size and—”
“That’s a good choice, Cy. They do biological and artificial staffing, as I remember,” she responded.
He felt his shoulders drop.
“Aurora supplied them with some of their AI systems,” she went on. “I like it.”
He smiled. “I’m glad. I put the requisition order in. Keltan Securities will buy them, then I’ll gift them to you.”
Silence followed his words. He was disappointed, having hoped for a bigger, friendlier reaction from her. He glanced at Pasqualina’s still smiling face.
“Are you sure I didn’t interrupt?” he asked, his pride wounded.
Sophi shifted in her seat. “Actually, you did, Cy.”
“But it was nothing important,” Pasqualina added. She glanced at Sophi, and rose from her seat.
He suppressed the urge to take a step back as she approached. It wasn’t that she was unattractive—to the contrary her high cheekbones and large green eyes would be fetching to any man—it was what she represented to him. He remembered her as a child, when his uncle and Baroness Helena would come to visit his parents on Anilon. He was young then, but not too young to remember her taunting him for his deeply cleft chin and incessant clumsiness. He could still hear her young voice calling him “butt-mouth” and worse. The damage then had amounted to his bruised ego. Now, of course, it would be his life.
Pasqualina stopped barely half a meter from him. “I’m glad you came by. We’ve barely had any time together in the last two days.”
He glanced at Sophi. “Heiress Cronus has had a lot to say to you, and I thought it best not to interfere.”
“Just girl things, nothing really important,” Pasqualina said.
He knew that was a lie. Sophi always had important things to say, or she didn’t say anything at all. Though, now that Pasqualina mentioned it, he wondered what they’d been discussing for two days straight. He’d been too preoccupied with finding Sophi a barony to inquire.
“I’m sure it had to be something important. You can’t talk about nothing for two days in a row,” he said.
Pasqualina tilted her head down and looked at him from under green painted eyelids. “You’d be surprised, Cylus. Some people can say very little with a lot of words.”
He glanced over at Sophi again, afraid that his cousin’s words might have caused her some offense, but the folds of her brown robe did not as much as twitch. When he looked back at Pasqualina, she was half a step closer to him.
“I’ve wanted to spend more time with you since the last time I was on Anilon.”
“That was a long time ago, more than a decade.” He shifted his weight. He couldn’t imagine her pining after him. He’d known Pasqualina to be too materialistic for such romantic feelings. The idea that she could have them made his stomach throb threateningly.
“You nev
er really left my thoughts.” Her voice was like an overly sweet candy.
“You left mine.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
He heard a sharp hiss from within Sophi’s robe.
“Ah, I mean—”
“It’s alright.” Pasqualina seemed unruffled by his comment. “You’ve been busy running a very large barony, and you lost your family since the last time we saw each other. That would drive the thought of a beautiful woman from any man’s mind.”
His eyes widened as her words lodged in his ears. He coughed into his fist, unable to formulate a response that wouldn’t start a fight with Sophi later.
“I’m here now, not to worry. Sophi tells me I can move into the apartments on the north side of the tower whenever I like,” Pasqualina continued.
He shifted his gaze to Sophi’s hood. “Did she?”
“You’ll be reminded of what we had in no time,” Pasqualina said.
He didn’t need reminding. He could still taste the bile in the back of his throat from their last encounter on his home world. He was about to say something unwise when there was a knock at the door.
“Enter,” he said, relieved for the interruption.
Ben swung the door open wide enough to take a step into the room. “Apologies for the interruption, Baron, but Praetor Graves of the Abyssian Order and Agent Khepria of the Confederate Space Authority, are here to see you.”
“Send them in,” he said before his guests could object.
Ben bowed, and moments later returned with the agents in the doorway. Nero’s broad form dominated the confined space. He was tall enough that the only sign of Agent Khepria were her two pointed ears twitching in the air over the big Abyssian’s shoulder. Both entered the room and moved to either side of the table facing Cylus. The freckled Relaen regarded him with amber, cat-like eyes that made him itch between his shoulders.
“Baron Keltan,” Nero said with a quick bow.
“Praetor Graves, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Cylus was relieved they were here. The unexpected interruption had saved him from the hell of talking with his betrothed. He heard her shuffle back towards Sophi behind him.
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