Eye of the Colossus

by Nicole Grotepas

  “Meg helped?” Holly mentally reviewed the past three weeks and the grudge she’d been holding against her sister. Her breath caught, her stomach twisted. Meg had been working on Holly’s behalf and never said a word about it! Meg had been instrumental in helping get her free, and never took credit for it. “That jerk.”

  “Meg?” He blinked. “That’s—I would have thought you’d be happy to know that. Meg, a jerk?”

  “Yes, Meg. She should have taken credit for helping me. Instead she allowed me go on thinking she’d let me rot in prison. Not that I was rotting, the accommodations are quite nice. Except going there at all ruined my career. Anyway, she kept the truth from me.”

  “Well, moving on. Another reason I knew you’d be helpful. Your soft spot for kids.”

  “I don’t have a—”

  He interrupted. “The fact that you couldn’t have your own, that would help too.”

  God he knew a lot about her. It was disconcerting. “Help with what?”

  “First, Ms. Drake, there are two things. One of them. Something you said has been bothering me. You said again. ’I couldn’t walk away again.’ What did you mean by that?”

  “As part of this job, we had to go to Paradise to get something to help. And I ran into a shipping container filled with children.” She watched his reaction. He was human, so it was easier to read than another race might have been. His eyes went cold and his mouth thinned. Rage. It’s what she felt. She continued. “I was—I can’t even express how it made me feel. I didn’t kill the men doing it. Later, I wished I had. I let them go. I mean, I know it’s so final, someone dying. And I don’t relish it. I hate it, actually. But more than just wiping monsters off the faces of the 6-moons, I’m disturbed at the idea that these dicks might just be getting away with hurting kids. Kids. They can’t help themselves. Monsters that would hurt kids should die.” She stopped. She was ranting. Her emotions had taken hold. She was right about what she was saying, still, getting emotional weakened her argument. “Anyway, that’s almost the only thing I’m sure of in life.”

  He pursed his lips and looked out the nearby window. He didn’t say anything long enough that Holly asked if he was all right. He drained his whiskey, then sucked in air between his teeth. “No, I’m not all right. I can barely speak right now.” Holly noticed that his fingers were trembling. “This is rage. My hands? Rage. At least you, you’ve had somewhere to put yours.”

  “You mean with my gun?”

  “Yes, I mean that.”

  “It’s not satisfying. At least, not as much as I thought it might be. I just feel cold inside when I think about it. I suppose that’s better than feeling like I did something wrong.”

  “It’s settled, then.”

  “What is?”

  “Ms. Drake. I have your payment here. I’m prepared to give all of it to you. That’s what you and my emissary agreed on.”

  “Good.” Was he thinking she’d say it was on the house, because that would be preposterous. She had a team to pay. She needed a fucking apartment still. She needed new clothes. She only had three outfits, tops. She needed to fucking eat.

  “But I also have a retainer for you if you’ll finish this job with me. A quarter of your previous payment, on top of the payment for the Eye job.”

  “What job? A new one?”

  “This corruption? This trafficking of kids. I can’t stop it and I don’t know what the allegiances of the moles in the police force are. So I don’t know who to trust to help. And my position won’t allow it, and I’m not going to give it up to slowly dismantle the ring of traffickers. But if I’m right and I found the one capable of doing it, while I stay in my government post and give you the leads I run across, then we can work together. In secret. You won’t go out and slaughter a bunch of innocents. You give a shit. You won’t barge in and hurt the kids. You’ll go carefully. Take your team with you and make the right people pay, which means, you won’t wait for a trial. You’ll make sure the scourge eats it, like they should. Kill ‘em, let god sort them out.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t believe in god.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Do you believe someone that kidnaps children deserves a second chance?”

  “Not at all.”

  “I don’t either.”

  “You say all this like you know what you need to do to stop it,” she said, raising her eyebrow at him.

  “I didn’t at first. But I had a hunch.”

  “What would this next job be?”

  He held out a fist and flipped his fingers out as he listed the parts. “Dismantling the network of money. Find drop points. Find the biggest drop, get the money. Cut off their funding. Disturb the nest. Send them scrambling.”

  “Get me more information,” Holly rubbed the back of her neck. She was still exhausted from the running around, the stress of having killed again. And though the official claimed he’d protect her, what if he didn’t? “I’ll think about it. And I’ll find out if my team is on board or not, because that will affect my final decision.”

  “Done. Get me word through Xadrian.” He pushed a thin metallic case across the table at her. She’d seen this kind of case before, but had never known what it was. A glowing screen listed the amount of money inside.

  “Code is 73217. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I need to take Malcolm to a therapy appointment on Itzcap. Druiviin music therapy.” He stood and began heading for the door, adjusting his vest. “Thank you, again, Ms. Drake, for saving my son. I’m in your debt forever.”

  “And it sounds a bit like I’m in yours.”

  “Meg’s, I would think.”

  FORTY-ONE

  HOLLY turned her communicator back on. She took a deep breath and then called the team over the comms and asked them to meet her back at the bird’s nest. She needed to give them their payouts. She approached the meeting with a strange sense of trepidation, unsure how it would go over. Were they—Darius, Charly, Shiro, Odeon—ready to move on? Or would more money keep them interested? And would they be able see the good they could do with their skills? Xadrian’s boss had said he’d give them a retainer and then pay them again for the new job.

  And it sounded like it was stealing money. So it was kind of in their wheelhouse.

  She’d have to feel them out and discuss some other matters as well.

  She had time on her way over to think about everything that she’d just learned from Xadrian’s employer. He’d helped free her. He’d had a plan for her. It was, to say the least, a bit creepy. A bit stalkerly.

  But she hadn’t felt a sense of anything but concern for his son and the dirty shit happening in the City of Jade Spires. It remained to be seen if he was hiding anything else.

  She arrived before any of the others were there, except Charly. They sat together in the upper room. Holly had another drink—something lighter, just an expensive glass of Centau wine. To celebrate. She had Charly put it on a tab, because she wanted to be fair to her team and let them see the amount of money in the briefcase before they divided it up. Holly never wanted there to be a question of whether or not she was being honest with the team. They worked as hard as she had. She had no problem with splitting it evenly five ways.

  “That’s not the norm, though,” Charly said, when Holly told her the plan of how she wanted to split the payment. “The leader gets a bigger share. The one who brought the job in.”

  “I don’t care about that. It’s what I want to do.”

  “Why?” Charly asked.

  “It’s just what a good leader would do.”

  “Is it?”

  “Yeah,” Holly said. “At least, it’s what I want to do.”

  “I think a good leader knows their worth. And takes their fair share.”

  “When you bring a job in and lead the team, that’s what you can do, OK? It’s not what I want to do. It’s not about the money. It’s about loyalty and putting the team first.”

  “I just think you’re underestimating your value.”

/>   “Who’s value?” Shiro asked as he breezed in, swinging his cane and doffing his bowler. He tossed it onto the coffee table and laughed.

  “You’re mighty chipper,” Charly observed.

  “I’m just riding the wave of success. Rescuing another helpless child. Finishing a job. It feels good.” He sat down next to Holly on the sofa.

  “What were you ladies talking about? Don’t let me interrupt.”

  “Oh you weren’t,” Holly said at the same time as Charly, who said, “Holly’s underestimating her value as the team leader.”

  Shiro grinned. “And how is she doing that?” He latched right onto the more intriguing statement, of course.

  “She’s going to divide the money equally five ways.” Charly said, studying her fingernails, deliberately avoiding Holly’s gaze.

  “Oh, I see,” Shiro said, drawing back in surprise.

  “What? Is it really that unheard of?”

  “In all my experience, yes,” Shiro admitted.

  “See?” Charly said, gesturing with her hands.

  “What’s the problem with it? If I do it, am I bad? Will the team lose respect for me?”

  “I won’t,” Shiro said quickly. “I don’t know if the others will. If you’d like, I’d even let you give me a slightly larger share. I did work harder, I think, than the rest of the team.”

  “Ha ha ha,” Holly said, watching him. His eyes glittered beneath the soft lighting of the bird’s nest.

  “See? That’s what I’m talking about,” Charly said. “If you don’t act like the alpha, the rest of the team thinks they can take your place. You act the alpha by taking a larger share. Then they back off and respect you.”

  Odeon and Darius showed up then, and the conversation about payment ceased as they came in and took various perches around the room. Odeon reclined on the sofa while Darius went back to his bay of computers.

  “Life going on?” Holly asked, trying to lighten the mood, which suddenly seemed serious.

  “Yes, though honestly, I haven’t felt the same ever since you guys were on Paradise,” Darius admitted. “I can’t even go blow off steam gambling at any of my favorite places.”

  Holly took that in, hoping it meant perhaps the team would stick around for more work. “Anyone else feel that way?” She watched the expressions on their faces.

  “A lot has happened recently,” Odeon said. “I’ve been troubled by many things. That’s one of them. And playing music at Glassini hasn’t felt quite as fulfilling.”

  “Yeah, I mean, seeing little Malcolm like that bothered me,” Charly said.

  Shiro made a sound, which Holly took for agreement.

  “I have your money here. I’m ready to divide it up evenly,” she said as she gestured to the coffee table between the couches. She didn’t wait to hear their protests if they even had them. If she was going to be an alpha, she’d do it her way, which was an alpha approach to the payout. “I couldn’t have done this strange job without your help and an equal payout is my way to say to you that I fucking seriously could not have done any of it without you, especially when it all got crazy. When you get your money, you’re free to go. And if that’s what you choose—to go and not look back—no judgment here. I’ll still feel as thankful for having had you on my team for the one job.”

  They were exchanging confused looks, including Odeon and Charly.

  Charly broke into the confused atmosphere and stopped Holly from going on by holding up her hand. “Wait, Holly, what are you talking about? That was the agreement all along. I’d do the job, get the money to buy out my partners and pay back what I owe them. Are you saying there’s another job now?”

  “That’s what I’m wondering as well, Ms. Drake,” Shiro said.

  Odeon watched her with those bright eyes, but seemed unruffled by the foreshadowing in Holly’s words.

  “There is, isn’t there?” Darius said, studying Holly with his dark gaze.

  “You’re not obligated to stick around for it. But yes, so that you’re aware, there is another job. Related to this one. The client has given me a retainer, which I would divide up between anyone who stays for the next one. I’d keep a small amount for unforeseen expenses.”

  “So what’s the catch?” Darius asked, leaning back as he considered the implications of a retainer.

  “No catch, unless you think that having to deal with the same people that we encountered in the last job is a catch.”

  Shiro gasped. “So it has to do with the child traffickers?”

  Holly nodded. “That’s right. The client wants me to rob them blind so they don’t have capital to work with anymore, in the meantime, any kids we save, that’s a bonus. The hard part is just dealing with the emotional baggage of knowing this shit is even out there. That said, there will be no second chances for any of these monsters.”

  “Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?” Charly asked, her voice dropping in pitch as though suspicious.

  “What do you think?” Holly stood and paced over to the window overlooking the bar. “The same thing it meant two days ago.”

  “You’ll kill them?” Odeon asked. If he’d been a human, Holly suspected she would have heard an appalled tone in the question.

  “Did it bother you before, Odeon?”

  “I’m not normally into violence, Holly Drake. But in this case . . .”

  “They deserved it,” Darius said. “It’s actually the one reason I’m in this time around, Drake. The money is a nice addition, but the reason is the kids and the chance to exact justice without the interference of bull shit law and order.”

  “How did you get away with murder, Ms. Drake?” Shiro asked.

  “Xadrian’s boss,” Charly answered for Holly.

  Holly glanced at her sharply from her position at the window. “How’d you know?”

  Charly shrugged. “What else would it be?”

  “Xadrian’s boss had something to do with it, yes.”

  “Who is he?” Darius asked with a wicked grin.

  “Can’t tell you. Can’t tell anyone.”

  “Someone high up, though, right?”

  “Maybe, Darius. Maybe.” Holly laughed and paced in front of the window. She was laughing, and she’d killed two men. And she felt a bit sick about it still. They’d tried to kill her, as well. And . . . that was the way she could live with it. “Who else is in? I want to know how much space I’ll need for the new base of operations.”

  “What’s wrong with this one?” Charly asked. “We have drinks. We have Torden. It’s a good hang.”

  “Does that mean you’re in?”

  “Obviously. Like I’d let you keep busting heads without me.”

  “I’m still in, Holly Drake.”

  “And me as well, obviously, Ms. Drake. Conning and thieving is fun, but if I can throw in a bit of a moral boost, that just adds to my inflated sense of importance.” Shiro stood and came to stand beside her where she gazed out the window at Torden below, unpacking crates of liquor. She resisted the urge to take a step back. She was learning to overcome the flinches Graf had programmed into her. “Can I just say,” he began, quietly, “you’re made of quite finer stuff than I had originally guessed, Holly. I’d have to be a fool not to stick with you.”

  She felt a tiny flame ignite in her chest and send chills through her limbs. He’d called her Holly. Not Ms. Drake.

  “Thanks Mr. Oahu,” she said in a wry tone, trying to snuff out the feeling. She couldn’t have things like that interfering with her judgment if they were all going to keep working together.

  THE END

  Book 2 coming soon. Preorder now!

  A Note from Me

  So thank you, a million times over, for reading all the way through to the end. If you’re here and you’re reading this, I feel incredibly lucky.

  A few years ago, I put out my first book. I sort of knew what I was doing because I worked for a few years in the publishing industry. I put out a couple books. Then I made two babies, an
d life got more complicated.

  And in the interim things changed a lot. I saw some of my indie writer friends keep on working on and publishing, and now they are super successful and amazing. They keep on inspiring me.

  I’ve figured out what I want to do and what I value as I’ve been working long hours these past few months to do what I love and catch up to where I want to be. The first thing I had to do was finish my Fooko series, the one I started clear back in like 2013. The second was learn everything that helps me write better stories and find fans (marketing and promotion). The second one is the hardest and takes the most work—can you believe that? Writing a book is a bit easier than all the other stuff. Who knew?

  One of the things I’ve done differently for Eye of the Colossus and the ensuing books is outline. I’ve never done that. I typically would have an idea of where a story wanted to end up, but I generally just went with it. For my example of how to outline, I imitated a super successful indie writer named Russell Blake. His outline is posted on his blog and he’s great and I’m thankful he shared his methodology.

  Another thing? And this is so weird to me that in all my years writing and adoring books, I NEVER KNEW ABOUT THE THREE ACT STRUCTURE. If you read or watch films, you know this structure almost intrinsically. Because nearly every successful story follows it. It’s practically built into you as a person if you grew up in Western culture.

  What’s crazy is that the best writers and storytellers do it on purpose. They know the structure and they follow it in order to make readers feel complete and like they got a good story. It involves setbacks and triumphs and it uses those to make the story feel right—it’s like how a decent song follows a fairly set chord progression (there are many of these, but the idea is that chord progressions work to cause emotional responses in the listener).