by S King
I may not have a mom to talk to, but I do have a sister. Grabbing Theodora's number from my pocket I imagined my sister’s face, my face, and pressed my communicator.
“Hello?” Theodora had obviously been asleep, but she had answered on the first ring of the communicator.
Thankful to my lucky stars, I let out a breath of relief, “I’m sorry, I forgot that Parlan has a different time zone than Padrieg.”
“No, no, I’m up,” something rustled in the background before she continued, “what’s going on? Are you ok?”
I rubbed my forehead and closed my eyes, telling her everything that I heard Eikko and Emric shoot back and forth. I made sure not leave out any details and found myself pacing the length of my floor waiting for her to say something.
“You have more drama than a foreign soap opera, sis.” She sighed, “well, to me it sounds like Eikko means business.” She shrieked in excitement, “you should come back with him! We could catch up on all of the years that we’d miss, thanks to our parents.”
She had a point, but I didn’t want to admit that I had been entertaining the thought of going back to Parlan with Eikko since he brought it up. I did want to spend more time with my sister, and if I were being truly honest with myself, with Eikko too. However, I had responsibilities in Padrieg that I couldn’t abandon even if it were solely because of Theodora. How could I leave Emric, Orrie, but more importantly, my grandmother? Once I left the purple sun society, I could never come back.
“What about my responsibilities here, Theo?” I was too tired of thinking about everything to say my sister’s full name and just copied off Orrie.
“Can’t you just say that you have a job offer that you can’t pass up and tie up all of the loose ends there?”
I snorted, “an offer in Parlan? That’ll never fly,” then it dawned on me, “speaking of, what’s your impression of Somsang?”
“Ugh,” I could almost see her rolling her garnet eyes, “how much time do you have for that story?”
I started chewing on my lip and kept pacing, “that bad?”
“That bad,” taking a deep breath she started spilling the information I needed to know about Eikko’s manager. “We started working together at least five years ago. I think, anyway, when Eikko was first starting to make a name for himself I had already been doing commercials, print and movies. I wanted to branch off into my own brand of things and thought that it’d be good to bring on a male partner. You know, to reach all ends of the scale.”
“What does that mean?” I interjected.
“Meaning with Eikko backing my products, whether it be skincare or clothing, his fans would flock to get anything that he’s promoting. The females would get it under the ruse that they might get close to him. Kind of like if you buy so much of one product and leave reviews eventually companies are going to take notice and make you a star. When it comes to the male audience, if they see Eikko wearing it, then they’re going to buy it too because they have what he does. He has the girls. So, what better way to get the ladies than to mimic the star that’s backing it?”
Made complete business sense. “OK, sorry for interrupting.”
“You’re fine,” she blew a raspberry, “needless to say, when Eikko’s career really took off, that’s when the problems began. Somsang was pushing for me to push more and more products out so Eikko could endorse them and started demanding higher payouts. I don’t know what shifted in him, but something did. I tried to take it to Eikko himself when things started getting out of hand but Somsang threw up so many roadblocks and red tape that I couldn’t even think about Eikko by the time it was all said and done.”
“So, what happened after?” I was beginning to slowly bring the pieces together, little by little and I wasn’t liking what was coming up as the final picture.
“I started looking over the financial reports, both his and mine and—” a loud pop, similar to that of a gunshot rang through my communicator. The feedback from the mic in her cellphone created a high-pitched scream through my communicator, forcing me to claw at my ear to try and get the thing out of my ear canal. Unfortunately, that was impossible and clenched my teeth to stop myself for screaming at the agony that my head was in.
“Theodora?” When the ringing subsided, panic replaced the hurt and I started worrying about my sister.
“Ana! Ana!” Her voice was slowly fading into the background, until another shot went off and the phone went dead.
I ran through my thoughts and tried to think of everything that could’ve happened to her within the two sati that we were talking. If we really were twins, then she was probably pacing too and that meant that anyone who’d been listening under her condo would’ve heard the steps and if the building were thin enough then they would’ve heard her voice.
I collapsed onto the floor, trying to think of what I could do in order to help her. But as my anxiety rose and my fear and panic started taking over my nerves, I couldn’t think of anything except for the fact that I had yet again caused someone I love to be put into danger. First Xerminara and now Theodora.
I needed to find a way to get to Parlan, now and the only way I was going to do that was to find Somsang.
Chapter 14 The End Game
Pressing my communicator to get in touch with Orrie, I ran for the front door.
“What’s going on Major?” Orrie was like me in the sense that he never slept and when he did it was few and far between.
“Please tell me that you have a location for Somsang?” Nearly ripping the door off the hinges, I threw the thing open and started running toward the military base officials’ offices.
“Ostana!” Eikko’s voice was coming from behind me but I didn’t have time to stop. I couldn’t stop, not with Theodora being in danger.
Orrie was beating away on his keys and mumbling something about getting more equipment, “right now it looks like he’s in the historian district. What’s going on?” I didn’t detour from the offices, I needed clearance to break the Citlail out of the ceremonial base.
Eikko’s steps were growing behind me and I knew that given his long legs, he’d catch up with me in no time, but I wasn’t going to stop and explain to him what was going on. If he wanted to go with me then fine, but he better not get in my way.
“Something happened to Theodora. I was talking to her when someone shot and the next thing I know, she’s screaming for my help and then the communication went dead.”
“What?” Eikko and Orrie asked at the same time. Sure enough, he had caught up to me and in comparison, his pace was sedated and leisurely.
“Just keep an eye on Somsang, I’m going to Fauve now,” I disconnected the communication, sliding into the front door of the officials’ offices. Not bothering with the formalities or worry about going through the security checks, I jumped the barriers and took the stairs two at a time.
It felt like forever before I got to Fauve’s office, but he was there and that’s all I cared about.
“Major Shaye,” he looked up from his paperwork, eyeing Eikko and I while I skid to a stop in front of his desk.
“Sir, I need clearance to take the Citlail out of ceremonial lockdown.”
A furrow knitted his snow-white manicured brows as he focused his amber eyes on me, “why?”
“I—” what the hell was I going to tell the Army General? I went on an unauthorized trip to the blue sun society and found my twin sister that I hadn’t known about up to that point? Yeah, I don’t think so. Clearing my throat, I calmed myself as I said, “I have a lead on who caused the wreck.”
“Do you?” That got his attention. Great.
“Yes sir. Can I have the clearance?” I didn’t need to waste time with asking my superior officer for permission but standard procedure for taking an aircraft out in the middle of the nakti without the clearance would only bring more problems.
Fauve pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, “now?” He finally asked.
Clenching my teeth and sl
owly losing the grip I had on my patience, I nodded.
“Denied, Major. Until the official mourning period has passed, I can’t allow you to use the aircraft.” With nothing further, he returned his attention to his paperwork and told me, without saying anything, that the conversation was over with.
Making up my mind about what I was going to do, I thanked my commander and grabbed Eikko’s hand, leading him from the offices.
“I’m beginning to think that we’re about to do something really stupid that can get you into a lot of trouble.”
“Probably,” I checked the corridors for any patrolling officers and pushed Eikko forward.
“What do you mean probably?” He glanced at me as I kicked open the back-entry point of the ceremonial base.
Looking around, I grabbed the control panel off the wall and started the Citlail that Orrie and I took to Parlan. “It means,” I pushed him toward the aircraft that was slowly coming to life. “That should we get caught by the wrong people we’re going to die. Well,” I strapped myself into the pilot seat and started checking the controls, “more than likely, it’ll be you that dies, and I’ll get stripped of my rank.”
“Just another day in the life of the purple sun society,” he mumbled, holding onto the side panel, and looking out the window.
“In short,” when we cleared the lip of the base roof, I slammed my foot into the accelerator and felt the engines roar to life as the Citlail blasted away from the base and speared through the nakti air.
“I don’t think that dude is going to forgive you for this.”
“It’ll be easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, Eikko. The end to justify the means, is what I’m after and no one is going to harm what little family I have and get away with it.”
I watched the holographic map of the districts and held my breath for the historian district. What the hell was Somsang doing in the historian district? There was nothing there except for everything that had ever happened. Unless…I forced the Citlail to take a nosedive over the entertainment district before leveling off and pressing my communicator.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Eikko ripped off his safety belts and ran to the back of the aircraft as Orrie answered.
“Yeah?”
“Can you tell if Somsang is meeting with someone?”
I narrowed my eyes on the holographic map and glanced over my shoulder at Eikko bent over the dispossessory compartment. I hated what I was about to do, but there was only one way to get to Somsang without being discovered too soon.
“It’s not anyone from the military district, wait. I got something,” the clacking of his keys started going at rapid speed just as I engaged the parking lever and let the Citlail glide to a stop on the edges of the historian district.
Based off the map, Somsang was easily seven milja away. Not an easy walk but if it got my answers, I was willing to do it. Besides, landing here would give me enough time to figure out what he was doing and plan out my next move.
“It’s…Emric?” Orrie stalled as if he wasn’t believing what his technology was showing him.
The Citlail landed with a thud followed by Eikko losing his dinner in the dispossessory compartment.
“I’ll be right back,” I said over my shoulder and jumped from the pilot seat onto the soft ground. Thankful for the cover of darkness, I looked at my handheld for the holographic map that Orrie sent me.
“Why is Emric meeting with Somsang when he said that he hadn’t seen him since he disappeared?” I wondered.
“I don’t know, but I can tell you that whatever the reason is, it must be enough to risk losing his rank. I heard Fauve and Kendrick talking about stripping him of his merits for this.”
My panic increased as I started for the hidden building that was pinging Emric’s tracker. The only thing he had was his position in the military and if he lost that, I didn’t know what he was going to do.
“When was this?” I pushed open the main entrance door and cringed at the squeal the hinges made. The last thing I wanted to do was announce my presence; since Emric was refusing to be truthful with me, I was going to have to listen in on his conversation with Somsang.
“At least two dana ago. I didn’t say anything because I thought that this would’ve been done and settled with before then but obviously not.”
“No kidding,” I mumbled, taking the stairs down to the storage rooms. “Listen, get me everything you know about Somsang and find out what’s going on in Parlan with Theodora while I handle this.”
“Yes ma’am.” Orrie disconnected the communication, leaving me to find Emric and Somsang.
The muffled sound of voices made me stop in my tracks as I strained to hear the conversation.
“Why did you run off?” Emric had the same authoritarian tone lacing his words as he had with Eikko.
“I don’t answer to you, Mr. Freyer,” Somsang sounded like he was conducting an official meeting. “I do, however, answer to someone that is very demanding and actually more terrifying than you.”
“Is that so?”
“It is, now. Are you going to continue to question me or am I free to leave?” Somsang had become cocky since the last time I had seen him and as I looked around the corner to see just what was going on, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Eikko’s assistant had something dark and sinister running around his head.
Emric smirked, not afraid to take on the other man’s attitude, “how did you get out of Padrieg in the first place?”
“I have my ways.”
“Why’d you come back?”
“Because something here is extremely valuable to me,” Somsang sighed in boredom as he looked at Emric.
“If that’s the case, you should’ve taken Eikko with you when you left.”
A bark of laughter echoed through the room as Somsang pointed toward the window, “you think that I would care one way or the other if Eikko stays here or not?” He shook his head and laughed again.
Even though he couldn’t see me, Emric’s face had the same confused look as I had. “Then what’s so valuable that you can’t just leave and stay gone?”
Somsang sobered; as if another personality had taken over his body, he cocked his head to the side and nearly growled, “something that’s going to make me a lot of money in a short amount of time.”
Emric was about to say something when someone came out of the shadows and knocked him unconscious. I covered my mouth to hide the gasp, but it was too late. Somsang and his goon had already heard me and was headed my way.
I didn’t have time to debate whether or not I should help save Emric from getting hurt further or save my own skin. Spinning on my boots, I ran up the stairs; I didn’t care anymore if my presence was announced or not. I needed to get out of here and get my squad into the historian district to get Emric back to safety.
The loud pop of the gun made me duck, however, the impact of the bullet into my side sent my body into the wall, halfway up the stairs. The burning sensation of the bullet was like nothing I’d never felt before. I clutched my lower abdomen as the warm, sticky blood started oozing from me.
I’d never been shot until now; stabbed, definitely. Punched, kicked, bit, and slapped around. But never had I had been shot. Initially, it felt like something like a marble hit me at high force, but then the burning started. It felt like a hot iron rod that we used to pull meat from a fire had pierced through my skin with unforgiving force. Now, here I was, clutching my stomach and trying to get back to safety.
“What do you want us to do with her?” Someone that wasn’t Somsang asked.
Chancing a glance behind me, I saw that the not so good assistant was nowhere to be found and only his henchmen that I hadn’t seen before this point remained.
“I don’t think he’s ready to go yet, he’s still trying to find a way around Eikko. Whatever the boss is looking for,” the other man shrugged, lighting something that burned on the tip and formed smoke to come from his mouth. “It’s worth
a lot.”
He glanced at me before turning back toward the records room, “hit her again, just to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere while I go ask him what he wants to do.”
Before I could react a second bullet lodged itself into the back of my thigh, sending me falling to the stairs again. Damn and double damn.
Focusing all my energy on the internal fire I had dancing around in my veins, I swung around and threw a fire angel into the man’s face. At least I had hoped it was his face; without the drone lighting I couldn’t see exactly where he was and had to go based off my senses.
His screams filled the small area as my fire angel flattened herself onto his body and started spreading rapidly. With no time to lose, I forced myself from the marble stairs and rushed, as much as anyone could with a leg wound, out of the historian building and back to the aircraft.