Open Skies

by Yolande Kleinn

  Kai chose to take this as a good sign. If she were hitting the same unbreakable walls as Kai, she'd have surfaced for respite and distraction by now.

  "Miss Vance seems... focused," Dantes observed. It was late evening on the fourth day, and their dinner was uninspired: some kind of fish, spiced heavily in an effort to mask the way transport and reconstitution had leeched it of natural flavor. The restaurant serving it was pleasant enough, but Kai could tell the place was far beneath Eleazar Dantes's usual tastes.

  Kai took a sip of his too-sweet drink. "Ilsa has her own leads to follow. Trust me, it's best to let her work in peace."

  "She does this often, then?" Dantes watched Kai with narrowed eyes.

  "Often enough." The more honest answer would have been, only when she's really on to something, but Kai didn't want to raise Dantes's hopes when he wasn't sure himself just what leads were keeping Ilsa preoccupied. This was isolation more complete than she had required aboard Corriah Mor. She wouldn't let Kai stay when he brought food to her quarters; she insisted he was a distraction and she had too much work to do.

  It was a damn good sign, but Kai had no intention of admitting as much to Dantes.

  "Mr. Othen," Dantes said in a tone of studied carelessness. Kai set his drink aside and kept his expression blank as Dantes continued, "I find myself curious, and I hope you won't mind my asking. How did you and Miss Vance come to be partners?"

  Considering the clumsiness of Dantes's feigned nonchalance, Kai was relieved the question was one so harmless. Overly familiar perhaps, but not so intrusive he could take offense. Kai didn't like Eleazar Dantes very much, but there were no secrets in this particular story.

  "She saved my ass on Proxima Twelve," Kai admitted. He chewed and swallowed another forkful of uninspired fish before continuing. "I got myself arrested on suspicion of cheating in a gambling establishment." He had made most of his money gambling back then. It was a dangerous enough vocation even before the Alliance publicly declared war against the invading Enriu. It had become even more so by the time Kai reached Proxima Twelve—a remote, relatively untroubled corner during that first year of fighting, but still a world full of scared and riled citizens. The crowds Kai had a habit of falling in with in those days were among the worst, chosen for their tendency to gamble high. That they also tended to lose without grace was an unfortunate tradeoff of the higher stakes.

  Dantes's thick eyebrows rose, the expression crinkling his forehead. "Arrested? An upstanding gentleman like yourself?" There was a hint of malicious humor in the words, but Kai let it slide with tired practice. He knew which fights were worth picking, and this wasn't one of them. He already knew enough to dislike Eleazar Dantes. He was somehow not surprised when Dantes pressed, "And were you cheating?"

  "No." Kai propped his elbows on the table and leaned forward with a scowl. "I've never cheated at cards in my life. But I'm good at reading people. The owners of the casino didn't think I should be winning so steadily, even if it was only off the other patrons. They called the authorities before I could clear out."

  "And how does Miss Vance fit into this charming scenario?"

  "She was freelancing for the Proxima Gambling Commission at the time. I don't know if she took pity on me or if she actually realized I was innocent... And I'll never understand how she did it. But she convinced the arresting officers to drop all charges and let me go."

  "And you've been working together since?"

  "Something like that." Despite the subpar food and Dantes's abrasive company, Kai felt a fond smile softening his combative expression. Of course, it hadn't been anywhere near that simple. He had stayed in the neighborhood and kept a curious eye out for the woman who had saved his proverbial bacon. When her post at the Gambling Commission cut short—the Commission had all but closed down when the Proxima System shunted funds into military defense—Kai had approached Ilsa to propose a partnership.

  Convincing her hadn't been easy. The Alliance was fighting for its own existence against an enemy content to destroy what it couldn't claim. One by one, the sectors were falling to chaos, and there was high demand for the tech skills Ilsa could offer. Kai liked to think it had been his earnest charm that sold Ilsa on his proposition, but it was much more likely she simply conceded the advantage of having an ally on rocky terrain.

  War was no time to insist on standing alone.

  "That must have been quite some time ago." Dantes's gruff voice drew Kai back to the unproductive present.

  "Seven years," Kai agreed. It felt like a lifetime, somehow. The only seven years that mattered. He and Ilsa had guarded each other fiercely through four years of escalating conflict. When the war ended and the Enriu scattered, Kai had learned it was just as good to have a partner during peace. He didn't want to consider what his life now would look like without Ilsa at his back.

  A sharper, knowing edge crept into Dantes's expression when he asked Kai, "And your relationship now?"

  Defensiveness stiffened beneath Kai's skin, and he straightened in his seat. "What about our relationship now?"

  "You seem quite close," Dantes observed. Despite his bland tone, there was no mistaking his more suggestive meaning. "Yet you keep separate quarters."

  "We're not a couple, if that's what you're asking." Kai narrowed his eyes.

  "But you, at least, would happily consider a different arrangement," Dantes noted with all the confidence of a man speaking a blunt truth.

  Cold fury whipped through Kai at the presumption, and for once, he made no effort to keep the evidence of displeasure from his face. His mouth thinned, and his brow creased as it lowered into a stern glare. His fists clenched atop the table as he stared Dantes down, daring him to find some way to compound his offense. Kai would put up with a great deal of irritation for the sake of playing nice with an expensive client, but even enlightened self-interest had its limits.

  Dantes didn't appear at all flustered by the open display of wrath, but he did quickly cede the field with a wave of one hand. "I apologize for overstepping the bounds of decorum. Please forget I said anything."

  They finished their meal in conflicting flavors of silence: Dantes unworried, Kai stubbornly irate. When they parted ways, Kai barely managed to wish the man a cordial goodbye.

  He slept poorly that night. He found himself wound too tightly to drift off, caught between memory and more recent distraction. Dantes had thrown him off balance, calling him out for something Kai had been doing his best to keep at a safe and uncomplicated distance. When Kai did manage to sleep, his dreams were all warmth and wondering, mingled with glimpses of Ilsa's most private smile.

  He had barely finished dressing the next morning, just returned from the public shower facilities down the hall, when Ilsa barged through his door. She held one of her smaller data screens clutched in her hands, and her hair hung down her back unrestrained. She had an owlish look about her that told Kai she hadn't actually slept the night before, but her posture and movements were full of energy.

  "Good. You're up." She glanced around the room despite the fact that it was exactly the same as her own. "Dantes will be here soon. I think I found something."

  Kai didn't have a chance to press for details before the door chime sounded, announcing Dantes's arrival. Unlike Ilsa, who had every right to barge in unannounced, Dantes waited until Kai called a welcome through the door.

  Blessedly, Dantes came bearing breakfast—an unexciting array of protein bars and something that barely resembled coffee—and Kai accepted his share of the spoils with gratitude. He put their previous night's intrusive conversation from his mind, confident Dantes wouldn't push his luck a second time, and certainly not in front of Ilsa.

  Kai considered the limited options for seating three people in the narrow confines of his rented room. There was minimal furniture: a single chair, a poorly balanced table near a grubby window, and the bed he hadn't bothered to tidy upon waking. He grabbed the bedcovers and tugged them haphazardly over the length of the mattress, t
hen seated himself at the foot of the bed with breakfast in hand. The wall was cool at his back, the not-coffee hot and bitter across his tongue. Ilsa sat beside him, her legs kicked out straight so that her boot-clad feet extended past the edge of the mattress. She didn't claim her share of breakfast before she settled in, so Dantes set the remaining foodstuffs on the rickety table as he sat in the uncomfortable chair beside it.

  Kai swallowed a generous portion of his drink before turning to Ilsa and prompting, "So. You found something."

  Ilsa tapped at the screen in her hands, sending text and data scrolling along the slate-gray surface. Kai peered over her shoulder. His eyes were drawn to the movement, the lines of code and tightly packed information, but he could interpret none of what he was seeing. He would have to content himself waiting for Ilsa to provide an explanation, but at least he could be confident she wouldn't keep them waiting long.

  "So," Ilsa echoed. "I've been trawling the private financial networks that pass through this system. And not to be dramatic about it, but... I hit pay dirt." She kept her eyes on the ceaseless scroll of data as she spoke. "The transactions were all buried—deliberately buried—about as far down as it's possible to go. Every trick in the book and then some. False receipts, ghost accounts, fraudulent transfers, pre-coded markups, straw men. Not to mention a bunch of ploys I've never even seen before. This is seriously pro stuff. I've never seen anyone cover their tracks this well."

  "And you think these transactions have something to do with Abigail?" Dantes concluded aloud.

  "I know they do. They're covered in her digital fingerprints."

  From across the room, Dantes looked downright skeptical, and Kai wasn't surprised to hear the man protest, "If she covered her tracks so completely, how can you be sure it's really her?"

  Ilsa raised her eyes from the screen and opened her mouth to answer.

  "We don't want an explanation," Kai intervened, locking Dantes with a warning look. "Trust me. You and I wouldn't follow a fraction of the groundwork, and the rest won't be any help."

  Dantes threw him a dubious glance.

  "I mean it. You're better off taking her word for it," Kai promised, holding his ground. The alternative was at least an hour of a detailed lecture that Kai had heard more than once and still couldn't follow. Better by far for Dantes to simply let Ilsa cut ahead and give them the broad strokes.

  "Besides," Ilsa interrupted their staring contest, leveling a hard look at each of them in turn. "The how doesn't matter. The point I'm trying to make here is that these measures were taken to mask an enormous quantity of money."

  "How much money?" Kai's brow furrowed faintly.

  "I'm honestly not sure," Ilsa admitted. "I don't think I've found it all yet. But I'm reasonably sure I know where most of it was going. These funds are staggering. Investments, subsidies, capital being shunted down a hundred tributaries into alternate markets. Which raises some particular questions."

  "What was she doing with that kind of money?" Kai finished connecting the dots Ilsa had laid out before him. "And where did it come from in the first place?"

  "Exactly." Ilsa nodded approval. "Unfortunately, it could take days to find more complete answers. I'll have to dig deeper, try and retrace our steps to make sure I didn't miss something along the way—"

  "You'll have to do no such thing," Dantes interjected smoothly. Kai and Ilsa both stared at him, but he looked entirely unconcerned as he explained, "I know perfectly well where the money came from. I gave it to her."

  In his peripheral vision, Kai saw Ilsa go perfectly, furiously still. The text on her data screen stopped scrolling, and her spine and shoulders tightened. Kai felt matching frustration bloom in his own chest, and it was through gritted teeth that he made himself speak.

  "Why the fuck are you only telling us this information now?"

  To his limited credit, Dantes looked genuinely perplexed. "I didn't think it was relevant. Why are you angry with me?"

  "Because we could have been tracking the money this entire time!" Ilsa's knuckles were white where she gripped the hard edges of her data screen, and her voice was more snarl than speech. "The traces I've found on this network? They're not the beginning of the trail, and they're certainly not the end of the trail. If I'd known there were sizable financial records to follow, we could have saved ourselves days of unnecessary work. Money is a hundred times easier to track than an individual human."

  The force of her ire gave Dantes visible pause, or maybe it was the import of her words hitting him. He'd already demonstrated how anxious he was to find his daughter; the thought of wasting unnecessary time should trouble him. Kai did his best to swallow back the worst of his own anger. He set a hand on Ilsa's shoulder in what he hoped was a calming gesture, wordlessly urging her to ease back.

  "I apologize." Dantes sounded genuinely regretful. "I didn't intend to waste your efforts or your time."

  Ilsa huffed, but the tension bled from her posture with the low exhale. "It's fine." She sounded conciliatory, if not necessarily forgiving. "Just... no more leaving details out, okay? We'll decide what information is relevant."

  "Of course," Dantes agreed, and then pressed, "Where does that leave us? What comes next?"

  "Next we get off this rock." Ilsa returned to her screen, tapping the corner to pull up a different wall of information. Her eyes skimmed back and forth, weighing possibilities, gauging the path ahead. "Most of these transactions are pointing the same direction, and I can dig a little deeper once we're on the road. Patching into local networks will help."

  "Where to first?" Kai asked.

  "Ravelle, I think," Ilsa murmured. She already sounded distracted, and Kai recognized the matrix of transport manifests that had expanded to cover the bulk of her screen. "There are no direct transports, but I can book us on an outbound courier that departs from Chasper tomorrow. It's heading the right direction, more or less."

  "Good," Kai nodded. He would be glad to put Chasper's uninviting facilities behind him, and 'more or less' was good enough for a start.

  Chapter Four

  They stayed steadily on the move once they put Chasper and the T'i Yara system behind them, pausing only long enough for Ilsa to unearth more of Abigail's trail of financial breadcrumbs. They had to make three separate stops before reaching Ravelle. All three layovers were small ports, with few travelers and even fewer tourists, but at every stop Ilsa was able to dig deeper. She did what she could on the road, but most ships—all the ships on which they managed to arrange their short-notice accommodations—offered only limited access to communication linkups. The crew had access to more reliable tools, but passengers weren't afforded the same resources, and Ilsa wasn't so ungrateful as to patch her way in illegally.

  The limitations posed no great difficulty. She found ample information during their brief layovers, and slowly she assembled the strands of a web even more complex than she had first predicted.

  They stayed constantly on the move, spending only a night or two in each port, even less time if there was transport available and Ilsa could complete her work more quickly.

  She preferred to be on the move. The transports they found on short notice offered berths even smaller than those available on the most crowded stations, but Ilsa still preferred them to the alternative. She found a vessel in transit less claustrophobic simply because she was bound somewhere, not sitting stationary in space. Contradictory reasoning, perhaps, but the knowledge that they were moving helped her settle just the same.

  On arriving at Ravelle, Kai drew her aside and said, "Someone is following us."

  Ilsa's spine chilled at the thought. It certainly wouldn't be the first time they'd dealt with someone dogging their steps, but instinct told her this situation was different. Last time it had been a second investigator hired by their own client, a suspicious and mistrustful Vrean with more money than sense. Surely that couldn't be the case now. Not with Eleazar Dantes himself along for the ride on his own insistence.

  "
Are you sure?" The question felt foolish on her tongue. Of course Kai was sure. "Who?" Ilsa amended before he could answer.

  "A small Gaiminn. Kri, I think." That last meant little to Ilsa. She couldn't have described the relevant features, let alone told at a glance which continent or colony a particular Gaiminn was from. But she could conjure a general image clearly enough, of faintly iridescent hide and two parallel pairs of eyes, a thin mouth tucked so near the chin it would be easy to miss entirely. Patchy hair, or something like it—Ilsa wasn't sure; she had never been a student of biology.

  "How long has he been following us?" Ilsa asked quietly.

  "She," Kai corrected. "And I first saw her on the frigate we caught out of Magre. There were at least a dozen commercial passengers on that flight. I didn't pay her any real mind until I saw her at both of our last two stops."

  "It could still be a coincidence," Ilsa said, both unconvincing and unconvinced. "Is she here now?"

  Ravelle was an enormous port, built like scrawling script across the only desert plateau of an otherwise hospitable planet. It was the largest of three different docking facilities positioned across the planet's surface, and partner to a twin base on the moon orbiting immediately overhead. If coincidence were a viable explanation, there was no reason their paths should cross here.

  "I saw her on the lower concourse," Kai said, blowing the faint hope away like so much debris.

  "We need to tell Dantes." Ilsa glanced behind her now, towards the customs gate she and Kai had just emerged through. She could see Dantes at one of the nearer kiosks, impatiently concluding his business with a bored customs official.

  "Yes," Kai agreed. "And we need to stay alert. I can't be sure the Gaiminn is alone. My gut says she brought backup."

  They remained at Ravelle only a day and a half, cutting short Ilsa's efforts to unearth the data she needed. They departed early, and as discreetly as they could manage. From there they hopped in quick succession between smaller way stations along the Allis Belt. Ilsa focused on her own work and trusted Kai to watch for danger.