He looked up at her face.
She was frowning at him. “Do I pass muster, sir?”
He blanched and looked away, blinking as though waking from a dream and feeling the heat in his cheeks. Had he looked at her that way because Lina was unfaithful? Did that give him tacit permission to be as well? He shook his head.
“Yes, of course you pass. I was just thinking about how well that uniform fits you.” He pressed his lips together, fighting down the feeling of embarrassment.
“It fits.” Her tone bit at his ears.
Reika cleared her throat.
He did, too. “Has your little drone found anything?”
“Mr. D located their bolt-hole with the tracer nanos Iapetus hit them with,” she said. “I’ve got D in stealth mode recording as much as he can.”
“Is Biren Euphrati with them?”
“He just arrived earlier this afternoon. It looks like he’ll be going on the mission with them.” She shifted her weight.
“And? There’s something more, yes? What did you find out?”
Behind her, Ben nodded. He must be monitoring her vitals. She was hiding something, but he knew she would tell him.
She pressed her lips together and her eyes darted towards Reika for a moment. “You won’t like it.”
“What is it?” he asked in as gentle a tone as his gravel-laden voice could manage.
She took in a deep breath. His UI pinged an incoming message from her CPAd. He accepted it and opened the file. It was audio, with scan data attached and cross-referenced with her earlier recordings of the meeting at the Barony. The reporter—former reporter, he corrected himself—was in some kind of cave-like room with Biren and three new individuals.
“She’s offered us a way out of this mess. I, for one, am tired of working for barons and playing their games. I’m ready to get out of here.” Cygni Aragón said.
“We are, too, but can we trust her?” an unidentified Volgoth asked.
“Absolutely. Lina is as trustworthy as they come. I personally vouch for her,” Biren said. His words sent a cold shiver through Cylus’ spine.
“You would,” a female human voice said.
“Are you sure?” The biosignature scan tagged to this voice were from an Isinari.
“Positive. She won’t betray me, and that means she won’t betray us. She’ll get us off-world after this is over, guaranteed.”
“So, she’s willing to go against her own for this?” the Volgoth asked.
“She promised,” Ms. Aragón replied. “We rescue the Cronus sisters, we get off-world and out of all of this.”
Cylus was surprised. Caspian’s people were planning on betraying him because of Lina? Did she persuade them to get Biren out of danger? The thought chilled his heart. She was his love, and only his. They were promised to each other. Was she just using Biren? She was if she loved him…
She doesn’t love you. She’s been using you from the start.
No, it couldn’t be true, could it?
She is using you. Why else would she have planned to rescue your enemies instead of turning them over to you?
He gritted his teeth. Why didn’t she tell him about this? The look she gave that bastard Gaian in the Barony… The way she embraced him… No, she wasn’t doing this for him. She was doing it to save the Gaian and his crew of misfits.
He choked as his heart writhed in his chest. The pain of Lina’s betrayal staggered him in place. It was a miracle he remained standing.
He cut off the recording. It took him the span of several breaths before he could speak.
“You’ve done very well, Meia. Thank you.”
“Sir, I’m sorry.”
“You’ve done nothing but help me. I’ll make sure you’re rewarded. You’ve been very loyal.”
She looked uncomfortable. So did Reika.
He opened his mouth to speak but the door behind Ben slid open and the betrayer hurried in with her hands smoothing the wrinkles out of her shimmering dress.
“Hello, darling.” He forced a smile to his lips despite the rising bile in his throat. “I was worried about you.”
“No need.” She gave him a wary look as her nostrils pulsed. “I got hung up at the Bazaar.”
“Isn’t the Bazaar empty these days?” He watched her.
“There are still a few gems to find.”
“Dorsky will be here any moment.” He decided probing her for a truth he already knew would be a waste.
“You’re receiving him here?” She looked around.
“This room is where we came up with the idea for this. He’ll sit there, and we will be here.”
She gave him another strange look and smiled.
“How fitting.” Her eyes strayed to the window. “Seems I’m just in time. Here he is.”
He turned around and watched the group of three air-limo’s land on the pad beyond the glass door. Ben hurried forward and stood by it.
Ms. Aragón was the first one out of the center limo. She was followed on the other side by Giselle Tauthe. The two of them looked around and then waited while more beings in CSA uniforms piled out of the other vehicles. Cylus counted ten in all, but the display of force failed to intimidate him. Meia’s drone could wipe them all out in seconds. Only after they took up defensive positions did Caspian exit his limo and approach.
Cylus glanced at Lina. Should he let her know he knew about her plot? Should he tell her his plan? If he did, he knew she would make sure her lover escaped his trap. He couldn’t allow that. She would be exclusively his soon, and it would all be worth the trouble and pain.
The door slid open and blast of cold, brine-heavy air swept across them.
“Cylus, Pasqualina, it’s good to see you both.” Caspian Dorsky entered the room with a wry smile. His bodyguards followed, but the CSA officers waited outside.
“Good to see you, too, Caspian.” Cylus bowed alongside Lina. He gestured for the Premier to be seated and, taking her hand, eased them into the couch cushions with her traitorous hip pressed into his. “Can I offer you some refreshment?”
“What have you got? I’d hate to sign over the Confederation with parched lips.” The premier looked odd, but he let it pass. It wouldn’t do to be paranoid at the moment of his victory.
Ms. Aragón and Ms. Tauthe took up positions behind the couch.
“Ben, get something stiff and strong for us all.” Cylus suppressed the urge to grin.
“Very good, Master.” He nodded and headed out of the room.
“I never imagined it would be you.” Caspian leaned back into the couch and smiled, shaking his head.
“Excuse me?”
“I never imagined it would be you to bring me down. It’s almost funny. You were the recluse, the poor baron everyone pitied. Look at you now, the big man in the tower set up to take my place. You played this well, Cylus, better than I could have imagined. The Big Bad Wolf would be proud.”
He looked Caspian over with a careful eye, scowling at the comparison to Zalor. He didn’t look as upset as he was expecting him to be.
“I’d thank you but somehow I feel like you have more to say.”
“Maybe.”
It took Cylus a moment to realize Caspian was staring at Meia.
“Have you got a problem with my bodyguard?”
“No, I do not. What do you think of Baroness Cronus—Sophi, I mean—taking over your friend’s barony?” Caspian returned his attention to Cylus. “Does it bother you?”
“Should it? She’s the rightful successor.” He cocked an eyebrow. He was bothered, but there was no need to concede that.
“If it were me, it would. She’s a little too intelligent for her own good, isn’t she?”
“Excuse me?” He frowned. Dorsky was right from a certain point of view, but damn him for pointing it out.
“I mean she is clearly ambitious. Who knows what she’ll make of Shiragawa and of your friend’s legacy. I somehow don’t think the proud Taiumijin will be so accepting of
her, do you?”
He shrugged, unwilling to show weakness.
“Do you think there will be a rebellion against her in the first five years, or ten?”
“I think you aren’t in a position to have an opinion on it,” he snapped.
Dorsky chuckled.
Before he could lunge at the man Ben returned to the room carrying a tray with a decanter and three glasses of fortified wine. He set it down on the coffee table where Vargas’ body fell.
Cylus nodded at him and picked up two glasses, handing one to Lina. Caspian lifted his. They toasted each other with a nod and drank, though Cylus hardly tasted the fluid. Their glasses clicked when they set them on the table.
“Shall we get to business now that your lips are wet?”
“You say the sweetest things. Do you let him out in public?”
“Just sign the documents, Caspian.” Lina scowled.
Cylus ground his teeth. “Ben, let’s connect the Premier to the server so he can sign what he has to sign and get out of here.”
“Done, Master.” Ben bowed.
Caspian’s eyes went glassy for a moment, then refocused. “There. You’re the master of civilized space. Congratulations. Tell me, how do you plan on dealing with Zalor Revenant when he gets back?”
“Ruthlessly, not that it’s your business.” A genuine smile spread on his lips. He was waiting for this.
“That’s a brave word.” Dorsky took a deep drink of his wine and put the glass down on the table half-full. “How did a timid, little weasel turn into the man I have sitting across from me?”
The truth was, it happened sometime after Lina came into his life. He wanted to credit her with coaxing him to be the man he was supposed to be, but she wasn’t the only one responsible. Maybe she wasn’t responsible at all. Every time he heard the voice in his head he felt himself grow stronger, bolder, more powerful. Perhaps the strength came from within him and Lina was just coincidentally around when it started.
She was the woman he loved, but she betrayed him with that Gaian savage. She was probably with him at the Bazaar today. His stink must still be on her.
She must be punished for her crime.
He nodded.
“I needed to get my bearings after I returned to the capital, and now I have them.”
“Is that so?” Caspian’s smile was predatory. “Giselle, do you want to show the next Premier what we think happened to him?”
The woman in the cloth mask locked her dark eyes on him. He shuddered. Behind him he heard Meia and Reika unhook their guns.
Ms. Aragón put her hand on hers.
The inner door slid open and Meia’s drone knelt down. The turrets on its shoulders swiveled to track Caspian’s guards with an electric hiss.
“Whoa, slow down now. There’s no need for that!” Caspian’s eyes were wide; his hands shot into the air.
“That’s up to you.” Cylus felt like he was marinating in honey.
“Is it? Or is it up to the VoQuana?”
“What?” The word was like a shock of cold water on his skin.
“Hey, you watch yourself. Premier or not,” Lina snapped.
“Cylus, I’m going to tell you about this, and then I’m going to go back to my tower and leave you to your fate. Do you understand?”
“What the hell are you talking about, Caspian?” His voice popped. He shook in his seat, seething with rage and fear.
“Are you threatening him?” Lina glared daggers.
“Hardly. I don’t have to. As you know, Cygni here was a reporter in her other life. She was on your engagement cruise and found out something very interesting during that voyage. Would you like to know what?”
Cylus glared at her. She shifted under his gaze and pushed a lock of black hair behind her ear.
“She found out what happened to you in Baroness Altair’s suite. She even recorded it. Would you like to see it?” Caspian looked smug. It sent a bolt of ice through his stomach.
“What are you talking about?” He licked his dry lips and felt himself start to sweat.
“Show him.”
The holographic projector in the table lit up. Cylus watched an image of himself in Baroness Brudah Altair’s suite on the Queen Gaia illuminate its crystal surface. He watched himself look alarmed as Brudah and—by the goddess, a VoQuana!—moved into the suite’s antechamber. The VoQuana grabbed his arm and he fell to the ground in a heap. The baroness looked upset as the audio cut in.
“He will live. He will just have a few inconvenient memories wiped from his mind. Maybe I’ll add a few things as well—just in case,” the VoQuana said.
The hologram vanished.
Lina squeezed his hand so tight that he felt the bones creak. Ms. Aragón looked more upset than he was. She sucked in a deep breath and sweat ran down the sides of her face. The video was disturbing, but it could have been fabricated. Even if it was real—it can’t be real—Caspian played his hand too early. Now that he knew about it he could do something before the election.
“You see,” Caspian said, drawing his attention. “Even if you do become the next Premier it won’t be for long. Neither the other barons nor the people will accept you.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“I guess we will.” Caspian got to his feet. Their eyes met and for just a moment he looked disturbed. “Enjoy your evening, Cylus.”
Rising from his seat would be the last showing of respect he intended to ever give Caspian Dorsky. He paused when he saw Ms. Aragón give Lina a pointed look and the slightest hint of a nod.
He suppressed his rage and cleared his throat, trying to push down the sudden lump that formed there. He couldn’t let Caspian see any more weakness, so he made his smile reappear and nodded at Ben.
“This way, Premier.” Ben lead him and his guards back outside.
Cylus let go of Lina’s hand.
“It has to be a fake,” she said.
He clenched his fists, watching Caspian and his men get into his limo beyond the polyglass wall.
“It won’t matter soon.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“Caspian signed off on our loan to the treasury. I am the treasury. I am the Speaker. I am the Confederation.” He said and coughed. His eyes stung. He took several deep breaths. “I will be in the library.”
“Of course. Are you all right?” she asked.
He felt the gaze of his bodyguards on his face. Embarrassed by his tears, he started for the hallway without answering, but froze in the doorway. His eyes fell on the armored body of Meia’s drone. There was a pause before the drone’s turrets turned aside and it rose to allow him past. He stared at it for a long moment, seeing his own blurry form reflected in its polished, gray armor.
I don’t care how you do it, but make sure Biren dies in the attack tomorrow. Let the Abyssian know what is going to happen. I want this wrapped up as soon as possible, he sent.
“As my master commands.” Ben replied.
Meia headed back to her quarters with Reika and Iapetus trailing behind. Once the door was shut she ran her finger down the center of her jumpsuit to part the smartfabric beneath it and unstrapped her CG-90 “Growler” pistol.
She took in a deep breath, processing what transpired. No baron she ever met went down without taking a few cheap shots at the person beating them, but this was different. Dorsky claiming that Baron Keltan was some kind of VoQuana mind slave was absurd. The VoQuana hadn’t been seen in public since the Quarantine was instituted over thirty-standard years ago, and she never saw anything to indicate the “mind control technology” they were rumored to have was real. It was just a pathetic excuse to explain why they nearly won the war.
“Hey, you okay?” Reika asked from beside her. She felt Iapetus’ footsteps come to a halt through the floor.
“Status, lieutenant?” His electric voice tinned off the walls.
“I’m fine, guys, really.” She held up her hand, realizing that she was still going by the military des
ignation of the woman her nemesis, Captain Solus, marooned on Calemni IIb. Now that she was involved in the games of the barons it wouldn’t do.
“Redesignate me. I need a new name,” she said to Iapetus.
“Reconfiguring contact files. Would you prefer to be designated Androdameia Arzu Ironstar, Meia Arzu—”
“Designate me as Meia Arzu Starblood,” she said. She liked the family name Cylus gave her to sneak into the Venus club. She felt a twinge of guilt abandoning her father’s surname, but it was too recognizable in too many places. She could never hope to hide who she was if she continued to use it.
“Confirmed, updating files.”
Reika grinned. “It does have a nice ring.”
“Thank you.” She pulled off her jacket and tossed it on the bed behind her.
“So,” Reika said with some hesitation, “are you okay?”
“Yes, already. Why do you keep asking?”
“You looked a little concerned when we left the solar. Considering what we both just saw—”
“I’m fine. I’m sure that feed was faked.”
She stripped off her jumpsuit and it joined her jacket on the bed. After months spent in her e-suit on Calemni she had no desire to stay dressed any more than she must. Every time something pressed on her skin she felt the echo of that e-suit’s embrace and the cold hands of Siren-mad colonists on her. She supposed it would pass eventually, but meanwhile she intended to be as comfortable as she could make herself as often as she could be.
“There’s no way a VoQuana is out of the Quarantine, let alone working with a baron. It’s ridiculous.” She opened the panel in the wall concealing her dresser and sifted through it.
Reika nodded. “It seems that way, but why would Premier Dorsky try to use something so ridiculous? I mean, wouldn’t he be more effective with a more believable accusation?”
She looked over her shoulder and shrugged. “Maybe he was going for shock value. He’s losing, and he knows it. Maybe he intends the tabloids to pick this up. The holo has to be bullshit, but the tabloid feeds love that crap. There’s a certain percentage of the population that will believe anything. It might be an effective strategy to start some bad rumors that could undermine Baron Keltan’s credibility.”
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