He gritted his teeth. His SCC was right. They didn’t have much of a choice at all now that Daedalus might be sending Abyssians to round them up or kill them within the week. Their best option for a lift to the capital was leaving in a few hours. The bastards were off the hook.
“Kae, do you think you might be able to get the Xiq’iz on the comm and—”
He was interrupted by the sound of distant gunfire. Puzzled, he glanced at Sorina, then Kae and Athame. The four of them looked around. Sorina’s ears rotated this way and that as she sought the sound. Up on the stage, the Orgnan and Galaeneans shifted, looking alarmed.
After a moment they all turned towards the airlock.
“Nero, I think it is coming from the Urgoryth’s shuttle,” Sorina stated.
“Nero!” Athame lunged for Laska Kurev as he dove toward the nearest group of Relaen. Her hand was lightning quick and snagged his jacket, but he let the pressure pull his arms back and turned his dive into a somersault that left her holding an empty garment.
Nero launched himself at the spacer, chasing him across the metal deck with pounding feet. He stepped too hard and launched himself into the air, flying up and out of control.
“No!” Kae jumped after Laska even as the bounty hunter rolled up onto his feet and took off towards the platform.
“Go now!” Laska shouted. Another spacer burst forth from the crowd with a lanky, red-headed boy kicking and screaming in his arms.
Rune.
“Grab him!” Sorina shouted in Relaen.
The police started to move—and then the Urgoryth’s crew flipped open the crates remaining on the platform and pulled out gauss rifles. They opened fire, and everything lapsed into chaos.
Chapter Thirteen
Ikuzlu City, Kosfanter
J2400:3232
“You still can’t find her?” Cylus stared through his reflection in the polyglass and watched the long air-car land on the platform. It had no identifying marks, and to all outward appearances was just another rent-a-limo.
“I have tried, Master, but no. Pasqualina is not in the Tower, nor is she detectable anywhere near it,” Ben stated.
“Um—”
He looked over his shoulder at Reika. She was dressed in her military uniform with the three white lines of Sable’s House symbol on her shoulders. He wondered how long it would take for him to start thinking of those lines as Sophi’s. It was a sad end for his friend’s barony. The thought depressed him so he pushed it from his mind.
Her ears twitched in the air and her cybernetic tail spasmed behind her.
“What is it?” he asked.
She glanced at Ben before speaking. “I think I saw Heiress Olivaar earlier. She was getting into an air car. I don’t know where she was going. I am sorry I didn’t say anything, Keltan-sama. I thought it was normal.”
His eyes went from her to Ben. “Well?”
“I have no record of this, however, if the Heiress didn’t want to be discovered she could have used a device to jam the tower’s sensors.”
He scowled. It was just as well she wasn’t here, though he wondered where she went. Had she gone off to warn Biren about what was going to transpire? No, that couldn’t be it. He kept her in the dark about his plans. The only thing she knew was that Dorsky was sending agents to kill the Cronus sisters. There was no way she could know the rest. Wherever she was, he was sure she wouldn’t be involved. Still, it was a shame not to have her at his side during this time. He would make sure she was there for Dorsky’s arrest.
“Next time say something sooner. I want her watched, understand? Are they in position?” he asked.
“I am sorry.” She bowed almost to the waist. “Meia and Iapetus are at the tunnel entrance in Xikhaz Park.”
“Good.”
Outside the limo on his tarmac swung its doors open and artificial servants exited ahead of his aunts. He nodded to Ben, who headed to join them and guide the last of his family to safety. The clammy morning air blasted in when the door slid open. The brine stung his eyes and throat. Aurora’s white dress shimmered in the morning light. Though he couldn’t hear them he knew the bells in her curly blond hair must be making a furious sound in the wind. Hephestia wore a business suit, navy-blue with white lapels on her jacket. He frowned, wondering why she felt the need for such formality.
“Cylus, you’re looking well,” Aurora said when Ben lead them and two of their own pin-eyed artificials into the solar. “It’s a bit early to be displacing us from our home, isn’t it?”
“I had word the culprits would be striking shortly after dawn. They should be attacking Intel-Sys Tower any minute now.”
“Don’t sound happy about it. You could at least pretend to be upset that someone is trying to kill us,” Hephestia said.
He heard the inner doorway open behind him. Reika snapped to attention and he flinched.
“Lighten up.” Sophi swept into the room on bold, springing steps. The hood of her blue-trimmed white cloak was drawn low over her face. She had a bottle of Champagne in one hand and four empty flutes threaded through the fingers of the other. “This is his moment. Cy is now the leader of the Confederation in all but name—and that will change by nightfall.”
He closed his eyes and breathed, pushing the thought out of his head. He hadn’t won yet.
He hoped Sophi would stay in the conference room until his aunts got settled. He wanted some alone time with them to explain why he did what he did without her interference.
“And isn’t celebration a bit early as well?” Hephestia frowned. “Nothing has happened yet.”
Aurora, he noticed, didn’t even look at her daughter. The skin around her mouth and eyes tightened.
“It’s never too early to celebrate such a victory,” Sophi replied.
“This is the lesser of the two battles he will have to win. It is too early,” Hephestia said.
Sophi waved the bottle of Champagne in the air. “This is the more important of the two. When my father returns he will find Cylus in firm command with the Barony bent to his will.”
Aurora snorted and rolled her eyes. She pulled the edges of her dress closer together over her bosom. “It’s grown chilly in here. Where is Heiress Olivaar? I wish to give her my greetings.”
Cylus cocked an eyebrow. She was asking for Lina? After the last time they met he would never have imagined it.
“Unfortunately, she will not be joining us tonight.”
“Oh.” Aurora looked as though she tasted something bitter. “Then perhaps we could adjourn to an interior room?”
“Of course. Ben, take the Champagne, and let’s head into the Eastern sitting room. It’ll be more comfortable for the show.”
“The show?” Aurora asked.
“I had Ben link your tower’s security sensors to my network. We’ll be able to watch the Praetor arrest the Gaian terrorists and bring an end to this chaos once and for all.”
“That is an unusually forceful statement for you, Cylus.” Hephestia scrutinized him with her eyes. “And I don’t appreciate the intrusion into our system.”
He shrugged. “I’ve grown into my own, and it was done on the Praetor’s authority. Come, I’ll have Ben transfer the refreshments from the conference room.”
Aurora and her sister glared at him.
He waved them both on ahead. Ben followed and Reika trailed behind him.
“Don’t mind them,” Sophi whispered, coming to his side. “They’re just too old to see the new dawn rising. They lack faith in you, but you’ll prove yourself to everyone in time, Premier.”
“I’m not Premier, yet.” But I will be soon, he thought.
Sophi grinned and tapped him on the tip of his nose. “You’re so cute, Cy. Now, come on. I’m thirsty.”
Cygni’s heart beat against the back of her chest as she watched the flat-topped, egg-like habitat of the Cronus’ private living quarters grow through the air-car’s windshield. Suspended between four, kilometer-tall towers, the structure was wi
de enough to house several aerospace shuttles and half-a-dozen air-cars at once. There were only two access points on the roof: a small pyramid-like structure that served as the bay for a lift, and a hidden emergency hatch about a dozen meters from it. Both were highlighted in the wire-frame blueprints that overlapped the tower in her UI. Despite her mixed feelings concerning the Umbrals and Dorsky it impressed her how much access to information she had through her PLIA. Her mind bloomed with the possibilities of what she could uncover after this mess was over.
“The lift will bring you directly into the Cronus’ apartments. There will be some android guards within but not many. The sisters have never been big on security—at least not the physical kind. Digitally, it’s a different story,” Pasqualina Olivaar said from the driver’s seat beside her. The car was a rental with its AI and GPS systems disabled and needed a real driver. Lina volunteered herself when they met up in the park. She was the only person in the vehicle not dressed in urban camouflage and the only one of them not going into the tower.
“Sanul has that handled,” Cygni said with a sigh.
Boa convinced Ila to abstain from the mission using a mix of guilt and religion. It hurt that the Isinari hadn’t sided with her to at least see this out, but she supposed it was just as well. She would get them all out safely after, and Boa would owe her an apology. At least Sanul stuck with her. She owed him big time.
“I’m sure your people are good—” Lina looked about to say more but closed her mouth.
“Cygni, we’ll be fine. This is a simple snatch and run,” Biren adjusted himself in the back seat.
“You’re sure Sanul is in a secure location?” Out of the corner of her eye Cygni saw Giselle fidgeting.
“I’ve got him in an unmarked van that is set to change position every fifteen minutes,” Lina replied. “Concentrate on what you’re about to do. Biren has your back, and the codes I’m using to clear you are new. You’ll be all right.”
“Okay.” She took in a deep breath that didn’t help the icy spikes in her stomach. I’m going to kidnap a baroness. She couldn’t believe it.
The air-car came up over the platform and settled down onto the tarmac. The jolt almost made her cry out.
“You can do this,” Lina said.
She looked back at Biren and Giselle. They both nodded.
“Okay.”
“Goddess be with you,” Lina said.
“Yeah, thanks.” She reached into her jacket’s inner pocket and withdrew a small tin. Lina cocked an eyebrow as she snatched up a cube from within, slammed it into her mouth, then pulled open the glove compartment and shoved the tin inside. Her hand only shook a little as she did it.
The heiress gave her a look and sniffed at the air, but said nothing. Cygni gritted her teeth and swallowed the cube as the doors to the car rose out of the way. The blast of cold morning air sent a shiver through her and she forced her body to move.
Running towards the pyramid structure made her feel like a ball of snow rolling down the side of a mountain. The first few steps were hard but as she got closer she felt a momentum building until, like an avalanche, she couldn’t stop herself even if she tried. Biren charged ahead of her. His long, muscular legs carried him to the lift at twice the speed she could manage even with her armacorium’s assistance. He hit the pyramid full-force with his shoulder and bounced off with a wild grin on his face like he won a race she didn’t know they were having.
“Cygni, transmit the code,” Giselle’s voice said into her thoughts.
Got it. She had her PLIA do it and the lift doorframe lit up. The car was on its way.
She looked at Giselle when they caught up to Biren. The platinum blond’s dark eyes looked as calm and collected as ever. She supposed her friend was just as nervous as she was, though she wouldn’t know it if she hadn’t seen her in the car. The woman’s eyes were as firm as steel.
The lift doors slid open revealing a plain, cylindrical car within. Her PLIA accessed the terminal when they entered.
“I’ve got you on the security scanners now,” Sanul’s low, syrupy voice came over her comm. It amazed her that he could enter the Intel-Sys system so easily. When she tried it before she wound up getting arrested. “The lift will take you to a small lounge. You are clear there. Everything looks calm. There are only a few guards, and I see the sisters in their living room. It is two floors down from where you will enter.”
Thank you, she sent back. Cygni looked at Giselle and Biren. They both nodded at her.
[Anomaly detected,] her PLIA stated. She frowned and requested more information. [0.0001% deviation detected in local data traffic.] She was trying to figure out what that meant when the lift stopped and its doors slid open.
They entered a lounge with a fully stocked bar and a spectacular view of the city ahead of them. She drew her pistol and moved deeper into the room.
Did you get that? She transmitted.
“Yeah,” Sanul responded. “The data stream looks normal to me. That is a very small value. Maybe some kind of maintenance program is running or something. I’ll watch out for it.”
All right, Cygni sent.
Giselle and Biren both drew their guns when they approached the lounge door. Sanul opened it remotely and she stuck her head into the corridor. A blue carpet framed by white walls stretched out ahead of her. Holograms of the various artificial servants IntelSys offered lined the hallway. Their pin-hole gazes sent a shiver down her back as she was reminded of Revenant’s statue garden.
“Focus, Cygni.” Giselle’s voice in her head startled her. She nodded though the waves of pleasurable numbness were already vibrating through her. The woman was right, she had to keep her mind on the mission. She took the kalkoa to calm her nerves but she had to wonder if it was a mistake.
She lead the way down the hall, staying to one side. Her heart pounded and her nerves faded into the background as she tried to walk as casually as possible. There were doorways on either side of them. Each one was a chance for something to go wrong. Sanul had the security feed in a loop to make sure that anyone watching wouldn’t see anything, but it didn’t do them any good if someone physically stepped out of a room.
There was a second lift at the end of the corridor. They braced themselves against the wall to either side of it and waited. She had her PLIA fire up the combat and prowling engrams from the Umbral database stored in her head. Though she practiced many of the thousands of routines in each, she still wasn’t fully confident in her abilities.
The lift? She transmitted to Sanul.
“It’s coming. No one’s in it,” he replied.
Acknowledged.
She looked at Giselle. The woman nodded, then her eyebrows came together and she turned to face down the corridor. Cygni almost jumped when one of the doors slid open and a man in a company uniform stepped out.
Giselle glared.
He blinked, shook himself, and turned to walk towards the lounge.
“He’s going for a drink. I made sure he thinks he saw maintenance staff.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. Now I can see why everyone is afraid of the VoQuana.
Giselle’s eyes narrowed.
Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. She felt herself blush and a wave that made her lightheaded caused her to sway on her feet.
The lift arrived and they loaded in.
The car hummed in her ears as Sanul dropped them down two floors to where their targets awaited. The doors opened into a hallway like the last, though here there were no holograms.
“Fourth door on your right,” Sanul’s voice came over the comm.
Okay. Remember, stun only. We don’t want the sisters getting hurt, she sent to Biren and Giselle as they raised their guns and moved out.
“If the sisters resist, stun them,” he added.
She giggled, uncomfortable with the idea but finding it funny anyway. He was right, though. They really couldn’t force the Cronuses to go with them any other way without revealing Giselle to t
hem. She hoped that explaining they were prescribed for assassination by the Premier would motivate them to come along peacefully.
She felt every fiber in the carpet below her feet through the somatic transmission of her armacorium. Using it as clothing always felt like being naked. The sense of exposure was rattling at first but after she acclimated it was tolerable. Of course, there were advantages, but now she wished she had on more. It wasn’t that she thought the armacorium couldn’t protect her, it did so better than any clothing could, but because the feeling of being open was adding to her buzzing nerves and increasing fuzziness.
They arrived at the living room door.
“Guard coming, take cover,” Sanul said.
She looked down the corridor and saw a door slide open.
“The door!”
The portal hissed open and she spun around as she entered to face the hallway with her pistol at the ready. Biren and Giselle followed her in.
The door snapped back into place and she heard the magnetic lock engage. Was it some kind of automatic feature? It seemed strange for a living room door. She frowned and looked to her companions for assistance to find both of them staring into the room with terrified eyes. When Biren’s face melted into an expression of pure, burning hatred a chill slid down her back that made her dizziness worse. She turned around and almost fell over.
The room was full of old furniture on an ornate rug. A line of DS-109 combat drones stood in front of a wide, picture window with their shoulder-turrets leveled at her and her companions.
She giggled, but beneath her delirium she was horrified.
How did Sanul miss this? They must have fed him a false image using their own trick against them. Maybe that accounted for the minuscule anomaly in the tower’s digital traffic—not that it mattered now that so many eyes beneath translucent sculls burned red in her retinas.
The lights in the room shone off the black locks of the drone’s master in lines as silver as her eyes. She stood at their center with an expression of stern contempt.
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