Capital Games (Audacity Saga Book 2)

by R. K. Thorne

  If she ever saw him again, she had to tell him. Something. Somehow.

  The girl was staring, now, Ellen realized. She blocked it out for a moment, then a moment more. The girl persisted.

  Ellen turned her head. A small, juvenile Ursa in a white dress with a blue sash and bow in her hair was sitting on the far recliner. Staring straight at her.

  Ellen met the Ursa’s eyes. Also blue. She didn’t think she’d ever seen an Ursa with blue eyes. Maybe they were augmented. They seemed to glow faintly in the dimness.

  The Ursa blinked. “That was the coolest thing I have ever seen.”

  Ellen permitted herself a small smile. “Thanks. Just doing my job.”

  “I’m Lotiata. But you can call me Loti. How is ring fighting your job?”

  “Loti, is it?”

  “Yes. Lotiata Kentt.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”

  “This is my sister’s bar.”

  “Huh. It’s my job because I need to talk to your sister about something, and they said the ring was the only way to do that. Would you happen to be able to take me to see her?”

  Loti blinked again. “Why can’t I see your thoughts?”

  Ellen raised her eyebrows. “I have a special add-on.”

  “Oh! I have a special add-on that helps me see in.”

  “Really?” Ellen repressed a shudder. “Your sister was helping the scientist who designed my add-on. Now the scientist has a big problem, and I really need to see Kentt and ask her about it.”

  The girl’s eyes went vacant suddenly, and Ellen frowned. Then the light abruptly returned. “She says, why the hell not.”

  Ellen smirked. “Are little girls like you supposed to swear?”

  “Are women like you supposed to fight mechs?”

  “Well… No, probably not.”

  “Exactly. Right this way.”

  Slipping into the back rooms of the club was easier than it should have been, especially for a man Kael’s size. Vivaan was smaller, lighter on his feet, and kept pace with the elegant crowd of some sort of elite personages. Maybe the place was less tight-knit than he’d thought, since no one noticed him. Maybe it was so tight-knit that no one was worried.

  Maybe they counted on the telepath to be watching for anyone up to no good.

  But he wasn’t up to no good, and no one could watch one hundred percent of the time. Kael caught up to the back of the group quickly. And it was lucky that Vivaan was trailing at the back, looking at his toes as he shuffled along behind a half dozen women in robes that, up close, were apparently slightly transparent in the dim light.

  Wow. Maybe that was why Vivaan was looking at his toes. Kael glued his eyes to his quarry and didn’t blink.

  “Persad,” he hissed as he got closer.

  The kid twitched, glancing to the side in unconscious acknowledgment before he quickly pretended not to hear.

  “Vivaan!” Only slightly louder, he hoped the added information would be enough warning that he wasn’t giving up easily.

  Frowning, Vivaan slowed as the crowd continued forward, then risked a direct measuring look at Kael before hurrying toward him.

  “Who are you?” Vivaan hissed, dropping a hand on one bicep and pushing Kael into a flower-draped alcove. The dim light didn’t extend past the doorway, and they were in almost complete darkness. His optic implants struggled to keep up. “How do you know my name?”

  “We’re here to help.” Kael folded his arms across his chest. That probably wasn’t a very satisfactory answer, but what more could he say?

  “Who is we? I don’t need help. Who sent you?”

  Vivaan was still gripping his arm. Kael looked down at the hand and sniffed, then leveled a dark glare back at the hand’s owner. Vivaan’s eyes widened, and he snatched the hand back.

  “Your mother sent us,” Kael said slowly. “She thought you were dead.” He slathered the guilt on thick.

  “Well, I’m not. See? Alive. Okay? Now get out of here.” Vivaan shooed him away, but Kael wasn’t fooled. He was jittery as a mermaid in a vat of coffee.

  “What’s going on? We can free you.” It was a gamble.

  “I don’t need to be freed.” He glanced over his shoulder. The entourage was receding down the long hallway now. Kael hadn’t realized this place was so big. “And you’re blowing my cover.”

  “Have you found those girls?” He kept his voice calm, controlled. Someone who could be trusted.

  Vivaan stilled. “You made it into my computers.”

  Kael nodded.

  “I’m close. And if they know I am looking for them, I’ll lose the trail. Are you… looking for them?” It suddenly seemed to occur to Vivaan that Kael’s whole mother story could be a lie. That Kael could have something to do with the disappearances.

  Shit, he hadn’t meant to lose his trust by mentioning it. “We’re looking for you. But I hope you find them.”

  “I need to go.” He gestured wildly behind him but didn’t yet try to leave. Yeah, this kid was an amateur. Well intentioned, ambitious, but untrained. His sleeve slid up with the gesture, revealing a tiny silver rectangular slit, the skin surrounding it red and swollen. Recent augmentation gone awry?

  “Wait—what’s this?” Kael grabbed him by the wrist, pulled up the sleeve, squinted. “Your arm doesn’t look so good.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “Don’t let that get black. Or even purple.” He’d seen plenty of bad reactions over the years.

  “It’s fine.”

  “Why are you doing this? Why the quest? What the hell do I tell your mother?”

  He sighed. “I’m working with the inspectors, as a prospective candidate. I really want a job that means something, don’t you get it? Not this floofy crap. They’re evaluating what I can do via this mission. If you don’t screw it up. I need to go.”

  “Why didn’t you tell her where you were going?”

  Vivaan glanced over his shoulder again, but no one was in sight. The group had moved on for now. “She doesn’t exactly support my law enforcement ambitions.”

  “Is there someone we can contact? So we can verify your status for her.”

  “Captain Udo Trynkei. But don’t you dare.”

  “If you don’t want me to, why did you tell me his name?”

  Vivaan looked truly aggrieved at that point, now that Kael had pointed it out. “Don’t. Please. He’ll question my cover being blown. And by my mother of all people. You’ll ruin this, and my application, and all my work, and I’ll never find them. Stay out of this. Tell her… tell her one more week and I’ll be back. And that I’m sorry.”

  Kael nodded. “Okay. I will.”

  Vivaan looked vaguely surprised. At the fact that Kael wasn’t dragging him out by the collar right now? The man wasn’t exactly wearing a collar right now, but…

  “Good luck. If you need any help, computer resources, backup—we’re at your mother’s apartment.”

  “Who are you people?”

  Kael gave him a long, level stare. “Just some people who want to help, and who do it very well.”

  “Sure, you do.”

  He shrugged, the ridiculous half cape swinging. “You know how to reach us.” And he turned and walked away.

  Loti led Ellen toward what seemed to be a blank black wall. A door opened out of the blackness, and after following Loti down three hallways, a left, and a right, Ellen came to a large archway decorated with something like the tiny white flowers from the club’s main floor. These ones were silver, though, and they shimmered with pale energy in the relative darkness.

  Beyond the archway was a garden of night. There hadn’t been much Buddhism remaining out in the main club because it must have all congregated here, at least superficially. Smooth rock pathways, small, intricately shaped trees, a fountain, a pond. Except all of it was cloaked in darkness, lit by faint cobalt light. Blue glowed from inside the water, under a stone bench, trailing along the edges of a path.

&nb
sp; At the end of the long path, directly before Ellen, stood a woman in a vibrant blue cloak.

  Somebody’s got a favorite color.

  The figure turned, and long, thin fingers tipped with a soft glimmer like moonlight pushed back the hood. She didn’t fully push it back, still leaving her face in shadow, but Ellen could make out long, waving sapphire hair that cascaded down her chest, and lips the color of dry blood. A smile graced them, reminding her faintly of a leopard postlunch. Strangest of all, her shadowed eyes glowed cerulean, as though lit from within.

  “Ah, Ms. Ryu. Lovely to meet you.” A beautiful, bold voice, if delicate. The accent was expensive, refined.

  Ellen’s own voice seemed hard, blunt, overloud in the pristine garden of the night. “Are you Etrianala Kentt?”

  “The one and only.”

  “I have some questions.” Ellen strode toward her, Rich making surprisingly loud crunches in the serene gravel. She wondered idly if he had opinions on what he stepped in. She hoped for his sake that that wasn’t included in his programming. She stopped just short of the woman, who turned and gestured for Ellen to follow her a few feet more.

  “First, I must thank you. You’ve given me quite the show. I daresay this should make a great deal of money online for the broadcast.”

  The words were at odds with the beauty, the serenity they were drowning in. Ryu scowled. “Don’t.”

  Kentt’s pleasant smile never wavered. “Of course, that would also bring the Union bureaucracy down upon you here. And you wouldn’t want that. Not until you are gone, at the very least. Would you.”

  Was the chip even working? “I’d rather not have the publicity at all. I’m a nobody.”

  Kentt stopped at two stone benches that faced each other, sat on one with the grace of a queen, and indicated the other. Ellen considered obstinately standing anyway, but that didn’t seem like what someone trying to win this woman over would do. She’d try to play nice. For a bit. She sat stiffly.

  “A nobody? Now we both know that’s not true.” Her smile widened. “And how else am I to pay for the mechs you’ve destroyed?”

  “Raise your drink prices.”

  “Says the woman who’s been drinking for free.”

  Now how did she know that?

  “No, no, I don’t think that recording can be simply disposed of. Far too entertaining.”

  “At least cut my… friend out of it.”

  “And deprive the world of a Theroki out of armor? I don’t think so.”

  “He’s not one. Not anymore. You’ll complicate that for him.” Gah. Even telling her this much was just giving her more power.

  “I will consider it. But let us get to what you came here to discuss. Of course, you sent your man in a different direction so perhaps he’s already gotten what you need. What is it that you need, Ms. Ryu?”

  “I just wanted to ask you a few questions.”

  “Then why not bring him with you? Or is he just expendable, like the others before him?”

  “People are never expendable.” Even as anger coiled in her chest, relief mixed with it. The chip was clearly fine. Otherwise, the telepath would know Kael was anything but expendable.

  “Then why did you design a defense grid that would attack your own ships? That doesn’t sound like what a hero does to me.”

  Ellen stilled. “That’s not exactly what it did. It was a very specific class, engine, and weapons combination—”

  “That your people used as well as the Puritans.”

  She pressed her lips into a thin line. She’d never deny something that was the truth, but it wasn’t fun to hear it. Why was this woman bringing it up now? “Most people don’t know it did that.” Fewer would probably think of her as a war hero if they did. Real warriors knew that this kind of bullshit was exactly what war was. The process of trying to be the one who was less wrecked less by the horror of it all.

  The smile widened into a Cheshire cat grin. “But I do know it. I’ve studied your work.”

  “Why?”

  “I have my reasons. Did you have yours?”

  “The Puritans mimicked our ident chips to the sensors. We were blind and outnumbered. It was the only way, given what little time we had. I wrote heuristics to identify friendlies from new vectors. They weren’t perfect; I couldn’t even test them. I had sixteen hours. But they were never expendable.”

  “Really?”

  “The losses were tragic. I operated as much of the grid myself manually as I could to try to—”

  “Why are you here, Ms. Ryu?” Her voice was placid as the rocks in the garden, the water burbling at their feet. “It’s not to fight my mechs. It’s not to defend your wars to me.”

  Why indeed. She wasn’t usually goaded so easily. “Vivaan Persad.”

  “Ah. Really? I’m intrigued. And not often surprised. This is most enjoyable.”

  “He’s been missing for two weeks. Inspectors won’t help find him. His family is worried.”

  “Poor Dr. Persad. Poor Vivaan, such a lonely sort. Enthusiastic. Noble. A bit too trusting though.”

  Ellen sat forward on the bench, clutching her knee. She was surprised to feel only skin, forgetting the ridiculous getup. She shook her head and refocused on Kentt. “What do you know?”

  “I know that his chip doesn’t work as well as he thinks it does.”

  “Where is he?”

  “I believe you already know the answer to that question, or you wouldn’t have sent your man elsewhere. But what’s odd is that, I don’t believe his mother installed his chip. Isn’t that curious? Hers worked much better. As does yours. Why wouldn’t he tell her where he was going? Perhaps she was part of the problem.” Kentt raised an eyebrow.

  “I don’t need conjecture. I need Persad.”

  “I can’t give you that, only he can. Fortunately for Vivaan and his faulty installation, I’m not one of the bad guys.”

  “I find that often depends on your point of view.”

  “He’s safe here with me. And I don’t mind what he’s doing. In fact, I admire it. I can’t say the same for those he thinks he’s working for.”

  “Who is that?”

  “Your man is talking to Vivaan right now. When you two catch up, you can compare notes. I’d like to see if you can figure it out.”

  “This isn’t a guessing game. There are lives on the line here.” At least, the missing women might still be alive.

  “I can’t say anymore. I think that’s been quite enough. I will not delete your fight. But I will not broadcast it until you are off planet, as I do not wish to help the Union any more than anyone else. As for Vivaan, tell Chayana or whoever is looking for him he’s safe. For now.”

  Kentt slipped from the seat, graceful as a falling feather, pale blue flats alighting silently on the stone path. She straightened her dress and turned to go, the cape swirling.

  Not yet. Ellen only had one shot left, and it was a cheap one, but she took it.

  “Songbird.”

  Kentt froze, turning her head. Her hard, blue eyes pierced Ellen over her shoulder. Her chin twitched just slightly. “I sing for no one but myself.”

  Ellen’s heart lurched in her chest at the sentiment. “You’ve heard the name before. And not about avian creatures.”

  “Are you one of them then?” Her body was tensed, Ellen realized. As if she thought an attack were imminent.

  “No. Never willingly, anyway.”

  The telepath turned fully back to face her. “But once you were?”

  “Yes. Once.”

  “So escape is possible… I hadn’t thought.” She glanced off to the side of the path, thinking.

  “I had help. With escaping. Are you working with them?”

  Surprise flickered in her eyes now. “No. My sister…”

  “Loti?”

  “No, my human sister. I know Vivaan thinks I have something to do with his girls disappearing. And I do.” She smiled now, oddly enough. “But only in that many of them have dined with
me here, and I also care about them. And they are also Naturals.”

  “That’s why you agreed to help Persad? With her prototype? To help him find them?”

  “No. I only learned of his quest after that. I helped Persad because her technology could render our power obsolete.”

  “Why would you want that?”

  “Many wouldn’t. But I do. It would render us as individuals less valuable. Less worth the taking. Or kidnapping. Or fearing or manipulating or murdering. Did you know a Natural born in a non-telepathic-supported community is eleven times more likely than the average woman to be killed before she reaches fourteen?”

  “I… didn’t know that.”

  “The galaxy is a brutal place. Especially for the different.”

  That was certainly true. “Your sister. Is she one of the missing? Or already… in the program?” God forbid.

  The words came out grudgingly, painfully. “She volunteered.”

  Ellen froze before she could hide her reaction, her gut clenching. “What do you mean? Why would anyone—”

  “They were recruiting, at university. I graduated eight years ago, but she’s younger than me and was working on advanced studies, perhaps to become a teacher. But she wanted to lead, to use her powers for something important. Something heroic. And she fell in with them.”

  Ellen caught her breath. “But you don’t think that’s what’s happening. Not something important and heroic.”

  “No.”

  “Who was recruiting exactly? Arakovic?”

  “Yes. And she’s so young, beautiful, charismatic when she wants to be. It’s easy to get drawn in—”

  “But—Dr. Arakovic isn’t young.”

  “Not the doctor. Her daughter.”

  Ellen rocked back on her short heels. “She has a daughter?”

  “Oh yes. I’m not sure if she’s her biological daughter, but…”

  Mother sends a message… The words of the telepaths drifted back through her mind. Yes, Ellen wasn’t sure about this daughter either. God, could Kentt’s sister have been one of the women they’d already encountered? She couldn’t stomach the thought of it. Not now.

  “Whoever the woman is, she’s the one at the institutes, smiling and drinking wine. Real wine, smuggled. Talking about peace. About ending the endless war.” Kentt sighed. “I’m not so sure my sister understood what she was signing up for. Something wasn’t right about them.”