Chapter Five

 

The show had been a success, by force of will on Minda’s part, and she intends to celebrate at her favorite dance club.

We of an Earthling scale – minus Jimena – all pile into the van to head across town for the afterparty. Tawny is still fuming over the groundless accusations the Zantite audience had made, and everybody else is trying to avoid drawing her attention. Brill seems so withdrawn compared to last night, when we’d been with his friends. Maybe it’s because Kaliel y Kayla are here. Maybe it’s just Tawny.

Once we get inside the club, the music is hard-edged and undulating, but with oddly operatic trills to the sopranos’ voices, transforming the rough Zantite words into flowing honey. Brill holds my hand as we wind through the crowd toward an open area on the dance floor that seems reserved for couples who are taking turns dancing for the cameras. I doubt Brill wants to be on camera – even though he’s learned to dance.

We pass Mertex, just as he offers a green fizzing drink to Minda. I stop to watch and Brill lets go of my hand.

Minda’s changed into a knee-length silver dress and stacked her wrists with bangle bracelets. She looks like a go-go dancer from the early days of Earth’s flat video – or like how that era’s science fiction films thought aliens would dress.

Minda giggles as she takes the drink, dipping her cabeza, the better to look up at Murry. When Mertex, the most awkward Zantite on a ship of misfits, had first confessed he was in love with a movie star he’d never met, it had been an impossible daydream. We’d been discussing how, if you have to die, you’d prefer to go, and he’d said in Minda Frou’s arms, with her singing him to sleep.

Pero, now that he’s working for Minda, it looks like he’s grown on her. He might wind up in her arms after all, and not even have to die to do it.

“I love that color on you,” she tells him, running a hand along the collar of his dark blue shirt. “It brings out the green undertones of your skin.”

His face goes teal. “Thank you,” he splutters, maybe understanding for the first time that the girl of his dreams is into him.

Minda notices me. “You should have seen how proud Tawny is of you, Bo. She told me you really made HGB look good today. I got the impression before that you didn’t like her company. So why are you working for them?”

“That’s the deal I made to keep my life. Better the devil you know, and all that, no?”

Minda scrunches her flattish nose. “The absolutes of good and bad are rarely as clear as they seem.”

I want to tell her that HGB’s been manipulating people since they began. That they’re not above killing people to keep their secrets. Sometimes people from their own planet. Pero, maybe she won’t be shocked. Maybe every planet does that. Maybe every planet has their own Pure275 and their own Serum Green.

I sigh. “It will be years before we know for sure whether chocolate can even be grown successfully on other planets, and HGB’s going to be doing everything they can to make sure that doesn’t change anything. If your planet doesn’t destroy mine when they invade.”

Minda’s rubbery lips pucker with distaste. She doesn’t seem to believe her people capable of such barbarity. Yet I can so vividly see Earth exploding into a bajillion pieces, trying to repel the invaders.

A familiar tenor voice chimes in with the sopranos. It’s the Zantite singer from the radio. Desperate to change the subject, I ask, “Is that Verex Kowlk?”

Mertex nods. “They just wrapped on his first feature-length holo, so he’s on a publicity tour, like you.”

Verex looks just out of the learning pod, pero he’s hot by Zantite standards. His skin’s so yellow, it’s almost orange, and he’s muscled like a whip. Verex leaves the stage and heads for a nearby table.

An Earthling comes out of the kitchen, carrying a plate with an elaborate dessert on it. He’s Aidan Ace, the teen prodigy/independent HoloCaster the polls say is set to replace Mamá as Earth’s most popular celebrity chef. He’s maybe even younger than Verex. His spiked-up hair’s blond, his eyebrows so light they almost don’t exist, in contrast to his deep brown eyes, which are full of mirth and trouble. He puts the dessert on the star’s table, and Verex asks him to sit down.

“What’s he doing here?” I ask Mertex.

Surely Aidan’s not planning to replace me. He’s not exactly the kind of person to show Earth’s mature enough to belong in the galaxy. Y, if I get made irrelevant or sent home, it could put me back in line for the shave. I’d prefer all my cameracentric time to not involve being strapped to a board and tipped onto a guillotine for ratingstastic blood-splattering entertainment.

“He came to chronicle people’s reaction to your show. I got him a job here to keep him out from underfoot.” Minda rolls her eyes. “He wanted a job ON the show.”

Dios mio! The impertinence.

“There you are.” Tawny’s suddenly at my back, pushing me forward onto the dance floor. “I’ve requested a special song for you and the hero who showed up just in time today.”

“Where is he?” I’m looking for Brill, who brought me the replacement cherries, pero she’s pushing me towards Kaliel, who is standing at the edge of the dance floor, minding his own business, holding a beer. He looks startled at me coming toward him and glances at the stage as a samba starts playing. One of the singers is doing her best at pronouncing the unfamiliar Spanish.

I stifle my own panic. Tawny knows how badly Brill reacted last time to that bumpclip of me and Kaliel dancing. Either she’s mad at me for what happened with Jimena – which was not my fault – or she’s still trying to drive a wedge between me and Brill, even though she’s so not his type.

Tawny takes Kaliel’s beer and sips from it, making a face at the taste. No straw or anything. She puts it down on a table behind her. “Everyone’s waiting to see this episode’s stars dance together.”

The reserved dance floor’s gone empty, because nobody else here knows how to samba – except Brill, who knows the basics, pero there’s no way he’d do it in front of these cameras. I can’t even find him in this crowd of giants.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Kaliel says, pero Tawny places my hand in his, and pushes us onto the dance floor.

Kaliel’s other hand comes around my waist as we move to the music. He draws me close to him, and my heartbeat skyrockets. This is a very bad idea.

I try to focus on something other than the scent of his cologne and the strength of his arms as he pushes me into a spin. The music is fast, and he’s showing off a little with quick changes, pushing us apart, bringing us back together, pulling me into a turn where my feet come completely off the floor. I’m flying in mi cabeza too, unable to deny the ease with which I fit together with Kaliel, even though Brill must be watching. The feeling is confusing and slippery, laced with guilt even though Kaliel and I are just dancing.

Tawny’s slapped a bug on Kaliel. The tiny circle glitters on the sleeve of his tee-shirt as he moves us across the floor. He pulls me to him, lifting me off the ground again, and as the song’s last notes die away, he’s holding me up by my waist, our faces inches apart. His eyes don’t have to be capable of chromashift for me to be able to recognize the attraction reflecting back out at me. He puts me down.

We both hesitate in that moment of stillness, and it’s all I can do to make myself pull away.

Kaliel turns, peering down at the floor. Then without saying anything, he walks away. And my heart squeezes.

I know. It doesn’t have any right to. Pero, I can’t just leave it like this.

I follow him into the crowd, even as a song more fitting to Zantite dance steps starts. Kaliel’s headed for where several Zantites are playing with an electric game that looks like a giant pinball machine got crossed with holo-darts.

I grab his arm, turn him back towards me, not even caring about the bug. His eyes go wide with surprise. “Bo, I–”

I cut him off. “Gracias por today. You showed up just in time to save me. Again.”

Kaliel had helped me escape when Frank was closing in back in Brazil after I’d been caught stealing cacao from the plantation. I’d asked Kaliel to leave the planet with me, offered him things my heart had no business promising. He looks at my lips, and I bet he’s remembering that night in the rainforest. Remembering the intensity of his lips on mine, just like I am.

He returns his focus back to my eyes. “You mean with the cherries? It wasn’t that big a deal.”

“It was to me.” My hand’s still on his arm. I pull it away. “Mira, we need to talk.”

A waiter carrying a tray of tiny choco-boozy shots walks by, leaning down to offer us some. Kaliel shakes his head. “Thanks anyway. I don’t like chocolate.”

“Que?” I let out a startled laugh. “See, this is why we were never meant to be together.” I mean it as a joke, pero I realize it’s a mistake, even as the words are leaving my mouth.

His lips tighten into a serious line. “I’m not going to deny I’m still attracted to you. We just proved that back on the dance floor. But that can’t mean anything. I love Kayla, and I wouldn’t hurt her for the world. Loyalty’s important to me.”

He’s that kind of guy. Which is what makes me want to keep him as an amigo. And he’s put into words exactly how I feel about Brill. “Entiendo. I understand, and–”

“Do you?” Brill’s come up behind me. I turn towards him. His eyes are rosy orange – embarrassed and frustrated. He holds up his phone. “This has me questioning your definition of loyalty.”

Pain knifes through me. The paparazzi must have been mixing flashback malcasts in with the post-show feeds. What weak moment of my past could they have captured that he wouldn’t have already seen? “You promised you wouldn’t let the pops color how you think of me. A lot of it is outright buzzbashing.”

I glance towards Kaliel, like he can vouchspeak the truth – which he can’t, I didn’t even know him then – and that’s a mistake, too.

Brill’s eyes drop towards angry maroon. “I’m talking about your little dance exhibition.” He plucks the bug from the fabric of Kaliel’s shirt and drops it to the floor, where he crushes it under his boot. He pops up a holo on his phone. “Tawny sent me this.”

The gritcast is mostly of me, from the point of view of Kaliel’s tee-shirt sleeve. Mostly, all it caught is the outline of my hair, or my profile spinning away. Pero, there’s audio, of me and Kaliel talking in Spanish. Eh? We hadn’t said a word.

Holo-him says, muffled and indistinct, “Meet me tonight. They’ll never have to know.”

And I – me, my actual voice – replies, “Do you really think we can hide our love?”

Holo-Kaliel says, still muffled, “We’ve been doing well so far. He hasn’t found the e-mails–”

“No, of course not.” Me again. This conversation is starting to sound familiar, pero I can’t quite place it. “I’ll leave him as soon as we’ve gotten what we want.”

Brill turns off the holo.

“I didn’t say any of that!” I squeak.

“She didn’t, I swear.” Kaliel takes a step backwards as Brill looms menacingly towards him. “Maybe I should go.”

Brill’s hands ball into fists at his side. “Ga. Su, I’ll go.”

I watch his brown leather jacket disappear into the crowd. I thought that after all we’ve been through together, how hard we’d fought for each other, Brill and I had something real. So how can it still be this fragile?

Kaliel says, “That actually was your voice. What e-mails were you talking about?”

“Ni idea.” Pero, then it hits. I gasp. Tawny is even more devious than I gave her credit for. “Actually, I do. That was from the one scene I did in Bullets for Luiz. We were on the next soundstage, and one of their regulars called in sick. They holoed the whole thing so you couldn’t see my face.”

“So Brill wouldn’t have seen that?”

I shake mi cabeza. “Nunca. It was uncredited.”

“I still bet you were better than the actress who normally played that part.” He winks at me. Kaliel and I are going to be OK. No lo sé about me and Brill. The electronic game lights up and starts blinking and a blizzard of paper tickets shoots out of it. I ignore the winners’ dancing and booze-sloshing.

“Brill’s a kek,” I sigh. “I told him it wasn’t what it looked like, and he didn’t even listen. What am I supposed to do with that?”

“Cut him a break.” Kaliel puts a hand on my shoulder. Then he quickly removes it. “We guys have a hard time not believing our own eyes. Let me go talk to him.”

I try not to think about the warmth of that contact. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Kaliel shrugs. “It’s not like he’s armed or anything.”

“He might be.”

Kaliel’s eyes go wide. “I’ll be careful, then.”

I make my way over to the bar, climb up on one of the tall stools. I need one of the fizzy green drinks Minda was having. Or maybe two or three.

But before I can even order, a deep voice asks, “Is this seat taken?”

I look up. Dent Head – Fizzax – is standing there, one hand on the stool next to mine.

“It is now.”

He sits down, orders twek, and gestures for me to get what I want. I describe Minda’s drink to the bartender.

Fizzax takes out a recording device, pero he cradles it in both hands, not turning it on. “Officially, I’m here to ask about your assistant’s illness.”

“Pero, that’s not what you really want to talk about.”

The bartender passes me the drink. I sip liquid fire and barely manage to swallow it. My throat burns and I’m coughing. This stuff is like pineapple-flavored turpentine.

Fizzax grins. “That’s the begekk. You’ll get used to it.” But the grin fades just as quickly. He turns his hands over, trapping the recorder against the bar. “Why’d you cover for me? You had every right to watch me die yesterday.”

“For what? My wounded pride?” I put a hand on one of his giant ones. If he feels the IH shaking in mine, he doesn’t react. I look up at him. “By all rights, I should have been executed for stealing cacao on Earth. That made me appreciate what a gift mercy can be.”

I don’t believe that, not really. What HGB showed me wasn’t mercy, just calculation. It’s just something to say to make him feel better.

Fizzax’s eyes turn soft and thoughtful. “I am a man of honor, and lies do not sit easily with me. I should turn myself in and accept the consequences.”

I take another sip of turpentine. It goes down easier this time. “I’m not mad. Tawny doesn’t really care. And I’ll be sickened if I have to watch your execution.”

“But why aren’t you mad?”

“Honestly? It’s the blanket.” I smile, remembering it wrapped around me. “A guy who cares whether I’d get cold doesn’t deserve to die.”

He looks dumbfounded. “Then what do you want? To make things right?”

“An apology would be nice.” I swirl the drink, watching the fizz climb as a cloud of steam. “And I’d love for you to drop this thing with Mertex.”

He starts to protest, pero bites back his words into a growl. “I will consider it.” Then he dips his cabeza. “I apologize thoroughly.”

“And I forgive you thoroughly.”

It’s not part of the proscribed language, but it does get a laugh from Fizzax. He turns on the recorder. “Do you know of anyone who would wish to injure your assistant Jimena Duarte or who has a grudge against any member of your cast or crew?”

I consider his question. “Some people both here and back home find this a laughable attempt at diplomacy, pero I doubt those people take us seriously enough to try to poison anyone.”

“Then you do believe she was poisoned?”

I shrug. “Ni idea.”

Kaliel walks back over towards us and drops a hand on my shoulder, more casual this time, like he’s testing the just-be-friends thing. “Brill’s outside and he wants to apologize to you. I gotta go.”

“Go where?”

“I need to find my girl.” Kaliel turns and scowls into the crowd. “Tawny sent Kayla that malcast too. So Kay told Brill she’s packing her things and going home.” He huffs out a breath. “Do you ever get the idea that Tawny might be trying to break all of us up, because from a media-spin standpoint, you and I make a better couple?”

Krom aren’t popular on Earth, having raided the planet for commodity samples during First Contact and all. And having Kaliel turn out to, not only have been set up for the crime he was nearly shaved over, but to have formed a romantic alliance with the hero who brought that information to light…

It’s possible. And if Tawny does want Brill for herself, that’s a bonus. She’s the one that ought to be compared to a spider, media-spinning a gossamer web we’re all stuck in. “That heartless little–”

Fizzax laughs. “You know he’s gone, right?” He gestures toward the door. “We can talk later.”

I get up from my stool. I open the sublingual channel and call Kayla. It tries repeatedly to connect, pero there’s no answer. I hope Kaliel’s found her and they’re talking.

Outside, it’s dark. I can see Brill’s pale pink irises reflecting in the lights from the club’s sign before I spot the rest of him.

“Sorry, Babe.” He sighs. “I’m a kek.” Which is Krom for either idiot or jerk.

“As long as we agree on that point, no?” I step closer, not touching him, though I really want to bury my face in his leather jacket. It’s heartshattering when you’re mad at the person who should be comforting you. Though, honestly, I’m more upset at Tawny for manipulating all of us. Especially Kayla, who didn’t do anything to anybody. “Promise me you’re not going to listen to Tawny anymore.”

“Promise, Babe.”

“She’s not your type, is she?”

“What?” He cringes, visible even in the dark. “You don’t think I’m looking for an excuse to break up to be with her? Because that’s kalltet–” stupid “–and just gross.”

“I need to know that what we have isn’t going to disappear over nothing. I’ve put too much of myself into this for that.” I fight to speak around a lump in my throat. “You have a point about Kaliel, I know that. Pero, it’s still not fair for you to throw accusations at me in public.”

“I’m sorry.” He holds a hand out towards me. “I wouldn’t have come to Zant for anybody else. I wanted to protect you. But I keep hurting you. I know you’re not looking for a make-up present.” He winces – he’d learned the hard way that techniques that work with Krom girls don’t always equate for Earthlings. “So what do I do here?”

Tears bite at the back of my eyes. I make a noise deep in my throat and rush forward and bury my face in his jacket. “Just trust me. And keep me safe.”