Chapter Fourteen

 

Eleven days later, we’re back at the spaceport to pick up Mamá. She’s going to make a cameo on the last episode we’re holoing here in Letekka before moving on to Hoftbek. I’m still not supposed to know Mamá’s really here to see me graduate. I wish they’d told me sooner, so I could have stopped worrying about her running off to marry Frank.

It’s just me and Brill in the van, and so far, there’s no sign of the shuttle. Brill still has that syringe in his pocket. I’d felt the outline of it yesterday when I’d hugged him, wanted so badly to take it from him, couldn’t bring myself to remind him he’s supposed to destroy it. Don’t know why he hasn’t already. Maybe it’s like his face, a reminder of how close he’s come to death.

Brill takes out his shiny new phone. He’s still wearing healing gloves. Ni idea what the skin looks like under there, pero he seems to be moving less gingerly. “I got the information back on Jimena. Tawny needs to vet her employees better. Jimena’s there in the databases for HR, but when my friend went in person, nobody at the restaurants she’s supposed to have worked for has ever heard of her.”

I hesitate. “What should we do?”

Brill shrugs. “You could ask her why she lied to get the gig, and go from there. Unless you think she’s dangerous.”

I’d asked Jimena what she’d meant that day, when she’d looked into that pot of chocolate and talked about the seed of death. She claims to have been delirious with fever. Only, I could tell she’d remembered exactly what I was talking about. And the way her face had lost color and her hands had trembled – it terrifies her.

I look up at the sky, at the puffy clouds not so different from Earth’s. “Somebody had to hacktack a number of HR databases to put her data there. That took money, or skill or both, no? Pero, why? It doesn’t seem safe to ask.”

“Then just keep an eye on her.”

“Sí, I have been. She looked sick for almost a week, and she’s been complaining of headaches. She seems fine now. Aunque, she’s still refusing to work with chocolate.” Which is going to be a problem. And she won’t explain why. “None of this matters until we get to the capital. Garfex’s wife is supposed to be a special guest on the show, and if she has fun, she might get her husband to call for a vote to reconsider the invasion.”

“You didn’t tell me that.” He leans towards me. “That’s awesome.”

“I just found out last night. It was Minda’s plan from the first, pero she wanted to have a few successful episodes before she talked to Layla.” I rest mi cabeza on his shoulder, inhaling the smell of leather and guy.

“Babe, you truly are Bodacious.” He shifts his shoulders so that I’m facing him, and he kisses me. I close my eyes and enjoy the feel of his chest pressing against me, his fingers tangling in my hair.

I can do that, right? Just enjoy the warmth without wondering too much about where our relationship is headed. Pero, I have to admit, we’re past the just-having-fun stage, and I want something more. But his family hates me, and he has a life span three times longer than mine. He’d be giving up so much if he committed to me. So I don’t even know how to ask what he wants, without scaring him away.

For a moment, the hummingbird rhythm of his heartbeat double-matches the slower drumming of my own, like I’m the treble to his bass, like he’s calming my heart. And it feels like this could really work, no matter how different we are.

That rhythm changes slightly. It only takes me a few seconds to wonder if I imagined the synchronization. Wishful thinking brought on by the heat of his lips.

There’s a knock on the window, and Brill pulls back, startled.

Frank’s frowning in at us. Brill rolls down the window. That beso must have lasted longer than I thought. I didn’t even see Frank’s shuttle enter atmo, let alone land.

Frank thrusts an envelope through the open window. “I’m not supposed to be worried, huh? The future of Earth is at stake, and you let your guard down to play tonsil hockey?”

“Sorry, sir,” Brill mumbles. “It won’t happen again.”

“Damn right it won’t.” Frank opens the sliding door and slips into the seat behind Brill. Frank is an assassin, and the way he’s looking at mi vida gives me chills.

Brill’s irises have gone dark gray, which means he’s feeling the weight of that stare too. I don’t blame him for being afraid. After all, he still has a scar from when Frank shot him in the arm. Frank had been trying for the center of his forehead. Brill swallows visibly. “What do you mean, Mr Sawyer?”

Because it sounded like Frank just threatened to shoot him for kissing me instead of guarding me.

Frank plucks one of Tawny’s bugs off Brill’s jacket and throws it out the window. He checks for more. Which is odd. I mean, he works for HGB. “I mean I’m going to see that you get some decent training. Tawny already reported that you let Bo go missing, and she implied that it was over some fight you two had. She recommended I–” Frank stops mid-sentence and glances over at me. My chest squeezes in.

I’d thought Tawny had been flirting with Brill.

Had she really recommended he be killed?

Brill makes a soft, startled noise.

“Relax, Brill, you get to keep breathing. For now.” Frank leans back in his seat. “My orders are just to take her recommendation into consideration as I evaluate the current situation.”

“Thank you, Mr Sawyer. I enjoy breathing. Very much.”

Frank thumps Brill on the back of the cabeza. “You’re not likely to keep doing it long term. I’ve dealt with a number of self-taught space pirates. And they’re all sloppy.”

Brill’s shoulders hunch up. Mi vida, usually calm under any kind of threat, looks like a niño. “I’m not a pirate.” He forces his shoulders down, forces his eyes back to a carefree blue. “But I do welcome any training you’d care to offer.”

Frank growls a noise of assent.

“Por favor, Frank. Stop intimidating him. We’ve kept your secret.”

Frank looks levelly at me. “It’s not my secret. It’s Earth’s secret, and by extension your secret, too. I’ve told you before. I’m a weapon in service to HGB. I always follow orders.”

“I know, viejo.” Frank truly believes HGB is acting to secure Earth’s place in the galaxy.

“Your father…” Frank trails off.

“Que?” I snap to attention, heat burning in my chest.

Frank looks vulnerable for a moment. Ni idea why. “Your father died over a vial of what you call Serum Green.” Frank does not say I killed him over… “He had that, and a sample of some yellow liquid from the lab, and HGB needed to keep those samples safe. Please don’t make me kill you over the same thing. I like you. And your mother would never forgive me.”

I let out a tiny squeak. Did Frank just express some sort of regret over murdering Papá? I’m trembling, and this time it’s not the IH.

Brill looks in the rearview at Frank. “Bo’s still important, alive. We’re making progress here. Did Tawny tell you that Queen Layla has agreed to be a special guest on the show, once we get to the capital?”

Frank looks startled. I guess Tawny’s intelligence isn’t as complete as he thought. After a long moment, Frank says, “She did say that Jimena… isn’t working out.”

Frío fear knifes through my heart. Tawny wants Frank to assassinate everybody. “Frank, don’t you dare. I did not spend two weeks of my life tutoring that girl in the kitchen just to have to start over with someone else.”

“Calm down. I’m going to talk to her first.” Frank buckles his seatbelt. “You need to take this seriously, Bo. A lot of people are angry about you selling cacao. It’s a betrayal of everything Earth has stood for, for decades. Jimena could have been sent to kill you.”

I splutter out a laugh, pero I reach for the canned coffee in the van’s cupholder. The shakes have gotten bad the last couple of days, which is why, in the kitchen, I’ve kept handing Jimena the knives. I can’t suppress a shudder. “She’s had plenty of opportunity, if that’s what she wanted to do, viejo.”

“You’ve been alone with her? After she was acting erratically?” Frank’s face tints pink. “You’re the most valuable asset Earth has right now. You can’t take chances like that.”

“A couple of months ago, all you wanted was proof of my death,” I shoot back. “And you just threatened me with death again, if I step out of line. So stop acting like I mean something to you.”

Brill puts his seatbelt on, and the quiet click sounds loud in the compartment. He opens the envelope Frank gave him and pastes the sticker that’s inside on the windshield. “Let’s go get your mom.”

The sticker gets us back through security, to the tarmac. Brill’s ship’s been moved into a hangar, pero the HGB shuttle Mamá took is still in the open.

Mamá is standing by a pile of luggage, fanning herself. She’s wearing a white caftan and oversized sunglasses, and she looks ready to hit the beach. She turns back to the open shuttle door, says something to someone still inside.

My brother Mario appears in the doorway and I choke on my coffee, spluttering milky drops onto my shirt. “What’s he doing here?”

Mi hermano’s a historian and a homebody, so he never goes offplanet – not even to resort places like Praxis. The idea of him coming to Zant is loco.

“Your whole family wanted to be here for your show,” Frank says. “I thought you’d be touched.”

“My whole family,” I repeat, as Mario hands down both of my little sisters and all three of my nieces to mi mamá, before helping his wife out of the shuttle. After I take a few calming breaths, I turn around and glare at Frank. “If you think someone’s trying to kill me, what are the niñas doing here?”

Frank shrugs. “The risk to them seems minimal, especially compared with the chance for Feed-time showing adorable, tiny Earthlings. Make the coalition see who they’re threatening to invade as real people.”

My mouth is open, and a noise is coming out, pero it’s not words.

Brill has no such trouble. “So it was Ms Kamaka’s idea. I thought you cared about Bo’s family. How would Mrs Benitez feel if she heard you say that?”

Frank shrugs. “Lavonda and I discussed it. She agrees.”

“Did you tell Mario?” I ask.

“That didn’t seem prudent.”

I bring both hands to my face, pressing in on my cheeks like that’s all that’s keeping them from exploding. “If it’s so safe, viejo, where’s your granddaughter?”

He has custody. She should be with him, no?

“She spends a couple of weeks with her other grandparents every year. She was already there. I asked them to keep her if it takes longer than expected to get back.”

Which sounds suspiciously convenient, no?

The door behind me slides open, and Mario pokes his cabeza in. “Surprise!”

 

The girls talk nonstop the whole way to the set, telling me about their trip, about the simple problems in their lives. My nieces are two, three and six years old, one of my sisters a tween, the other barely a teen. Still young enough to see me as a hero, and to be fearless about being on an alien planet.

Pero when we pile out of the van and they get their first view of Minda, they all fall back, hiding behind Mario and Frank. Botas the corgi seems to like Minda, though, putting his front paws on her leg, begging to be petted.

“Who wants a set tour?” Minda scratches the dog between the ears. “Or would you rather play with the puppet stage upstairs?”

At that, Angelina and the girls abandon us, leaving Minda, Mertex, Mamá, Mario, Frank, Brill and me.

Minda holds out a basket of cookies. “I baked these all by myself. Bo’s been teaching me how to do the one thing I thought I’d never be good at.”

“Bo’s always been a patient teacher,” Mamá says. “I think it’s growing up with two little sisters.”

“And let’s not forget her big brother.” Mario steps closer to Mamá, pero he’s looking at Minda. “Bo didn’t always used to be good in the kitchen. After our papá died, we were broke. Mamá had a block of HGB dark in the pantry, and Bo thought she’d cheer everyone up by making chocoflan, but she didn’t know you’re supposed to melt chocolate in a double boiler. She scorched that chocolate to carbon, trying to figure out how to fix it. We had to throw away the pot.”

Mario’s story always drops a little ice into my heart, and right now, with Kayla missing and, I’m starting to have to admit it, possibly injured or dead – it feels like he’s punched me.

It was a tough time for all of us. Papá died in a fire – thanks to Frank, though I didn’t know it then – and the acrid smell of choco-carbon had lingered in the kitchen for days. The sound of the spoon when I’d tried to rake the char out of the pot got mixed up in my brain with the sound of shovels raining dirt onto the coffin containing Papá’s charred body.

And Frank, hearing about the poverty he’d caused us, doesn’t even have the good grace to blush.

Frank tugs Mertex aside while Mario is still talking to Minda. “This place is a logistical nightmare. What have you done to secure it?”

Mertex points to the block of seats with the tooth-mark symbols. “The local police force plans on sending six officers for the show. They’ll ensure that no one brings in any weapons.”

Frank snorts. “Because that’s useful.” He’s looking at Mertex’s mouth with all its natural knives.

Brill, Frank and Mertex form a small knot, absorbed in the conversation of how best to keep everyone safe.

The tour continues without them, into the area where we’ve been storing foodstuffs and other supplies. There’s an elevated lip around the edge of the room, and shelves lining everything. The floor’s center slopes down to a central drain. I had nearly died in a room like this, once meant for duels and interrogations. That drain’s there to make it easy to clean the blood that’s been spilled. I’ve been spending as little time as possible in there. Hence the usefulness of a prep chef.

I feel better once we get outside.

Minda says, “This studio produced I Don’t Want to Keep Her and Don’t Lose My Heart, two of Zant’s earliest holographic immersive story experiences. The resolution wasn’t great, but for the first time, the audience could look out through the character’s eyes. It was too disturbing, though, when the characters were in danger, and quickly fell out of favor.” Minda runs a hand across the black stone. “My first acting job was here, as a kid. Back then, every space was used for multiple sets, and designed with that in mind. Our storage room used to double as a starship deck, and an interrogation room – and when frozen over, an ice rink.”

Somehow, knowing that that floor had been a prop, that no actual blood had been spilled on it, doesn’t make me feel better.

“I moved back here and bought the place to start my own studio just a few years ago.”

Mamá puts a hand on Minda’s arm. “Being in the right place at the right time can change your life forever, no?”

My phone rings as the others head back into the main area. It’s Stephen. I pause where I am and answer it. He’s on the bridge of his mining ship and looks like he hasn’t slept in days.

I say softly, “You still haven’t heard from her.”

We’re counting down to the episode I’ve figured must be grad time. Would mi amiga really miss that – on camera – just because she’s mad at me?

He frowns. “She’s not dead, Bo!”

I take a step back, though I’m holding the phone, so of course, he goes with me. “I didn’t say she was.”

“We’re twins. I would know.” He rubs his hand against the side of his nose, leaving a dark streak. He’s been tinkering with the engine. Stephen sighs. “I left Larksis 2 the day after the last possible day Kayla should have made it to Earth.”

“You’re coming to Zant?” I’m not excited at the thought of seeing him again.

“I’m more than halfway there. I’m going to try retracing her steps, maybe catch something the police missed. I know Kayla better than anybody.”

“Be careful. Things around here have gotten un poco extraño.” I hurry to catch up with the others. “Let us know when you get here so we can meet your ship.”

When I hang up, Mertex is heading in my direction, and Mario’s in the middle of the quad, looking left out, though people keep walking past him. It’s actually a busier space than I’d expected, almost like Minda built a park for everyone in the middle of her buildings.

It worries me that now Brill and Frank are alone somewhere together. Pero, he promised Brill he’d keep breathing.

I try to relax. “You’re from here, right?” I ask Mertex.

“So?”

“So. This is a small island, Murry. Minda just said she moved back here a couple of years ago. If she lived here before she got famous, surely you met her somewhere.”

Mertex blinks. “I’d have remembered that.”

I glance at Minda, who’s still chatting away with Mamá on the courtyard’s far side. Her eyes go soft with affection as she looks over here. She certainly seems to have remembered him.

Two Zantites come up to Mario.

One says, “You’re Mario Benitez, right?”

“Yeah.” Mario sounds hesitant.

“I knew it!” The muchacho opens his bag and pulls out a print copy of Mario’s book, The History of Cacao. “We’re fans. Please, sign our books!”

Mario frowns at me. I’m the one who always got asked for autographs, so I’d expect a note of triumph in his expression, and that smugness he specializes in. Pero he looks more accusatory. Or maybe scared. Still, he forces a smile. “Who do I make this out to?”

Mario’s book has crossed out of the history niche market onto the bestseller shelves. I’ve read it. He’s a careful researcher and a natural storyteller. It hurts that he’s not proud to sign his work.

Pero, there’s nothing I can say that won’t make him mad.

I spot Fizzax sitting at a picnic table over towards the edge of the manicured grounds, drinking something out of a blue cup. He nods at the other side of the table. I make my way over and sit down. He looks pale and there are greenish circles under his eyes.

“Are you OK?” I ask.

“I’m doing a little better today.” He takes another sip out of the cup, which is filled with a viscous clear liquid that smells medicinal. “I got so sick right after Kaliel came back – threw my guts up for the next two days.”

“That’s horrible.” Pero not my fault. Everyone else ate those cookies, too, and nobody else puked. It is, however, close to what Jimena came down with. “You been having headaches?”

“And a fever. But that went away when I stopped puking. I think I’ll be back to myself in a day or two.” He nods, then brings his fingers to the bridge of his nose. Apparently, he still has the headache.

Three people on this island have been acting strangely. Both Fizzax and Jimena had gotten sick after being exposed to chocolate. Kaliel doesn’t like chocolate, so hasn’t had any. Could there be some kind of connection?

“I feel like parts of last week were a bad dream.”

“You and me both, mijo.” Especially that day where I’d offered to let this guy eat me.

He snorts. “I’m serious. I’ve been a cop for over a decade, but I made accusations on the barest circumstantial evidence. Yet, it all seemed to make perfect sense at the time. I’m not usually that impulsive.”

I give him a skeptical look. I had, after all, found myself in that tree.

He blushes, and it’s the most color his face has had all day. “At least when I’m sober. But I haven’t had a drink since the one we shared at the club. All I can think is that I’ve been coming down with this illness for a while.”

Brill walks over to us. “Everything OK over here?” He looks at me. “Frank just gave me a crash course in self-defense. In case you don’t feel safe.”

“She’s fine.” Fizzax scratches at his wrist, with a fully functional hand attached to the arm Brill had blown a hole through. The bullet wound seems fully healed. The sawk rash not so much. He cuts a look over at Mertex. “Don’t tell Flat Face over there, but I realized he’s not a coward after all, the minute he grabbed me and made me spit you out.”

“I never thought he was,” Brill says.

Which is interesting, considering the way Mertex had acted towards Brill aboard the Layla’s Pride.

Fizzax reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wrapped box. “I know you are a collector of oddities, and that your people are big on apology gifts. I want you to have these goggles.” Fizzax’s not the only one who’s been acting strangely. Could they all have a judgement-altering virus? That sounds like a badly written cheese-fi episode, pero strange things do happen out in space.

No lo sé how that would fit in with the chocolate connection I’d been trying to figure out.

I need to talk to both Jimena and Kaliel and see if there’s anything Frank needs to know before he gets carried away “evaluating” the situation.