The Spire, Level 15: Ballroom
Ferris and Auri huddled in the corner of a crowded elevator. Some partygoers recognized her and gave a nod or a smile out of respect for the GIC, but most avoided eye contact. Instrumental music played and level after level passed beyond the clear glass walls.
The elevator slid to a stop and the doors opened onto an enormous ballroom. To their left and right other guests exited from two other elevators. Floors hewn from crystal caught the light from the numerous chandeliers hung at regular intervals throughout the room. Reinforced glass comprised the ceiling, coming to a sharp point in the center.
Although Auri had spent countless boring hours at military balls over the years, she always found herself awed by the beauty of the Spire’s top level.
Couples twirled to music, some in fancy attire and others in their dress uniforms. The perfectly arranged buffet table scented the air with the aroma of sweet and savory delicacies. It was located across one glass wall, overlooking a dark sky, courtesy of the early sunset. Servers dressed in white suits and black ties swept about the room, trays balanced on gloved hands.
On the far side of the ballroom, round tables with pristine white tablecloths waited for anyone interested in sitting. Auri had spent hours people-watching from those tables. One year, when they were twelve and eleven respectively, Ty convinced Auri to climb under one with him and have a picnic.
The memory was a razor against her skin. She jerked her gaze away before her mind could examine the memory, twist it, and uncover Ty’s selfish machinations even then.
“What next?” she asked as the two of them settled into a corner of the room, opposite the buffet table.
“Cai said he’d find us,” Ferris said, scoping out the food.
“But h—” She cut herself off. Weaving through men and women meters away, wearing a server’s uniform, was Malachi Vermillion.
“No way,” she breathed. Malachi paused as a woman took a skewer of meat from his tray. Seeing him here, surrounded by people who wouldn’t hesitate to have him arrested, should’ve unnerved her. But her mind looped over that night in his room, his fingers curled around hers. His confession. The nightmares of his past.
Malachi approached a few minutes later. “Everyone good?” he asked.
Ferris gave a quick nod. “We’re ready when you are.” He grabbed an appetizer off Malachi’s tray, which earned a scowl. Ferris shrugged and popped the seasoned steak into his mouth.
The captain turned to Auri. “Listen carefully because I only have time to say the plan once. In a few minutes, we’re going to slip out of here with Tsuna.” At Auri’s confused look, he murmured, “The table at eight o’clock.”
Across the room where Malachi indicated, a willowy woman draped herself over the arm of an Air Command officer. She wore a slinky black dress, her hair twisted into hundreds of tiny braids that danced across her shoulders. The glamorous make-up gave Auri pause, but after a moment of scrutiny, she realized the woman was indeed Tsuna. The hacker looked at Auri and smiled, easing off the man to excuse herself. Instead of coming over, she sauntered toward the buffet table, took a small square of cake between thumb and forefinger, and disappeared into the crowd.
“After we leave with Tsuna,” Malachi continued, “we’ll head down to the vault.”
“What about the guards?” Auri asked.
“They won’t bother us.”
“Why?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Malachi brushed off her question with a shake of his head. “Once we’re by the vault, we’ll use Auri’s barcode to gain access. Tsuna should be able to get the information stored onto a floppy. Then we’ll hop on the ship where everyone else…”
Auri’s gaze locked with Ty’s across the room where he stood at the GIC’s side. He looked painfully handsome in his dress uniform, the buttons down his coat gleaming. His brow furrowed as he shifted to get a better look at Auri.
No, not at Auri. At the server. At Malachi.
Kuso. “Malachi,” she hissed. “We need to go. Now.”
He started to turn to follow Auri’s stare, but she caught his shoulder. “Don’t. It’s Ty.”
Ty frowned, and Auri jerked her hand away from Malachi. The GIC’s son strode forward, weaving through the crowd. Auri winced. He had seen her reach out to touch the server—to touch Malachi. Even if Ty hated her, he knew she never casually touched someone like that.
“He’s headed this way,” she said, heart racing. She hiked up the hem of her dress to run.
“Stay calm, Aurelia,” Malachi murmured, shifting his tray. “We don’t want to make a scene.”
“Elevator?” Ferris suggested.
Malachi shook his head. Auri watched his mind work at the problem. He frowned at the glass ceiling. “West stairwell. Just got a ping. Tsuna is waiting for us. This way.” He jerked his head in the direction of the buffet table and the door to the closest of two stairwells that led to the lower levels of the Spire. People subconsciously parted for him, the server uniform clearing the way. They’d just broken through the last of the crowd, the door to the stairs in sight, when a hand clamped around Auri’s wrist.
She whirled around. Ty held onto her, his face flushed.
Explosions suddenly burst in the sky above, drawing everyone’s attention. Someone nearby murmured excitedly, “Were there supposed to be fireworks?”
Then the broken front of a defense drone hurtled past the Spire. Everyone gasped. The heads of all the high-ranking officers in the room jerked down, eyes losing focus as if they’d all received an urgent ping. A second later a proximity alarm sounded throughout the room. Something had broken through the moon’s automated security system. The orchestra ceased playing as red lights flashed, reflecting off the floor, walls, and ceiling.
“What’s going on?” Ty asked, his grip loosening.
She opened her mouth to speak, to say she had no idea, but a blinding light shone through the glass above. Ty released her, shielding his eyes. Auri stumbled back, knocking into Malachi.
The room filled with shouts and cries of surprise. Auri squinted through the light, and her less sensitive cyborg eye recognized the details of a familiar ship.
A Komodo Class.
She had an instant jolt of sheer terror before something yanked her backward. The ceiling exploded in a rain of lethal glass.