Chapter Ten

 

"Hold fucking still," Duro told Dane as he pressed his hands against the gunshot wound.

Pandora threw her gear down and paced around the kitchen. Her hands were shaking. Three bottle caps on the counter. Seven gas grates on the stove. She counted until her heart slowed enough she could breathe, but then she found Duro staring at her with bloody hands.

The moment she'd Pushed Kuma off the building was a beacon in her head. It'd happened in the blink of an eye. When Duro had been flying towards him with the batons, she'd reacted, not even seeing the gun until the last moment. A whole host of questions ran through her mind. She should have let Duro kill him, but she couldn't and now she didn't want to think of all the reasons why.

The warleader of Drops was staring at her and she feared that saving Kuma had exposed her. He'd probably kill her as a traitor. She would run but knew there was no way she could escape him.

"That Push," said Duro, approaching. "You saved me. I didn't know he had a gun until it was coming around. Would have hit me point-blank in the chest and I would have gone over the side, not a damn thing you could have done to stop it."

"It happened so fast. I didn't know if you were going to reach him in time," said Pandora breathlessly.

He walked past and reached into the refrigerator, pulling out a fistful of beers.

She'd chugged half before she even realized it, letting out an awful belch. Pandora leaned against the counter, relief coming in waves, not from the fight in the basement but from Duro's interpretation of her Push.

"Bad fucking luck they were there," said Duro as he leaned against the counter and crossed his arms. "Worse that I'd taken my mask off. Damn thing got in my eyes when I was carrying Dane up the rope and so I yanked it off."

Pandora had been so intent on her own mistakes, she hadn't thought about the implications of Duro being spotted.

"Will it break the peace?"

"Technically, no. Nothing that happens in the light matters, and this was a hit on Black Crows, not Razor. Kuma shouldn't have gotten involved."

"I thought they were allies."

"They are, but that's not part of the peace deal either. Outside groups are fair game." Duro slammed his bottle on the counter, smashing it. Glass and foamy beer went everywhere. "Fuck. Black Crows are going to want blood, and they'll push Razor to take it."

"Did you get what you were looking for?" she asked.

Duro grabbed a wastebasket and swept the whole mess of glass and beer into the container, wiping the liquid on his shirt when he was finished. He grabbed his black bag, unzipped it, and pulled out a small steel box that held alchemical elixirs. He opened it up, revealing a cushioned interior and six vials. The burning black circle of an eclipse was shown on the round glass.

"What is it?"

Duro held up a vial of dark liquid that seemed to glow of its own accord.

"It's called Eclipse. What we know is that it helps with attunement. Instead of a thirty percent rate, less with the rarer stones, it's more like seventy or eighty percent."

"The black diamond," said Pandora, suddenly understanding.

Duro nodded. "The randomness of attunement makes building the best waku difficult. But if we can guarantee our best warriors have the best stones, we gain a huge advantage."

"But that means Razor already has it."

Duro chuckled. "As far as we know, they're not aware of the existence of Eclipse. The Black Crows have kept that from their allies. It might be because they only have a small supply of the elixirs, or they're not sure if they can trust each other yet."

"Where did it come from?"

"G&T Industries. The owner is some rich kid from Alchemists that used to make party drugs, but now he's an up-and-coming player in the elixir market."

"How did he even know about the stones?"

Duro shrugged. "No idea."

Pandora took another drink, letting the implications settle on her mind.

"If he can make more, then the whole balance of power could change."

"As far as we understand, he only made a small batch of Eclipse. I was hoping to get the entire cache, but there were only two boxes. My sources say there were supposed to be ten that Black Crows liberated."

"Can we get the formula and make our own?"

"Not possible. There are no written formulas to steal," said Duro.

"Are you going to take the black diamond?"

He swirled his beer, taking a sip before grimacing. "I already failed attunement. We didn’t know about Eclipse at the time."

"Then who?"

Duro looked out the window at the fireworks exploding over the Glitterdome.

"Grab your gear. We should get out of the city." He kicked the couch where Dane and Phillip were seated. "You too. This place isn't safe. They tracked us close to here. Who knows how much blood you lost along the way. We'll have to consider this hideaway busted until we know otherwise. Switch clothes before you go."

Pandora pulled the clothes out of her bag and quickly changed, catching a glance from the others when she was in her underthings, but no one made a comment.

Duro led her out of the apartment. He paused at corners and kept checking the sky. Once they were out of the building they jogged a few blocks north before hailing a taxi. When they headed west around the ring road, she asked, "Not returning through Freeport Games?"

"We were already spotted." He chewed on his lower lip. "What's with the scars? You fall into a barrel of glass?"

Pandora reached towards her back. "I'd forgotten about them."

"And?"

"Your guess was close to the truth."

He stared at her keenly. "Fair enough."

Memories tried to bubble up, but she pushed them down, resorting to counting the primes she could find along the route. There were worse things than a gang war, she reminded herself.

The taxi dropped them off southwest of the statue of Invictus. She caught sight of it a few times through the gaps in the buildings.

"Not entering at the Lazona?"

"I have an errand in the Terreno. Swinging by there before we return home," said Duro.

He led them into a fashion boutique store called Canyons. A group of ladies in cardigans and wide-brimmed hats were drinking tea and having the attendants show off the latest winter gear. The well-dressed employee with meticulous makeup behind the counter nodded at them as they passed. Duro pulled a keycard out of a pocket and swiped them into the back area. He keyed them through a second door, revealing an elevator.

"This goes to the Undercity?"

"No, but it shaves off a few hundred steps," said Duro as he held the bag of elixirs to his chest.

When the door opened, it led to a series of rooms and a stairwell that went down. As she glanced backwards at the elevator, he said, "It's one of Daraja's shops. She's been investing our profits into legitimate businesses and diversifying our risk."

"I thought the Drops hated the light?"

"It'd been my mama's dream to live and work in the city. Moving belowground had been a last resort. While some never want to leave"—he touched his face, signifying the tattoos that many wore—"others would like the option should they choose."

"I had no idea."

"I hope you'll keep it that way. Daraja's been doing a lot of things that wouldn't be acceptable to the rest of the clan, but she's doing them with their best interests in mind. There's far too many of them that live on rage and grievance."

"But not you."

Duro paused on a landing. She saw darkness in his gaze. "I will do what is necessary to protect them. Even if it means losing myself."

The journey to the Terreno passed in silence. Duro had been a mystical figure to her before, someone her clanmates spoke of with reverence and fear. Having spent the last day with him, she saw him for what he was: a warrior. He'd given himself completely and utterly to the cause. The clan didn't know how lucky they were. She also hoped they would never be on opposite sides, because he fought every battle with the intensity of a caged lion.

"I'll meet you at the Poinsettia in five hours." He handed her a wad of cash. "Enjoy yourself. You earned it."

Pandora stared at the money her hand. After everything he'd said, she felt bad taking it. He furrowed his brow.

"You deserve more than that. You did well today. When the time comes, I'll ask that you get a chance at another stone."

He left her in shock. She'd been afraid that she'd given away her feelings for Kuma during the fight, but thankfully, Duro's interpretation had been the exact opposite.

"What am I doing here?" she muttered to herself, shoving the cash into her pocket.

She found the Rush on the opposite side of the Terreno. There were few people in the area. She spotted a couple of drunken Voyna stumbling out of the Bogo pachinko parlor, and a group of No Land negotiating with a couple of prostitutes, one male and one female, at the edge of an alley. They looked so immature, even though she was certain they were only a year or two younger.

Pandora almost knocked before she remembered it was a place of business. The sign outside had been made in the shape of a pickaxe and wagon. She wondered if the Mod had gotten it from some old-timey western store and repurposed it for the shop. She went in, finding a lighted interior filled with modern mining kit, including blue bottles of oxygen, hard hats, headlamps, and a wall full of climbing equipment. She was about to call out until she noticed a splotch of blood on the floor.