Yola had put them up in a luxury hotel the likes of which Riyun had never seen. His room—a suite—was as big as the apartment he’d maintained when he was successful, when he’d run a platoon instead of a squad. He stood on the balcony now, looking down on the city. Lights flowed in the ebon depths of the steel canyon, like glowfish swimming through the sunless depths of the deep abyss. Was it as cold far below as it was on the balcony? Was the darkness truly so black as it seemed, or was it the bright, colorful lights glittering all around him that were the illusion?
Curtains whipped in the winds that buffeted him, pushing him closer to the rail meant to hold him back for his own safety. That wind had an acidic tang and hummed mournfully, but it promised release from the pain and the stress, from the obligations of life.
Riyun knew better than that. He wouldn’t find Monisa’s embrace waiting for him at the bottom. It would just be an instant of horrific pain, then oblivion.
Would that be so bad?
Would respite from all the panicked worrying be such a tragedy?
He stared into the abyss and swallowed.
The faintest scuff of boots preceded Javika’s voice. “It is cold out here.”
He smiled at the Biwali warrior and wondered what she might have made of him looking over the rail. “You get used to the cold after a while.”
“That is called numbness.” She crossed to his side and leaned against the metal rail. Her violet-and-black windbreaker puffed and rippled, revealing her usual skintight black T-shirt beneath.
“I guess so.”
“The Portal affected you.” She closed her eyes. “The memories…”
“Yeah. They like to stick around.”
“Some would wish they had memories still.”
“Careful what you wish for. Time’s supposed to heal those wounds—memories. If it did for you, you should be happy.”
The graceful assassin squeezed the rail, as if she feared being hurled into the bottomless black. “It is like going home for you, traveling through these portals.”
Was it? Or was it just reliving painful memories? “If I were able to go home, I would have other memories to choose from.”
“Then there were times in your life…good times.”
“Some. Just like everyone.” He glanced at her tensed profile—the flat nose, the full lips, the arch of her heavy eyebrows. She was so hard to read. “Right? You had some good times?”
She bowed her head. “Some. My father’s love for his art was the most comforting. He was quite skilled with his brush and with his chisel, yet he was never known outside his region.”
“Is that the only measure of success for an artist?”
“No. An artist’s work endures. The true measure is in the satisfaction of those who have made the discovery others have failed to make.”
“So, you’ll be discovered one day? That’s the measure of success?”
Muscles bunched along her jaw line. “Oncha knew his worth. It is unfortunate others did not.”
“But your mother appreciated what he did.”
Javika nodded. “As a child, she told me he had the ability to see things no one else could.”
“Did it bother him that she was more well-known?”
“Her skills were in demand throughout the Outer Sphere. The Inner as well. It is a different life, the life of a warrior.”
“But it’s artistry of its own sort, isn’t it?”
She cocked her head slightly. “Is it artistry to spill blood?”
“There are times where your blade is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Then it is artistry.” The wiry assassin wrinkled her nose. “This air smells.”
“Yeah, I think they’ve worn this world down just a little bit.”
“They have the science to go to the stars. They lack the science to clean the filth from the air?”
“Some damage can never be undone.”
“Or they care more for the money it would take to return beauty to the world.” She shivered, for a second looking almost vulnerable instead of lethal and unbreakable. “You will recover your strength soon?”
“Usually just takes a day. Maybe two.”
“They need you. Inside, where there is warmth.”
Now it was his turn to shiver. “I know.”
“It is that weight, that sense that you are the only one who can protect them—that is what fatigues you?”
“I guess. I mean, if I don’t protect them, who does?”
“You would have preferred they all take the option to be released. You would have been the one released.”
He scratched the back of his neck. “I don’t think that would’ve been enough. I would still see them as my responsibility. A parent never stops worrying about children, even after they’re adults.”
“This sounds more like a monster than being a leader.”
“A monster? It is, I guess. All these obligations and concerns—they’re like the muscles in the connective tissue that hold the beast together.”
“That is how you describe family? A beast?” She tried a smile on for size. It seemed awkward and out of place for her, but there was sincerity to it. “We have strange families, you and I.”
“We do.” He massaged his brow. “But they’re still our families, and I still have to protect them.”
“They are adults. They can protect themselves. You must let them. You must make them, or they will not grow.”
“Yeah? Like Tawod?”
“He was sloppy.”
“He was still my obligation, my responsibility. I failed him. I can’t fail the others.”
“We will get by.”
“You can’t know that. You can’t know anything, not without me securing a constant payday. I may not be very educated, but my mother made sure I knew my numbers. I can math the shit out of things. That’s my burden. That’s all I ever see on the horizon: our fate.”
She set a hand on his. “Come inside. It is warm.”
He followed her, leaving behind the bright sparkle of light above and the black depths below. Inside, the others had gathered around the kitchenette, where platters of food had been laid out. It was more of Yola’s care-taking, a demonstration of her limitless wealth. The aromas were both exquisite and alien, matching the food on display. There were sauces—white, gold, a rich red—and brown gravies; there were strange leaves and stalks of vegetables cut into different sizes and shapes.
And there were fine slivers of fire-roasted meats.
He preferred a different sort of fare: simple, salty, earthy.
This would have to do.
He wandered over to the bar separating the dining area from the kitchen and grabbed a darkened bottle he recognized. There were plenty of the strange brews favored by the people of the Inner Sphere, but he’d found a place that had the real drinks he enjoyed and had stocked up on those. He unscrewed the lid and took a long drink of the amber fluid.
Like home.
The suite also felt like home now, warm as Javika had said. The plush sofa and seats were filled, travel bags stacked on the ochre-colored tile floor. Even the scent of his team had sunk in already.
Lonar had settled in the biggest of the cushioned chairs, massive hand gripping a too-small plate piled high with meat and bread. There were several empty bottles stacked beside his chair. Hirvok was spread out on a small sofa, balancing two of the small plates that had come with the catering on his knees. Naru had squeezed herself into the small space to his left. She eyed him as she munched on vegetable slices drenched in a white sauce. And while she watched the sergeant, Tawod watched her from a darkened corner of the room closest to the outer door.
Was it going to be a problem? Something to watch, certainly.
Quil and Symbra sat at the table, almost hidden behind the platters of food. She seemed as at home with the cuisine as Quil seemed out of place.
Riyun waited until Javika had a plate herself, then held up his bottle of beer. “All right, listen up. You’ve seen the information. You know this is going to be unlike anything we’ve ever done.”
Hirvok snorted. “Easiest job we’ve ever had.”
Lonar belched. “I could get used to this, Lieutenant.”
“Well, don’t.” Riyun took another drink. He could understand being drawn in by the luxury, but that wasn’t what they’d been born to, not most of them, and it wasn’t what they were destined for. “We’ve got an extremely tight window to get this resolved. This is a mother who desperately wants her child back.”
Quil’s head came up from his barely touched plate of food. “I thought this one was an adult?”
That seemed to draw Naru out of her infatuated gazing at Hirvok. She glanced at the pseudo, then at Riyun, who nodded. She softly cleared her throat. “Twenty-four.”
Quil’s strange eyes blinked. “That is an adult, is it not?”
“It is. But she hadn’t started her life yet. She was still in school.” The hacker set her plates aside, licked her fingers, and pulled out a computing tablet. Her eyes flipped through whatever she had open, then stopped. “Um, decent grades at a really tough school. Pretty active in clubs. Definitely high potential based on her testing.”
The pseudo leaned toward her. “But what did she do for a job?”
“I told you—she was a student.”
“At twenty-four?”
Naru rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Some people take time.”
Tawod set a piece of bread down on his plate. “Well, some people don’t have that kind of option. Most of us were out of the house by seventeen. In the Outer Sphere, it’s easier. You know pretty early on what you’re doing for the rest your life.”
Riyun finished off his beer. Something about the explosives expert’s attitude seemed to invite a challenge. But this wasn’t the time. “Right. And that’s why we need to know who this kid really is. Who were her friends? What did she do when she wasn’t at school? That club she was at—what’s the story with that?”
Symbra raised a hand. “I can help. With the club and such.”
“Good. And we need to know the same about her mother. Why didn’t she hire another investigator? Why did she fire the first…four?”
Javika set her plate down and rubbed her hands with a towel. “I will take Lonar and Hirvok with me, and I will conduct research on this woman.”
Hirvok groaned. “I was planning to catch some sleep.”
“Drunkenness can wait until we have completed our investigation.”
“Whatever.”
The big weapons expert’s eyes lit up. “Hey, if you’re sober, we could get in some games of Crown.”
“No, thanks. Try the pseudo. You like beating Lonar, don’t you, Quil?”
Quil blinked. “His strategies are an interesting challenge.”
“There you go.”
Riyun nodded at Naru. “All right. That leaves these investigators and making sense of what they found before they were fired. I think you and Quil can work with me on that.”
The pseudo studied his plate. “I have examined the folder. There are no names associated with this investigation. Are we even sure the investigators are real?”
“Why would she bring us in if she hadn’t hired someone in the past?”
“But investigations usually have audit trails. Investigators log their discoveries through official channels. It is how they are protected from charges of fraud.”
Naru set aside a half-eaten chunk of a serpent carved from an emerald vegetable stalk. “Unless she paid them not to log what they were doing.”
That would have been consistent with Yola’s behavior so far.
Riyun put his bottle down. “Let’s assume that’s the case. What next, then?”
“Well—” The hacker stared at her tablet for a second. “We should still be able to find…”
“Go on.”
The young woman sucked on her teeth. “Well, it’s just, no trail can be completely wiped out.”
“So we find out who these investigators were. And we talk to them.”
Lonar pushed off from his chair, which groaned, then took his empty plate back to the food trays. He piled on a second round. “You sure she’s gonna be okay with that? Since she had their identity from the start, seems like she’d want to keep it all secret. Right, Lieutenant?”
Riyun opened another beer bottle. “We’ve got some money. We’ll pay them to keep it quiet, just like she did.”
“Still can’t figure why she’d do that, though.” The big man shoved a spoonful of meat into his face and chomped. “Why hide that you hired someone to look for your kid?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out, Lonar.”
“Oh! I thought we were trying to find this girl.”
“That too.”
Riyun took the beer bottle back to his bedroom and closed the door. He would let them eat for an hour, then it would be time to go. Maybe one of them would come up with an idea while they were chatting amongst themselves. There had to be an explanation for Yola’s strange behavior—the secrecy, hiring out mercenaries to do an investigator’s work, and all the money she was throwing around.
He lay on the bed and shut his eyes. For now, he needed to focus on regaining his strength, and that meant rest.
And getting his mind off the past.
He had to focus on the present, or he would leave them all exposed. That was the last thing he could afford to do.