“Congrats! You’ve got tetraploid sperm. About fifty percent. You wanna see the little suckers?”
“Can we just stop waving his damn sperm around?”
“So that confirms one part.”
“It’s almost like someone engineered a kind of human that can mate with djinns,” Roger said. “It could have occurred through natural selection if there was a large population of tetraploid djinn females sometime in the past, and the dual sperm humans would double their chances of creating offspring. Or something triggers the production of tetraploid sperm at the right time. If only we had a genuine hybrid…”
“Well, my uncle married a djinn, and they had a child,” Rais said. “My cousin was perfectly formed—there were no deformities—and he wasn’t retarded—”
“Well, bring him over then!”
“Can’t. He’s dead.”
“Oh.” Roger scratched his head. “Can we exhume his body and get some DNA maybe?”
“No, Roger, we can’t,” Rais said.
“We could get a dead djinn body, though, couldn’t we?” Maria asked. “What about your aunt? Didn’t she die at childbirth? Isn’t she buried in your plot?”
“There’s an empty headstone for her at our graveyard. Matteras took her body. I asked Mother about that,” Rais said. “Look, actually, Roger, I might have placed you in a bit of danger with this whole thing. I have a feeling if the wrong djinn finds out about this line of inquiry, he’ll kill you and burn down the lab.”
“A lot of danger, actually,” Maria said.
“I don’t care. I need to see djinns. I have to physically know they’re real. I want to see magic,” Roger said. His eyes were fixed far away. He was remembering hours of Dungeons and Dragons in his parents’ basement. Their game master had always had a fondness for djinns. One of their recurring story lines had been set in the desert.
“How old is the haplogroup for the long Y chromosome, Roger?”
“If this is part of the R2D subclade, and if all four of the cases I told you about actually do belong in one subclade, then the oldest was the Siberian one at 14,000 B.C.,” Roger said. “If I could get those samples, I could establish the subclade very easily, because the long Y is so distinctive. I guess I could write to those labs and try to get some reports.”
“Okay, Roger, you’re going to come with us,” Rais said. “We’re basically following the same line of inquiry as the historian, and she got yanked out of the sky and offed, so we can’t risk that happening to you. Take all your stuff—you can do the research while we travel.”
“Like right now?” Roger asked.
“You want to see djinns or not?”
“I’m ready,” Roger said.
“You can pack a bag, Roger,” Rais said. “And maybe take some of your kit.”
“Where are we going now?” Maria asked.
“Beltrex.”
“Rais, we don’t have much time,” Maria said. “They just issued a hurricane warning in Teknaf. I don’t think it’s natural. What if Matteras has already started his shit?”
“I can’t possibly stop a hurricane, or an earthquake, or anything else Matteras throws at us,” Rais said. “No, our only shot is to negotiate a peace. We don’t have any leverage, but something is going on with this whole genetics and Great War thing, and if we figure it out, we might have some chips. Beltrex is part of the solution. We need some serious dignatas backing us to get Matteras’s attention.”
“Your mom sent me a message. They’ve accepted a preliminary hearing on the breach of contract. Looks like Dargoman’s going to court,” Maria said.
“You’re texting with her now?”
“Hey, looks like I passed the Juny test. A few years too late, but whatever.”
Roger, suffering from growing bewilderment, was now raising his hand and waving it around. “Guys, these are djinns we’re talking about, right? What about the magic? When do I get to see magic?”
Rais frowned. “You know, they don’t do too much magic actually.” He glanced at Maria. “You ever actually seen Barabas do anything useful?”
Maria snorted. “Is drinking, puking, and passing out useful?”
“Yeah, I think you’re going to be a bit disappointed, Rog. They mostly talk shit and sue each other,” Rais said.
Roger’s face fell. “They don’t have magic swords and armor and stuff?” he asked.
“They mostly wear regular clothes,” Rais said. “The rich ones wear suits.”
“Magic carpets?”
“They ride rickshaws and cars,” Rais said. “Oh, wait. They have airships. You’re going to like the airships.”
“Can we ride in one?”
“Yeah,” Rais said. “You’ll love Golgoras. He’s got tusks and a telescopic eye.”
“What? Like a pirate?”
“Yeah, pretty much exactly like a pirate.”
Later, sitting in Roger’s house waiting for him to pack, Rais called his mother. She answered on the first ring, as she almost always did, blessed with the supernatural power for anticipating phone calls.
“Still alive,” he said. “How’s it going on your end?”
“The djinn court is… interesting,” Juny said. “It’s packed with Matteras’s clients and the conservative faction, but these guys take their contracts very seriously, so it’s not over yet. Breaking contract is worse than murder apparently. We’re stuck now on the finer points of the validity and strength of a verbal contract.”
“Will you win?”
“No, but I can tie him up for a long, long time.”
“Good. I think we can flip him if you keep the pressure on.”
“You want to sit with him?” Juny sounded skeptical. “I don’t think he’d agree.”
“Maria might be able to convince him.”
“Was this her idea?”
“Nope. She still wants to stab him with the invisible knife.”
“He killed your father.”
“I know, but we can deal with that later. Right now we need to put him to work.”
“He’ll never believe we actually want to negotiate.”
“He will, if you let him know that you two were estranged, that, in fact, you hated my father.”
“I’m not sure I want that.”
“Mother, you’re not one to become sentimental after all these years. Let him know that you’re happy enough with your coup and that I’m sick of looking over my shoulder.”
“He’ll think you’re a coward.”
“What do I care if he does what I want?”
“Everyone else will think that too.”
“I’m counting on it.”
“You’re getting better at this game,” Juny said. There was a faint note of smugness in her voice.
“I’ve had a hard teacher.”
“Okay, what else?”
“I need to see Beltrex, but he’s not taking my calls.”
“Why?”
“I want to test out my theory on him.”
“Beltrex is difficult to pin down. Be careful, son. I think he’s the djinn referred to in legends as Barkan. He’s spilled a lot of blood in the past, no matter how senile he comes off now.”
“He said he owed Uncle Kaikobad a favor or two.”
Juny laughed. “They all say that, only because they know Kaikobad isn’t going to claim anything. Djinns are the biggest frauds around. I’ve got some markers with Elkran, Beltrex’s cousin. He spends a lot of time out in California.”
“I didn’t know djinns cared for family like that.”
“Between you and me, I think they are lovers.”
“Oh.”
“What else?”
“I’m going to need the airship. Can you ask Golgoras to meet me somewhere near L.A.?”
“That miser is going to charge us. He’s expensive. You better make it count. And, Rais, don’t dawdle.”
“I’m not. Why?”
“It’s starting to rain over here.”
They took Roger’s white van full of equipment to the airport in Reno and a cheap flight to Oakland, California, and then a rented suburban to the Sonoma Valley, where Beltrex owned three old properties, cabernet vineyards, under different names. He normally stayed in his compound in Sonoma, although he had other fields in different regions. There was a time when he had owned most of California, apparently. His main vineyard was on rolling acreage that seemed to stretch to the mountains, with perfect rows of grapes and winding roads, eerily quiet. A house sat in a dip in the ground flush against a hill, almost hidden from view, until they got close enough for security cameras to stir to life. There was an electronic gate and, carefully disguised behind foliage, an electric fence. A camouflaged militia-type man popped up, seemingly from underground, and informed them that this was not a tourist vineyard, there was no wine tasting, and they should get the hell off private property. He was tense, his walkie-talkie kept crackling, and he gripped his semiautomatic with white knuckles.
“Not a good time?” Rais asked.
“Man, turn that car around, I ain’t asking twice.”
“Relax. I’m an emissary. Get Elkran on the phone.”
“He ain’t here. And the big man in the house ain’t here either.”
“Okay, Josh? Josh. Look, I’m supposed to meet Beltrex, I’ve got an appointment with Elkran. Why don’t you relax and tell me what’s going on.”
“You know all of ’em?” Josh asked finally.
“I’m one of them, if you get my meaning.”
He turned away, consulted with someone who spoke in rapid-fire Spanish, and then pointed his gun. “Okay, you’re probably gonna regret this. Inside, the three of you.”
The gate started to retract slowly. He couldn’t see them, but Rais got the feeling that more than one rifle scope was now trained at them.
“Drive in slow, pull up to where them Escalades are parked.”
“Er, Josh, why are you taking orders in Spanish?”
Josh looked aggrieved. “’Cause them Baja mob’ve come up here for a meeting, but Mr. B and Mr. E took off earlier in the incident, leaving me in charge, knowing I’ve got a bad back, and how am I supposed to protect the ranch against all them killer Mexicans, huh?”
“Baja mob?”
“Gangsters, man. Baja fucking cartel.” Josh dropped his voice to a whisper. “The Aztec himself is here, and that means he’s gonna kill everyone. He eats their livers, man. Didn’tja learn that in school?”
“Tough luck, man.”
“I don’t even speak Spanish,” Josh said miserably. “They got me out here as cannon fodder, in case someone comes in shooting.”
Roger drove very slowly over the pebbled driveway to the hacienda-style mansion. The courtyard up front was indeed filled with haphazardly parked Escalades. There were gunmen on the roof and loud music coming from inside. Men and women in bathing suits were unloading crates of liquor and plastic floaty toys from the back of a van.
“Welcome to el rancho,” a guard similarly attired to Josh said. He had a bruise on his cheek, and someone had apparently taken away his sidearm, because an empty holster flapped against his hip. “The Aztec would like to welcome you as his guests and invite you to join the party.”
The front door led to a massive marble-floored hallway with high ceilings, at the far end of which was an open terrace leading to a central courtyard complete with swimming pool, wet bar, grill, and a dozen deck chairs. The party was in full swing here, people in various stages of undress draped around the deck lounging and dancing, men flipping burgers, dogs barking, Tupac at full blast, a Thai chef making satays and smoking a cigar, and a plump nude woman swimming laps.
A waiter thrust some champagne flutes at them, and several steps later a woman in a lime-green bikini stuffed a cigar into Rais’s mouth and lit it, laughing and chattering in Spanish, and then proceeded to somehow disrobe Roger without him noticing, his body bobbing like a pasty white flag among the tanned good health of the party crew.
The lady led them on, grabbing Roger by the hand, pulling them through various parts of the house, the music fading with each step, until they found themselves in a wood-paneled study. A shaven-headed man sat behind the desk, reading a book, his thin, ascetic face furrowed in concentration.
“Oy, Tenoch, your guests,” she said, kissing his forehead before sauntering out.
Tenoch rose courteously, shaking hands and ushering them into seats. He had the slightly distracted air of an academic, the holstered .33-caliber on his waist incongruous.
“I hope you did not find the party too obnoxious,” he said. “My colleagues are… exuberant. Would you like a drink? Coffee perhaps?”
“No, these are great.” Rais raised his cigar.
“Excuse the guns, people expect that sort of thing,” Tenoch said.
“That’s an Aztec name, right?” Rais said.
“Nahuatl,” Tenoch said. “My aunt christened me so I kept it, although it’s a terrible name for a cartel boss. Everyone else is called El Tigre, or El Chapo, or Serpiente or something.”
“The guy at the gate called you the Aztec.”
Tenoch sighed. “I can’t stop them from making up stories. They think I’m some kind of shaman because I read books.”
“He said you eat livers.”
“What?” Tenoch looked disgusted. “What kind of barbarity is that? I studied engineering in college, for god’s sake. I wanted to join NASA.”
“So what happened?”
Tenoch frowned. “What do you think? I came back for a vacation and somehow my dad suckered me into a month-long internship, which has stretched to eighteen years now, and he’s gone and died in the middle of it of course…”
“You guys are what, the Sinaloa? Josh said something about Baja.”
Tenoch bowed slightly. “We are an offshoot of the infamous Sinaloa. My family deals in some specialized aspects of the trade, beyond the regular business of MDMA, heroin, and cocaine.” He leaned forward. “We are what you could call a boutique firm.”
“Really? I wasn’t aware there were different kinds of cartels.”
“Well, you see, there are market segments naturally, in such a large economy. When I inherited my position, I exchanged our bulk processing assets for a more advisory role. Quite simply, we provide technical assistance to the Sinaloa and to the others, upon request. Our main portfolio offers solutions for surveillance, communications, cloud ware, and exotic weapons. And, of course, the specialty services, like alternate dispute resolution. That’s a very popular one. The murder rate among gangsters has gone way down since we started up.”
“That’s fascinating. I guess cartels can’t just walk into Microsoft and ask for cloud space.”
“They can’t take each other to court either.” Tenoch smirked. “Now, forgive me, but let us get to business. You are associates of Mr. Beltrex. I assume you are here to explain his absence?”
“Ah,” Rais said.
“No, we’ve come to find him, just like you,” Maria said. “Where the hell is he?”
“That is unfortunate,” Tenoch said. “We were counting on Mr. Beltrex.”
“Anything we can help with?”
“Are you able to magic items in and out of the country?” Tenoch asked. “Or perhaps you can return to me the astronomical sum I have paid in advance to Mr. Beltrex for such a service? I sincerely hope, for both our sakes, that you can answer yes to one of those questions.” The gun was somehow in his hand and pointing straight at Rais’s forehead.
“Okay, relax,” Rais said.
“You claimed to be one of them at the gate,” Tenoch said. “Now be one of them. Perform the job Beltrex was contracted for.”
“Look, what exactly was Beltrex supposed to do for you?”
“Mr. Beltrex arranges dark shipments of exotic items. He has ways to avoid radar, which, quite frankly, I want to know nothing about. We have been working on acquiring some military drone technology for the past eighteen months. To procure such a thing is difficult. To actually remove it from U.S. soil is practically impossible. I am here to hand it over for export. Imagine my regret, then, to find both of them gone under such peculiar circumstances.”
“Peculiar circumstances?” Rais asked. “Like what?”
Tenoch made an impatient gesture. “They were taken. Homeland Security? The CIA? Who knows. We will get to that later. First let us discuss how exactly you are going to solve my problem.”
“Do you mind if I confer with my colleagues?” Rais asked.
“By all means,” Tenoch said. He gestured to the couches at the far end of the room. “No violence, please. Just to clarify, there are men with submachine guns outside the door, watching through the closed-circuit camera. I myself am considered something of a marksman. You appear peaceful people, but in this line of work…”
“Of course,” Rais said.
They huddled together at the far bookcase. Roger was a pool of nervous sweat, more out of excitement than fear. Like many educated white men of his class, he seemed to expect everything to work out in his favor and considered the possibility of Tenoch actually executing him to be nil.
“I’ve got the Five Strikes,” Maria said. “It’s weird, I know it’s there, but it’s kind of hovering out of sight, waiting to be used. They didn’t find it when they searched me. I’m pretty sure I can kill him before he shoots all of us.”
“That plan seems to include at least one of us getting shot,” Rais said.
Maria shrugged.
“You got a magic weapon?” Roger asked. “Can I hold it?”
“What about Golgoras?” Maria asked, ignoring him. “You said he’s waiting for us. Call in an airstrike. Let’s bomb these guys.”
“Let’s not,” Rais said. “I think we can make a deal. Golgoras is running solo. What if we hooked them up? The Sephiroth can run Tenoch’s shipment, and Golgoras gets some free crew—he doesn’t trust Ghuls anymore. It’s a good deal for Tenoch; Golgoras can probably swing a clientship. What do you think?”
“Can’t hurt to ask,” Maria said. “I can always stab him if he refuses.”
“Look, Tenoch, I have a proposal,” Rais said, as they returned to the desk. “One of my partners has an airship. He’s waiting off the coast for us, he should be able to get over here pretty fast. I can’t guarantee it, but if he agrees to terms with you, he can get anything in and out for you without detection, one hundred percent.”
“Airship? Like a blimp?” Tenoch looked skeptical.
“Not really. It’s faster than any blimp you’ve seen, and it’s completely stealth—I mean radar-proof, sonar-proof. It could be floating in front of your eyes and you wouldn’t see it,” Rais said.
“I find this very hard to believe,” Tenoch said.
“Beltrex was probably using the same method,” Rais said. “I understand your disbelief. But the real issue is I don’t think you know exactly what you’re dealing with here.”
“I’d be very careful how I phrase the next sentence,” Tenoch said softly. “If I were you.”
“Beltrex, Elkran—what do you think they are?” Rais asked.
“Scary old men,” Tenoch said. “I don’t care how they do their shit, I don’t want to know. Elkran particularly. The dude is evil.”
“They’re djinns, man!” Roger said. “Djinns. They do magic! Can you believe it? Actual djinns!”
“Thanks, Roger, that’s probably enough,” Rais said.
“Djinns?” Tenoch asked. “Are you serious?”
“Like spirits, demons—”
“I know what the word means,” Tenoch said. “I can’t tell if you’re joking or insane.”
“All right, take a look at these pictures on my phone.”
Tenoch looked. “I see men in fancy dress.”
“The underwater ruins? The giant squid?”
Tenoch shrugged. “I’ve seen skinny-ass bitches turn themselves into JLo with Photoshop. Who trusts pictures these days?”
“Okay, you said Beltrex and Elkran were taken. From where?”
“He has an underground bomb shelter,” Tenoch said. “It was locked from the inside. I had to blow the wall. I had a peep inside, couldn’t find anything. I am waiting for my forensic expert to have a closer look.”
“Well, can we go see it?”
“Are you a forensic expert?”
“If I can’t convince you he’s a djinn, I promise I’ll take out my own liver.”
“All right, I’ll play along,” Tenoch said, getting up. “I’m openminded, but you’re really stretching it here.”
The basement was a bunker running under the house and partially into the hill behind, a large suite of rooms protected by steel doors, still intact. Tenoch had blown a hole in the reinforced concrete wall instead. Two men in Kevlar guarded the wreckage.
“The staff swear that Elkran and Beltrex were both in here. They woke up in the middle of the night to strange noises. They came down but found the door locked, with no one answering. They tried the phones, the coms, the walkie-talkies—everything. Then they went back to sleep. We came yesterday, couldn’t get in either. I sent to San Diego for explosives, my people got in this morning. I just blew the wall an hour before you got here,” Tenoch said.
“Did the servants throw up that night? When they came to check?” Rais asked.
“Yes. All of them apparently,” Tenoch said, surprised. “How did you know that?”
“Distortion field,” Rais said. “Aftereffects of djinn magic. When they use it, we get sick. I puked every day on the Sephiroth until I got used to it.” He put on his glasses. The visible surfaces were covered with runes, all of them pulsing, potent. There were no breaches on the outside; the lines continued unbroken even over the hole in the wall. “See.”
Tenoch took the glasses, saw, and then cursed in Spanish.
“Believe me now?”
“It’s giving me a headache,” he said finally. “What are those?”
“Spells. Protective runes. Permanent structural changes to the matrix that djinns call the field. The djinn can see these markers with the naked eye. Beltrex didn’t need protection from men—normal weapons can’t really kill him,” Rais said. “These wards are to keep djinn out, and I’m pretty sure it’s djinn who took him. Let’s go inside. I’m guessing we’ll find a breach.”
“Is it booby-trapped?”
“Not for humans. Beltrex wasn’t worried about us.”
The rooms inside were undisturbed: a luxurious foyer, followed by an office, a kitchen, and several bedrooms, this inner sanctum furnished more in the djinn style, with brass and polished wood, many ancient artifacts scattered haphazardly, a few rooms filled like a museum. The annex reeked of magic; wherever Rais looked, dark powers crowded his eyes. Beltrex had been potent.
“Thousands of years of loot,” Rais whispered, thumbing a scrimshawed mammoth tusk, shaped into a horn.
The others were ambling around, awestruck despite themselves. There were priceless things here: jeweled swords, old porcelain, several chests of bullion, a head of Anubis with glinting emerald eyes. In one alcove was a gigantic double-handed war hammer resting on the ground, the oversize flat head balanced by a thick, curving spike on the other side.
Rais followed the runes, unbroken lines of protection, until he got to the final room, burrowed flush into the adjoining hill, the walls and ceiling of the room fashioned from the actual volcanic rock that formed most of the geological structures in Sonoma. The breach was here, the wards weakened or unraveled, creating an impossibly perfect circular hole in the middle of the roof, as if someone had drilled down through the hill above.
“Are you trying to tell me that you think the U.S. government somehow drilled through the hill into this room and snatched Beltrex? Without him noticing?” Rais asked.
“It’s that or djinns.” Tenoch borrowed the glasses again. “I guess I’m leaning toward djinns now.”
“See the breach?”
“Yup.”
“The runes were weakest here, because Beltrex thought he was safe. On account of the hill on top of his head.”
“So djinns came down this hole? And what? Kidnapped them?”
“No signs of a struggle,” Rais said. “Beltrex was a beast, and Elkran was a famed duelist. I don’t know how they could be overpowered.”
“How powerful are we talking about?”
“I don’t know. They keep saying they’re more powerful than nuclear bombs,” Rais said. “Not sure whether that’s just shit-talking or they’re being serious.”
Everyone passed around the glasses, until they were all convinced by the breach. Then they sat on the thick carpet like children and just stared at the hole.
“Wow. Christ. So it’s all real,” Tenoch said. “Djinns are real. So spirits, demons, angels—everything is real?”
“Blows your mind, right?” Roger said.
“I don’t know about angels,” Rais said. “I don’t think djinns are supernatural. I think they’re just like us—wandering around lost, trying to make sense of everything.”
“Are you guys going to sit here all night looking at the hole, or are we going to get the hell out of here?” Maria asked finally. “This place is just creepy.”
“You still inclined to kill us, Tenoch?” Rais asked.
Tenoch shrugged. “Safest thing to do, really. Djinn or not, I still have a drone sitting over here I have no way to get out. Getting caught with it means a one-way trip to a dark room in Gitmo, no trial, no lawyer.”
“Let me make the deal then. The airship is hovering over the Pacific as we speak. I’ll take you and your shipment out, drop you in Baja, same way Beltrex would have. And you get to see a live djinn.”
“What’s the catch?”
“Golgoras owns the ship. He’s going to want something,” Rais said.
“What, like cash? I’ve already paid.”
“He won’t take cash. Djinns don’t take human currency normally. What deal did you have with Beltrex?”
“All kinds of weird drugs, women, men, electronics, you name it,” Tenoch said. “Those dudes had appetites.”
“You have men here, right? Sicarios? Got any you can spare?”
“What?”
“Golgoras needs crew that he can trust. I’m guessing you guys can help each other. Give us a few men, it should square it,” Rais said.
“Hey, man, most of ’em are family, okay? What do you mean give him a few men? Where the hell would they be going?”
“Relax, they’ll just be crewing the airship. It’s mostly routine work. Where are we going? Well, I think I know the djinn who took Beltrex and Elkran. He’s making some kind of move,” Rais said.
“You know where to find them?”
“I’m pretty sure they’ve gone to Siberia.”
“I’m not going to Siberia.”
It took a day to convince Golgoras. Tenoch was sold the minute he saw the Sephiroth slowly take form in front of his eyes, shedding her chameleon tech. Even with the hasty repairs, she was a beautiful, rakish ship, low and predatory. It took Golgoras quite a bit longer.
Golgoras was not a happy djinn. It was bad luck having a woman aboard the Sephiroth. He did not want Tenoch and his armed sicarios wandering the deck. He did not like the idea of transporting a coffin-size crate full of unknown drone tech. He most certainly did not enjoy Roger following him around like an imprinted duckling, asking minute questions about his physiology. But most of all, the one thing he definitely did not want to do was go to Siberia. “I’ll drop you off at the Hub; you can charter something else there.”
“We don’t have time, Golgoras,” Rais said. “Matteras has kidnapped them. I’m sure of it. Who else could it be? Who’s powerful enough and cunning enough to get past Beltrex’s defenses like that? Kaikobad’s house had wards like these, and Matteras somehow took him out ten years ago.”
“And where’s the proof of that, hmm?”
“Well, do you think Beltrex broke his own protection and drilled a hole up the hill? Why? ’Cause he’s afraid of doors all of a sudden?”
“Beltrex is batshit insane. It’s not impossible that he did just that,” Golgoras said.
“It’s on you if they end up in a murder pit,” Rais said.
“I am not his client and therefore not obliged to act.”
“Well, I am an emissary, and it is well within my remit to investigate any suspected kidnapping, regardless of who it is,” Rais said.
In the end, they dropped Tenoch off in Baja and signed six of the sicarios as crew. The contract was 386 pages long, and Rais had to spend half a night explaining it and the intricacies of djinn law to Tenoch. The gist of it was that, in return for providing a minimum of six crew members and round-the-year maintenance and refueling support, the Sephiroth would dedicate every tenth contract to a shipment of Tenoch’s choosing. The remainder of the time, the crew would serve Golgoras in whatever capacity he deemed fit, including combat conditions, although they would receive additional recompense as hazard pay if they did in fact come under fire.
Six men volunteered, officered by Tenoch’s cousin Raul, and were duly inducted. They signed the contract in blood, and Golgoras placed constructs on them to prevent any possibility of sabotage or mutiny. Tenoch also signed the contract in blood as the main beneficiary, and then had the honor of being offered patronage by Golgoras, which he accepted. As Rais explained to him, he was now tied to Golgoras by bonds of honor and clientship, and he was expected to serve his patron in any way possible, with the understanding that in times of dire need, he would be able to call upon a powerful djinn captaining a deadly airship. For the Sinaloa, this was a major coup, and Tenoch disembarked the ship a well-satisfied man. As part of their agreement, he readily supplied the ship with assault rifles, submachine guns, concussive grenades, RPGs, and a stock of six surface-to-air missiles that could be fired from a modified torpedo tube. Two of the new crew members were snipers, and they set up shop at each observation deck, manning cannons that had not been fired in years. Mines were cleaned, the bow and prow guns primed, the grappling hooks waxed and coiled.
The Sephiroth had never been this fighting fit, and Golgoras was pleased with Rais’s negotiations. Any upgrade to his ship was a balm to the captain’s heart, and he was mellowed enough to offer his three passengers a cask of amontillado on the bridge in celebration. He was, however, still adamant. There would be no Siberia.
“Be reasonable, boy,” Golgoras said, clapping him on the back. “One does not simply barge into Kuriken’s castle without an invitation. There are protocols.”
“I’m not telling you to barge in. I’m asking you to just get us there.”
“That’s the same bloody thing.”
“You are under contract. Do you, at this time, formally renege? I will require that in writing, if you please.”
“I do not please!” Golgoras snapped. “And shut up with all the legal talk.”
“Not so fun when you’re on the other end of it, eh?”
“You did good with the Mexican contract,” Golgoras said. “Fair terms, and it gets me out of a jam. Frankly, I don’t trust any Ghuls right now. There are strange noises coming out of Lhasa. If the deal with the cartel works out, we can crew a lot more ships with Tenoch’s men. I’m going to recommend it to Memmion. You’ll get a lot of dignatas out of this. You should be pleased with yourself.”
“Thanks,” Rais said. “I still want to chase after Beltrex, though.”
“I will take you to the Hub. We will see Memmion. You will explain your case to him.”
“We can catch them, Golgoras!” Rais said.
“And then what? He must have come with an airship. Do you think we can take him in the air? With an untested crew? Do you know how strong Matteras is? For all we know he has an army of Ghuls. And what if we get to Siberia? How exactly do you intend to storm Kuriken’s castle? It’s a fucking castle. Kuriken isn’t some senile ancient. He’ll peel the skin off you.”
“Delightful. And how exactly will Memmion help?”
“Oh, if you can convince Memmion, you’re sorted,” Golgoras said. “He has a fucking dreadnought.”