Scout knew exactly where to find the public house Daisy had described. She had flown over it many times. It was larger than any other single building in the marketplace, providing a transition from the smaller shops and restaurants to the larger government buildings on the island itself.
Scout spiraled down to land in the middle of the street on the bridge in front of the house. People were streaming past her in both directions, towards the markets behind her and towards the open plaza beyond the public house. She could just see the steps that led up to the massive court building on the far side of the tiered fountain that dominated the plaza.
Scout gave her glider a swift jerk and it collapsed back to its storage configuration, wings folded against the central spine so tightly it resembled little more than a tallish walking stick.
The public house had no doors, just open doorways that revealed little of the dark interior. But she could hear the sounds of people talking and laughing and carousing in a manner that felt incongruous with the early hour.
She could also smell the odors of people carousing. The sour smell of spilled beer left too long on the stone floor, the juicy aroma of meat grilling over an open flame, the richer scent of browning butter.
What were they cooking with browned butter? Scout’s stomach was growling at her loudly, reminding her she had left in too much of a hurry to grab anything for breakfast.
But she was still in a hurry. She grasped her glider/stick and plunged into the dark interior of the public house.
It was bigger on the inside. The ceiling was lost in shadows far above her—she had expected that—but there were also sublevels dug down into the stone of the bridge itself. Every dimly lit table seemed to float on its own platform, letting the proprietor truly maximize all dimensions of the space to cram customers in.
And that space was crammed full. Scout didn’t even know where to start looking for Daisy. Or Ruby, as she was called here. She took a few hesitant steps further inside.
A flash of red caught the corner of her eye, but when she turned to follow it, she saw nothing but drab clothing made even dingier by the inadequate light.
Scout rose up on tiptoe, then ducked down to try that angle between the platforms that insisted on bobbing ever so gently up and down. She was certain it was Sparrow’s red hoodie that she had seen, but there was no sign of it now.
“A bit of a rough crowd for you, I’m guessing,” someone said. Scout straightened, gripping her glider tightly in both hands across her body, but the youth talking to her didn’t have a threatening look to him. Not with his hands thrust deep within his pockets. But there was no mistaking the strength in his bare arms, and the tattoo of a dragon coiling around his arm with its tail wrapped around his wrist and its eyes glaring balefully at her from over his shoulder had a sinister look to it. “It’s mostly ship crews here, looking to blow off some steam. Maybe not your crowd.”
“I’m looking for Ruby,” Scout said, and the youth’s eyebrows rose.
“A friend of Ruby,” he said, looking her over as if she would have some identifying mark to prove she was.
“Is she here? It’s urgent,” Scout said.
“She’s just over there,” he said, pointing to a doorway to Scout’s left, one that opened out onto one of the archways that led from bridge to plaza. “Probably give her a minute, though.”
At first, Scout could only see the silhouette of two bodies moving against the brighter light from the doorway. Then her glasses adapted and she could see the details. Daisy, wearing the same tight pants and sleeveless shirt as the youth standing beside Scout, was wrestling with a much larger woman. The woman’s left arm and right leg appeared to be made of metal, like robotic implants, but Daisy had interlocked her fingers with the fingers of the woman’s fleshy right arm, twisting them back so fiercely Scout flinched just looking at it.
It had to hurt, given the way the much larger, half-robot woman was letting herself be guided to the exit. Then Daisy thrust her outside with such force the much larger woman fell to the ground.
“I’ll be back!” she shouted, shoving a mass of flame-red hair out of her eyes to fix Daisy with a glare.
“Sleep a bit first,” Daisy shouted back, then turned to look towards the youth.
And Scout.
She didn’t run, but Scout doubted many could walk as fast as Daisy when she wanted to be somewhere in a hurry.
“News?” she said to Scout.
“Message,” Scout said.
Daisy nodded, then turned to the youth. “Sammy—”
But he didn’t even let her finish her request. “Sure, early lunch,” he said with a shrug. “It’s not like you haven’t earned it, miss Never Takes Her Breaks.”
Daisy glanced over at Scout. “It might be more than that.”
“Well, I certainly hope I’ll see you again, but if I don’t, it's not like high turnover isn't quintessential Galactic Central,” Sammy said, giving her biceps a firm grasp. “Best of luck to you.”
“Thanks,” Daisy said, then grasped Scout’s arm and all but dragged her out of the public house.
“We have to get to the court building,” Scout said. “That’s all I know.”
“So you didn’t find Sparrow,” Daisy said.
“No, got a message from Bo,” Scout said.
Scout had to all but jog to keep up with Daisy as they crossed the open plaza.
The closer they got to the court building, the more it towered over them. It was the single largest building on this island and supported the largest buildings in Galactic Central.
Scout had seen smaller cities.
Daisy ran up the steps, then stopped at the massive open doorways to wait for Scout to catch up.
“Which way?” Daisy asked.
Scout, fighting to catch her breath, just shook her head. “Just said court.”
Daisy frowned, looking around. Then she grabbed Scout’s wrist to tow her after her into the building’s lobby. One long desk of glowing wood dominated the far side of the lobby, two long staircases curving around behind it. Swarms of people were waiting in queues to speak to the clerks who stood on the far side of the desk, looking things up on tablets built into the tabletop or pointing out directions on holographic maps they handed to the visitors.
“Here,” Daisy said, pulling Scout over to a computer screen built into the wall.
“Shouldn’t we get in line?” Scout asked.
“That will take too long,” Daisy said, then thrust her finger against a port built into the bottom of the computer screen. Her eyes flickered rapidly until, as if sensing how creepy that was for Scout, she closed them.
Daisy had memorized the maps of the city back on Schneeheim. For some reason Scout had assumed that had involved looking at images and committing them to her photographic memory.
She kept forgetting just how much Daisy’s body and brain had been augmented. Daisy was so much more than human now.
But her augments paled in comparison to what Shi Jian had coursing through her body.
“There’s an office,” Daisy said, turning away from the computer screen. “It’s on the second level, but quite a way back.”
“You can find it?” Scout asked. The computer screen was telling her nothing.
“Yes,” Daisy said. “And at the top of the stairs there’s a moving platform, so the five-kilometer walk won’t be so bad.”
“Five kilometers?” Scout repeated, but Daisy was already taking the steps two at a time. Scout followed after, acutely aware of the eyes of a security guard tracking their progress. But if there was anything unusual about two teenaged girls in the courthouse all but sprinting around the space, the guard made no move to restrain them or tell them to slow down.
The moving platform that ran down the immense hallway was more elaborate than Scout had been expecting. There were five separate belts, each moving at its own speed. Daisy stepped onto the first one, then worked her way across, stepping onto the ever faster-moving walkways until she was whizzing down the hallway. Scout progressed more slowly, terrified of what would happen if she fell. How far would she be thrown? How badly would she be damaged, flying into the stone archways that punctuated the endless hallway of dark wood doors and larger open doorways?
Daisy came back to hold out a hand and help her step onto the last, fastest platform. Scout didn’t mind her holding her hand now; her heart was beating a mile a minute, and the visions of flying off the platform wouldn’t leave her mind.
“One of these courtrooms is full of people deciding our fate right now,” Daisy said, trying to peer into each open doorway they passed, but they never got more than a glimpse of rows of people sitting in benches, other people further forward on platforms, pontificating.
“More than our fate,” Scout said. “Our whole world’s. I wonder if Seeta, Geeta, and Emilie have been summoned to speak for us yet?”
“All Space Farers,” Daisy said.
“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Scout said.
“It never did, I guess,” Daisy conceded. “It was all a lie. But it was a lie that killed my parents. And yours.”
“But the lie is over,” Scout said. “Isn’t it?”
“Only because we’re facing bigger foes,” Daisy said. “Here, we should start moving back across. We’re nearly there.”
This time she stayed close to Scout’s side, not pulling her about but hovering in case Scout should need her. Scout took it one step at a time, moving to ever more slowly moving platforms until she found herself standing on immobile stone.
“This way,” Daisy said, leading the way to one of the endless rows of unmarked doors of dark wood. Scout looked at it, blinked, and her glasses gave her a label: council chamber 97445, reserved for Tajaki Trade Dynasty representative Bo Tajaki and staff.
“I hope it’s good news,” Scout murmured. Daisy gave her a tight smile, and Scout knew she didn’t think it was but didn’t want to disappoint Scout.
Then she pushed open the door, and they were inside a long, narrow room. The far wall was a series of windows overlooking some smaller interior courtyard below, a walking path between trees growing from massive urns. Across the courtyard was more of the court building, and just visible high above was the sky of pink clouds that encompassed all Galactic Central.
The table that ran down the center of the room had chairs enough for four dozen people to sit together, although how they could have anything like a council meeting with so many present Scout couldn’t imagine. But at the moment the space was empty. A few chairs at the end closest to the door were in disarray, as if a smaller number of people had just gotten up to step out for a moment. A carafe of water and a scattering of glasses were still there, condensation dripping down the sides.
“Did we just miss him?” Scout wondered, but Daisy was backing away, putting Scout’s body between her and something at the far side of the table.
But when Scout looked up the only thing there was a single man standing with his back to them as if he was looking out the window to the garden below. But instead, he had a hand pressed over his eyes.
The hand was shaking, ever so slightly.
Scout looked at the darkly tanned skin of the man’s bare scalp, the white mustache just visible under the hand pressed to his eyes. The gold ring shaped like a twisted shaft of wheat.
Did she know this man?
Daisy took a step back, grabbing Scout’s wrist once more to drag her out of the room, but Scout was not ready to leave yet. Bo had sent for her, and she had come, but where was he?
And why was this stranger so familiar?
Daisy tried to tug her away again, pulling hard enough to yank Scout off-balance. She grabbed the back of a chair to keep from falling over, and the legs of the chair skittered across the stone floor loudly.
Daisy made a sound that Scout would swear was a whimper if she hadn’t been absolutely sure that no such sound would ever leave Daisy’s throat.
The man startled at the sound, then dropped his hand and turned towards them.
Scout had been hoping for a moment of revelation, but even seeing his entire face, she still wasn’t sure who he was.
His eyes on hers said he didn’t know her either.
But then they moved past her to land on Daisy.
“By the stars innumerable,” he said, taking half a step forward. Then, with deep anguish, “Clementine?”
And just like that, Scout knew who she was looking at. Tony Smith, father of Ruth Smith, the first person Scout had ever seen die.
The woman who had taken in Daisy’s sister Clementine as her ward, a decision that had led to her murder.
Tony Smith, the governor of the world of Amatheon.