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CRACK THE HULL AND FOG THE engine, there was no way Lethe’s being in Kydell was not related to her search for Jae. And the man who had been with Lethe had been uncomfortably familiar.
Rowena ducked into a fetid, narrow alley away from the noise of the docks and ran the face through her implant to verify her suspicion.
It pinged off the name Dr. Malcolm Long of Descent. Sonya’s pet engineer and boytoy.
“Three guesses why they were here,” she muttered to herself. If there was any doubt that the Lethes were up to their armpits in this mess, it was gone now. At least in Rowena’s mind.
Somehow she doubted the lawyers in Tarrin would accept, “I saw Sonya Lethe near a place the murdered man had been three weeks ago,” as conclusive evidence of a crime. This wasn’t enough to tie Sonya to Briceno’s murder or to the deaths of the rowdies in the fighting ring.
The evening air was thick with humidity, as if the rain were falling from the gray sky only to evaporate before it hit the ground. As the sun sank over the jungle swamps, sitting between the heavy clouds and canopy, the air became clammy and grasping. It soaked through the rough fabric of Rowena’s clothes and made her shiver.
At least she’d had a good night’s sleep and Hollis had sent her off after a real breakfast when she promised to report in if she needed help.
Sonya Lethe qualified as trouble, but she was out of the Starguard’s jurisdiction.
And getting in touch with the fleet would mean physically walking outside the shield perimeter the governor had put in place, since Rowena’s implant was as close to null as she was willing to risk just to keep the scans from picking up her tech.
The sensible choice was to run. Sonya’s man had made her.
She needed to report to Tyrling and get another Jhandarmi operative here. Except... Long shouldn’t know she was Jhandarmi.
Rowena’s pace slowed as she considered the implications. Her face wasn’t in the files Lethe had stolen last year. She wasn’t on any of the official databases.
Why else would he stare that intently though?
She turned and saw another man studying her with acute interest.
At least this one, tall with curling black hair, was one she wanted to talk to.
Jae narrowed dark eyes and nodded to her in recognition.
Rowena jerked her chin toward a wall of wooden crates that offered the only illusion of privacy on the crush of the dock where the ships were unloading cargo.
“I know you,” Jae said as he walked up to her. “Can’t remember how, but I know your face.” He grabbed the edge of the vest she was wearing and looked at the black t-shirt, the one Hollis had given her. “Ride a pilot?” He frowned.
“It’s a shirt. Doesn’t mean anything.” Except that the Starguard closet didn’t have anything suitably grubby for dock work and she’d had to scrounge. The shirt was loose and surprisingly comfy. She still hadn’t decided if that was something to tell Hollis or not.
Right now it didn’t matter. “We met at a fight last week.”
Jae’s face scrunched as he tried to remember. “One of the rowdies introduced us?”
“No, I was there hiring a bruiser.”
He looked down at her worn boots, the many-pocketed workpants fraying at the hem, and the shirt with a stained dock worker’s vest over it. “You’re not a Pure Water, or a fine lady.”
“But I dress like one sometimes.”
His hand brushed against something concealed in his pocket. A knife or a cosh by the look of it.
“You’re a good fighter, Jae, but so am I. Let’s keep this civil.”
“I prefer to keep it simple.”
“You’re hurt. There’s something in your chest that’s causing your problems. Sometimes it feels like you’re losing control of your body. Sometimes it feels like your own brain is attacking you.”
The panic in his eyes was unmistakable.
“I might have a way to fix it so it doesn’t hurt you anymore.”
“What’s the price?”
Saying there wasn’t a price wouldn’t work. Freedom meant something different to the rowdies than it did in fleet. A debt was like death. They traded favors and helped each other, but hated owing anyone. “For now the price is trust. I don’t know if this works, but if it does, you’ll be healthy again.”
“Rather take cash, thanks.” He stuck his hands in his pockets. “You’ve got a pretty accent for a dirty girl. I don’t trust pretty.”
“It’s your life,” Rowena said.
“That’s what I’m counting on.”
There was a shout in the crowd and a scream of pain.
Jae moved reflexively, standing tall and looking for trouble. “Bera!” He ran towards the fight.
Rowena charged after him.
The crowd was surging, breaking into battle lines, but only one side had weapons. There were onlookers at the rooftop restaurant where Sonya Lethe had been. Armed guards and police.
“It’s a trap.” She grabbed Jae’s shoulder and spun him around. “This is going to be a massacre.”
His eyes were wide with uncontrolled rage.
“You have to calm down. The rowdies need to get out.” She kept her voice level, soothing.
A guard said something too low for Rowena to hear and kicked a woman with tangled brown curls and an olive-green dockside uniform lying on the ground.
Jae tried to pull away but Rowena pulled him back. “I’ve got this.”
She fought her way through the crowd and stepped between the city guard and the woman. “Back off.”
“She’s a thief.” The man wore the city security uniform with bright orange stripes on the arm. Private security hired by wealthy families or businesses and then turned loose to harass the poor. He was as tall as Hollis and just as heavily muscled.
Rowena lifted her chin up. “Then you arrest her, you petty coward. You don’t beat her to death in the street like some common thug.”
Cheeks turning bright red with anger, the man raised his hand to hit her.
Rowena side stepped. Grounders were stupidly slow sometimes. “Ooo. Big man. Beating little women,” she taunted. “We’re all so impressed.”
He stumbled backwards in confusion as Rowena stepped forward.
“What are you going to do now? Try to hit me again? Scream for help? Do you think they’ll get here in time, or do you think they’ll watch while I kill you?”
In the Academy they’d called it command presence, the ability to keep every eye on you. The skill to make everyone listen in silence. It was the measured cadence of the words, the tone, the steady rhythm that had them all anticipating every move.
She didn’t break eye contact as she crouched down and pulled Bera up by her arms. “You are done here. We are leaving. Everyone is done here.”
It worked for longer than she’d hoped. They were out of arm’s reach before the guard yelled in protest.
The crowd erupted into shouts of anger.
Rowena threw Bera towards Jae, spun into a drop kick, and scythed the guard’s feet out from under him. “Run!” she ordered the stunned onlookers.
The rowdies tore off in every direction. There were shouts from the police and yells behind her, but it didn’t matter.
She grabbed Jae’s arm and scooped Bera up, putting the lighter woman over her shoulders. “Keep running.”
Jae was breathing hard, sweating when he shouldn’t have been.
There was a groan and Bera tried to move.
“Stay put.”
“I can walk. I’m dizzy, but I can walk.”
Rowena put her down.
They both looked at Jae.
“Pretend you don’t see this.” Rowena slapped Jae and released a concentrated burst of energy.
He froze and toppled over.
“It’s fine,” Rowena assured Bera. “Nothing wrong here. He’s going to be fine. How do we get out of here?”
She slung Jae over her shoulder and wished she hadn’t. He wasn’t as light as Bera.
The other woman looked scared. “There’s a rally point on the edge of the city. If we can get there, we can get out.”
“Lead,” Rowena said. “I’ll follow.”
Bera ran, weaving through the crowds and leading her along the docks until there was a break in the mob. They dodged inland, going past fish stalls and small shops whose owners were already pulling their wares inside in anticipation of the security forces attacking.
The crowds thinned the further uphill they went.
“Here.” Berra directed her into a narrow alley between two crumbling buildings.
Rowena rolled Jae off her shoulders and stretched. How did grounders survive without nanites rejuvenating their muscles constantly? Every muscle in her back ached, her legs were wobbly with fatigue, and she was sweating from the humidity and exertion.
Bera licked her lips. “They’ll keep coming. Start knocking on doors. Going into the apartments.”
“Is there a backup plan?” Rowena asked. “A safe place for the rowdies?”
“The swamps for a day or two.” Bera didn’t look too happy about the idea. “With the rain it will flood enough they can get boats out there. But we know it well.”
“How do you agree to go?”
“Someone we trust tells us to run.” Bera’s eyes fell on Jae, giving away who the rowdies trusted.
Briceno had been a mid-level manager. Someone with just enough influence. Jae, it seemed, was in the same social position.
“Go tell everyone Jae said to run.”
Bera gasped in shock. “Without him?”
“Yes. He’ll be there soon. I promise. I’ll get him out of the city safely.”
There was a shout and heavy boot steps from the street.
“Go,” Rowena ordered.
“But, they’ll be so many—”
“Go! If I can’t handle this then it’s on my head, not yours.” Tyrling was going to hate this report. Hollis was... She didn’t want to think about Hollis right now. There were too many undecided feelings tangled up with him. She stripped the vest off—it gave an attacker too good a handhold—and pulled out her knife. The last time she’d brawled with no tech had been during the war.
Oddly, that was a comforting thought. This was a war. She had clear orders to keep Jae alive. So that’s what she was going to do.
Six men turned the corner wearing the city security uniforms. Flecks of fresh blood speckled the orange stripes. Gentle wasn’t in their vocabulary.
Forgiveness wasn’t in hers. That man had been ready to kill Bera, and for that he earned no mercy. “Afternoon, gentlemen.”
The leader was twice her size, with a nice long reach, and a heavy truncheon. “Put your knife down and give us the rowdy.”
“No, that’s not how this works. You see me?” She squared her shoulders, ready to fight. “My name’s Rowena. This your warning. Anyone who wants to back off now can go home, safe and sound, no grudges. You keep walking forward and we’re going to have a fight. You ever killed anyone?”
The leader looked puzzled.
“I’ll take that as a no. I have.”
Someone whispered, “Murderer.”
“Wrong. Again. I’m a hired fighter. Currently being paid”—sort of—“to keep a certain individual alive. If you want to take that up with my employer, I’ll give you the contact information. But you need to know I’m allowed to use lethal force. What’s your name?”
“Mitch.”
“Good. Now we know what name to put on your toe tag.”
One of the other men chuckled. “You think we’re scared of you?”
“It would be the smart reaction,” Rowena said. “So, no, probably not. You aren’t that bright.”
Mitch’s truncheon swung her way.
Rowena side stepped, moving in closer, brought her boot to his ribs, and slammed the butt of the knife into the back of Mitch’s skull as he fell. “One down. He’ll live, regrettably, but notice he’s down and I’m not. Why risk this? You’re not getting paid enough.”
Someone blew a shrill whistle, calling for back up as Chuckler rushed forward.
He threw out a low kick, swinging a big fist at her ear.
Rowena kept her hands high and countered, blocking until she could get in an uppercut that stunned him.
Another guard circled, truncheon up. He chopped at her legs, forcing her to dodge.
She ducked away, jumped, slid on the mud of the alley, pulled herself back to her feet. Twisting, she cut one across the thigh as she came back up. Put an elbow in his lowered jaw, and kicked him away.
Two down.
The alley was filling up faster than she’d hoped.
Circling, Rowena put herself between the majority of the attackers and Jae, who was barely coming to. With a low shield under her skin, she was going to get bruises. There were going to be so many questions she didn’t want to answer.
She scanned the shield overhead again. There wasn’t an opening nearby to force teleport these idiots to the middle of the ocean.
“Ready to surrender?” one of the guards asked.
“Haven’t even broken a sweat yet,” Rowena said with a taunting smile. “I thought you Kydellians were tough. You want a fight? When are you going to start trying?”
Come here, stupid man. Pay attention to the woman making you angry and not the man lying vulnerable on the ground.
Three of them rushed her at once.
She covered her face, took the hits, found her openings.
There. A telekyen-backed punch slammed past an attacker’s defenses and bone crunched under her hand.
The man stumbled backward.
“Zeke!” A similar-looking man rushed to his side. A brother or cousin, and he didn’t look happy—but the fight pivoted away from Jae.
Rowena shrugged and elbowed another man in the eye. “You can still run.”
Knives came out.
“Really?” Rowena shook her head as she saw Jae struggle to stand. She tossed her own knife in the air, drawing attention away again. “Who’s next?”
The cousin rushed her, knife held wrong.
She knocked it aside and kicked.
He punched, landing short but hitting her shoulder hard enough to numb it.
Rowena’s uppercut found its way through his guard, striking her opponent’s face.
The cousin continued to move forward. He kicked at her leg, trying to pull her down.
Rowena pounded his body with punches and kicks, keeping the knife held so it protected her wrist. The fewer dead bodies she left, the fewer reports she had to file.
A knife snicked past her guard, slicing her forearm.
Someone came up from behind, walloping her ear so her head spun.
“Fog it.” That was enough being nice to the poor grounders. She brought her knife back hard, cutting into someone’s gut. The reek of blood and intestines filled the area.
She broke away from the cousin and head butted the man who’d come up to her side, breaking his nose before her knife slashed at his arms, severing a tendon in the elbow.
Light on metal glinted in the corner of her eye and she turned in time to see Jae bringing a heavy rock down on the head of the man trying to stab her.
A hush fell over the dying and crying.
Rowena nodded. “Thanks.”
Jae looked around at the carnage. “Why’d you do this?”
“To keep you safe. I promised Bera I would.”
He staggered backward, clutching at his chest. “We—We have to go. I want to bash them all bloody.”
“Very tempting,” she agreed, kicking someone in the face as she tried to stand. “Know any good exits?”
Jae took her arm for support. “A quarter klick away, there’s a gap in the city’s security perimeter.” He stared at the downed security forces with a vengeful hunger. He licked cracked lips and smiled. “I want to rip them apart. This isn’t me, but I want it. I want blood.”
“Blood later,” Rowena promised.
She had to half drag him out of the alley, but once they were away, he regained some focus.
“If I punch you—”
“You won’t,” Rowena said. To him it might have sounded like encouragement, but she’d put a tight shield around Jae. He wasn’t going to be able to lift his arm, let alone punch anyone.
He was swaying as he walked, but moving fast. “Can you make this stop?”
“Probably,” Rowena said as he led her past the burnt-out ruins of an old apartment. “We haven’t had a chance to test it yet.”
Jae stopped in front of a broken door leading down to a cellar storage area. “No chance to test it, or no survivors?”
“Most the people who have one die quickly. Your friends in the fight rings were only a few.” The Jhandarmi had found six more on the third continent alone. And there was the heir in Ryun who had a suspicious hole in his chest after jumping from a hypertram into a river in a case the local police were calling suicide.
Walking down the broken wooden steps, Jae nodded. “This way. The basement walls cracked along with the foundation of the city wall.” Quietly, he led the way down the stairs and through a narrow passage mostly filled with broken boards and abandoned tarps used to cover cargo at the port.
The smelled of stagnant water and mold itched Rowena’s nose. Water splashed at her ankles, then Jae turned and they were going uphill again, climbing a natural incline to the outer wall.
“I feel better here,” he said, rubbing at his chest. “Calmer. Saner.”
“It’s probably the distance from the control device.”
Kapok trees heavy with hanging moss drooped overhead. Fat drops of water fell to the soft ground underneath her feet. It was quieter here, cleaner, and without the shield overhead she finally could use her implant to connect with the fleet. A quick scan of all the channels told her Carver was calling a meeting in twenty minutes, and she’d been tasked with going as the training house rep.
This had to be quick.
Rowena licked her dry lips and tried to think of a way to broach what she was thinking.
Jae stopped walking. “Wow, that’s not the look I was hoping for.” A lopsided grin kept his words friendly. “I haven’t even asked if there’s a chance your rescuing me could lead to a long night talking together and already you’re looking for a way out.”
“It’s not you, I just have to be somewhere soon. I need your decision. Can I try to take that thing out of your chest or not?”
Still smiling, Jae took a step closer. “If I say yes, will you come back to me tonight?” Before she opened her mouth to answer, he shook his head. “No. There’s already someone keeping you close.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re good at reading people.”
He raised his eyebrows in acknowledgment. “It’s how I survive. I fight too, but not as well as you. How many men did you take down back there? My brain was a little...”—he waggled his hand by his ear—“...sizzled. You held your own, though.”
“You helped,” Rowena said. “Are you ready?”
“What’s going to happen?” Jae asked.
“I’m going to try and remove the thing from your chest. You might die. It might be painful.”
Jae rubbed a hand over his heart. “If it works, I won’t hurt anyone? I came close today. I wanted to attack the man who knocked Bera down. If I had, others would have followed, it would have been a massacre. I can’t let myself hurt them.”
“If it works, you won’t.”
He nodded. “Good. Do it. I’d rather die than hurt my people.”
Rowena looked around and pointed to a nearby stump. “Sit down. Close your eyes. I’ll make this quick.”
Jae sat and she put her hand a few inches from his chest. The coding was intricate. The whole goal was to do a force teleport on the device without severing any of the blood vessels. To do that, she had to transfer nanites in, block the device’s connections, pull the device out, and then allow the nanites to splice the blood vessels back together.
“Is this a magic trick?” Jae asked.
Rowena wrinkled her nose at him and sent the code. It took nanoseconds but it seemed like a lifetime.
Jae was gasping for breath and the device was in her hand, slick with blood, and warm.
“How do you feel?” Rowena asked.
He pitched forward, clutching at his chest, his mouth gaping open in a scream.
“Don’t die. Don’t die.” She grabbed his shoulder and tried to run a diagnostic.
“It feels like something is crawling inside my skin!”
“Nanites. That’s normal. It’ll stop in a minute.”
He looked up at her in horror.
“You’re going to live,” Rowena said. She held the egg-shaped device out. “Do you want this?”
“No.” He took a deep breath and sat up. “You’re going to explain what you did.”
“Sure.” Her implant pinged a ten minute warning. “Eventually. I have to go.”
Jae managed a smile. “Go? Where? Back to the city?”
“Something like that.” She stepped away from him. “See you soon.” She teleported out, leaving Jae to reconcile what he’d seen alone. Hopefully the next time they crossed paths, he’d put her vanishing act down to a bad memory caused by the trauma of the device.
Or at least forgive her for being fleet.