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CHAPTER XVIII

BIRD IN FLIGHT

Bhaaj, wait, Max thought. If they wanted you dead, you’d be dead. A Quetzal is far better armed than the flyer that brought you here.

I limped onward, aware even in combat mode of my ankle throbbing from where I’d gouged it on the tree. You think they’re trying to recapture me?

It would be difficult in a remote, mountainous area like this. They can’t land, so they’d have to fast-drop agents, like in the park. And this terrain is rougher. I suspect that for some reason, they can’t pinpoint your location enough to shoot you.

A woman’s amplified voice boomed through the air. “Bhaaj? You here? Come with!”

“That’s Angel!” I shouted.

Another woman’s voice came over the amplifier—with an Iotic accent. “Bhaaj, if you can hear me,” Colonel Lavinda Majda said, “find the clear area fifty-two meters from your location. We can’t reach Max to send the location. If you can, give him these coordinates.” She rattled off a series of numbers. “Get there and we’ll drop you a line.”

You get that? I asked Max.

Yes! Run southwest. That’s left of the way you were going before you fell.

I took off, following his directions. Within moments I reached an area where a large tree had fallen, its gnarled branches ripping down pieces of other trees on all sides, leaving a ragged hole in the forest canopy. The sunset glazed the sky above me, red and gold banners streaked across its expanse. No aircraft showed anywhere.

Where are they? I stared upward, desperate. Somewhere nearby, the octo-sloth crackled in the underbrush.

Suddenly the air above me rippled as if it had become liquid—and a Quetzal helicopter appeared, holo-painted to resemble a great bird in fiery colors. In stealth mode, its surface had blended into its surroundings, even the sky, but now it appeared in all its glorious magnificence, hovering above the trees.

“Rope comes,” a man called, his voice amplified. Ruzik! Lavinda or someone else had to be piloting; Angel or Ruzik had no idea how. They weren’t trained in air rescues, either. How Lavinda ever traced me here, I had no clue. From what I’d seen of Lajon and her team, they’d hid their tracks well. Their methods might be blunt, but Max had it right, they weren’t stupid.

The Quetzal was using duct fans instead of dumping heat from its mini-fusion core, protecting the trees—and me—from exhaust. That Lavinda had Ruzik and Angel dropping the cable rather than a trained rescue team suggested she’d had no idea they would end up pulling me out of the forest. This much I knew: if they didn’t get me out now, I was dead.

As the rope came down, swinging in the wind, I tapped a code into my gauntlet. Actually I pounded it with the enhanced speed I couldn’t turn off. My gloves snapped out of their wrist slots and around my hands.

Lavinda angled the copter fans so their downwash buffeted the rope less. The cable swung toward several trees and then jerked away, propelled by whatever smart engine controlled its motion. It avoided more branches, lower, lower—and then it tangled in a banjo tree, caught by its stringlike leaves. I lifted my hands to give them a warning in sign language, then stopped when a welcome sight buzzed out of the copter. All three of my drones were arrowing toward the clearing. Two went to work on cutting away the banjo branch that had snagged the cable and the third came to me. I opened my hand and the blue drone settled on my palm.

“Hello, lovely,” I murmured.

The other beetles freed the rope, and with a scrape, it flew away from the trees, dropping down. I slid Blue into my pocket, then grabbed the rope as it swung past. A brief shock of static greeted me, but the beetles had discharged most of the electricity. The cable felt corrugated under my palms, and a hoisting vest hung from the bottom. I strapped into the vest fast. It molded to my body while its hooks snapped onto the cable. I tightened my grip, and the spikelets in my gloves dug into the line. They operated only on cables saturated with nanobots that could repair the holes, and this top-line beaut had more than enough fix-it tech. It looked like a power hoist, one that could lift far more weight than me.

Angel and Ruzik were watching from the Quetzal. They’d never even flown in a planetary aircraft before, let alone managed a suspension rescue. They’d never taken a copter ride, never been positioned where they could fall out of an airborne craft, never seen a forest, never even freaking breathed air this rich. That they did it all anyway spoke more about their courage and loyalty than words. And Lavinda! She’d come herself, with a rescue craft. It left me speechless, which was good, because no way was I calling up to anyone right now.

The Quetzal rose, pulling me higher, until I cleared the trees. The steady hum of fans filled the air. Given all its noise-reduction tech, the rumble of a Quetzal didn’t usually bother me, but with my hearing boosted in combat mode, it sounded deafening.

Combat mode off, I thought. The noise didn’t change. Max, why isn’t my biomech web responding? Even without your help, I should be able to get out of combat mode.

Same as the other problems. The drugs interfere with your neural processes.

Lavinda’s amplified voice came from above. “Bhaaj, we’re reeling in the hoist. Hang on.”

“Copy!” I called, though I doubted they could hear. With my body vibrating in combat mode, the process felt slow, though I knew it took only seconds. The copter hovered, moving forward at a slow pace. The rope swung, not too much, but as they reeled me higher, I started to spin. My hoist extended a hooked tail to counter the rotation, and the spin slowed. Adrenaline pumped through my body; I wanted to go, go, go.

As we went higher, I looked around—and inhaled with a gasp. Goddess, what beauty. I hung in a great expanse of sky vivid with a sunset like none I’d ever seen in the city. It flamed red, gold, and yellow, with clouds on the horizon glowing as if someone had shot off fireworks that edged the sky with fluorescent pink strips. A chasm of air surrounded me. Wind and the downwash from the copter whipped back my hair, bracingly cold, and forest waved below like a dark ocean. I felt alive.

Later I’d pay the price for using combat mode for so long. When my adrenaline rush crashed, when I could feel pain, when my body had to recover from overusing my biomech—yah, it would be hell to pay. But for now, I reveled in the freedom of the wild ride.

I’d made it halfway to the Quetzal when a new sound reached my ears—a second engine.

Max! Is that a flyer?

Yes. He spoke grimly. The sound matches the craft used by Knam’s people.

“Bhaaj!” Ruzik shouted. “Hang on. We fly.”

“Shit.” I clenched the rope, the spikes from my gloves digging into its reinforced structure.

The copter took off, speeding above the trees as they continued to reel me in. I gritted my teeth, resisting my urge to scramble up the rope, which would only make it swing more. The air rushed past, with me trailing in its wake while the hoist reeled me up and up and up.

Artillery fire cracked in the chasm of air. Return fire roared from the Quetzal, and the rope swung wildly, thrown by the abrupt shifts in flight as the copter did evasive maneuvers. The line was spinning now despite its tail, and I hung on for my life, swearing in every language I knew.

Forget this, I thought. If they intended to end me here, I wouldn’t go easily. I pulled my hand off the cable and grabbed Blue out my pocket. Go, I thought, hoping Max had regained enough control to send it. Go blast that flyer with your digitized nonsense. Screw up their EIs.

The beetle took off, arrowing through the air. I sent Green after it to make recordings.

“Bhaaj!” The shout came from above.

I craned back my head. I’d almost reached the copter. Angel held a grip with one hand while she reached for me with the other. Ruzik loomed behind her, his arm tight around her waist, both of them wearing lines that tethered them inside the craft. As I reached up, Angel grabbed my hand, hefting me forward, adding to my speed as the hoist hauled me into the copter. I was going so fast, I sprawled across the deck on my stomach.

Without pausing, still in combat mode, I scrambled to my feet and ran to the weapons rack. I grabbed a Mark 89 Automatic Power Rifle, then swung around. In my accelerated state, Angel and Ruzik looked like they had barely moved, still tethered to hooks. I wasn’t tethered anywhere, I was just bloody pissed.

Focus, Max thought. Tie a line. Don’t let anger make you rash.

“Move back,” I told Angel and Ruzik. Grabbing a tether, I fastened one end to my body and the other to a hook in the craft. While they backed away from the doorway, I knelt at its side and activated the Mark 89. As I sighted on the distant flyer, the gun streamed data across my vision.

Synched, an androgynous voice thought in my mind.

I squinted through the eyepiece, letting the gun perfect my aim. Lock for firing.

Locked, it answered.

I pressed the igniter and a stream of bullets burst into the night, adding their rat-a-tat to the growl of the copter. An instant after I fired, the pursuing flyer swerved.

Target is too distant for accurate fire, the Mark 89 told me. Suggest firing in a suppression pattern to make aircraft deviate from its attack.

I fired with a sweeping motion, aided by the Mark 89. Although I barely moved the gun, by the time the bullets reached the flyer, they’d spread out enough to force it into a course change, throwing off its attempts to fire at us. It also jerked several times, as if its EI suffered a glitch in its attempts to control the craft.

Good beetles. I kept firing, ramming the air with bullets.

“Bhaaj, stop firing!” Lavinda yelled over the noise. “We want them alive.”

A familiar voice spoke, Lavinda’s EI. “The open doorway creates too much drag. Also, the passengers need to move to the center of the craft. They’re changing the CG, interfering with nav.”

“Close the door,” Lavinda said. “Now! And put down my damn gun.”

Even though I’d been a civilian for years, the soldier in me responded to her tone. Moving so fast that the cabin blurred, I replaced the gun, then swung around to Angel and Ruzik.

“Seats.” I motioned at the four passenger chairs. “Strap in.” The Quetzal punctuated my words when the door slid closed with a clang.

Angel dropped into a seat and grabbed the safety webbing. “What CG?”

Ruzik strapped into his seat. “And nav?”

“CG mean center of gravity. Like when we fight.” I’d spent many hours training them in tykado to throw opponents off-balance. These two understood center of gravity like no one’s business. “Nav is navigation. Moving. Find best path.”

They both nodded. Enough said.

“Bhaaj, here.” Lavinda pointed to the copilot’s seat without taking her gaze off her controls.

I pulled off the hoist vest, hung it up, and then dropped into the copilot’s seat. As the Quetzal swerved, a high-pitched whine passed under the craft, the cry of a hells-wasp missile.

Lavinda spoke into her comm. “Flyer HN17, cease fire! You are attacking an aircraft from the Pharaoh’s Army Ruby Base. Your actions constitute an act of terrorism. I repeat! Cease fire.”

“They have to kill us,” I said. “No way can Councilor Knam risk our implicating her.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Lavinda spared me a glance, then turned back to her controls. “Raja, continue evasion tactics.”

Before I could respond, the Quetzal swerved so hard, acceleration pushed me into the seat like a great hand slamming into my body. A groan came from behind us and Ruzik swore.

“They okay?” Lavinda asked.

I tensed my muscles against the acceleration. “They’ve never flown in an aircraft before.”

“I’d never have guessed. They learn fast—” Lavinda’s voice cut off as the Quetzal veered in another evasive maneuver, this time swinging north.

“Who is shooting at us?” Lavinda gripped the control lever, but she let Raja and the craft’s EI work together to keep us as level as possible, with constant power. They could respond faster even than our enhanced reflexes. “And what did you mean, Councilor Knam?”

“Knam is part of some fringe group,” I said. “They want to gain power in the Assembly for the Trads. In fact, I think she’s the leader. I don’t know if she has support from the main party.”

“She doesn’t,” Max said. “At least not publicly. Our research for this case shows nothing about her group or even any acknowledgment that it exists.” He stopped as the copter swerved again, avoiding the hells-wasp missile that had missed us on its first approach. Looking through the side window, I saw the wasp coming around for yet another go.

Lavinda smacked her hand against a panel she’d been priming, and gunfire burst out from the Quetzal’s ports, obliterating the wasp. Then she said, “If someone as prominent as an Assembly Councilor ordered this op, that takes her group into the mainstream.”

“I don’t think they ever intended it to go this far,” I said. “They didn’t believe anyone like you would come looking for me. They think I’m a fake, an Undercity poser.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Lavinda said. “People really need to stop underestimating you.”

“It can work to my advantage— Ah!” I grunted when a spray of bullets grazed the Quetzal, sending it into a spin. The fans roared as they stabilized the craft. I glanced back at our passengers. Angel grinned and Ruzik gave me a thumbs-up. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought they were enjoying the battle. Hell, maybe I didn’t know better. They’d never experienced air combat before. This might feel like the best, wildest ride of their lives. In their case, ignorance made for bliss.

Turning around, I tried to slow my words to a more normal speed. “Knam will deny she has anything to do with this. But Max recorded enough evidence to prove her involvement.”

“Max,” Lavinda said. “Transmit your recording to the PARS army base.”

“I can’t,” Max said. “The kidnappers damaged my systems. I’m working on repairs, but I don’t yet have full transmit capability.”

“That’s why they’re trying to kill us,” I said. “We can implicate them.” I gripped the armrests as the copter lurched forward, then to the side, and then went level again.

“Understood.” Lavinda scanned the stream of data flowing above her forward screen. “Raja, what’s wrong with the stabilizers?”

“One of the bullets grazed stabilizer three. It blew it apart.”

“Can the Quetzal do repairs while we fly?”

“We’re doing our best.”

The holomap between our seats expanded, showing a 360 degree view. Developed from LIDAR tech and extended with holographic and longer-range sensing capability, it gave a real-time display of our surroundings for hundreds of kilometers.

“We aren’t the only ones having trouble.” I indicated the flyer image as it swerved and shook in the air.

“Something is wrong with that craft,” Raja said.

“I sent my blue and green drones after it.” With satisfaction, I added, “Blue is weaponized. It can only do minor damage, but it’s enough to screw with minor EM systems.” I motioned at our pursuers. “Can’t you shoot them down? Surely they’re no match for an PA-7 Combat Quetzal.”

“No deaths, Bhaaj.” Lavinda pushed the lift control. “Goddess only knows what will happen if I kill civilians here. Can you say court-martial? This was supposed to be a search mission.”

“They’re trying to kill us. I’d say that’s cause.”

“Yes, I can argue cause. I’d rather capture them alive.”

I struggled to make my glitching thoughts slow down. “How did you know where to look for me? Max didn’t think he got through to Raja.”

“He didn’t, not much, but he did transmit the phrase ‘Took Bhaaj.’”

“That doesn’t tell you to come here.”

“Bhaaj, slow down. I can barely understand you.”

Toggle combat mode off, I thought. Nothing happened.

The copter shook as its damaged stabilizers tried to compensate for our evasive maneuvers. Although we’d pulled ahead of the flyer while I fired at them, now they were gaining on us.

My thoughts spun in circles. “Can’t you outrun them?”

“I don’t want to outrun them. I want to force them down and capture them.”

“Send someone else for them!” Gods, I needed to get out of combat node. I forced myself to speak slowly. “We can’t stay here. We have to get to Greyjan’s.”

She threw me a baffled glance. “You mean the tavern? What the hell for?”

“That’s the only way we’ll solve this case before more people get murdered.”

Lavinda’s look suggested I might be crazy, but she said, “Raja, streamline this craft for speed. Send an update to base about the situation. Transmit your recording of everything that’s happened here. If you can get Max’s record, send that too. Also, contact the closest search and rescue group in these mountains that works with the military. Have them coordinate capturing the flyer with the PARS base.”

“I left some injured people in a cabin down there,” I said. “They need medical help.”

“Raja, make sure the search and rescue team knows they also have to make a medical rescue.” She glanced at me. “How bad are they?”

“They can’t all be unconscious,” I said. “Someone is piloting that flyer. I left four in the cabin. At least two are in bad shape.”

Raja spoke. “I’m transmitting to PARS. Do you have coordinates for the cabin?”

“I can give them roughly,” Max said.

“Received,” Raja told him. “I’m not getting your records, though.”

“I’m still working on it,” Max said.

“Do we have backup coming?” Lavinda asked.

“Affirmative,” Raja said. “PARS is setting up two missions with the Great Ridge Mountain Rescue Group, one to capture the flyer and one to rescue the injured.”

“Good.” Lavinda flew in a wide circle, picking up speed.

I touched the red beetle in my pocket. “Max, can you call back Blue and Green?”

“I can’t link to them from this distance. I’ll keep trying.”

“Understood.” As we arrowed through the night, my thoughts circled back to my previous question. “Lavinda, how’d you get my location out of that garbled message from Max?”

“I didn’t.” Lavinda kept her concentration on her controls as she spoke. “My brother Tam contacted me. He said they expected you for dinner. He didn’t believe you’d just blow him off. I commed the townhouse and spoke with Angel and Ruzik. Actually, I spoke with your house EI, Highcloud, who translated for them.” She scanned her screens. “Raja, release flares to distract those wasp missiles.”

“Released,” Raja said.

“Max got more of his message to Highcloud,” Lavinda added. “He also dumped a damaged version of Highcloud into the house mesh.”

“Our flares aren’t fooling all of the missiles,” Raja said. “Several are still coming after us.”

“Evade.” Lavinda peered at a holomap above her controls. “We need more speed. That flyer is gaining on us.”

The androgynous voice of the copter EI answered. “I can optimize my shape for speed, but if I make too many changes, it limits my weapons capability, especially with the added weight we’re carrying. If you eject some of your weaponry, I can go faster.”

“That’s a last resort,” Lavinda said. “Only if you can’t pull away from the flyer.”

“Understood,” the EI said.

The copter jumped forward. I knew nothing actually leapt, that we rode an aircraft soaring in the sky, but everything seemed to move in ragged, speeded-up scenes. I couldn’t focus.

“Max, what’s wrong with me?” I asked.

“You’ve been in combat mode too long,” Max said.

“Uh, Bhaaj,” Angel said. “Fly thing squash.”

I looked back. The cabin had become more streamlined, narrower enough that they noticed.

“Is good,” I said. “Make fly thing faster.” Outside, the fans on either side of the copter would be sweeping back as well.

As I turned back, Lavinda said, “Is that the Undercity dialect? It sounds like ancient Iotic.”

“I think that’s where it gets its roots.”

Lavinda concentrated, making small changes to the route chosen by the EI. “Your voice is still speeded up.”

“I can’t get out of combat mode.”

She frowned at me. “Your body should drop out. Just think ‘combat mode off.’”

“I tried!” I took a slowing breath. “It doesn’t work.”

“Can’t Max toggle it off?”

“I’ve been trying,” Max said. “I need more repairs.”

Lavinda’s voice changed, filled with an authoritative tone I knew well after my years in the army. “Major, combat mode off! Now!”

Combat mode off, Max thought.

I grunted as my thoughts returned to normal, no longer like a broken high-speed camera. Apparently even my drugged brain reacted to instincts the military had drummed into me.

The cockpit screens showed two missiles bearing down on us, one from behind and another above. Lavinda fired the aft guns, and one of the missiles exploded. In that instant, we also swerved to avoid the other one. Lavinda took us higher into the sky, targeting the second missile. “Eat it, bitch,” she said—and fired. The missile exploded with a satisfying burst of energy.

I’d never seen this side of Lavinda before. Yah, sure, I knew she’d flown a copter before she became a colonel, but the officer I knew worked behind a desk. I could get to like this version of normally restrained Majda queen.

We finally left the flyer behind, whirring through the darkening sky. The sunset had faded into streaming blue and silver light from the two moons, one high above us and the other closer to the horizon. Far more stars filled the great expanse of sky than showed in Selei City, even during the mandatory blackout after midnight, when all buildings turned out their lights to give the city a few hours free from light pollution. Up here, at this high altitude, with no human settlement, the heavens became a panorama of glittering stardust, white, blue, red, gold, their colors visible even through the atmosphere. The barest remains of the sunset showed on the ragged horizon above the trees. Lajon’s tiny flyer shrank and disappeared in all that magnificence.

Although I felt more normal without biomech driving my body, adrenaline still masked my exhaustion and the pain from the beating. “Councilor Knam is going to claim she was trying to make a rescue,” I said. “That’s what they would have done if they’d managed to kill me in the forest, like they wanted.”

“What rescue?” Lavinda snorted. “That flyer was shooting at us.”

“She’ll deny any involvement.” I smacked my palm on the dashboard. “If they’d shot us down, her people would say they were conducting a rescue while terrorists attacked you. She’d claim she was trying to save a Majda heir.”

“Yes, well, the Majda heir escaped.” She frowned at me. “Are you saying no evidence exists that connects Knam to the people who kidnapped you?”

“I’m not certain. But yah, that’s my sense. Except for Max’s record.”

“And you think she’ll get off even if the kidnappers try to implicate her.”

“Not if we can get Max’s recording uploaded to the authorities.” I scowled. “Assuming someone connected with Knam doesn’t intercept it.”

“Do you think her involvement is political?” Lavinda asked. “Or because she’s part of a fringe group that doesn’t involve any specific party?”

“I’d say mostly the latter.” I rubbed my chin. “It’s odd, Lavinda. It’s like this case energized people to attack each other, to act on plans they wouldn’t have otherwise done. Without it, I doubt Knam would have carried out an op like this one.”

“You don’t think Knam’s group is responsible for the killings?”

“No!” I realized how it must look to her, coming in at the tail end of all this. “I doubt she has any link to the case, other than using it to further her own goals.”

Lavinda shot me a frustrated look. “So you don’t think it involves Royalists or Progs, and you even checked into the Techs, who you don’t think are killing themselves, big surprise. It’s not the Traders as far as we’ve been able to tell, it’s not the rich young entrepreneurs, it’s not anyone else you’ve looked into so far. Now you don’t think it’s the Trads. Either it’s not political or that leaves the Modernists. I mean, really, the Mods?”

“Hell if I know. I have to look into them, too. That’s the point! I might as well be chasing my tail like that cat back at the cabin, wasting my time.”

“And yet you don’t think Knam arranged it all.”

“The killings were too sophisticated. Her people are like a powered rock hammer.”

Lavinda blew out a gust of air. “And yet you suspect she has a network extensive enough to intercept any record Max sends to the authorities.”

“It’s possible. Assembly Councilors get their tendrils everywhere.” My voice hardened. “Except for one ‘little’ thing. Her people didn’t know I was conscious when they contacted Knam. I heard them talking to her about the kidnapping. I can testify to that.”

“Did they call her by name?”

“No.” Damn it. “They did on Max’s recording, though.”

Lavinda considered the thought. “Your testimony wouldn’t hold up in a trial as well as Max’s evidence. You could say it was anyone.”

“I’ll do any lie detection test they want.”

“That might help. But you were also drugged at the time, supposedly unconscious.”

“It’s not strong, but it’s better than nothing.” I grimaced. “Of course Knam’s people will claim I’m the one who set this all up because, you know, I’m an evil person trying to further my own ends. Whatever the hell they decide are those ends.”

“Why you in particular?” She shook her head. “I don’t get why these people think you’re such a good target.”

“Because I’m from the Undercity.” Bitterness edged my voice, an anger I’d struggled to suppress for years. “The public is willing to believe I’m a monster.”

She fell silent, watching her controls. Angel and Ruzik said nothing, but they heard far more than people realized. Knowing Lavinda, I suspected it hadn’t taken her long to figure that out about them. We flew in silence, with only the hum of the engines to keep us company. Raja soon verified we were out of range for the flyer.

Lavinda spoke quietly. “I live in a universe where people respect and admire my family. Many fear us. Some hate us, but it’s because of what we have, not what we lack. I grew up taking my status for granted.”

I hadn’t expected such a bald admission of her privilege. “You were born lucky.”

“Yes. I know.” She kept looking out the forward window, not at me. “I considered myself unfortunate because my position in life left me no choice but to wed a man I didn’t love in an arranged marriage while my true love, the woman who died last year in the case you worked on, went on to find someone else.” She spoke bitterly. “I had no fucking idea what adversity meant.”

I stared at her, stunned into silence. Majdas never admitted they were anything but perfect.

“Over the past few years,” Lavinda said, “you and I have often argued about the Undercity. You tell me things I don’t want to believe. And I keep being wrong.” She took a deep breath. “When I was young, the only mentions I ever heard of the Undercity—a self-contained civilization that literally exists under our feet—were about the inferiority of the few supposedly homeless people who lived there. Of course my family never used words that direct. But that’s what they meant, and I knew it.”

I sat frozen, afraid to move because it might crack apart this moment and send shards of emotional glass raining over us.

“Then I met you,” Lavinda said. “Brilliance and pride, loyalty and courage, compassion and fury, all mixed up with one of the sharpest investigative minds I’ve ever seen.” She turned to me. “I can’t imagine what it was like to live as you did, to grow up in abject poverty with the highest mortality rate known in the Imperialate, to offer your life in the military for an empire that would rather destroy you than acknowledge the strength of your character. I had the opposite all my life, the strength of my character assumed for no other reason than because I came from a powerful, wealthy family.”

I had absolutely no clue what to say. To have anyone admit such to me never happened. To hear it from one of the most privileged people alive left me speechless.

She smiled slightly. “What, you’re not going to cuss?”

I gave a startled laugh. “I guess not.”

“Bhaaj, I can’t take away the pain that you and your people have lived with for so long. And I realize that in my past attempts to help, I suggested changes your people would find even worse than poverty. They don’t need state-sponsored schools, grueling labor at minimum wages, or ‘reeducation’ to become more like my people. I understand that now.” She spoke dryly. “It took me long enough. But know this, Bhaaj. I will work with you to make it better, on your terms.”

I spoke quietly. “Thank you.” I meant it, at my deepest level. Lavinda was unlike anyone else I’d ever met, with or without power, and I was only beginning to appreciate that after knowing her for nearly four years.

She nodded and turned back to her flying, checking her controls and maps. “So,” she said, our intense moment over and done with. “Why is it so important to go to this tavern?”

“It’s the key to the murders, I’m sure. We need to find out what’s below it.”

“Below it?”

I lifted my hands, then dropped them in frustration. “Something down there is trying to stop us from investigating. I don’t know why.”

She gave me a decidedly unenthused look. “On this basis, you think the key to the case is in a tavern hardly anyone even goes to?”

I summarized everything that had happened at Greyjan’s in the past four days, except that I left out the baby EI. “Angel and Ruzik used the fight as a distraction so the beetle could fly around. It got me intel on the other fighters. They were Trads.”

“That sounds like even more reason to suspect the Trads are behind this.” Lavinda peered at her maps, studying data from the flyer. “They’re running,” she added.

It didn’t surprise me. “You think whoever the army sends up here can find them?”

“Possibly.” She turned to me. “Are you sure you want to go to Greyjan’s? You don’t want to apprehend your kidnappers yourself?”

Oh yah, I wanted to get them. It wouldn’t solve the case, though, so I just said, “I’m sure.”

Ruzik spoke behind us. “Go ale place.”

I turned to him. “Yah?”

“Slicks play game,” Angel said.

“You mean slicks you fight?” I asked.

Ruzik snorted. “They think they fight. Was like play.”

I held back my smile. “Get black belt, now you get too cocky.”

They both scowled at me.

“Are they saying we should go to Greyjan’s because they believed their fight there was staged?” Lavinda asked.

“I’m not sure.” To Angel and Ruzik, I said, “What mean, slicks play game?”

“Fake ass-bag,” Angel clarified.

That illuminated exactly nothing. “What,” I growled. “Not real ass-bag?”

The barest hint of a smile played around Ruzik’s lips. “Real, too.”

I regarded them with exasperation. “Not ken what you say.”

“These ‘Trads,’ they go to ale place,” Angel said. “Get drunk. Fake drunk. Get pissed. Fake pissed. Jizz after Ruzik.” She considered a moment. “Real jizz,” she decided.

Ruzik grunted.

“Yah, you say before.” I waited, then said, “Still not ken what else you mean.”

Ruzik spoke in Flag. “They didn’t go to the tavern to drink. I had an odd sense—” He stopped, searching for words it looked like. “They were waiting for something. I don’t know how else to put it. If I had to guess, I’d say they were waiting for you.”

“Why me?” I asked.

“Hard to say.”

Angel tapped her temple. “Mood feel thing.”

“Mood feel thing?” Lavinda looked back at them. “What does that mean?”

They both regarded her, silent, their faces impassive.

“They’re empaths,” I said.

Lavinda considered me. “If those people at the tavern were Trads, if they went to find you, and if you think Greyjan’s has links to the murders, then I don’t get why you don’t think the Trads are behind the killings.”

I searched for words to describe a sense that was more intuitive than logical. “When I investigate the actions people take, I often see patterns in their behavior. Whoever committed the technocrat killing and bombed the co-op isn’t just smart. They’re experienced strategists. Calculating. And subtle. They’ve left no real clues.”

Lavinda frowned. “No clues? We’re drowning in them.”

“Fake clues.” I motioned at Angel in Ruzik. “It’s like what they said about the fight at the bar. The people involved were pretending. Everything about this case, every supposed clue that points to some potential perp—I don’t believe any of it.”

“Then why would the Trads wait for you at this tavern?”

“Because I went there the previous night.” I winced, remembering the odd VR simulation. “It probably looked like I was walking around doing nothing. Then I jogged home.”

“Yes, I read your report. You were caught in a sim triggered by Max’s attempts to break the digital security at the tavern.”

“Something like that.” I actually thought the baby EI tried to reach us, I just didn’t know why. “I need to find out what’s there.”

“That part is easy.” Lavinda spoke to the air. “Raja, contact Chief Hadar and let him know that Major Bhaajan has a new lead. Tell him we need the police to search Greyjan’s tavern, in particular any room below the main establishment. It needs to be done fast and with discretion.”

“Working,” Raja said.

“Max?” Lavinda asked. “How are your repairs going?”

“It’s coming. Raja is helping.”

“Can you send your recording to the PARS base or Chief Hadar yet?” I asked him.

“Sorry,” Max said. “My ability for long-range communications was the first thing they deactivated, precisely so I couldn’t contact the authorities.”

“Keep working on it,” I said. “Top priority.”

Lavinda glanced at me. “I can take your gauntlets to the base while you go to Greyjan’s. They can help his repairs.”

“I’d rather not be separated again,” Max said.

It struck me as an odd statement for most EIs, but I got it with Max. However uncomfortable his theory made me, this idea that he and I formed two parts of one mind, I had to admit he had a point. I’d felt vulnerable without him in the cabin. “He can do repairs on himself, probably better than your techs. He knows himself the best.”

She didn’t look surprised. “Max, make the repairs to your long-range comm a priority and transmit your records to PARS as soon as possible.”

Silence.

“Max?” I asked.

“Do you authorize me to do what Colonel Majda requests?” he asked.

“Yes, I do.” And thanks for asking. I didn’t want to alienate Lavinda by telling her to quit giving my EI orders, but no one talked that way with Max except me.

“Working,” Max said. Of course, he thought.

Closing my eyes, I leaned back in my seat. It had been a long night. I needed to be rested and ready for whatever we found at Greyjan’s.


The police found exactly squat at Greyjan’s.

Chief Hadar contacted Lavinda less than an hour after she asked him to check the tavern. “Nothing there except stores for the bar,” he said over the comm. “A few crates of liquor, food supplies, empty storerooms, and dust.”

“That’s it?” Lavinda asked. “No mesh equipment, no consoles, nothing like that?”

“Nothing. Is Major Bhaajan sure about her lead?”

“Yes. Certain,” I said. “Could it be hidden?”

“Major, I’m sorry. We looked. We found no hiding places.” Hadar was on his best behavior today, probably because of Lavinda.

“Dust,” Ruzik said.

I looked back at him. “What?”

“Dust,” Angel said.

I looked from one to the other. They sat relaxed in their passenger seats, each with an elbow on the inside arm, leaning slightly toward each other. “And?” I asked.

“Dust,” Ruzik repeated. “All dust.”

“Dust every place.” Angel stressed the importance of her comment with a three-syllable word. Ev-er-y place.

“Like at home,” Ruzik qualified.

I didn’t see their point. “Yah, lot of dust in Undercity. Not same as dust under ale place.”

“Yah,” Angel agreed. “Not same. Dust under ale place smart.”

Interesting. Selei City had “smart” dust floating everywhere, monitoring the weather, humidity, and vibrations in buildings and equipment. It could check parks for watering, fertilization, and pest control, ensure products were shipped and delivered on time, and monitor people for security purposes. It raised privacy concerns because you couldn’t see the dust; it simply floated in the air. The city authorities spent a great deal of time submerged in debates with citizens over just how much the dust should be allowed to report. Although the military used similar dust in combat, it was too easily countered by dust from enemy forces. We’d also used it during interstellar combat, but those clouds consisted of tiny drones, much larger than dust grains.

The weaponized dust I’d encountered in a planetary setting hadn’t deserved the modifier “smart.” The experimental stuff had mucked up any tech it encountered, foe and friend alike, making a mess out of communications, weapons, and anything else it drifted into. A conglomerate of wealthy execs had developed it, but I had no doubt the military was also working on intelligent grit with more active functions than just floating around the city. What Angel and Ruzik described at Greyjan’s implied larger particles, since we could see them, which suggested an increased capability. If it could do anything besides lie on the floor, though, I’d seen no hint of that ability.

“How know dust smart?” I asked them. “It talk to you?”

“Nahya,” Ruzik said. “Dust thoughts are too small.”

“Too small how?” I asked. “Hard to hear?”

“Eh,” Angel said, which could have meant anything from yah to no to who the hell knows.

“Do you mean the dust carries picochips?” Lavinda asked.

Silence. They both just looked at me.

“Pico mean small brain,” I clarified. “Not think much.”

Angel snorted. “Fake ass-bags we fight have pico brains.”

“How you know dust smart?” I asked.

“We guess,” Ruzik said.

“That’s it?” Lavinda asked. “This is a random guess?”

“What did you say?” Chief Hadar asked over the comm. “I didn’t get most of that back-and-forth. The speakers aren’t close enough to your comm.”

“Chief, is it possible the grit you found in the tavern basement is smart dust?” I asked.

“Why the hell would it be smart dust?” He sounded like himself now when dealing with just me. In other words, irritated. As if remembering himself, he added, “If you could please explain. Although our city dust monitors even outlying buildings such as the tavern, you can’t see it. And it hasn’t reported anything of interest about the tavern.”

I looked back at Ruzik and Angel. “Need better than ‘it’s a guess.’ Cops not check guess.”

They both blinked at me. Then Ruzik said, “Cops help?” His tone implied my comment was on par with suggesting the moons would fall out of the sky.

“Cops help,” I told him. “If have good reason.”

Angel scowled. “Cops ass—”

“Yah, cops assist us,” I interrupted, before she had a chance to offend Chief Hadar. “But need more than guess.”

Ruzik spoke in Flag. “It’s hard to say. The dust on the tavern floor seemed wrong.”

“Back home, all dust,” Angel said. “Every place you look. Dust. On us, on tunnels, on all.”

Finally I saw it. “But not here, yah? No dust in Selei City.” At least not that they could see. “All shiny.”

“Yah!” Ruzik said. “But ale house has dust. All over. We not notice at first. Like home. But.” He held up his finger. “Nothing else here like home. So why dust?”

“Gods almighty,” I muttered. “You’re right.” I nodded to them both. “Good see.”

They nodded back.

I leaned over the comm, speaking with courtesy. Hadar wasn’t the only one on his best behavior in front of Lavinda. “Chief, the floor of the tavern has an unusual amount of grit. My two agents noticed it. Bars in Selei City use cleaning bots. Even most struggling places have cheaper models. So why would this tavern, which keeps coming up in my investigation, have dust all over the floor? You said it’s in the storage rooms, too. I can understand it if those rooms aren’t used. But in the main room, where they serve drinks and food? It seems sloppy. I had the impression the proprietor didn’t pay much attention to niceties or couldn’t afford them, so maybe she just hadn’t sent it her cleaning drones, but it makes me wonder.” If someone figured out she was lax about upkeep, it could explain why they chose her tavern for the dust. A remote place with almost no clientele and lousy maintenance? Yah, that made an excellent choice.

“Interesting.” Hadar stopped, and I could hear the low murmur of people talking in the background. Then he said, “We’ll go back out and take some samples of the dust.”

“We’ve given them warning that we’re interested in the place,” Lavinda said. “By the time you get back there, they’ll have cleaned it top to bottom.”

Good point. “Chief, did any of your people get dust on them the first time you went out? If you can get even a small sample, you could tell if it’s not ordinary grit.” With too small a sample, they couldn’t determine if all the dust together could form a web from picochips in each grain, but it would help to know if the grains carried chips.

“I’ll check into it,” Hadar said. “Also, Major, my mesh team looked into the link between the Templars and New Techs as you asked. It’s possible that with all that young technical wizardry at their disposal, the Templars could have faked the chats that pointed us toward the Traders. We’re looking deeper into their activities.” After a pause, he added, “Anything else?”

Lavinda looked at me. When I shook my head, she glanced at Angel and Ruzik. They regarded her in silence.

“Any more to say about ale place?” I asked.

“Bad ale,” Angel commented.

“Bad air,” Ruzik told me.

“What did they say?” Lavinda asked. “I have trouble understanding sometimes.”

I smiled. “They think Greyjan’s is a lousy tavern.”

“Yah.” Angel made an approving noise for my insight.

“All right,” Hadar said. “Contact me if you have any more information. Out.”

“Out,” Lavinda said.

“Bad air,” Ruzik repeated.

I turned to him. “That means bad ale place, yah?”

“Stinks,” Ruzik said.

“It does?” I hadn’t smelled anything.

Angel gave him a questioning look. “Eh?”

“You smell it?” he asked her.

“Nahya. Place fine,” she told him.

“What smell like?” I asked.

Ruzik gave a frustrated grunt. “Not have words.”

“Use Flag.”

“Flag not have words.” Then he amended, “That I know.”

“Say what you can,” I suggested. “Say any word that works even small bit.”

He tried Flag. “The air in this place, this—planet, yes? It is sweeter than home. Thicker.”

“Yah.” He described perfectly how I experienced the difference.

“The ale place isn’t like that. Air is—I don’t know. Bare.”

“Bare?” Lavinda asked. “Is that what he said?”

“Yah.” It didn’t make sense to me, either. I squinted at Ruzik. “Nude air?”

He gave me an annoyed look. “Air not wear clothes, Bhaaj.”

“Yah. So how bare?”

He thought more. “Bare like—sweetness taken away.”

“Sterilized!” Lavinda said. “I’ll bet that’s what he means.”

“Ho!” That made perfect sense. “If they have some experimental pico-dust business going on, they’d need a clean environment for it to work.” Ruzik had done well. Most people wouldn’t notice an absence of a smell when they visited a place where they expected no smells.

“Raja, can you get me Chief Hadar again?” Lavinda asked.

“Working.”

Hadar must have had his comm ready, because after only a moment, he said, “My greetings, Colonel. Your EI sent me the update. You think the tavern is a sterile environment?”

“That’s right, at least the air. Did you check for that?”

“My apologies, but no. It didn’t occur to us.” He quickly added, “My detectives are already on their way out there. I’ll have them take air samples.”

“Thank you, Chief.” Lavinda was on her best behavior, too, though before seeing her tonight, I’d never have known she had any other type.

“My people are also checking their clothes and equipment for dust,” Hadar said. “It doesn’t look like it will help, though. Our gear is self-cleaning. Any unusual dust is gone now.”

“We need a sample.” But from where? “Is it correct to say your investigators didn’t find any unexpected dust, grit or other small particles on the murder scenes?”

“None,” Hadar said. “If it was ever there, it decomposed after the murders. The bombing left so much debris, it’s impossible to identify dust like what you’re describing.”

“Had fight,” Ruzik said from behind us.

I turned to him. “Which one?” He and Angel were forever fighting people, at least at home. They’d held back here—except for the tavern! “You mean Greyjan’s?”

“Yah.” Angel smirked. “Ass-bags hit floor. Again. And again. Get a lot of dust.”

“And you?” My hope surged. “Got dust?”

She scowled at me. “Not hit floor.”

Ruzik gave her an exasperated look, then spoke to me. “Yah, we got dust. All over us.” Rather pointedly, he added, “Is true, though. We not hit floor.”

“I ken.” They had their pride, after all. “Good rough and tumble, eh?”

“Yah.” Angel nodded, accepting my apology for suggesting she or Ruzik got knocked over. I doubted Ruzik cared as much, but still.

“Max,” I said. “The clothes we gave Ruzik and Angel—were they self-cleaning?”

“It was a menu item on their controls. I don’t think we chose it, though.”

Good. I spoke to Ruzik and Angel. “What do with clothes after fight?”

“Go home,” Angel said. “Have beer. Laugh, talk.” She glanced at Ruzik with the slightest smile, and he gave her the same look. She gave me a bland look. “After that, I forget what happen.”

“For flaming sake,” I muttered. So they made love. “What happen to clothes?”

They both just looked at me.

“Max?” I asked the air. “Do you know?”

“They left them on the bedroom floor,” Max said. “A bot cleaned, dried, and folded them.”

“Well shit.” So much for that lead.

Ruzik cleared his throat. “Maybe not all.”

“Not all how?” I asked.

Angel glowered at me. “Maybe keep socks on.”

“Socks?” We never wore them in the Undercity. We had meshes that protected our feet, like a sleeve. “What socks?” Oh, wait, yah, I’d given them socks to wear that day.

“Soft stuff.” Ruzik gave Angel that smile again.

Angel glowered at him. “Angel never soft.”

“Yah.” Ruzik nodded with respect to his formidable girlfriend. “But socks nice.”

“Oh.” I got it. Angel had left on her socks when they made love because Ruzik liked them. Who’d have thought a pair of everyday socks could be erotic. “Did bots take socks later?”

“Not think so,” Angel said.

“Leave in bed?” I asked.

They both just looked at me.

So yah, they weren’t going to tell me any more about their sex lives. This was the closest Angel would get to admitting she wore something soft for her lover.

“Max,” I said, “Can you contact Highcloud and find out what happened to those socks?”

“I can’t,” Max said. “But if you let me give Raja the codes for the townhouse, she can.”

“Go ahead,” I answered.

“Working,” Raja said.

Lavinda spoke to me. “I’m not sure what they just told you, but I take it you think some of their clothes from yesterday have the dust on them.”

“If the bots haven’t washed them yet.” More than a day had passed since the fight at Greyjan’s, though so much had happened, it felt like much longer.

“I have a response from Highcloud,” Raja said. “The socks were in the bed, down at the bottom. They haven’t been cleaned since the last time they were worn.”

“Good!” I swung around to our passengers. “Socks there.”

“Eh,” Ruzik said. Angel nodded her agreement with his verbose statement.

“I’ll send my people over to check the townhouse,” Chief Hadar said.

Something was tugging at my mind, something about sunlight . . . Ah! I remembered. “Try the hallway outside of Marza Rajindia’s lab at the university, too, the corridor that leads to glass doors that open on a quad. I recall seeing dust motes floating in the sunlight coming through the doors.”

“That’s pretty tenuous,” Hadar said. “Even with cleaning bots, you can still get visible dust in the air. We did check her lab, and we didn’t find anything unusual.”

“Yah, but this was outside the lab.” I thought of our conversation. “As spokeswoman for the Tech Party, she could be a prime target for the killers. If they planned to move against her, any dust they have floating around could still be there.”

“It’s worth a look,” Hadar said. “We’ll let you know if we find anything. Out.”

As Lavinda turned off the comm, I regarded her steadily. “Now we go find out what’s up at Greyjan’s.”


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Framed