Page 17 of Throwing Fire

I’ve never heard anything about Sokun Tyng’s martial abilities, but it makes sense that Old Man’s son could take care of himself. That’s one of the places the Old Man’s gender bias really let him down. If he’d trained Chiara half as well as it sounds like he trained his son, he wouldn’t have needed to buttonhole me.

“Where’s Java now?” I ask.

Captain Match hesitates. Maybe he did take offense. Or maybe he just doesn’t trust me.

Acker’s clawed hand lands on my shoulder a second before he speaks. “Tell him, Match.”

Match may not trust me, but someone does.

“Shine City,” Captain Match says.

“Zhonnys,” Kez supplies, which is helpful because ‘Shine City’ doesn’t mean dick to me. Once she says it, the nickname makes sense. Zhonnys is so highly irradiated from the Colony’s dirty terraforming that it probably does glow in the dark.

Kez leans around me. “Could I see him?” she asks Acker. “Me and Snow?”

Acker’s paw tightens, then he releases my shoulder. “I will get a message to his caretaker. Tee?”

Tiancha immediately appears on his far side, holding two bulbs. She hands one to Acker, nods and makes her way through the suite towards a shadowed space beyond the curtained bed. She disappearswith a glimmer of her poncho. There’s another tunnel or exit back there. I revise my mental map of Acker’s domain.

“Old Man Tyng figured the hit on Sokun came from the Clouds,” I say to Acker.

Acker shrugs. “The worm inevitably turns.”

“You keep tabs on Kimpler and his people?”

Acker nods.

“Any reason Kimpler would try to take out the Old Man’s son?”

“I cannot say for certain,” Acker answers. “But I would not have thought so. His many faces were turned east.”

“East as in Eastern Colony?”

Acker nods. “There were many comings and goings, from Kaliddy and Tasph. Even the horse-men of Braggah have come. That all ended the night you brought Lady Mot to the Clouds.”

Kez snorts. “She’d love that.”

Kez’s sister, Erin, was the one who killed Kimpler. And since Erin seems to have inherited all the ego Kez lacks, being nicknamed Lady Death probably would tickle her.

Tiancha makes a gliding return from wherever she went and takes up position on the other side of Acker, effectively closing our circle to Grace, who sits down on the couch without visible pique.

“Peg says Java wants to see you,” she tells Kez. “But he’s very weak. Could you wait a three-day?”

Kez looks up at me. “Is that okay? I know you have a run that day.”

I have a regular run to the Bauz cycler every six days. The next one is three days from now. I’m surprised Kez remembers. But she’s a good businesswoman, my kitten. She keeps track of things like that.

“Maier can handle it,” I tell her. He likes to call himself my partner; he can live up to the name.

I probably shouldn’t bother trying to keep my shipping business going, now that Kez and I are running Tyng’s empire. But both of us are clinging to our old livelihoods like we still need the credits. Like neither of us believe the Tyng-gig is permanent.

Acker’s claws curl over my shoulder, prickling through my shirt’s sheer fabric. “If you can wait until nightfall, I will join you. I would hear what happened to the Snake’s Heir for myself. And what Java knows of Nacht and CJ. Diamond has still not answered for their disappearances.”

Well, that’s one of my questions answered. So the Whites don’t know any more than they did a week ago. A week ain’t long in real terms, I realize. But Tiancha said Nacht was Acker’sbrother in the change. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I understand brotherhood. I wouldn’t go a week without finding out what happened to any man I called brother.

“Glad to have you along,” I tell him. “You want a lift?”

“Are you offering me a ride, or just taking another opportunity to show off your fancy ship?”