Page 99 of Throwing Fire

TheInfinity’sfast, but too visible. I want to be in and out of Jielt before anyone knows we were there.

“Yes, sir,” she says. She realizes her mistake a second later. Her eyes flash guiltily up to mine. That guilty flash convinces me, more than anything, that she had nothing to do with the Ojos attack.

I smile at her, and she returns it.

“If you have time tomorrow,” I say. “Chiara’s meetin’ with the Jielt govvies about the methane pool problem. She could use your insight.”

“I am at your disposal. And Miz Tyng’s.”

“Good.” That’s one less thing to worry about. “Payton, I don’t know how your Father used to reward your loyalty?—”

“He didn’t. It was expected.”

“Guess I got lower expectations. I won’t forget any of this.”

Payton gives me a real smile. “My pleasure.”

I give Payton Kez’s viewie code in case she needs to reach us, then I go wake my kitten.

Kez is already awake,sitting on the edge of the bed in a tank and black running tights that make her legs look endless, pulling on her own boots. She looks up and smiles when I enter the room but doesn’t stop dressing.

“Hey, kitten.”

“Hey. Gig plexed me. He says we’re moving.”

I should have known Kez would be ahead on the information curve. “Yeah. He tell you why?”

“No.”

I fill her in as she pulls on her other boot and I find the bag Gig brought for me, which contains fresh clothes and, mercifully, clean boots. While I change, Kez wraps her forearms in genSkin and monofilament, her weapon of choice. Guess she figures we might run into gators in Jielt, too. I transfer my kukris into my clean boots.

“How pissed is Acker?” Kez asks, as I wind down.

I shrug. “He threatened to kill us.”

“Oh, well, that’s nothing new,” Kez says.

“Nope. He’s comin’ with us to Jielt. I’m really hopin’ B is as highas this goes, ‘cause if it goes higher, say to Chiara? Acker’s going to demand blood.”

Blood I said I’d give him.

Kez shakes her head. “Even if Mister Tyng was anti-Mod, Chi’s not. The guy she was with before Ape – the one Helas bit – he was a mech-Mod. And you know she wouldn’t take up any crusade of her father’s. Besides, Jielt’s the third biggest freshwater plant on the planet. Last year’s operating budget alone was fourteen million.” She rattles off the figure without even thinking about it. “You can hide a lot in fourteen million credits.”

Even a hundred CeeBee tag.

“Let’s hope the trail stops in Jielt. Taking out B will leave us with another big hole to fill, though. We’re gonna need to rustle us up some more Xecs at the rate we’re goin’.”

Kez rises off the bed and takes my hand. “We could offer B’s spot to Payton,” she says. “Kimpler used to run the Blue Water plant here, so Payton must know the operational side well enough. She’s underutilized, with just the Cloud distribution network to run. And in Jielt she wouldn’t have to touch a flake of Hex.”

That’s my smart kitten. “She was just askin’ for another assignment. I think she’d be receptive.”

“Well, if running the Jielt plant isn’t enough of a challenge, I know a certain Crackle she can help arrange.” Kez rolls her big blues.

I chuckle, slide my arm around her shoulders and walk with her out into the hall.

We find Acker and Gig bent over the ever-spreading pile of tech on Acker’s former desk. The kid has another sniff at me, which I guess means the change of clothes didn’t entirely eliminate my stink. Doc Gray has joined the crowd, which includes Grace and Match. The doc is too polite to sniff at me, but he slaps a white derm on my neck before I even have a chance to say hello.

“I didn’t get cut,” I protest.