Page 6

Chapter three

Back in Town

“I MADE YOU A PRESENT!” Elliott shouted as he entered the Murder Room.

The heavy bass and rhymes of Royce RG vibrated the ceiling intercom speaker above them, nearly drowning out his voice.

Niko glanced up at him from a pistol he had disassembled and was cleaning.

Elliott’s lips were curved up in a mild, sly crescent.

Niko could tell he was trying to hide how pleased he was with himself.

He turned the music down. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“I’m not going to tell you. You’ll have to come see.” Elliott disappeared around the doorframe.

Niko had to suppress his own grin as he wheeled out of the room after him.

He tried to predict what ‘gift’ might refer to—maybe a new gadget, explosive, or something utterly and completely wild.

Whatever it was, he hoped it wasn’t another cake—Elliott had attempted to bake one for him once with the limited supplies they’d had, and it had wrought an apocalypse on his taste buds. Niko was still recovering.

Elliott led him out of the facility proper and down the ramp to the immense hangar. Good. Not a cake this time. The relief Niko felt was palpable.

Rap music still carried quietly over the hangar’s speakers, though it felt far away and like an echo of civilization rather than any kind of enjoyable experience.

The rubber of Elliott’s combat boots squeaked lightly against the floor, painting a rhythm to the constant, quiet hum of Niko’s wheelchair.

They were clearly heading towards the Sonadora Despierta.

“Uh?” Niko grunted out, curiosity—and a little bit of concern—taking over. That ship was his baby. Perhaps, even, his true soulmate. Though Elliott might be a close second. “There’s something on the ship?”

“You could say that,” was all Elliott seemed willing to clarify. “Come on.”

He made his way up the ramp, which had been left deployed. Niko followed shortly after, glancing around once he was in the ship’s cabin. Nothing seemed different. Not an item was out of place.

Elliott stepped aside and gave a sweeping, dramatic gesture towards the door to the cockpit. Niko’s heart leapt into his throat. Tell me he didn’t fuck with the controls. He made his way over, then saw it: a rather crude looking electronics panel welded to the side of the console.

“Um, Elliott?”

“Go on. Try it.” It had a simple switch on it, from which a dozen different wires and delicate silvery threads protruded. Niko reached out and flipped it. A familiar deep, brief hum reverberated through the entire ship and Niko stared up at Elliott wide-eyed.

“No fucking way.”

“Way.”

“I have to see this.” Nothing seemed to have changed from the inside.

Niko made his way back out of the ship, down the ramp, before turning the chair.

He let out an involuntary whoop of sheer excitement, giddiness bubbling up in him, replacing any of his previous trepidation as he peered out at the faintly perceptible distorted outline of where the Sonadora stood.

He could see right through it. Elliott had somehow installed what he’d named the Ophthalmic Refraction Apparatus—or ORA—powerful enough to hide an entire ship.

“Oh, hell yeah. I can get into so many wrecks with this.”

Elliott was beside him now, arms folded over his chest. “Asshole. But you will have to be cautious with how you utilize it, of course. It also has to pull from and drain the battery so you’ll only want to use it during strategic opportunities.

This hangar does have a charger, but if we get stranded because of it, we’re fucked. ”

“Damn. This is great.” Niko looked up at him.

He could feel the grin all over his own face, something that went deeper than the skin.

Happiness. It was almost as though the muscles that formed his smile themselves delighted in the pleasure of being, emotion and physicality inseparable from one another.

“You’re incredible. Really. Thanks, babe. ”

“I don’t know why I hadn’t considered it before. I’ve only ever used it for myself—and eventually you. I didn’t know if I could make it work for something as big as this ship, but I was thinking last night and figured out how to make an amplifier. I worked on it all morning.”

“Hey,” Niko said. Elliott looked down at him as Niko held his hand upward in anticipation of a high five.

His green eyes narrowed piteously for a moment, but eventually he acquiesced and slapped Niko’s hand with his own, their high five emitting a satisfying and singular, crisp clap that left Niko’s palm tingling.

Elliott’s mouth betrayed his own burgeoning joy now, twitching upwards at the corners despite his best efforts to appear serious. He coolly looked away.

“I’m going to go shut it off before it does start draining the battery,” he murmured, and wandered off into the ship, seeming almost to ascend straight up into the air and vanish into nothing.

Niko watched in fascination as the Sonadora seemed to materialize before him again, opaque as it had ever been, with another deep sound.

Elliott re-emerged and joined him once more.

“So, uh,” Niko said, “you ready for today?”

The air around them almost seemed to cool as Elliott’s eyes grew somber and distant. “I don’t know that we’ll ever be fully ready for a foray into somewhere like that, Niko. But we’re as ready as we can be.”

Niko nodded, swallowing back a lump of nervousness catching in his throat. “Hey, you regularly go crawling into massive charity galas, award ceremonies, political debates, and concerts,” he said, aiming for a bit of levity. “How bad could a criminal market be, compared to that?”

“I suppose we’ll find out soon enough,” Elliott said, but something in his expression softened a little, his eyebrows raising. “But whatever happens, I’m glad to be there with you.”

Niko guided the Sonadora into the wide gates of Dainna’s Tenntha District docking station.

Every visible surface was buried under a ghostly wash of holograms, all advertising different goods and experiences one might find within the giant, crowded asteroid.

Unlike most docks, no one stopped or checked them in.

They weren’t scanned by a flurry of security bots, nor contacted over radio.

This was a place of general lawlessness; if you even knew about the existence of Dainna and were willing to venture there, chances were, you were someone who fit right in.

Niko had thought briefly to try out his new stealth toy, but after a lengthy debate with Elliott on the way there, he’d relented to the other man’s conclusion that parking while invisible in a typically crowded, high-traffic area probably wasn’t going to work out in his favor.

Not to mention the issue with the battery drainage.

The ship had no outer markings to set it apart from any other model KZ-114.

The only risk he carried was someone potentially recognizing it by its particular mods and additions.

Elliott peered out the windshield as Niko navigated around a trio of small Dvaab ships making their way out.

Niko couldn’t help but smile at the other man’s obvious fascination—since they’d gotten near, his eyes had grown wide and watchful.

His face and hair were awash in a spectrum of shifting colors as they passed by various clusters of neon holograms.

“So,” Niko said as he drifted toward the parking level Aleksi had agreed to meet at.

The entire dock was a labyrinth of small platforms to anchor a ship to, layer stacked upon layer.

A violently neon blue hologram reading TEN-8-5A indicated he’d reached the right sector.

“Welcome to Dainna. Biggest black market bastion in the galaxy.”

A whole spectrum of holograms reflected in Elliott’s eyes. When he spoke, it was with a quiet, breathless awe. “I’ve never been anywhere like this.”

“Wish I could give you the grand tour, but yeah. Speaking of which. Elliott, we need to discuss a few things. I need you to keep in stealth and not make a peep the entire time we’re here. No wandering off, nothing weird. Just stay quiet and let me do the talking.”

“Talking. Right. I’m sure that’s what Mikhaylov’s here to do.”

Niko sighed. He hated the idea of this going south, but Elliott was right. It was an inevitability at this point. He didn’t really want to fight Aleksi. In fact, he didn’t want to see his shitty face at all, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. And Niko had one route now to meeting Lady Death.

“I won’t kill him though, since you asked so nicely,” Elliott said.

“That’s reassuring.” Niko guided the ship in to rest at the TEN-8-5A docking platform, where it connected with a magnetic tether. He let out a long breath, hoping to drain some of the tension from his body. It didn’t help. “Alright. Do your thing, Elliott.”

“In a moment,” Elliott murmured. He stood.

“The sooner the bet—”

Elliott swooped in and planted a long, warm kiss on Niko’s lips. Niko yielded to him, letting him in. It made him melt, all heat and electricity. Elliott always made him feel this way.

When Elliott pulled away, Niko grabbed his wrist. “Hey.”

“Yes?”

He hesitated. “What are we?”

Elliott frowned. “That’s a vague question.”

“I mean,” Niko shifted, suddenly feeling squirrely and regretting the question. “What—do you think—you and me—are we—”

“Oh,” Elliott said, eyeing him. “We’re partners in crime. Gay space crime.”

“No, um. Do you think, uh, it would be, you know—” Niko found himself staring up at the ceiling instead of Elliott as he talked. It was easier to look anywhere but at him. “Like, would the label ‘boyfriends’ be weird?”

Elliott laughed. “I don’t think it’s weird at all, Niko. Do you want to call me your boyfriend?” His voice dropped to a low and sultry, teasing tone.