Page 32

Because the triplets are having it much too easy, I decide to relocate from the head table.

I shift the Roysten R-and-D Xec and his trophy SO into our seats, and allow myself a little smile at leaving Myhre, Ape, and Chi to their squeals of gratification and the triplets’ collective tooth-grinding, while I escort Kez to seats on the left wing of the seating area.

That we’re behind a column that would prevent anyone from the outside getting a clear headshot at her is a bonus.

That we’re at a table with the R-and-D Xec’s counterpart from the Clouds is part of the plan.

What’s not part of the plan is how Kez stiffens and turns white when the Xec’s guest joins us, just as I’m asking the Cloudlander what she knows about the E.C.

Kez stands slowly, and because she’s standing, I rise, too.

“Jaxon,” she says.

“Kezzy.” The man gives her a broad, white smile. His teeth ain’t perfect, his right lateral incisor is chipped. Snaggletooth. But otherwise, he’s got beach-boy good looks: tall, blond, blue-eyed. He’s even got a little dark-blond goatee. Bet he thinks it makes him look tough.

Kez catches me before I slam my saber right through those golden good looks. She grips my arm with one hand and pushes the saber back into its sheath with the other. “Public,” she whispers to me .

The Cloud Xec looks horrified, flicking her retrogenned cats-eyes from me to Jaxon. “Jax?” she asks tentatively.

He brushes her off and continues to lock stares with Kez. “Wasn’t sure you’d be here tonight, Kezzy. I heard you had an accident.”

I hear a rustle of silk. Her hot jasmine scent washes over me a second before Myhre grabs my other arm with both hands.

The four of us stand locked in a deadly tableau for a long moment, until Myhre breaks it by yanking on my arm.

“Gentlemen,” she says. “If you would take your seats? Dinner is served.”

I release the saber. Hand Kez back into her seat.

Myhre turns and has a short, sharp conversation with the Tyngaling who was seated next to me.

He and the two women with him quickly relocate.

Myhre seats herself in a rustle of silk and when I remain standing, watching Jaxon, she grabs my arm again and pulls me down into my seat.

She leans into me, filling my lungs with fake flowers, and hisses in my ear, “The Commissioner of Peace for Nock City is sitting less than ten meters away.”

“Easy, Ree,” I tell her. “I’m just ... excited to meet Kez’s old friend, Jaxon.” I emphasize the name to clue her in. “I’ve heard so much about him.”

“You Snow?” Jaxon asks. He takes a bulb of argenté from the wait-bots who are circling our table, offering fresh drinks and setting out the hors d’oeuvres . Shrimp cocktail, of course. “I’ve heard about you, too.” He shrugs, not really looking at me.

He doesn’t pause meaningfully or emphasize my name. He may have heard about Snow, but he doesn’t know who I am.

“Heard I been lookin’ for you?” I ask, picking up a giant shrimp and beheading it with a quick twist before popping it in my mouth.

“Have you? No, I hadn’t heard. Guess I don’t move in your circles.” He rolls his blue eyes around the room. “Gotta say, you throw a cracking party.”

“I’m so glad you’re enjoying yourself, Mister Mereia,” Myhre chimes in. “Miz Brook, I wasn’t aware you were bringing a guest,” she says to the cat-eyed Xec, who is still looking horrified.

“I-I—” she stammers.

“Chriz and I are old friends,” Jaxon says.

“Bu-but we only met last month,” the Xec responds, looking bewildered. I can see how she ended up in R-and-D, although Marketing might be a better place for her.

“Long enough to wash off the stink of the cubes, huh, Jax?” Kez says. My kitten unsheathing her claws. I lazily slide my arm across the back of her chair.

Jaxon shrugs and wolfs down a shrimp. Wipes his mouth with gusto. “That’s quality shit. Not much of that in the cubes. Or the gutters of Nock.” He sneers at Kez.

“Much in the E.C.?” I ask and am rewarded with a flicker of his blue eyes.

“If you know where to look,” he says, recovering. “And you got the creds.”

“I heard you got a hundred CeeBees to spare,” I say.

He looks squarely at me for the first time. Sneers and flicks the lapels of his cheap black-on-black unisuit. “Do I look like I got a hundred biggies to spare?”

“You know what you look like to me?” I ask, leaning forward. I wait until he shakes his head, so I’m sure I’ve got his full attention. “You look like a dead man t’me.”

Next to me, Myhre grabs my arm. Fuck, she’s got a grip on her.

Jaxon grins, showing that chipped tooth. “I’m not the one who’s been near death recently.”

“Just you wait,” I promise.

He grunts, to show I don’t scare him, but puts his hand under the R-and-D Xec’s elbow and draws her up. “C’mon, Chriz. You need some air.”

He pulls her, protesting, away from the table.

“Jaxon,” I call after him. Smile when he turns back and looks at me. “See you soon. ”

He snarls and drags the Xec towards the exit.

I shake off Myhre, rise, and start to follow him.

Myhre throws herself out of her chair and grabs my arms. “Snow!”

“Back off, Ree. I can end this, right now.”

“Have you lost your mind? What are you going to do, behead him? In front of the guests? I’ll remind you that there is an extensive official presence tonight.

” At my expression, she continues in a low, urgent hiss.

“Other than a few questionable credit transfers from within our own organization and the highly dubious word of your street-sources, we have absolutely nothing on that man. There’s been no direct action against Miz Kerryon?—”

“They shot us outta the fucking sky, Ree,” I say tightly, still watching Jaxon’s retreat.

She glares at me. “When we can prove that, we will have him detained. Until then he is a Tyng guest at an official Tyng function .”

I killed the Old Man. I can kill a Tyng guest.

Myhre leans into me. “Snow, I am begging you ... I’m having enough trouble keeping you out of the public eye. If you harm that man here, tonight, with these people present, I will not be able to shield you.”

She’s talking sense. Even through the red haze of my killing rage, I can recognize that. I slowly sit back down, put my arm around Kez. “Okay, Ree.”

Myhre slumps into her chair, as much as the kimono’s obi allows. “Great Helas, don’t do that to me again.”

“C’mon, you don’t appreciate a little adrenaline? Adds spice,” I say, watching Jaxon and the ditsy Xec collect their PHUs from a bowing wait-bot and double-time it out the door. “Bet these functions are usually boring.”

“This has been the most eventful dinner I’ve been to in a long time, that’s a certainty.

” She snaps her fingers and takes a bulb of argenté when a wait-bot brings it to her.

She reaches out with her free hand and clasps mine.

I give her hand a squeeze then let go, slide my hand under the table and wipe my palm on my thigh. Her palm’s a little sweaty.

I glance at Kez to see how she’s taking all of this. She’s pale. Mouth clenched. Big blues narrowed and fixed on the door Jaxon and his patsy have exited through. She hasn’t touched the smoking bowl full of iced shrimp in front of her.

“Kitten?”

“Why was he here tonight?” she asks me in a whisper.

That’s damn good question. And I don’t have an answer for her.