Page 51

B efore I wake Kez, I make a call.

Pieces are beginning to fall into place, now that I know where the Ojos’s credits are coming from. I’ve got a theory about how they found the entrance Payton used. A theory that Payton can verify.

Gig patches me into Payton after another sniff at me. When Payton appears on the vid pane, she’s surrounded by familiar white and gold décor.

“Decided on the Cloud Palace, huh?”

Payton smiles. Her smile’s no longer a knife-wound. She’s wearing soft purple on her mouth and a pale pink jacket. Her braids are caught up in a holosilk headscarf. A thousand times more relaxed than when we first met. “Thank you for the tab.”

“You’re welcome. We had some problems in the Deeps today. After you left.”

Payton’s brow furrows. She didn’t know. “Do you need my assistance?”

“Maybe. Right now, I just need to know if you logged your visit to the Deeps into the T-net. ”

“Of course, standard protocol.”

Which she followed, being a good corporate cit. By doing so, she gave every Tyng employee with security access a roadmap into the Deeps.

“You know B, in Jielt?” I ask.

“He’s head of logistics for the DeSal plant. I’ve met him several times.”

“He work closely with your Father?”

“Yes. Jielt became the main supplier of desalinated water for the Clouds after we closed the Blue Water plant. Father met with B frequently, sometimes weekly.”

Giving B and Kimpler plenty of opportunities to discuss their anti-Mod tendencies.

“Okay,” I say.

“Mister Snow.” Payton clears her throat. Good woman, she’s as careful as my kitten. “I’m ready for another assignment. I’ve provided you the information about the crash you requested and met with Acker. Nothing else is time sensitive. I’m at your disposal.”

Finally, someone who jumps when I tell them to jump and doesn’t argue with me about the direction.

“Okay, two things. One, Acker’s got an Ojos in his basement.

He’s a Tyng employee, Kein Aterra. You work with Acker to figure out what to do with him.

First thing he needs is a flash can. Next thing he needs is a good LegAm.

He’s got a shitload to answer for. If he ends up the in the cubes, fair enough, but I want him deprogrammed and taken care of, both before and after the freezer.

” Payton nods without any visible reaction to the Tyng-Ojos connection.

“Second, I want a security detail to get me, Kez and Acker out of the Deeps and over to Jielt. Nothin’ commercial. Hire somethin’ private and fast.”

The Infinity’s fast, 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 high as 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.

“Submerging in sewage is just as effective for disease-transmission,” he says serenely. “How long were you under? ”

I glare at Acker, who must have given me up, and is sporting his own white dot on a patch of bare skin under his chin. Acker stares fixedly at a holodisplay, but his whiskers twitch.

“A few seconds,” I say.

That gets me another derm.

“Kez only has the one,” I object. While I appreciate everything Doc Gray has done for me, I’m really not a fan of his white derms.

“You’re considerably larger than Miz Kerryon.” That gets a snicker from everyone. “Now, if you will?” He holds up his palmtop scanner, which I’ve seen just a few times lately.

I find a chair to sit in while he examines me.

He spends a lot of time on the back of my head, where I was injured in the skimmer crash.

So much time I’m beginning to worry when he comes back around in front of me and pats my shoulder.

“Your recuperative powers are remarkable. Your skull has completely integrated the new matrix. It should be as hard as it ever was.”

“Thick is the word you’re looking for,” Kez quips from where she’s leaning against the cluttered desk, watching the examination.

“I choose my words with care, Miz Kerryon,” Doc Gray rejoins, but his thin mouth stretches into a smile. “How are you feeling?”

Since that still seems directed at me, I shrug. “Okay.”

Pretty good, actually, although if we were home, I’d be thinking about bed soon.

“I’m pleased. Just remember that you’re not inexhaustible, no matter how you might feel.

You’re still recovering, and that means plenty of rest and fluids.

Sewer water is not an acceptable substitute.

” His scaled lips stretch a little wider and he gives my shoulder another pat before packing the palmtop away.

“Since you’re recovering better than you deserve, I’ll say goodbye.

I should have opened the clinic an hour ago. ”

I offer him my hand, which he shakes warmly. “Thanks for everythin’, Doc.”

“Remember that when you receive my bill. Subterranean house calls are triple. ”

I smile. I don’t care what he charges. However much it is, he’s worth it. So much so, it might be time to put him on the payroll.

After he takes off, Kez beckons me with two fingers, slides around the desk, and stands over Gig’s shoulder.

When I join her, she points at one of the dozen displays in front of Gig.

“Gig’s established a secure line into the T-Net, so I thought I’d have Mother Jo ping this B-guy with a fake emergency and see if we could get him back to the plant?—”

“Back to the plant?” I ask.

“It’s ten o’clock at night. Even Myhre has gone home.”

I consult the chrono in my eye. So it is. Time flies when you’re questioning Ojos. “So the plant’s empty except for the nightshift?”

There could be advantages to that.

“Yes, except that Mother Jo can’t get through to B. He’s put privacy mode on, see?” She circles a code on the display with her fingertip. “According to Mother Jo, he puts it on every night after eight. I guess he doesn’t like to be disturbed.”

Or he’s busy with extra-curricular activities. “When’s he usually clock in?”

Kez taps the display and a chart pops up. Ins and outs.

“Morning person,” I observe. He’s usually at the plant for oh-six-hundred. “What kind of window we got in the morning?”

Kez moves to another display. “Hourly from the end of curfew.” Curfew on the Clouds ends at seven-hundred, so B will beat us to the plant in the morning. If we can’t get him back to the empty plant tonight, I’m not sure it matters.

“Payton’s got us an open exit,” Kez says.

“Smart woman.” I shift behind Kez and scan the displays while I whisper into her ear. “How bad you want to get home tonight?”

She gives her head a fractional shake. “Getting out tonight after curfew will cause a huge stink.”

Not as big a stink as our last exit. “True.”

“If you guys are considering laying over here tonight, I have a date,” Gig interjects .

“Sylvie’s going to have to give you a raincheck,” Kez says. “We’ve caused enough of a stir for one six.”

“You are more than welcome to stay,” Acker offers from where he’s moved to the other side of the desk, proving his hearing is just as good as I thought it was.

“Thanks.” I nod at him over Kez’s shoulder. “We’ll take you up on that.”

Gig sighs. “You guys owe me.”

Kez ruffles his hair. “Always. How’re you coming with that line to the mainland for Snow?”

“Yeah, getting there,” Gig says. “This’ll go green when it’s up.” He indicates a cycling display that’s currently orange.

“Why do I need a line to the mainland?” I whisper in Kez’s ear.

She tips her head back to bump my cheek. “I thought you wanted to talk to the Vark brothers?”

Smart kitten. I’d all but forgotten. “Yeah, I do.” I’d have preferred to do it face-to-face, in case Mik or Zilly decide to fuck around, but I’ll have to make do.

When the display goes green, I tap in the code for Vasilly Vark’s personal line.

Wait while it cycles. Zilly’s brown eyes, framed by lashes thicker than a camel’s and set in a walnut face geneered to weather the fierce desert climate of his chosen home, peer at me from the display a moment later.

“Snow? Man, I heard some wild fuckin’ tales about you. ”

Behind me, Kez sniggers. “All of them are true.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I need a favor. J-nox, he’s using the Tonyle hard-line. I need to know where he really is.”

The skin above those heavily lashed eyes furrows. “Fuck me, man.”

“Name your price, Zilly.”

“You really sitting on top of Tyng Tower these days?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll trade you favors, man. Never know when you might need Tyng at your back. ”

“Deal.” I don’t bother to negotiate. Kez would, I have no doubt, which is why my kitten runs the business. But I want results, right now, to protect her, and that’s why I’m head of security.

“Okay.” Zilly’s eyes leave mine as he fiddles with something out of sight.

“J-nox’s last log in was more than four hours ago.

From Ykimo. Maggot Station.” He gives me the code for the northern city’s old mag-lev station, swallowed by an earthquake a few decades after the Colony’s founding.

Digging Jaxon out of there will be a bitch.

And there’s no guarantee he’ll still be there.

Four hours. Fucker could be anywhere by now.

“I need to know the next time he logs in, Zilly. Plex me on these numbers.” I give him the Infinity’s ship code, Kez’s viewie, and the Warren’s house code. That’ll get to me one way or another.

“You got it. Listen, Snow, anytime you need anything, me and Mik, we’re here.”

Amazing the loyalty a few credits can inspire.

“Thanks, Zilly.”

I sign off and turn to Kez. “Net’s tightening.”

Kez glances away. “That’s usually when Jaxon slips through.”

I know she’s speaking from experience, and frustration, but he didn’t have me hunting him before. “Not my net.”

Kez looks up at me and for once I can’t tell what she’s thinking. Is she really afraid Jaxon’s going to get away from me? I put my arm around her shoulders. “You want something to eat before we turn in?”

She nods, which saves me an argument. Those noodles were too long ago, and the bugsicles weren’t more than a snack. I turn to Acker, “Night Market deliver down here?”

“Yes,” Acker says. “But my Wisdom has already arranged a meal, if you’re ready to eat. And there’s someone waiting to meet you, now that the Deeps are secured.”

“Okay.” I shrug. I’m not really feeling up to a meet-‘n’-greet, but Acker wouldn’t have set it up if it wasn’t important. “I’m ready when you are. ”

Acker twitches his nose at me. “You may want to bathe first.”

“What’re you sayin?” I ask in mock-annoyance. “You’re the one who dragged me through the sewer.”

Acker grooms his whiskers with three sharp claws. “And yet I am not the one still carrying it with me.”

I elbow him before I go avail myself of his ‘fresher.